Pet Peeves

Sac Arrow said:
Drivers that wait for three or four car lengths to develop before moving on a green light.

That's why only two cars get through at a time, dimwit, keep it tight, get through the intersection, THEN open the gap.
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People who don't get physics.
 
Captain said:
People who don't get physics.
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Not sure if you're agreeing or disagreeing with me. As you go through an intersection, speed will generally be constant through the intersection, particularly if it's in the turning direction, and then it will increase, and the gaps will open on their own.
 
Ever get that feeling that you swallowed something but it didn't make it all the way down so you picture whatever piece of food or pill sitting just above your collar bone in your throat all day but there's really nothing there? I've got that going right now and it is just absolutely bizarre.
 
Sac Arrow said:
Drivers that wait for three or four car lengths to develop before moving on a green light.

That's why only two cars get through at a time, dimwit, keep it tight, get through the intersection, THEN open the gap.
rachelk.tailwinds said:
:yes: I think that's the main contributor to city traffic. When someone does that (and a good majority do), only 3 cars can get through the light when at least 7 should have. :mad2:

I can't think of a better method to clear congestion than to just get out of the way.
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We should adopt the UK system. The lights in the UK will turn Red+Yellow for 2 seconds before it turns green.

It gives drivers an indication that they should prepare to move, so the moment it turns green, all the cars in the lane will start moving at the same time.
 
deonb said:
We should adopt the UK system. The lights in the UK will turn Red+Yellow for 2 seconds before it turns green.

It gives drivers an indication that they should prepare to move, so the moment it turns green, all the cars in the lane will start moving at the same time.
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Germany was like that too. I miss that.
 
Sac Arrow said:
Drivers that wait for three or four car lengths to develop before moving on a green light.

That's why only two cars get through at a time, dimwit, keep it tight, get through the intersection, THEN open the gap.
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I always wondered why there was so much horn honking in New York City. Then I realized something. It's not because everyone in NYC is a nasty impatient SOB.

The above is why.

Drivers in NYC (especially the taxi drivers) understand that if EVERYONE does not start moving fast when the light turns green the amount of time it takes to get from a to b will be significantly increased.
 
denverpilot said:
Oh freakin hell. You've seen that?!

As far as the toothbrush goes, this one seems to stay put just fine... and it's round.
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Ohhhhh sneaky. See the flat spot? ;)

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But then again, I'm with Mari in this one, I just hold the thing and don't have any trouble pasting it up at all while in mid-air.
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I think that is the first actual dildo posted on POA.
And this should be about the 17th reference to one.
 
jordane93 said:
People who don't turn with a red light even though there is ample space and there is no "no turn on red sign"
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People who honk at you not turning on red when there is oncoming traffic they don't see.

People who honk at you not turning on red when you are using the time to retune the radio.
 
rachelk.tailwinds said:
Ever get that feeling that you swallowed something but it didn't make it all the way down so you picture whatever piece of food or pill sitting just above your collar bone in your throat all day but there's really nothing there? I've got that going right now and it is just absolutely bizarre.
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Yes. Get checked out for GERD by your physician or throat doctor. Not kidding. It can be a symptom.
 
Saw a new one today.

At a local shopping center, there is a right in/right out entrance.

A car was stopped in the "out" lane. Its bumper was sitting on the ground slightly in front of the car. The trunk was open. Nobody was in the car, and the car was not running. Whaa? You're too worthless to move your dead/broken/crashed car from one of (only) two ways out of a busy shopping center?

A few minutes later, a guy in a white Altima pulled up behind the burgundy obstacle and just laid on the horn. Hello, Captain unobservant...
 
Sac Arrow said:
Not sure if you're agreeing or disagreeing with me. As you go through an intersection, speed will generally be constant through the intersection, particularly if it's in the turning direction, and then it will increase, and the gaps will open on their own.
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Those gaps don't 'open on their own'. They come from every car delaying acceleration based on the car in front of them and it's a required function of mass acceleration.

