Thursday, June 04, 2009

More stupid car tricks

In Palo Alto yesterday, I was in the right turn lane from Quarry to El Camino. There was a green right turn arrow, but the cars ahead of me were not turning. Hmmm... I looked up and saw at least three cars making a U-turn on El Camino. "Why do they have a green right turn arrow for us, while cars could also U-turn in to the same path?" When I looked back at the intersection, I found why - it is very clearly signed "No U turn".

In Cupertino, I was waiting at a red light at Bollinger and De Anza. A car came next to me, slowed down, then plowed through the red light to cross 8 lanes of traffic. Luckily she didn't hit anyone else. Had she simply waited 5-10 seconds more, she could have gone through a green light.

On another section of De Anza, I saw a car come to the red light at Lazaneo and De Anza, stop for a bit, then make a left turn across the 8 lane street on De Anza. (Here it would have been about 30 seconds more waiting for a green.)

In Sunnyvale, at the The Dalles and Lewiston, the crosswalk is painted bright yellow, the word "STOP" has been been freshly painted on the ground, and the stop sign is plainly visible. All this didn't stop a car from zooming right through at speed that looked to be faster than the 25 mph speed limit.

These are just some of the really bad 'car tricks'. There are plenty more of the garden variety "going through a stop sign at 15 mph". (It's ok because they slowed down from 35 mph, right? Uh, even though it was a 25 mph zone.) And of course the 'left turn on stale green arrow'. (Though perhaps they just have lights timed badly to give opposing traffic a green light for 5 seconds before the arrow turns red.)