Looking at Traffic

Uncategorized 2 Minutes

I was waiting in traffic on my way home and I couldn’t help but notice the different driving styles especially at the intersections. I thought about it and realized there are several distinct styles.
1. The Creeper – this driver slowly inches up on the car in front until they are millimeters from the bumper. Most other drivers will in turn inch forward to create a little breathing room. This only encourages The Creeper to again inch closer…
2. The Crowder – this is the driver who stops his car in the crosswalk. All the pedestrians have to walk around the front of the car. I have personally known several people who do this. When asked they are of the opinion that it will magically make the light change more quickly…
3. The Cautious – these drivers are the opposite of the Crowder. They will hang back nearly a full car’s length from either the crosswalk or the car ahead. They aren’t usually a problem except when train tracks are involved. They really need to get a little closer…
4. The Crazy – there are far too many of these folks out there! They are the drivers who come screeching to a stop just as the light goes red or in many instances they scream through the light as it is yellow turning red, a “pink” light. My sister calls this “bleeding through” a light. Supposedly the traffic people plan for a certain number of people to pull this stunt since there is a delay before the other light turns green. Obviously in my town the people in charge of the signals didn’t get the memo!
5. The Confused – this driver doesn’t understand the concept of the 4-way stop. They either don’t know when to take their turn causing others to question if it is their turn or they go out of turn! No matter how you look at it they are accidents waiting to happen!!
6. The Coward – this is the last type I observed. They are most commonly seen in bad road conditions. The Coward is so timid and so slow that they are a peril to all the other cars. It is one thing to slow down as a light changes and something altogether different to start slowing down a full block before the intersection even though the light has just turned green. And of course when I say slowing down I mean to reduce speed from 25 mph (in a 30 mph zone) to 10 mph a full block before the light.
Now that I’m safe at home I can chuckle at the chaos that is winter driving in Indiana. But come tomorrow when I must brave the elements and struggle with my fellow drivers I know that I’ll be “white-knuckle” driving…

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77 thoughts on “Looking at Traffic”

  2. Driving itself is hazardous–just look at the statistics. I don’t drive, but as a passenger I’m always tense, even with a good driver. And as a pedestrian–look in all directions, no matter what. (K)

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        1. I think that is a factor for many of the “snow birds”. Of course AZ has its own set of issues – like the interior of cars getting so hot you need pot holders to be able to grip the steering wheel!

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  3. I guess I have learned to just accept that each driver has a different comfort zone than I do. I enjoy driving most of the time, and have had hour long commutes to and from my jobs for much of my career. I prefer highway driving over city driving, for sure. Small town driving is a call for patience, since it’s always at a crawl, but I am watchful of those who are more focused on their journey than mine.

    Snow always complicates everything on the roadways, and ice is just pure danger if it’s too cold for the “salt” to melt the ice and make better traction. This is doubly bad when driving in a small town (the ice on the roadways). I’m always grateful when I manage to get home without a dent in the car, or any accidents that I had to witness.

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    1. The temps were really low last night and the weather report was urging caution due to lots of black ice on the roads. I managed to get to work and home without incident. I did however see a car make an unusual maneuver at a busy intersection. They were a couple cars in front of me and wanted to make a right turn at the corner but they were going too fast to make the turn. They slid through the intersection and managed a turn into the corner business (not open and an empty parking lot). I’m guessing they were gathering their composure as I passed the place…They were just really lucky that the light was in their favor!!

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    1. Hmmm. I haven’t had to do that since forever. Seems the mall and even the grocery stores are pretty empty. The demographic is mostly older people so no longer having to weave between throngs of teens “hanging out” at the mall!

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  7. The man who used to lead our small group at church, when asked to pray for people traveling would always ask the Lord to “keep the Crazies away.”

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  8. i think we met them all today. Typical, when we’re in a hurry we also get the dawdler or sight seer. We had the Mums on the school run, the mini driver who thinks his car is the size of a bus and so doesn’t make good progress when there is a car parked on the other side of the road, the karaoke singer screeching at the top of their lungs and the foot tapper who jerks forward.

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    1. There are all kinds of drivers and not all of them are safe to be around… I like to give most of them a wide berth. I’ve found that letting them go ahead of me is safer than having them come at me from behind!!

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  9. I can’t drive anymore. My eyes aren’t the best on my medication. I used to be a great driver because I spent years riding a bicycle even at 1 am to work and home. In the army, I was the only one in my group who passed the driving test the first time. I almost got into a wreck when I was texting. I don’t even know what prompted me to look up in time.

    I suppose I did cause an accident, but it was so that there wouldn’t have been a pile-up and a total on the vehicle. My grandpa couldn’t see, and he was going to go into oncoming traffic, so I grabbed the wheel and rammed us into a dump truck. We hid the keys away from grandpa after that. Amazingly enough, he could drive down this curved hill with his eyes closed. I guess they lived there for half a century and just knew. I miss them.

