start a victory garden and ration your IRRATIONALLY ANGRY feelings, part 3

I just cross. Hit me cars.

when you slow or stop your car to let someone get across the street, and they always give you a courtesy wave and like .5 seconds of hustle, like they're launching themselves off the curb, but as soon as they step out into the road they just take their time.

Oh, don't get me started. On pedestrian crossings where pedestrians have the right of way when I'm crossing and a car comes barreling along too quickly and aggressively before grudgingly coming to a stop, I slow riiiiiigght down to a crawl just to annoy them even more.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r-v7w5CL6EU

Yes but that's kinda crap because cars don't actually have to stop unless you're actually on the crossing, so those drivers (including a black cab driver!) are being polite and driving sensibly by slowing down to a stop and so, like everyone else on the planet, don't deserve to have the pish ripped out of them by that cunt, Dom Joly.

Looks like that thaffic thing is a standing problem and wi8ll continue to be until you can sitreverybody down together, all umpteen billion and make sure they're on the same page. & then there will be other drivers 2 years later who either didn't hear the first time or forgot about it.
But does seem to be something that is widespread and p-s off people all over the place and will continue to do so.

But locally wondering how long it takes to install a set of traffic lights after they've been up for something like 3 weeks, pointed in an odd direction and not plugged in. & initial pole was installed possibly 3 weeks before that.

Also drivers who park in such a way that pedestrians can't use the pavement. Went by a van that seemed to be parked in such a way that nobody could access the local shopping area from one of the residential sides. Especially if they had a pram, wheelchair or mobility vehicle. Up on the pavement in from the crash barrier that was erected a few months ago to prevent people being able to go straight onto the carpark. Never get why somebody would be so mindless about parking , but i don't drive and only see the effect of bad parking. Not the moments saved by parking more intelligently.

I do like being let across if there's a stream of traffic with no big gaps, but it's awkward when a single driver with no queue waves me across: I have slow reactions and it seems like time stands still while I try to coordinate my movements while double-checking in all directions, and it's probably no quicker for either of us than if they just went past

the worst, though, is when a car slows right down without stopping or making it obvious that they're prepared for me to cross - I understand that it's good to be safe and make sure you can brake in time if need be, but great, way to slow us both down

(oh my god a whole extra 15 seconds until I can get to the shop! possibly 30 if there's more traffic behind them! so impatient, I know...)

cars don't actually have to stop unless you're actually on the crossing

I like it when they do, though, otherwise it's like, OK, I have to step out into the road to make traffic stop, but if I step out into the road and traffic doesn't stop, I might die. thanks, good choice!

(there's a crossing near me where traffic goes p. fast and doesn't generally stop if you just stand at the edge staring across the road, which you would never be stood next to if you didn't want to cross, there's nothing else there except a footpath crossing the road. it makes me nervous)

I was reading all about UK zebra crossings on wikipedia the other night. Took me awhile to figure out what it meant when it said that the little squiggly lines before the zebra show where a car is not permitted to stop. I thought, well how does a driver yield to pedestrians then?

So much OTM IA re automotive traffic.

I maintain that politeness has no place in any situation where cars are involved. You follow the rules and you go when it's your turn. Don't wave anyone on, patiently wait your turn regardless of how long it takes to get your turn. Them's the breaks, and if you don't like it you can grab your bindle and thumb a ride to work.

pplains the zigzag lines mean you can't park there, not stop.

I got that finally, but it took some ciphering.

http://i.imgur.com/iAvBRTs.png

I like it when they do, though, otherwise it's like, OK, I have to step out into the road to make traffic stop, but if I step out into the road and traffic doesn't stop, I might die. thanks, good choice!

Of course, but drivers are supposed to slow when approaching a pedestrian crossing, and you literally only have to have one foot on the crossing, not really in the road as such, for them to have to stop. Unfortunately, London, in particular, is full of a lot of entitled cretins who can't drive.

important historical note: the orange balls on stripy black and white poles at either end of a zebra crossing are called BELISHA BEACONS, named for leslie hore-belisha, 1st baron hore-belisha, minister of transport in the baldwin government

this fact pleases me irrationally so should really be on a different thread

I had never heard of or seen Belisha Beacons until this week!

Per Wikipedia Belisha was the name of his father; Mr. Hore was his stepfather. Just in case anyone was working on a stupid quip about his mom being a Hore.

(anyone else, I mean)

so his stepfamily liked sandwiches then

^^^ replacement stupid quip

Roundabouts are starting to appear in the U.S. and I am always doubtful that I'm doing a roundabout the correct way.

