If I count to three at a green and you don’t move I’m assuming you’re staring at your phone or are otherwise distracted. It’s less “those seconds are precious” and more “pay attention and get off your fucking phone when driving.”
this post was submitted on 08 Jun 2024
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Yeah, this right here. If you’re mad it happens to you when you are just making sure everyone is actually stopping at their red light, you can blame the morons who stare at their phones while driving and run red lights, and the morons who stare at their phones while waiting at red lights.
Seriously put your fucking phone down, you’re driving
I've driven in places where a few seconds was just how long people sat at the green light. I didn't get it until I was there long enough to notice how insanely often cross traffic was definitely successfully sneaking through that yellow at the last moment.
I don't do it to that extent, but I do now give it a few beats to account for other drivers insanity.
I try to assume positive things, so if someone hasn't gone after a few I tend to assume that they've done what I know I've done, which is to pull up to the light and rather than intently watch the light, to keep looking at the road and cross traffic and just not notice the light change in my upper periphery.
Way more common if there's a protected turn at the intersection or it's otherwise not symmetrical.
This is usually accounted for by the traffic light pattern. Where I’m from both sides will be red for about ~2 seconds before it changes to green. Obviously it’s never a bad thing to be watching for cars running the red light but waiting 3 seconds AFTER a green would annoy the hell out of me lol
In some places that "lemme just squeeze through" can be pretty egregious.
Whether the system accounts for it or not doesn't change the fact that I've driven in places where you'd be foolish not to pause.
I didn't bring the habit home, at least not to the extent I saw, but it made me a lot more forgiving of people who pause and a lot more aware of how often I actually see people run a red just as it turns green for me.
I've had to drive places where time mattered, and even then five seconds just did not matter.
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My trick: IMMEDIATELY release the brake so the guy behind me knows I’m clearly paying complete attention, but don’t touch the gas until I’ve seen folks starting to stop from both directions and don’t see any potential runners. Also more efficient to start from a roll than a stop.
This kind of subtle communication is really helpful while driving. When I’m blocked moving somewhere, I’ll leave tons of space so I can crawl at a barely perceptible pace towards the blockage as it moves outta the way. e.g. I want to let pedestrians in a crosswalk get both feet onto the curb* but that might be unusual to the point another driver doesn’t know if I’m waiting or distracted. The crawl says “yeah I’m going…” and prevents honks. Though def need enough space, a slow enough speed, and a smile and a wave, so the pedestrian won’t feel rushed or in danger.
*non-divided/medianless roads
Genius. This is the perfect solution.
I do this sort of thing at busy stop-signed intersections. See, many people in my area have a tendency to be nice and wave you through, even when they have the right of way - it's infuriating! They're just slowing us both down by not being assertive and predictable. So I've taken up the habit of adjusting my speed approaching the intersection to avoid stopping at the same time as someone else. Usually that means slowing down a little bit early, then just creeping for a couple seconds but not quite coming to a stop until I see them start to accelerate away. Less often I'll do the opposite though, if it looks like I'll get to the intersection slightly sooner than another person, or I know that I should have the right of way, I'll be more aggressive and try to stop and accelerate away (safely) before they would even need to wait on me.
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Another vote in agreement. I read this post and thought the author had no idea how long the light was green cause he wasn’t paying attention.
Also, the guy behind him made the light, but 3 cars back might not have because this guy is not paying attention.
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The light leaving my neighborhood is about 5 seconds long, so you get 2 seconds to at least let off the brake. Missing it means waiting another 5 min before the light is green again. I get it, in my state we have people blowing through blatant red lights so it’s worth some action. but when there’s a line of 6 cars behind you, I’m not going to let you perpetuate the problem of people running reds… because you’re not even looking. Yes Joe next door, I see you on your phone, every day.
In more positive news, love the summer. Ride the bike more than drive the car. So much less headache. When I sell my house, I’m moving to a walkable city so my car is near pointless and it’s cheaper to Uber.
This is exactly what I'm thinking. This dude can snark all he wants but most drivers aren't honking unless you're sitting at a green light, more than likely because you're not paying attention.
I've been honked at the instant a light has turned green. So fast that I didn't go because they surely must have been honking for something else. Most drivers are reasonable but if you've never seen a driver lose their shit then you haven't driven long enough.
