I was hoping for more varied responses to the previous post. I think the winner is my dad’s comment with the Floridian’s response to certain traffic signals. Beautiful.
Now to the lovely story. I was driving down Church Street (just writing Church St. has me longing for the Black Mountain Bakery and their Mountain Mystique coffee brew on a lovely cool morning . . . sigh . . .) on my way to work and came upon the blinking yellow light as Church goes over 65. I should have proceeded with caution considering I just saw two cars fly through the blinking red-light of which they are supposed to stop, look for any on-coming traffic and then proceed through the intersection. But, no. It’s early, it’s Saturday and there aren’t many cars out. All of a sudden a small white car comes barrelling down on me. Feet on brake. A little fishtailing. Speedy heart rate. But no awful sound of front of white car smashing into side of my car. No deployment of airbags. Whew. After laying down some lovely words directed toward the errant driver I proceed on. As I look back in my rear view mirror at the next red light I watch another car just fly through the intersection.
I’ve always been a firm believer that drivers in Nashville were bad. This just adds more proof. Ugh. I find myself driving more offensively than defensively. I’m sure there are bad drivers everywhere but give me a break.
Well, Men’s Health has a list of cities that has the worst and best drivers. I think I’ll look over the top ten cities with the best drivers and move there.
I see people flying through the Elm Hill/Donelson intersection on red lights seemingly all of the time. Glad you managed fine in your story. I followed your link to the article and wish once again that I could just take the bus everywhere.
Anyway, maybe one day we can meet up for coffee at the Black Mountain Bakery. Is McDibbs still open?
Alas, McDibbs is no more. David closed it down sometime in the early 90’s. My last recollection of it was the summer of 92. Now it’s the Veranda Cafe & Gifts. Just perfect for the old lady crowd needing to pick up nick-nacks. Ugh.
Yeah, you, me, Black Mountain Bakery. It’s a date.
Sorry to hear about your near miss — glad you are ok. That MH list is crazy. I can tell you that New York drivers are definitely NOT top 10 best. New Yorkers ranked <a href=”http://money.cnn.com/2005/05/26/Autos/drivers_study/”44th in a driving rule test, and <a href=”http://www.nysun.com/article/54527″2nd worst in road rage (lost to Miami btw). And on top of that, I can attest that a lot of crazy things happen on NY streets — the pedestrians and cyclists are not any better at playing by the rules however!
I have the next quiz question for you though.
What sign or road marking specifically prohibits u-turns, even when no other signage exists?
I found out this tidbit when we moved to NY and I got in my first accident ever. Not a fun day!
Oh and btw, you are having another kid?!?! congratulations!
Sorry to hear about your near miss — glad you are ok. That MH list is crazy. I can tell you that New York drivers are definitely NOT top 10 best. New Yorkers ranked in a driving rule test, and worst in road rage (lost to Miami btw). And on top of that, I can attest that a lot of crazy things happen on NY streets — the pedestrians and cyclists are not any better at playing by the rules however!
I have the next quiz question for you though.
What sign or road marking specifically prohibits u-turns, even when no other signage exists?
I found out this tidbit when we moved to NY and I got in my first accident ever. Not a fun day!
Oh and btw, you are having another kid?!?! congratulations!
sry- hope that works better….
I am a truck driver with over a million miles experince in flat beds and tankers and have seen what you’ve seen time and time again.always assume that the other driver does’nt know how to drive,or is simply not paying attention.I was at a major intersection one night that was being repaired by a road crew and had police,with there car lights flashing in the center of the intersection directing traffic with light wands.They motioned for me to go,As i started to enter the intersection,one of the cars crossing traffic sped through the intersection just missing the front of my semi truck which he somehow failed to see and totally ignored the police directing traffic.the police just stood their in shock but could,nt leave there post.this is why you should never trust anybody but yourself on the road.defensive driving is the key.
Wow I also wanted to know the answer to this question and nobody seems to have the answer. I have always believed that when a traffic light is blinking you should ALWAYS treat it as a stop sign.