Spacing requirements go up with speed. Parked cars at a light require no spacing and on the other end, on a highway require several car lengths spacing. That spacing comes from traffic expanding like an accordion and is why everyone can't just step on the gas when the light turns green. It seems like that would work but in reality it wouldn't.

Ever notice how in a traffic jam on the highway you're parked one minute and then you're doing 40 only to be parked again further on? That's that accordion effect...cars opening and closing spacing based on speed. If you're ever flying over a highway with stopped traffic take a moment and watch the whole of it...it's fascinating to watch, like a single snake contracting over miles and miles of road. The thousands of individual units take on the life of a larger organism and move as one.


Back to peeves,

3

Three is the number of cars that must be stopped in the left lane at a red light before you can pull into the right lane intending to go straight. It chaps my arse when the only car at the intersection stops in the right lane going straight. Why didn't they move over a lane and allow people behind them the ability to turn right on the red?
 
Captain said:
Three is the number of cars that must be stopped in the left lane at a red light before you can pull into the right lane intending to go straight. It chaps my arse when the only car at the intersection stops in the right lane going straight. Why didn't they move over a lane and allow people behind them the ability to turn right on the red?
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This is especially annoying when 20 yards beyond the red light is a large green overhead sign, with a big yellow bar at the bottom: Right lane ends, merge left.

Even more annoying are people who try to make a left turn across two lanes of rush hour traffic from behind the white line. I've sat through three complete green lights while bozo at the front has not moved an inch, then on green light #4 he lays rubber and cuts them all off as soon as the light changes. Just ease into the intersection like the Drivers Ed teacher should have taught you!
 
Easing into the intersection so you can make a quick left puts you within inches of the distracted, intoxicated, inept idiots barreling through the intersection at 50 miles per hour.

No sir. I am not going to do that.
 
Captain said:
Those gaps don't 'open on their own'. They come from every car delaying acceleration based on the car in front of them and it's a required function of mass acceleration.

Spacing requirements go up with speed. Parked cars at a light require no spacing and on the other end, on a highway require several car lengths spacing. That spacing comes from traffic expanding like an accordion and is why everyone can't just step on the gas when the light turns green. It seems like that would work but in reality it wouldn't.

Ever notice how in a traffic jam on the highway you're parked one minute and then you're doing 40 only to be parked again further on? That's that accordion effect...cars opening and closing spacing based on speed. If you're ever flying over a highway with stopped traffic take a moment and watch the whole of it...it's fascinating to watch, like a single snake contracting over miles and miles of road. The thousands of individual units take on the life of a larger organism and move as one.


Back to peeves,

3

Three is the number of cars that must be stopped in the left lane at a red light before you can pull into the right lane intending to go straight. It chaps my arse when the only car at the intersection stops in the right lane going straight. Why didn't they move over a lane and allow people behind them the ability to turn right on the red?
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We were talking about intersection dynamics, not the accordion effect. The latter of which you sort of have right, but not quite.

I had to study that crap.
 
Sac Arrow said:
Drivers that wait for three or four car lengths to develop before moving on a green light.

That's why only two cars get through at a time, dimwit, keep it tight, get through the intersection, THEN open the gap.
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But, but, but, they'd have to look up from their phone......
 
Sac Arrow said:
We were talking about intersection dynamics, not the accordion effect. The latter of which you sort of have right, but not quite.

I had to study that crap.
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Right, but going from stopped to going cars need to spread out. They can't wait till they get through the intersection to do it either and even if they magically did the spreading out on the other side would cause the same slowdown and backlog. In short, it wouldn't work.


Light turns green and we all push the gas pedal together. We all accelerate keeping the 1 foot spacing. When the 2nd car gets through the intersection they increase spacing by slowing acceleration. That requires EVERYONE behind them to stop accelerating. When #2 has the spacing they then accelerate but now #3 has to delay acceleration causing EVERYONE behind them to also not accelerate.

It doesn't work. And that assumes everyone can hit the gas together which they can't. It works the way it does for a reason and your statement of "keep it tight until through the intersection" isn't based on sound physics.