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It's actually more like 4 seconds average, even if you are paying attention because most people only get moving when the person before them starts moving. So like thunder and lightning, there is a delay between the time you see the light turn green and the people ahead of you actually move.
It's absolutely infuriating.
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It sucks when you are at a light that is known to be green for a few seconds and red for minutes, and the asshole in front of you is on their fucking phone, then you are stuck for another round of red light.
Yeah, I give them 2 full seconds then tap my horn.
Get off your fucking phone.
What’s a “New York Minute”?
The time between when the light turns green and the car behind you honks.
There really are people who don't give me time to react to the light change. I drive a manual. It takes time to clutch in, first gear, brake out, throttle in, clutch out. And don't get me started on inclines.
I sometimes have to go straight through a specific light (where 95% of traffic goes right) to get home. So I'm first in line waiting at the red. No turn signal because I'm crossing the road. A woman in an SUV sitting behind me gives a little honk. Then a few seconds pass and she starts laying on her horn. I had to reach up and out of my sunroof and point straight ahead to tell her I am going straight. Stopped honking after that.
Oh and turning right on red is fucking optional.
Some people.
Right on red is optional AND requires a full stop first. The amount of people that just roll right through without a stop like they have any right of way then get pissed when the cross traffic blasts by in front of them
I drive a manual sometimes and never really have a problem starting at a light. The real problem is being 4 cars back and the car in front of you starts to move 3 inches forward after the light has been green for 30 seconds then abruptly stops and you stall your car. It's great.
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I know this is just a silly meme, but it makes me feel a little hopeful seeing evidence of other people thinking like this on the road, y'know, responding with empathy and concern for strangers instead of immediate vengeful anger.
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I'd also like to apologize to the black BMW yesterday. I'm sorry that I didn't stop closer to the vehicle in front of me at the stop light. Even though it didn't affect you in any way whatsoever, It was rude of me to not get as close as I possibly could to the car in front of me and your honking has made me reflect on my silly actions.
I dunno an extra second or two to me, at the green light, isn't that egregious to me, really. If you're at an intersection, sometimes the far lanes of the crossing road can be both empty, and totally hidden by a slew of cars waiting to go forward. This is more commonly the case, and more commonly dangerous, for traffic approaching in the furthest lane from you, since that lane can sometimes be a turn lane where right turn on red is allowed, and all it takes is one idiot driver to fuck up your whole day. Most of the times, traffic lights account for this, but it still happens. Not necessarily the end of the world if someone takes a second, and, as the meme says, it doesn't mess up my day to have an extra second of delay.
No, the real problem, to me, is the people behind the first person at a green light, and acceleration. Follow distance is purely a property of the speed at which you are going, and lower speeds are much less consequential. There is no reason not to follow the car in front of you almost to the letter, and scale your speed to match their movement. It's very annoying to me that many people will wait a full one or two seconds to "let the car in front of them go", before they even start to move. This increases the traffic delays behind you, and can have substantial ramifications for traffic throughput over time, which can be kind of a nightmare in cities with more traffic. Obviously there's always going to be a very minor delay in terms of raw reaction time, like, 250ms, in an expected environment like this where really the most that can change is that the car in front of you brakes very suddenly, so in all circumstances, you're going to need a gap that allows you to react to that, and then progressively more as speed increases, consequences increases, and the novelty and unpredictability of the environment increases, you're gonna need at least two seconds of gap and probably more like four to adequately react.
Likewise, you can cut down on traffic if everyone just accelerates a little more. Most people, I have noticed, are very conservative with their car's acceleration, which makes sense in lots of environments, as sometimes you're just rushing to get stopped by the next light down and most everyone will make it to the next light in any case, since light timings are worked out like that in advance, so it doesn't matter too much. In many cases, it would actually benefit them to go slower, as going slower might allow them to retain some level of momentum through the next light, which might help them save on gas. Slow is smooth, and smooth is fast, sort of thing. On the other hand, there are some circumstances in which throughput is severely limited by a lack of acceleration since every car behind you is going to be limited by the maximum of your acceleration, so having a more conservative approach can kind of hurt traffic throughput a lot.
I wish they taught this shit in driver's ed, I wish driver's ed was mandatory, and I wish people knew how to fucking drive well. It's kind of crazy how bad lots of people are at driving in general even though it's kind of seen as a necessary thing in most of america to get anywhere.
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