Society has developed the “Rules of the Road” over time, based on tradition and law. Most of it is codified in law now. We use these rules and laws to govern our behavior while driving in order to avoid accidents and other mishaps.

Turn Signals

Turn signals are used to warn other drivers of an impending change in your current speed and heading. Braking to a near stop and then turning on your turn signal as you pull into a driveway didn’t warn anybody about anything. All the car behind you knows is that you have suddenly begun stopping for no apparent reason and they are in the middle of an adrenaline dump, suddenly trying to stop their own car. Why don’t you put that turn signal on a couple seconds before you decide to come to a stop in a lane of travel?

Highway Merging

Route 581 is posted 55 Miles Per Hour. Route 81 is posted 60 MPH in the Roanoke/Salem area. That means traffic is traveling at those speeds. In all reality they are probably 5 to 10 MPH higher than what’s posted around here.

I am constantly amazed that we don’t have multiple fatal car crashes every day when people pull into that highway traffic going 35 to 40 MPH. The entire purpose of that lane at the top of the highway ramp is to give drivers room to get their cars up to highway speed so they can safely merge with traffic. Driving to the end of that lane at 40 MPH and pulling into traffic without looking, or caring, is suicide. Or should be.

Here’s another tip for the driver who stops at the end of the ramp and waits for a mile of clear road before pulling out: if you are going highway speed you won’t need a mile of empty highway to pull out.

Right of Way

When you are driving down the road, cars on side streets and parking lots have to yield to you. You have the right of way. Everyone else is counting on you to maintain that right of way. It makes your driving predictable. When you stop for no apparent reason, then wave out cars from those side streets and parking lots, you mess everyone else up. That person was counting on you to drive past them so they can see clearly the traffic coming up behind you. The traffic behind you is not expecting you to be parked in a travel lane. In the absence of traffic control devices they are going to pull into the other travel lane next to you, drive around you, and hit the car you just waved out. The crappy thing about this is that the person pulling out is at fault because they have to yield to the traffic on your road. They can’t see behind you and trusted you not to be an idiot and wave them out with traffic approaching.

Politeness in this circumstance is just pure stupidity. I worked this wreck a couple days ago. If someone is tying to be “polite” and wave you out, ignore them at the peril of your own car being crushed and you getting the ticket for it.

I was once trying to pull out of a shopping center to make a left turn. Someone in the road making a left turn into the shopping center tried waving me out. People see a police car and their brains take a vacation. We both missed a good break in traffic to pull out. Finally another break in the cars appears and she’s breaking her wrists trying to wave me on, still not getting it. I finally picked up the PA mic and yelled, “You have the right of way! Use it!” We both made it through after that.

I’m in a car 10-12 hours a shift and I see all kinds of crazy driving. Most of the time I’m driving my police car just like everyone else, we only drive with lights and sirens to emergencies. Often I can’t do anything about bad driving because I’m on my way to a call and another cop is counting me to be there with them.

People suddenly do crazy things when they see a police car, we call it the “Blue Flu.” They suddenly become the model citizen driver of the year and over compensate big time. I deal with people at intersections with 4-way stop signs, who get there before me but sit and stare at me. They’ve had the right of way but they just sit there, and I have to sit there and wait for their neurons to start firing again. I’ll see people not stop or yield pulling out of side streets and cut me off, then realize they cut off a cop, and drive 5 under the speed limit. I’d like to get to the call I’m going to but I can feel the hair on my head growing faster than I’m driving.

When I’m driving normally, people yield their right of way to me. I’m just like everyone else and count on you to follow the rules of the road. When I’m trying to drive with lights and sirens, and drivers are required to yield that right of way, it seems like nobody will get out of my way. It’s a constant headache.

I know sometimes the things people do while driving are crazy. Different places seem to have different issues; living in Northern Virginia I often saw people applying makeup or even reading books while in heavy traffic. But I never saw anyone there poke up a merge lane and slide 40 MPH, into fast traffic.

I have to add another one that has nothing to do with driving a cop car, just driving.

Edited to add: People who drive glass cars annoy me. You know who they are, they need to make a right turn and slow to a stop in the traffic lane and then ever so gently, and slowly, begin pulling into the driveway or parking lot. If they hit that little bump from the road to the driveway at more than 1 MPH their car is going to shatter.

I have people reading this from all over the world and I’m sure there are strange driving idiosyncrasies everywhere. What are they where you are? What are your traffic pet peeves?

Posted with permission from The Roanoke Cop from the post “The Right of Way.” Please visit that blog for more law enforcement blog content. ###

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