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    1. So sad when individuals don’t recognize when they become a danger to others and self when behind the wheel of a car. I’m lucky that both my parents voluntarily relinquished their cars and keys….

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      1. yeah, it was hard for me to give up as well. I just don’t want to kill anyone. Most people would think I was high. I’d get into trouble because the meds give me a warning about that and operating heavy machinery. If I had a license, I think they’d count it as DWI. I mean, I could drive if I had to, an emergency, not to be helpless, but it’s not pleasant for anyone.

        My grandpa lost his pride toward the end. My grandma had all these plans once she realized she was going to die, too. She’d been saying it for 20 years and going on and on, but she panicked when she realized there were no more trips to the lake, she would have to sell her house, and that grandpa was dead. He willed himself to die. Old people do that at times. They abused my grandma at the nursing home. They wouldn’t give her happy go lucky meds either. It’s like, she’s dying and in a lot of pain, but they had strict rules. Would she have become a junkie at 92? They treated her pain meds like that.

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  11. I have to admit that I didn’t realize your post referred to driving in snow! We see all of the above here too, even though we don’t have snow. The “rubber band” sensors for the lights are placed so they sense metal in the car (i.e. engines), and the magnetic forces are what cause the lights to change — most people don’t realize that and many either stop a car length too soon, thus not tripping the sensors, or they place their rear wheels on the farthest forward painted line, thus going too far to trip the sensors! I guess I’d have to add a category of “Me First” to accommodate the second of these two categories. And then there are the e-bikes, which are everywhere, going wherever they want without regards to rules or regulations or for their own or others’ safety — another category, just called “E-Bikes”. It’s grown MUCH worse since the pandemic — apparently there are the “Don’t Cares” also, and their name speaks for itself!

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    1. Those on bikes of any kind would be well-advised to familiarize themselves with the immutable law of tonnage. I’ve not yet heard of a cyclist who came out on top when tangling with a motorized vehicle of any kind…well maybe on top of the hood.

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      1. Yes — but where I live, there are few bikes other than e-bikes, mostly ridden by teens and pre-teens who think they are invincible and dart in and out wherever they want.. Hard to see, hard to avoid, and they think it’s funny when they are nearly hit.

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    2. The e-bikes, motorized scooters, skateboarders and the Segway users are a post all on their own! The campus invited Lime Bike to campus and it was chaos! The bikes were everywhere and the students had zero concern for the safety or others or self!!!Then they introduced the Lime electric scooters and it is a miracle that there haven’t been any fatalities. Students as pedestrians have a deep belief that all cars will give them the right of way – until they step from between parked cars and are hit. Put them on skateboards and it is double the disaster. Now with the electric scooters that go at a pretty good speed (20 mph?) I cringe when I see one approaching because they don’t feel that stop signs or any traffic laws pertain to them – it is a free for all…

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                  1. drove the guvo car so that was their problem, car was fitted with 8 cylinders and a special outback pack … saved my life a few times as I traveled thousands of km per month 🙂

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                    2. sure was, worked out that if I’d driven at the speed limit I would would have worked ten hours overtime each month … that was just the driving, not allowing for me to do any of my allocated official tasks 😦

                      Meeting up with my secretaries from those days in March, so that will be exciting!

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                    10. not really a boss, with all that travel I was barely in the office … but guess they get a sense of our commitment to the job typing up all our reports and court documents 🙂

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  13. lol – the adventures you can have just observing; myself, I have not been driving for 7 years now, and approaching 70 (in 2024), I have recently thought, if I get a bit of money coming in, I’ll take some advanced driving lessons including towing. Never a fast driver \9I can see your eyes rolling there!), I think I was safe enough towing, but I do remember the one incident when in a cul-de-sac, I had to get out, take the caravan(trailer to you, albeit a small one) off, turn the car and then put the trailer back on. It was years ago now, but if I remember there was a guy coming to help me and kept a straight face, too. 🙂

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    2. One time in a campground, I had a whole bunch of people instructing me how to back my trailer. I knew pretty early on that it wasn’t going to work as there wasn’t enough room to get the trailer straight behind the car in order to change its direction of travel, but I let them have their fun shouting instructions and arguing with each other.

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  14. As long as we’re airing our motorist grievances, may I add my point about motorists who wave a cyclist through with the mistaken idea they are exhibiting a random act of kindness. The safest plan for everyone, especially the cyclist, is to follow the rules of the road so everybody knows what’s going down…hopefully it’s NOT the cyclist.

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    1. Oh there is a whole other post on the subject of cyclists and motorists! My BIL was struck by a car and had to have some pretty serious hand surgery (he is a guitarist). The woman who hit him came to a 4-way stop, paused and ran smack into him! He was right in front of her car! She claimed she didn’t see him but he was wearing a fluorescent green vest with reflective tape and his helmet had reflectors and a head lamp (not counting the reflectors and lights on the bike)! He didn’t sue but his insurance company made her company pay for all the medical costs and for a new bike… They didn’t fight it as they knew that if he sued he would win and they’d be out lots more $$!

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