Friday, February 27, 2009

Traffic Question

This is not about getting more blog hits [waves at the quadrillionth googler looking for a DJ Lance costume] but an actual traffic question.

1. Let's say you're on a multi-lane road (OKAY SO I'M TALKING ABOUT ROUTE 50), traveling at a pretty good clip. You're not barreling along at dickwad speed, but there's no congestion so you're probably exceeding the posted speed limit by 10-15 mph.

The green light ahead turns yellow. Do you:
a) Slow down
b) Speed up

To stop at the light, you will have to brake pretty hard. Probably hard enough to make the stuff on the front seat move. If you speed up a little, you'll get through the intersection as the light is turning red.

The car on your right chooses a) and slows down.

What did you do?


Okay, new question:
2. You are waiting to turn left at an intersection controlled by a stoplight. You will need to cross three lanes of oncoming traffic. Two cars are approaching. The light turns yellow. Do you:
a) Go for it
b) Wait for the oncoming cars to clear the intersection.


Today, I picked b) to Question 1. Someone else answered Question 2 with a).

My brakes squealed and my car swerved and my heart rate doubled and I got a good shot of adrenaline for the day. Luckily there was no car on my left. Everything is fine.

I'd be pissed at driver #2, but honestly, the timing was such that I might have done the same thing, thinking both oncoming cars were going to stop.

I think the universe was determined to see the contents of my bag on the car floor today - one way or another.

2 comments:

Stimey said...

Yikes! Scary! For 1 I would probably speed up then chicken out at the last second and slam on my brakes.

For 2, I always wait until it's clear that the oncoming traffic will stop, because they have, you know, the right of way and all.

Glad you're okay.

Anonymous said...

I would have picked B for both.