Traffic Thoughts
Traffic on York Road is back to pre-Covid levels, meaning that until a traffic light stops traffic, it is impossible to turn onto York without risking your life. Even after a traffic light stops traffic, you have to wait until other cars turning onto York Road ahead of you get past you.
One of my pet peeves is the failure to use turn signals. Actually, pet peeve is too tame a word. I think people who do not use turn signals are insensitive, despicable scofflaws. I, on the other hand, use turn signals at all times, even when there is no one around to see them. It is so important to use turn signals that I use them, all the time, even when unnecessary, to ensure that it is automatic for me to use them when necessary. I'm like a pilot who goes through his checklist, even when he is sure all the items are working. Checklists save lives.
How many times have you been behind a person turning left at an intersection with a traffic light who had not engaged his or her turn signal? Does it feel good watching all the folks in the right lane go past you because they did not trust you and the car in front of you not to be turning left? Have you ever waited at an intersection for a car to go by, then have them inexplicably slow down before making a turn they did not signal? Do you run or walk? Has an insensitive piece of excrement ever cut you off without so much as a suggestion they might be turning? Don't you love being cut off at high speed on a multi lane highway? In that case, who do you hate more, the person who doesn't signal at all, or the person who signals after he forces you to slam on your brakes, just in case you hadn't noticed that he had changed lanes?
I have other traffic peeves, perhaps the most annoying being how most people merge down for a lane closure with heavy traffic. That could be settled with a rule that everyone (1) should remain in his or her lane until the closure and (2) cars should alternate "at that point." Getting over early is only an invitation for the cars behind you to go ahead and slow things down even more.
And just in case you haven't noticed, the average car is not a car. It's an SUV or some other form of truck that has replace the sedan. My wife drives one. While larger cars may be safer during an accident, I am confident they cause more accidents due to lack of visibility, difficulty in handling, and slow acceleration. It is difficult to park in an average parking space between two of those SUV's and still get out of your car. If you have an SUV, it is probably easier to exit the car from the moon roof.
While I doubt I will live to see it, I think driverless cars will be better than the current situation. Yes, we will have to answer questions in the programming about who lives and dies (see the Trolley Problem), but turn signals will be automatic for pedestrians, lane closures will result in less miserable backups, and car size will be less important from a safety perspective.
