Impatient Drivers

Karlise just got me thinking about some very impatient drivers I've encountered in the past couple of days, so I thought I'd share my recent experiences with you, my loyal readers.

Yesterday, I was driving home from my mother's house. As I approached my street, I turned my turn signal on to indicate that I would be turning left at the next street. When I was actually in the middle of my turn, the guy who had been behind me on the street I was turning off of actually had the nerve to honk his horn at me. Seriously, was my turning that big of an offense to him? I must have inconvenienced him by slowing down a bit to take the turn at a reasonable speed.

This morning, when I was driving home from dropping Emily off at school, I had to make a right turn onto another street. The intersection has a traffic signal, and the road that I was on had the red light. So, when I came to the intersection, I came to a complete stop before I made my turn. Before my car had even finished shifting its weight from the stop I made, the person in line behind me was honking their horn at me. Excuse me if my following the traffic laws is inconveniencing you!

Do people not know that before you make your right-on-red turn, you are supposed to come to a complete stop? It doesn't seem to me like very many people do. Or if they do know, they are all just ignoring the law, apparently.

When my mother was in the hospital, her friend was complaining that she had just gotten a ticket for not coming to a complete stop before making a right-on-red. I said, "Well, if you hadn't been breaking the law, maybe you wouldn't have gotten a ticket." I gave her no sympathy at all, and told her that she deserved the ticket.

Red light runners really get me upset, too. Luckily, some of the worst intersections in my area are getting cameras installed that will photograph the red light runners and send them a ticket in the mail for the traffic offense. I wonder if having the cameras there will deter any of the usual offenders from continuing their red light running?