Wednesday, March 3, 2010

Crossing Over

Multiple times, today, I was in situations where I saw strange things on the road. Allow me to explain.

First, there was the guy who was apparently trying to read the building numbers while driving down the road on my commute to work this morning. He kept swerving to the right, then back into the center of the lane. Swerve. Center. Swerve. Center. Eventually he simply moved into the righthand lane. I honestly assumed he was on the phone, but when I pulled alongside him, I saw him peering rather desperately out the passenger-side window trying (I'm assuming, I admit), to read the building numbers. Or maybe the building name. Or, maybe, just to check his teeth in the mirror.

On my drive home, tonight, there was the woman in the left turn lane ahead of me (at a very busy intersection), who waited through 2 full light cycles. She crept into the crosswalk during the first cycle (when I pulled up behind her). On the second round, she pulled far enough into the crosswalk that I really thought she was going to pull out as the light changed to yellow. Each time she moved forward, I did too, assuming that she would go and I'd be able to scoot around the corner behind her. Finally, on the third cycle she pulled far enough out into the intersection that she had to turn - or else the cross traffic would have hit her on the next light. On the fourth cycle, I made it through, as did the car behind me (who had also waited through the 3 prior cycles).

The strangest thing I noticed, though, was something I see more often than I can explain. Twice, today, I watched people jog out into the middle of the street because the "Don't Walk" signal had started to flash. But that's the thing that I didn't understand: They only jogged to the middle of the street. So, as the light was starting to turn, there they were in the middle of the road. Why don't people like that jog all the way across the street? Why stop in the middle when the cross traffic is about to pull forward? I don't get that.

No comments: