Yield. It's that red triangle sign
I wonder sometimes if in a past life I was a driving instructor, or if I will be one in a future life. Although I don't believe in reincarnation as a rule, it helps to explain my penchant for teaching people how to drive, even if I'm not in the car with them.This morning, for example, I was approaching a fork in the road that I pass through every day on my way to work. I bear left at the fork, which would normally mean I must yield to all oncoming traffic. But at this fork, the cars coming at me on road on the right have a yield sign. Although more often than not, they don't see (or ignore) it. I always approach with my left turn signal on, and count on the driver coming from the right not yielding. Many do, although with hesitation. They try to figure quickly whether I am coming too fast and too insistently before they stop.
A lady driving a white car this morning never even hit her brakes this morning (of all mornings), and I almost slid right into her because she cut me off so close. I wasn't going fast either. Maybe 25 mph. If the road were any more slippery, both of us would have been goners. I, of course, blew my horn in indignant protest and pointed to the yield sign. I spewed a few obscenities too, for good measure, and I said "That sign with the red triangle isn't pointing to the nearest YMCA!" The other driver couldn't hear any of this, of course, because both of our windows were closed and I was already moving away from the offense. This was one time I wish I had ticket-writing powers. A nice failure to yield fine would have worked just fine in that situation. If any cops read this blog, what's that fine about $75?
Update: There was an accident the next morning (Dec. 6) at that intersection being tended to by a state trooper (since it involved a DCR-owned parkway), and I had a good mind to tell the trooper that people fail to yield there all the time (assuming that was the cause of this apparent head-on collision). I didn't. Meanwhile, I got cut off again by someone who had yielded, but decided she could get her mini SUV moving fast enough across my lane of travel once she saw my left turn signal. Right in front of the trooper, who was watching. Nice. |
<< Home