Driving: Lights in the rain and four-way stop signs
As I mentioned in my first post about driving, I have a 40 mile commute to work. That’s one way. So, I drive about 400 miles a week just to and from work. Additionally, my mom lives about 30 minutes away and the house where I have band practice is about 35 minutes away. Because of that, I don’t usually do too much driving on the weekends unless it’s to Mom’s or to band practice, which is why I don’t get out to see many bands. If I can’t walk there, I’m probably not going. But I digress.
The weather here in south-eastern Virginia has been dark, cloudy, and misty lately. I haven’t seen a whole lot of actual coming-down-in-droplets rain, just a lot of misting, spritzing drizzle. And yet, for some reason, I’ve seen a lot of people driving without turning on their vehicle’s headlights. In Virginia, the law states, essentially, that if your windshield wipers are on, your headlights should be on. That’s an easy thing to remember. Now, I know nothing so trivial as a law will compel people to do something so let me put it another way:
IF IT’S DARK, CLOUDY, AND MISTY OUT, AND YOU DON’T HAVE YOUR HEADLIGHTS ON, I CAN’T SEE YOU ASSHOLE.
Especially if you’re driving a dark colored car. I don’t care of you can see me, I need to see you. When it’s misty out, windows and mirrors become difficult to see out of. A lot of tiny, tiny drops obscure the view more than a lot of big drops, because big drops succumb to gravity and slide down the window or just eventually break up. The tiny drops deposited by mist don’t do that. They just sit there, which means I can’t see your shitty black and primer Civic. Turn your lights on.
(Small aside that has nothing to do with driving: The woman in the next cube just asked, out loud, for anyone to answer, where the United Kingdom is. Flabbergasted.)
Moving on.
Four-way stop signs apparently require more intelligence than turning your headlights on in the rain, sad to say. It’s a simple premise, but it goes back to what I said about drivers being inconsiderate, although sometimes they just don’t know what to do.
A four-way stop is “an intersection system … where traffic approaching it from all directions is required to stop before proceeding through the intersection.” Simple enough. Most people know that you have to stop at a stop sign. What people seem to have a hard with is what to do when two or more people approach the four-way stop at the same time, or close to the same time. It is not, to use a phrase Katie finds humorous, rocket surgery.
Drivers should proceed through the intersection in the same order in which they approached it. If the driver from the north arrives just before the driver from the east, the driver from the north goes first, followed by the driver from the east. If the driver from the east is still approaching but hasn’t reached the intersection yet (let’s say they’re still a car length or so away), the driver from the north does not have to wait until they get there. It is safe to assume the driver from the east will, indeed, stop at the stop sign. If they don’t and they hit you, the speeds should be slow enough that there will be no injuries and they you can sue them for all they’ve got, as is the American way. You should be able to tell if they are going fast enough to cause serious damage and injuries, in which case you wait for them to pass then honk your horn and give them the finger, as is the American way.
Now, in the case that a driver from the west is turning south at the same time a driver from the south is approaching, intending to proceed straight, the driver from the west does not have to wait for the driver from the south and vice versa. A driver making a right turn has nothing to fear from a driver coming from the direction in which they are turning. Nor does the driver going straight have anything to fear from a driver making a right turn, unless said driver cannot make a smooth right turn and swerves into the other lane, at which time the driver going straight can honk their horn and give them the finger, as is the American way.
Lastly, in the case that four drivers approach the four-way stop and arrive all at the same time, they should all look at each other and proceed safely through. This is not a Mexican standoff. Chances are, at least one person among the four is going to be reasonable enough to wait for someone else go, thus breaking the surface tension and allowing the rest to flow through. But please, do not assume this is so, because chances are just as likely that one person in the group believes they are entitled by the heavens to always proceed through a four-way stop first. It should be customary for everyone to stop, look at each other, then, almost psychically, come a consensus as to who will go first. If it is not you, do not honk your horn and flip someone off, as is the American way. Just be patient. Whatever you’re trying to get to can wait the extra ten seconds it takes for you to have a little patience and get through the intersection safely and with as little rise to your blood pressure or middle finger as possible.
(While proof-reading this, I realize I might come across as an asshole. I’m not, really. Ask anyone, I’m probably one of the nicest people you’ll meet. I just really get fed up by what I see on the road. Selfish, oblivious people tooling around in giant death machines. The fact that Americans are in love with (but are finally starting to fall out of love with) HUGE vehicles only exacerbates the issue. The rules of safe, considerate driving are not hard to learn and follow, but people get too absorbed in their own lateness or lattes or long distance phone calls to pay attention to what’s going on around them. I will admit that I get angry while driving but like to think I don’t drive angry. I just yell and curse and gesticulate a lot.)
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Word count: 1077 | Sentences: 59 | Fog: 10.0 | Kincaid: 7.2 | Flesch: 76
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