for the love of God, yes! that goes for anywhere. it's almost absurd how incensed i become when i wanna turn and some jackass is going straight. just get in the other damn lane!!! definitely a pet-peeve of mine.
18. If you are walking, do not assume, as a pedestrian, you have the right of way... in Houston, the cars have the right of way! happened today, several cars honked and drove in front of us as we walked to lunch... like WE were in the wrong for crossing the street when we had the green!!
What drove me to create this thread was... this morning, as I was driving to work, a guy in front of me at a red light waited till it was green before he turned right. when we got to the next red light, I wanted to get out of my car and b****slap the guy. -- droxford
droxford: Great post. I follow all those rules and people who don't make me crazy. ESPECIALLY people who 'block the box.' Do me another favor too and use your turn signals. Can't tell you how many times I get stuck on a two-way street behind someone who neglected to switch on the left turn signal until the light turned green. If you'd have let me know you were going to turn left, I would have changed lanes before the light. I'd also like to add that green means go and red means stop. Amazing how many people don't know this. Houston is the worst about this stuff. In Houston, red means go faster and green means sit there and watch the guy run the red before you go. You can pretty much count on people running the red, so no one goes on the green. Nothing pisses me off more than sitting behind someone at a green for a full three seconds, while the guy in front waits for red light runners. Actually, the light runners piss me off more, but it's all the same problem. Also: not a downtown thing, but when driving on the freeway, please don't hang out in the passing lane. The left lane is for passing ONLY. If people would observe that very, very good rule of thumb, no one would ever need to get upset about people driving too slow or too fast on the freeway. It blows my mind how stupid Texas drivers are about this one.
Ever been to Detroit? 10x worse. Its a guarentee that three more cars will go AFTER the light turns red. Houston is a cake walk in this respect! The worst thing you can do is be the 1st person to stop at a red light...if you don't get rear-ended, you will be severly honked at.
AMEN!!! Driving in Canada is really nice because people fiercly observe this. People pass in that lane as if passing into oncoming traffic. AS SOON as they get past the car, they move over immediately. In Germany, you WILL get a ticket for staying in the passing lane too long...if somebody doesn't hit you going 175mph.
Just as a note.... I grew up in Houston, and thus, took driver's ed in high school here. It was never taught to me that the freeway's left lane is a passing. I, and the rest of the kids at my high school, grew up believing that it's just another lane. Also, there's no law about it being used strictly for passing. -- droxford
When you're in the city limits, the idea of using the left lanes only for passing doesn't seem to work. There's just too many cars on the road to have everyone in the far right lane. But once you get out on the open road, the left lane for passing tends to work well when people follow it.
Ever seen the "slower traffic keep right" signs? They're advising you to get out of the passing lanes so traffic can flow. It's true that, in the city, this is sometimes impractical, but only during heavy traffic times. Most of the time, there is room to get over to the right -- not everybody in the far right lane, just try to keep the far left lane open. Great thread droxford! I follow all those rules and wish everyone else did too. Inconsiderate drivers piss me off!
Sorta...many people tends to hang out in thr fast lane even if a pile-up of 5 cars are behind them. If you are in the fast lane and going faster than the next lane, then okay. Just don't go the same speed or, god forbid, go slower. That is inconsiderate. In rush hour, you can't avoid it. Outside of that, just watch your rear-view mirror and make a judgement call. I allow people to pass all the time. If you never look in your rear mirror or worse, drive the speed limit because your richeous ideals say "that is the law" then that really holds up traffic.
