Welcome to my world. I am at that intersection all the time.

One of my biggest peeves is drivers actions saying that their time is more valuable than mine.

@JACG,
Preach it!

TITS (Traffic-Induced Tourette’s Syndrome) is very common in the Greater Washington Area. What is it about this region that attracts so many g**d*** c***sucking sons of b*tchs?

Oh, right: The Federal Government.

Around here, we know that he always turns there, and make allowances.

But then again, this is a rural area.

I actually did that to my Father-In-Law once, down here. Buzzing down the highway, at highway speed, in my truck, and I see a vehicle in front of me and put on the brakes. Hard.

“What are you slowing down for?”

“He turns left right up here.”

He did. I couldn’t drive in urban areas, because I don’t know where everyone turns off. And if they don’t know what a turn signal is, which only half of the folks ’round here do? I’d get killed.

It’s a joke, but you don’t even want to know what it’s like here. You couldn’t survive, I don’t suspect. You have to know whre they turn!

Well said, old bean.

One of my biggest peeves is drivers actions saying that their time is more valuable than mine.

It’s the “I’m the most important person in the world syndrome,” an affliction that sadly affects roughly 99% of the population in this area. You see it on the roads and on the Metro, where people insist that no Metro train can leave the station until they are comfortably aboard.

Of course today I had the rare privilege of driving to work on a day when it rains. On top of the general stupidity highlighted by Smitty we have the bane of the DC driver’s existence. Evidently these water molecules falling from the sky are a sure sign that we should drop our speed by at least 20 mph.

Oh, and folks – just because there’s a speed camera doesn’t mean you have to drive under the speed limit.

Idiots.

Pot calling the kettle black

Two words: traffic torpedoes.

Turning every little interaction or mishap in life into an opportunity for a political statement is a mark of a loser. But I’m sure you knew that already, Smitty.

Bad drivers do not qualify as “every little interaction or mishap”.

That being said, ya’ll should be cautious whilst driving in Cincinnati, being on my road and all.

Yes, I own it. All of it. So get out of my way.

Smitty I see traffic has improved in the last ten years since I moved to NC. I grew up in Arl. and rented an apartment in Merrifield for a couple years. Has that intersection been “improved” in the last ten years? The intersection of 95 395 and the Beltway at Shirlington, is it still called malfunction junction?
Paco demolishing the vehicle in front of you with torpedoes or rockets and your left with the pile rubble in your way. Disintegrating ray is the only way to go. Spent many hours “parked” on the beltway considering this.

@mistermark,
Aye, but the occasional vent is good for the soul.

If a mini cooper and say…a Ram 1500 4×4 meet, guess who wins?

Paul Zummo — One of the Tom Clancy books has Ryan and his assistant looking out the window at snow. The assistant, who’s from New England, sneers: half an inch, at home we call this a flurry. Ryan responds “In DC it’s the Ice Age.” My experience was fairly brief, six months in the early Seventies, but it matches that in every particular.

That said, a constant source of entertainment here in north Texas is people who don’t slow down in the rain. If it’s been a while since the last precipitation, water on the road adds to the accumulation of oils from vehicles to make the surface “slicker’n greased owl s*t”, and the result is carnival bumper-cars at freeway speeds. Fun to watch, but not fun for the participants and especially not for the innocent bystanders in the line of fire.

Regards,
Ric
(Note: why owl s*t in particular, and why it needs greasing, are questions only the Anointed can answer [fx: wets forehead with beer] not me even then.)

You aparently just don’t drive that much! When was the last time you talked with your brother about his world or mine living in a truck watching those who waste so much air the mentally handicapped need to live on driving these roads? I’d write a book the same as K would BUT no one would believe us as the truth hurts! OH well I guess I’ll stay on this disability untill I can brave my way back onto the roads of America as I search for the elusive “Brain in gear” drivers! OH CRAP! I Forgot it’s almost fall! The leaf lookers are soon to start their exdous out of the cities onto the roadways! I think I’ll stay on disability a little longer as I can’t afford insurance now that Obamacare is working for someone but not me!

The graphic doesn’t really tell me anything … but your description seems to indicate that the reason this guy got stranded for one of two reasons:

1) The cross traffic was composed entirely of retarded people; or

2) The cross traffic was composed entirely of criminals.

If a car enters an intersection when the light is green or yellow, that car has the legal right of way until it clears the intersection, period, end of story. Cross-traffic drivers who enter the intersection and obstruct that vehicle’s progress through it are (see 1 and 2 above).

@Kn@ppster,
I’m continually amazed at your capacity to take a hidebound legal approach to analysis at the expense of common sense.
The entire reason for having traffic lights in the first place is to maximize traffic flow.
Unintelligent, even if legal, usage of the system impedes traffic flow.
The Mini driver’s behavior was stuck on stupid, irrespective of the existence of an interpretation of the law which would support it.

People who drive around in yogurt cups deserve to be squashed. Righteously.

And is it mere coincidence, or your usually punny-pun-punness that one of the roads in question is named “Gallows”?

BTW, I must show you the heat-seeking missiles strapped atop my beloved Rodeo that have eased my daily commute to and from Atlanta. Drivers cut me a wide berth, IYKWIM.

@Obi’s Sister,
No, that’s the name of the street.
But I did play off it with the mention of ‘gibbet’.