Not sure if I'm angry about this, but this seemed like the right time and place to complain about roundabouts.

http://foleyoakes.com/storage/circle1.jpeg?__SQUARESPACE_CACHEVERSION=1342563726692

This image suggests that I've been doing them wrong EVERY time, and EVERYBODY ELSE is too.

People (including me) usually take the left on the lower right of the circle.

That picture gives no information whatsoever relevant to circumnavigating a roundabout.

Otm. No trouble with roundabouts, though in Spain I've noticed most of them have two lanes; the lead up is two lanes as well. Stick to the inside until one exit before the exit you want to take took me two or three times, which probably ticked of some rationally angry Spaniards iirc.

Wait, so that picture is wrong about how to take a roundabout? IDGI

(disregard my Spain remarks Jesse, didn't want to confuse you, but) deems otm, that picture doesn't really say or explain anything apart from the direction to take a roundabout iirc.

that image looks USian

https://image.ibb.co/eAxnNk/Capture.jpg

This is how it's done in the U.S.A.

xp!

jesse if you are saying that you/others turn left without going around the roundabout then yeah you are doing them very badly. i have seen this only once around here (MA), ppl seem to have the hang of the basic principles, but signalling and lane discipline is out the window.

What??? I've never done it that way.

I have done it the other way, but it made me nervous. Either way makes me nervous.

From what I've seen*, that's how other drivers are doing it, too.

*I have been paying close attention to a traffic circle in NC and sometimes a couple in Chicago

Sorry, I should have been more specific: I get confused making a LEFT TURN at a roundabout.

Yeah to make a left you go three-quarters around.

The circles in my hood sometimes say "trucks permitted to turn left of circle," meaning that OTHER VEHICLES AREN'T

this recent section of the irrationally angry thread is also making me irrationally happy

For some reason they got rid of all the main roundabouts in Galway a couple of years ago. Replaced them with junctions.
Not sure what the story there was, it had the nearly immediate effect of making the bus journey home 1/2 an hour longer. This because a road out of the centre of town now gets jammed when it used to flow more freely.

So odd to hear that roundabouts are only just coming in somewhere if they're being phased out here. Not that that phasing out makes much sense to me. I don't know how it effects driving since i don't drive.

If you can just turn left on a roundabout instead of going three-quarters around then it isn't a roundabout, it's just an intersection without any stop signs or lights

I dont think Jesse was seriously advocating going against the flow of the roundabout

LBI, watch out..there are European countries where the slipping into lane just before your exit isn't the correct approach, and the right of way isn't necessarily what you'd expect.

Galway traffic is a law unto itself. I seen a Clio full of nuns get physical with two young bucks at the monstrosity that flings you out towards the N84 before.

but.. it's even called a roundabout...

Yes.

Galway nuns don't give a fuck man.

i guess that's not actually very helpful

Galway nuns don't give a fuck man.

― quet inn tarnation (darraghmac), Thursday, 15 June 2017 09:49 (eight minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

can't even build a mental picture of this. i live near like a billion lubavitcher jews and i've never seen one get even distantly annoyed.

anytime I go to a convenience store and the person in front of me is buying cigarettes, cos it always goes like this...

dude in front of me: can I get a pack of (OBSCURE CIGARETTES THAT NOBODY SMOKES)?
cashier who obviously doesn't smoke: this one? (points)
dude: no the row below that
cashier: here?
dude: no it's the next row
cashier: this one?
dude: no no the next row, three over

20 minutes later they figure it out

Only thing worse is

CASHIER: This one?
DUDE: No, over to the left.
CASHIER: This one.
DUDE: No, not the $10 one! The $5 one with the moneybags on the front!

I was at the dollar store the other morning, and there was a person in front of me with a cart full of shit.

"How much is this?"
"A dollar."
"Oh. How much is this?"
"It's a dollar."
"Wow. Is this a dollar, too?"
"Yes."
"OK!'

And so on.

"do you want to sign up for a WINN DIXIE CARD?"
'oh tell me about that, how does it work'

*get out of line, opt to just shoplift items*

"do you want a membership card?"
"no"
"are you sure?"
"uh yes"
"why not?"
"<leaves>"

Jesse I dont get it - if you did what you note (turn left from the right lane in US drive mode) wouldnt you crash into a car coming out of the roundabout going the correct way round??

BTW that smokes things happens a lot here because the law means all smoke packets LOOK EXACTLY THE DAMN SAME (sort of army khaki coloured, with ugly pics of rotting feet and dead guys and babies on them). You just have to know your brand and whats worse the law also says the shopkeep isnt allowed to recommend brands or alternatives. You know it, or you dont.

In many stores hereabouts, lottery scratchythings are numbered. "Gimme one 8 and three of them 14s."

Cigarettes should be as well.

Gimme a pack of Dead Baby 100s, please.