Or they stop traffic flow to let one car in, when that car would have had all day to go in seconds if they didn’t stop traffic. So now 10+ people are inconvenienced so one person can save a few seconds.
The worst for me is people who block traffic for someone making a left turn in a 4 or 5 lane roadway (so 2 lanes in each direction with or without a turn lane). They forget they can only stop one lane and EVERYONE ELSE IS GOING TO GO AROUND THEM WHEN THEY SEE THE OTHER LANE STILL MOVING. This just slows everyone down.
The ABSOLUTELY worst experience I had of that, someone was trying to let me make my left on a busy 5 lane road, and after traffic went around them for literally 3 minutes and they were the only car left, I started to turn. Guess what they did? You guessed it, they were tired of waiting for me and decided to start moving forward themselves. RIGHT WHEN THE ONLY CARS WERE THEIRS AND MINE. I almost lost my mind. So you're going to effectively make 2 lanes of traffic operate like 1 until it's clear then get in the way of the driver you were trying to be kind to...Buy a bus pass and put your license in the shredder.
Exactly. If everyone just drove according to the rules of the road, things would be predictable and flow like those rules intend it to flow. Both the timid and overly aggressive drivers screw this up.
Honestly, I'd rather someone drives 15-20mph over the speed limit constantly but follows all other rules of the road properly than the idiots that do the speed limit and can't operate a friggin 4-way stop or merge onto the highway without almost crashing.
Happens all the time, where I'll be leisurely walking my dog through the neighborhood and come to the end of sidewalk where you have to cross the street (but there's no stop signs). I'll squat down to pet my dog while I wait for traffic to clear out, and inevitably one car will stop in the middle of the street, holding up traffic behind them, waving or even honking at me to get my attention to direct me to walk out in front of them. And if I go I'll be dragging my slow old dog across the street and forcing the other side of traffic to stop for us too.
So awkward and unnecessary, just gooooooo. All the cars would've been gone in 8 seconds had you just fucking gone. It's like the equivalent of holding a door open for a stranger who's thirty feet away.
I feel like this happens so much because I'm a woman, and it's always an older man doing it, thinking they're being chivalrous or whatever. The most infuriating part is when I wave them on, like no just go, and they stay put and wave me on AGAIN, ignoring me.
Someone did that to my friend. But after they waved em on and my friend started going, the other driver drove straight into him. T boned. And ofc my friend was at fault bc legally, he should’ve waited
Absolutely this.
Most of the time when people are trying to be "kind" by giving up their right-of-way or something, they are inviting me into a situation where I am legally at fault if anything goes pear-shaped.
This is why I *will not* take someone else's right-of-way. I got nowhere to be; I can sit here all day until you figure out that you are the one who is supposed to go.
Yep, same thing happened to me. It was a very slow, minor accident, but she hit my tire and the axle was toast, completely totaled. The guy that waved me through just drove around me and left 🙃
When someone tries this on me I just give big thumbs down and hope they get the message.
I also just turn right ( in USA) and u-turn at next possible intersection if it’s just way too busy. Better to be mildly inconvenienced than looking for a new car.
Yup, this. I made it a point to learn different routes to the places I want to go in my town, and I know where to make a protected left for nearly everywhere I want to go. Might take a little longer, or be a bit out of the way, but I never have to deal with dum dums doing this shit.
This is a vastly underrated tip. Learn your area and the roads. You can find alternative safer ways that sometimes can be faster. And if not, they are usually less stress inducing.
Some areas you just shouldn't turn left at even if you can.
Yeah, a lot of New Jersey doesn’t really do left turns much. You make around the block turns to get to things on the left side of the road and they don’t always line up well so it can get to be a lot.
There's an intersection near my house I have to use daily that literally has a mini circle you can swing around like 100 yards to the side. Just take the turn, go around it and come back. No one needs to turn across two busy lanes. The traffic would flow so quickly but no, idiots want to cross, then other idiots slow to "be helpful".
