People Who Live In Suburbs: Classy, Icky, or Dudes?

pitssburgh left didnt work out so well for ben roethlisburger

Pittsburgh left: at a stoplight drivers wait a few secs for the first car in the oncoming lane to make a left. It's not a law, just a habit on the part of locals. the first time I drove there, I got honked at for not knowing the local convention & blasting forward when the light turned. Soon I figured out the deal.

I mean: wait a few secs after the light turns green, obv

see, stuff like that just makes me wish driving rules were uniform across the country, because then you could drive to another city and not wonder if it was illegal to make a right turn on red

The city buses here pull those Pittsburgh Lefts with each other, since it's pretty freaking hard for a city bus to get a good shot at turning left at a downtown intersection.

Especially with the pedestrians doing the Lindy Hop and the Charleston across the avenue in a re-enactment of old Barnes Dances of Yore.

SHARED SPACE!

http://static.guim.co.uk/sys-images/Music/Pix/pictures/2009/3/26/1238088115201/Fame--Street-Dance-Scene-001.jpg

rofl

So it's kind of the opposite from the LA left which consists of pulling out into the first third of the interesection and waiting for the light to turn red.

Isn't that normal driving practice?

Liike I said above, I love how many left-turn lanes and lights there are in SF. Drivers are still disgusting savages of course, but making a left turn is relatively stress-free.

Isn't that normal driving practice?

apparently not as evidenced by all of the people from out of town who don't pull out into the intersection.

_Isn't that normal driving practice?_

apparently not as evidenced by all of the people from out of town who don't pull out into the intersection.

People who don't do this give me unstoppable road rage and agita. Motherfuckers, are you waiting for the time to come when there is no oncoming traffic, ie, Christmas morning??

Last week I rented a car with an broken horn and it felt risky , like driving in fog.

"an broken horn"

Yeah, this is standard driving practice and I've never heard it called an L.A. Left, but I'll add that to my vocabulary because it nestles right up to a Hollywood Stop.

Might be standard driving practice but a lot of people who come from towns where the are no left turn arrows (i.e. people from the suburbs) don't really get it because they've never had to deal with it before. When my inlaws first visited and I was driving them around they were completely freaking out when I went out into the intersection like that.

were you like "chill out, hicks"?

no left turn arrow in the suburbs?

never heard of that suburb. to be fair, I've never noticed anyone not conforming to this behavior.

it took me a while to realize why they were making weird comments and clutching their seats in terror because I thought I was driving overly cautiously to impress them.
xpost

no left turn arrow in the suburbs?

I meant it the other way around. places where there are dedicated left turn arrows on all of the intersections.

I've never noticed anyone not conforming to this behavior.

you've never been stuck behind someone who was waiting at the line for a left turn arrow that doesn't exist?

You're supposed to be like 1/3rd of the way into the intersection, with wheels at like a 20 degree turn to the left iirc.

geez guys, I learned this in drivers ed

no, you are not to turn your wheels -- if someone rear-ends you it will force you into the oncoming traffic

Hmm, true. I was thinking a slight angle was recommended but your statement seems wise.

Speaking of car horns, people hardly use them any more (in the U.S.), as I suddenly realized while watching a 60's movie --it was as suprising to hear all the honking as it was to see everybody lighting up cigarettes.

wait what -- have you ever been in L.A. or NYC?

Here in Miami it's de rigeur.

lol in nyc there are signs saying NO HONKING EXCEPT FOR DANGER, half of which some wit has crossed out the D

UNJUSTIFIED ANTI-SUBURB SLANDER. I am from the suburbs and learned to drive there and hell yeah they taught us to pull out into the intersection while waiting to turn left.

And no, I have never encountered anyone not doing this.

Also, I was taught to call the converse to the Pittsburgh Left, where the left-turner zooms through the intersection without giving the opposite-way straight-goer a chance to go, "the Boston Left." I am not from the Boston suburbs.

!

i am from pittsburgh and have never heard of any such appellation

where are you from?

I am posting from Ikea, Schaumburg, the most heinous of the suburbs.

I dunno man, I thought Schaumburg was bad but then I spent an hour driving around Irvine looking for a non-existent banh mi shop *shudders*

The suburbs: where you attend a halloween party and one guy comes dressed as a homeless person, complete with that newspaper they're always hawking.

Ha. Wow.

I have had some time to think about it, and guess what? I am sometimes guy behind you, honking when you don't turn right on a red light, BUT PLEASE NOTE: I am that guy only if it is completely clear to me that there are no pedestrians or oncoming cars preventing you from executing that daring feat. I apologize if there is a squirrel or supine pedestrian that I can't see that is preventing you from proceeding.

it's amazing how little patience people have when they're driving. I think it's because driving a weird phase between being completely 'in control' and not in control at all.

yeah i have to catch myself a lot like "whoa why am i so mad right now?", no joke. maybe it's the loud rap music

driving / being "on the road" is absolutely a new and terrible mode of social existence.

i think you could make a case for it being a major cause of lots of alienation/depression problems.

:/

I've calmed down majorly in my driving. people actively pass me by for driving too slowly. I've become an old lady.

the problem is, you still have to deal w/ aggression when you drive like that. (other peoples' aggression.)

yeah I can recall a couple of instances where someone else recklessly passed me. scariest one in recent memory was when a driver passed me on a two lane, two way road - he passed me on the left and there was a car coming down the other way and he just barely squeezed through in between us. I did not see a pregnant lady in the car, or any blood, or anything that might suggest an emergency.

the way I break it down to an extent is that if I see a red light, I'm going to let go of the gas - no point in applying any gas at all at that point. if I'm on the highway, the most I'll do is +8 on the speed limit - the difference between driving, say, 63 miles an hour and 70 miles an hour is a gain of 7 minutes over an hour. considering that gas mileage decreases as you go above 50 mph, it makes more sense to budget more time into your trip than to squeeze time by driving fast.

that's basically it but apparently it's enough to earn the ire of dozens of red blooded americcuns

yeah i try to stick to a +4mph in-town and +9mph freeway over the speed limits. but i'm kind of a leadfoot :/

I obey speed limits in neighborhoods and on local city streets

On highways, if you are not going 80+ then gtfo of the left lane

like, drive the speed limit all you want, just don't sit in my passing/high speed lane is all I ask

there's also the element of stress - if you're trying to go 80 mph and have to pass people / get caught behind people every 30 seconds, you're going to have, ultimately, a more stressful trip than if you learn 2 luv 63 mph.

(xps)

my fave is having people roar around me on a four lane, 45mph artery that leads directly onto the freeway out to the burbs (my commute) -- and then turn up maybe three cars ahead of me at the exit light 10 miles away. gj speed demon.