As we do every Monday here at the sprawling world headquarters of the Medical Examiner, we examine something worthy of disliking. Sometimes we go heavy-duty; sometimes even we admit it’s a little trivial. Where does today fit in? You decide.
Let’s say you’re on the way to an important meeting. You’ve left plenty of time; there’s no rush, but we all know how a few red lights, a school zone or two and a lumbering freight train can complicate the best-laid plans. It happens. It’s out of our control, and certainly nothing to get hateful about.
But here’s what gets really annoying: stupid, unthinking drivers. Here’s a situation we’ve seen a thousand times: you’re at a stop sign behind another driver. You both want to turn right onto the same busy road. Traffic is heavy. Ah, but off to the left there’s a nice long gap in the traffic. There’s only one car approaching from the left, and its blinker is on. It’s turning right. Blinker illustrated here:
The next wave of approaching cars is closing the gap behind the turning motorist, but you and the car ahead of you will have ample time to safely make your turns. Yay! But wait! The driver ahead of you isn’t moving. Maybe he (or she) thinks the approaching car won’t really turn. He thinks maybe they don’t realize their blinker is on and if he pulls out he’ll be creamed. But the oncoming car is clearly slowing down. It’s obviously turning. Its blinker is still on. It’s in the right-turn lane. But the driver ahead of you is still unsure. The oncoming car turns, but by now the next wave of traffic has flooded the road without a gap in sight. You’re stuck for awhile. If traffic was an unbroken stream it wouldn’t be annoying, but to know you and five other cars could have easily gone and instead no one did… now THAT is highly annoying, easily an 83.75 on the IAS (International Annoyance Scale).