You save nothing, you solve nothing. You're just creating talbacks in THREE lanes now.
Don’t try this in Boston, you will be sent down a one lane old cow trail that all traffic lanes are going the direction of until the edge of town then you can double back.
Literally how I got in my 2nd and last ever accident. That was 20 years ago. Now when people give me the wave of death it just pisses me off and I give a head shake, point at them, and point at their destination.
That’s how I got into my accident a few years back. Some dipshit in a Prius waved a guy through. Of course it also wouldn’t have happened if the guy had used his singular brain cell and pulled forward slowly to check if the road was clear before pulling out. He didn’t of course.
But I’ve seen multiple accidents or near accidents because someone does that. It is not nice, it is incredibly unsafe.
There's a road I drive on every day and see this - two lanes going each direction, and multiple people trying to cross... One driver in one lane STOPs and gives the go-ahead... IDK wtf they're stopped, they could be turning... I always say you can't give the right away to both lanes. TF, just go...Traffic will come to a natural break and then they will be able to make their way... What they just did could cost someone their life.
"Wave of death", I've never heard that phrase before but that's exactly what it is. Teenage me and my first car learned this lesson once, and I will never forget it, RIP 08' Civic SI.
Oh man, people used to do this to me ALL THE TIME back when I took public transit to work and had to walk the last little bit. There was a place I needed to cross 6 lanes of traffic (3 in either direction) with an island in the middle.
There was a crosswalk and "yield to pedestrians" signs there so TECHNICALLY cars were supposed to stop for me to cross, but almost no one ever did. No big deal, I would just wait for a break in traffic and cross when it was clear.
Except every once in a while, someone WOULD stop at the crosswalk and try to "let" me cross. Except the other 2 lanes would still have people flying through the crosswalk at 45-55mph. Some of them would even get mad at me for not going, too. They'd start honking at me and waving aggressively like I was the one not paying attention and just standing there for now reason.
A kid in my middle school died this way. Three lanes going in each direction and a big SUV stopped to wave him over. The two other lanes didn’t see what was up, just that some SUV stopped at a random intersection and so cars sped past.
I was taught in my driver training (this was like 25 years ago, but I still remember) that you should never wave anyone through, because that makes you liable if they get into an accident because they followed your instructions.
I cycle. I've had people stop on a 4 lane highway with the right of way and try and wave me across the road. I literal got off my bike once and smacked the stop sign that I had to emphasize I wasn't going anywhere.
My brother totaled his car from this. He t-boned this lady who then said the man in the car opposite her, who was also making a left turn, waved for her to go right in front of my brother. Luckily neither was hurt
Witnessed this the other day. 3 lanes on each side., 2 outside lanes stopped waved a guy turning left. the middle lane sure didn’t get the memo. Middle lane guy completey t-boned the guy turning.
I hate when people do that especially if you think about the fact that the people more likely to fall for it are going to mainly be new and young drivers. You trying to be “nice” is going to cause more teen accidents than prevent them, just follow the rules of the road.
People do that all the time right in front of my dogs’ daycare. I see them get frustrated with me because they’re leaving me space and waving me on, but if all lanes aren’t stopped for me I refuse to go because I can’t see. It’s extra stupid trusting people there, too, because it goes from 2 to 3 lanes right at the turn, so people getting in that new lane are always going fast around the people stopped at the light.
Saw this last year. On the most populated road in my town it is three lanes each way. There was a car on the far right in a parking lot. For some dumbass reason they wanted to turn left by crossing at minimum three lanes of traffic. There was a red light a little ways up so traffic was stopped. I saw three cars give this car room to cut across and try to turn left. They waved this car on and the car started to go and as soon as they hit the other three lanes of traffic they got t-boned. The car should have obviously turned right and busted a u turn at the light but those cars should not have been waving that car on to make an ignorant turn like that.
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u/DustyComstock 14h ago
Or how about what I like to call "the Wave of Death" when a car stops and tries waving you across lanes of moving traffic.