I wanna turn too, so get your butt out there!

I’ve done traffic rants before.  Last time, I had a few choice words for people who are behind me and in a hurry for me to turn right on red.  This time, I’m approaching something from the other side.  Now I’m the one in a hurry!

Now I live in the burbs, but I actually grew up in Chicago.  When I was growing up, there weren’t very many intersections with left arrows in the city, especially in the more inner neighborhoods.  So for the most part, to me, making a left turn meant that you moved into the intersection when the light turned green, then waited for an opening or for the light to turn yellow.  Pretty basic.

So now that I drive in the burbs a lot more, I get the feeling that the experience out here is pretty much the opposite of what mine was.  Most major intersections in the burbs have left arrows.  So I find, much to my aggravation, than it almost seems like some drivers don’t know about anything BUT left arrows!  That is, I see a lot of drivers who, when the left arrow goes away, think that’s it, they have to wait until the next left arrow!

Now sometimes that’s true.  There’s a red arrow or a sign says “left turn signal” or something.  But sometimes I’m behind someone and the left arrow goes away, leaving a plain green light, and they stop and wait for the next arrow, driving me nuts!  You can turn left on a green light after you yield to traffic!

And even worse is when they seem to know that, but are unaware of the fact that you can go out into the intersection while waiting!  So they sit back at the stop line and when the light turns yellow, THEN they go!  And I, instead of being able to ride their sweet coattails through the light, am forced to wait for the next light because I’m sitting so far back!  Read the rules of the road!

OK, just needed to get that off my chest.  I’ve now used up all the exclamation points in my computer.