Stoplights Are Optional
By sovknight | June 27, 2008
A rant: I was out and about today, doing some of this and a little of that. Driving around town running some errands and getting things done. You know, the usual. I’ve come to observe that In my time living in Salt Lake City, nothing has been more apparent to me than the lack of driving skill demonstrated by my fellow motorists. It’s truly appalling.
Apparently, sometime in the 20 or so years since I’ve had a driver’s license, stopping at red lights has become optional. I’d like to say this is wrong, but I’m not sure. I have yet to obtain my Utah state driver’s license, so perhaps when I go in to take the test I will find that the law has changed and it is indeed optional to stop when the light turns red. Or maybe it’s just Utah. Hard to say. I will say though, and I know I’ve stated this in the past –probably in this very blog somewhere– that I’m quite the expert on driving. I have literally driven in almost every major city in the continental United States. I’ve operated a car in Los Angeles, New York, Orlando, Las Vegas, Chicago, Denver, Dallas, Oklahoma City, Seattle, San Francisco, Columbus, Cleveland, Washington DC, Indianapolis, San Diego, Tampa, St. Louis, Boston, Detroit… I mean the list keeps going and going. You must believe me when I say, because I know, that the worst drivers anywhere are in Salt Lake City. Overall driving skills… I’m talking about obeying the rules and just common courtesy, are atrocious beyond belief here.
Just in the few hours I was out this afternoon, I started counting the number of red lights run. I lost count somewhere around six or seven. These were blatant red light violations too, not just close calls. In many instances, the light had already turned green for the cross traffic. A majority of these were lights that had turned yellow a good three or four seconds before these cars approached them. There was no way the drivers could have thought even for a second that they’d actually made the light.
It’s not like the police aren’t around. I do see cars pulled over occasionally on the interstate, or on the roads. Perhaps it’s not for traffic violations though. Maybe they simply weren’t displaying the proper sticker in the rear window. I don’t know.
I asked a coworker shortly after moving here why the drivers were so bad. He was a native to Salt Lake, and fully admitted wholeheartedly that Utah residents were indeed the worst drivers (he traveled with me around the country too), and told me that it was simply the driver’s education programs. Worst in the country, he said. I didn’t get any statistics to back this up, but it made sense. People here literally can’t drive well because they simply don’t know how. It’s logical.
At any rate, I’m going to end my rant now. It’s been a long and tiring, but productive day, despite all the near brushes with disaster I encounter daily whilst commuting to and fro. I think tomorrow I’ll go down and finally get my Utah license. At least it’s good to know now that stoplights are optional.
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9 Responses to “Stoplights Are Optional”
Comments
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June 27th, 2008 at 8:50 am
I concede that Utah drivers are, in general, really bad drivers. Stop lights and turn signals are optional. Any line can be crossed, regardless of color or continuity. Stop signs are actually yield signs. And they couldn’t do a 4-way stop correctly to save their lives.
Despite their lack of skill in driving, its actually their lack of courtesy that annoys me the most.
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June 27th, 2008 at 8:51 am
You’ve got an instance in the first paragraph where you say “diving” instead of “driving”. But for all I know, Utah might have really terrible divers too. After all, it’s not like we have any swimmable, non-salty, and non-smelly bodies of water around here.
You’re right that the number of people running reds is appalling. More appalling is that they do it because the red light rule isn’t enforced, so they can get away with it.
Maybe the driver education really is bad, I don’t know. Honestly, when I got my license, I didn’t feel like I had had enough experience on the road, but I’m a smart and courteous person, so I evolved into a good driver. And I did get a perfect score on parallel parking. It’s not hard once you know the formula: pull up even to the car in front of the spot you are parking in, start backing and crank the wheel all the way to the right, when the back edge of the car in front of you comes to the middle of your car, start cranking it all the way the other way. It’s not difficult. But I love eating at bistros downtown and watching people botch up perfectly easy parallel jobs. My favorite is people who try to do reverse maneuvers whilst talking on the cell phone. Duh, reverse maneuvers are the most tricky maneuvers, and they require your full attention!
I still think the country’s worst drivers are Nebraskans. And believe you me, before I cross-country road-tripped, I thought Utah drivers were the worst too.
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June 27th, 2008 at 10:47 am
@Sra: Thanks for the catch on the word. I wrote this at something like 2AM, so things were a little fuzzy. Thank you!
June 27th, 2008 at 1:43 pm
Speaking strictly as an early adopter of “automobiles” in 1894, I have a solution, RedHead. I will pay you a visit in the dusty climes of this “Utah Territory” you speak of in your letters, and, verily, my maneuvering par excellence will demonstrate to the populace of the uncharted Western sage the PROPER method for operating an electric motor-carriage!
Also, I will kill several of them just driving from the coach way-station to your home, so that will thin the herd some, I should think. Though they may darken the plains in untold numbers now, we will soon realize our Manifest Destiny and exert our dominance over these denizens of the sagebrush and sand!
Also, I may have taken a large amount of cold medicine today!
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June 27th, 2008 at 2:06 pm
My pet peeve in driving errors involves the “running of a green light that creates a running of red light”. Let me explain.
Many intersections have the lights that allow for heavy traffic times and slow traffic times.
During slow traffic times, the turn lanes do not receive a turn arrow, only the green light and you must yield to traffic going through. During heavy traffic, those same lanes receive a “green arrow” light. After the arrow disappears, the light turns green for the people driving straight through and the people in the turn lanes then have to go to the “yield until your turn” process.
I have yet to see that process work how it should. Instead, the people in the turn lane choose not to yield. The people going straight have to guess on whether they are going to T-Bone a car or not to get through the intersection on their turn.
In the end, people going straight through the light feel their turn was taken by the other car, they decide it is ok to run the light…after all they would have made it if others would have stopped turning left when their turn was over.
This process continues over and over again. Such a sad disregard of rules and the belief of, “my time is more important because…”
June 27th, 2008 at 5:24 pm
Don’t even get me started on other peoples driving ability or lack there of. Almost every bad word Brynn has learned has come from me cursing in the car.
Some of my favorites involve school bus, railroad and yielding laws. Another one is the genuis who pulls out to the middle of the intersection to turn left on green only to remain in the interscetion once the light changes to yellow and then red. Then you sit there and hope that as they are reversing they don’t hit your car. Or they remember to put their car back into gear and proceed forward instead of remaining in reverse and slamming into you as the accelerate at the green arrow.
Then there are all the old people who continue to drive when you know that they should have hung it up a long time ago.
I could really go on FOREVER!
June 28th, 2008 at 11:43 am
I forgot to ask - does Utah have a special hatred for drivers from nearby states? I’ve noticed in my own travels that the prevailing attitude in most states is “We may be horrible, pedestrian-flattening drivers of borderline competency and sanity, but at least we’re not from .”
Any of that goin’ on down Utah way?
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June 28th, 2008 at 5:12 pm
I think that does occur here. I have heard many people say, “well at least we aren’t as bad as (insert state) drivers”.
All states have bad drivers and if in every state you enter you contemplate, “These drivers suck”…look in the mirror. Maybe it is you not them!
June 29th, 2008 at 6:58 pm
Houston drivers suck, I have to disagree with Tauni, chances are if you are following the road rules, it’s not you, it’s the other drivers.
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