Were you really doubting your mad skills?

It’s been so long since I wrote this entry that when I saw your comment, I was like, “Who wrote that line about The Mentalist” (html tag laziness fail for me)? And it was me!

(This is my "find out if HTML tags work in the comments here" attempt, so don't mind the italics tag if it shows up inappropriately.)

1. Drivers must be aware of the opposing traffic if the wavee is turning left. It often happens that I am turning left onto a busy street, Manchester, Forsyth, whatever, and both sides of the road are streaming cars. Someone, attempting to do a wave-in, stops traffic on my left (admittedly a risky venture that can piss off people behind them unless there is stopped traffic ahead of them). Seeing my turn signal flashing to the left they wave me in completely oblivious to the opposing traffic that is flowing freely. I cannot make my left turn because of the opposing traffic and the waver gets more insistant that I pull in front of them. The traffic in front of them eventually moves forward and now there is this awkward gap because they are now blocking traffic from flowing to the right. Often they get frustrated that I did not pull out (into traffic) and fly forward in a huff.

There are two options in this situation. Just sit there and try to indicate that there are cars going the other away preventing me from pulling out. Or, even worse, pull the nose of my car out into the first lane looking for an opening in the left bound traffic. This second option has the problem that the left bound traffic is usually flowing freely and is very busy and a gap doesn’t open up. Now I’m out in the first lane, blocking that traffic flow waiting for an opening. I’m often forced to make a daring dart into a not-quite-big-enough gap.

2. This second one often happens when attempting to cross Forsyth on foot, but has been seen out in the wild while driving. The situation is the opposite of the first where traffic is very light. I’m attempting to cross Forsyth and there is one car coming from my left and no cars to the right. The car, attempting to be a good samaritan, slowly comes to a stop. Slowly enough that I cannot tell if they are just slowing down and will pass, slowing to turn into the next intersection, slowing to let me by, or just unaware of their speed. This one car on the street slows to a stop to “let me cross” but I cannot tell that they aren’t going to hit me until they actually come to a stop. But they are the ONLY car on the entire road. If they had just driven by at a normal speed they would have passed and I could skip merrily across the street. But instead, they waste time slowing down and stopping where if they had just passed by I could cross unabated. They feel like they’re doing me a favor when in fact I’m a bit peeved at them because of this awkward encounter and it wasn’t necessary.

However, you have to get everyone on the same page to do this. If you just have a couple of idiots zooming by everyone else in the “second” lane, they’re just going to annoy everyone.