Now, not paying attention and sitting there while cars in front pull away is another problem on the other side of the pendulum...
 
Captain said:
Right, but going from stopped to going cars need to spread out. They can't wait till they get through the intersection to do it either and even if they magically did the spreading out on the other side would cause the same slowdown and backlog. In short, it wouldn't work.


Light turns green and we all push the gas pedal together. We all accelerate keeping the 1 foot spacing. When the 2nd car gets through the intersection they increase spacing by slowing acceleration. That requires EVERYONE behind them to stop accelerating. When #2 has the spacing they then accelerate but now #3 has to delay acceleration causing EVERYONE behind them to also not accelerate.

It doesn't work. And that assumes everyone can hit the gas together which they can't. It works the way it does for a reason and your statement of "keep it tight until through the intersection" isn't based on sound physics.

Now, not paying attention and sitting there while cars in front pull away is another problem on the other side of the pendulum...
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The bottom line is that the tighter you keep the spacing going through the intersection, the more cars will get through, period. I get it. You can't trail a car by two inches. But you don't need two or three car lengths to open up before you go either.
 
hey, works for NASCAR and most of the buttheads I see on the roads think that's what they're driving in...
 
RalphInCA said:
Easing into the intersection so you can make a quick left puts you within inches of the distracted, intoxicated, inept idiots barreling through the intersection at 50 miles per hour.

No sir. I am not going to do that.
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What, you won't pull into the intersection on a green light? When there's no turn arrow, it's rush hour,and home is to the left?

My Drivers Ed teacher back in high school said when the light turns green, ease into the intersection to the point that you're ready to turn, and wait there for a gap. If you sit behind the white line waiting for a gap long enough to pull into the intersection then make the turn, you'll often sit through several lights before the magical, super long gap appears. I know, I've been behind you, not moving through several cycles of the light . . .
 
I watched a city bus take out a motorcycle doing that scoot through from sitting in the intersection left turn thing.

Most of the time around here sitting out there is just waiting to get caught in the interaction and then going on yellow and hoping just one more car doesn't decide to come through. That's what happened to the bus, but it was a guy on a bike.

Luckily he didn't leave too big of a Harley shaped dent in the city bus. He was mad though. Really
mad. Couldn't say that I blamed him much. Bike transmission locked up when he locked up the brakes so once he hit the bus, it just fell over and with the transmission locked up, he couldn't stand it up and move it after he jumped off and went back to pick it up screaming obscenities at the now parked bus.
 
If'n yer in the intersection turning left and the light turns yellow and your debating if that car is going to stop or not go with 'not'. I'd much rather take my chances with the parked car not accelerating into me when their light turns green than the moving car / bus giving up on making the light.

Honestly, you may get honked at but nobody is going to go from parked to crashing into you...also parked. That looks real bad in the police report.

Cop: so you were parked and then accelerated into the car in the intersection?
Driver: well, my light was green. What else could I do?
 
Hank S said:
My Drivers Ed teacher back in high school said when the light turns green, ease into the intersection to the point that you're ready to turn, and wait there for a gap.
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Mine also said not to turn the wheels until you are ready to turn, because if you are sitting there with the wheels turned and get rear-ended it will push you into the oncoming traffic.
 
Captain said:
If'n yer in the intersection turning left and the light turns yellow and your debating if that car is going to stop or not go with 'not'. I'd much rather take my chances with the parked car not accelerating into me when their light turns green than the moving car / bus giving up on making the light.

Honestly, you may get honked at but nobody is going to go from parked to crashing into you...also parked. That looks real bad in the police report.

Cop: so you were parked and then accelerated into the car in the intersection?
Driver: well, my light was green. What else could I do?
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But more importantly...that car coming the other way may not be getting a yellow light. The left turn arrow may come on at the end ofth cycle in their direction.

I had that happen to me once, long ago, at an intersection I wasn't familiar with in St. Louis. I turned left on the yellow and nearly got t-boned by a taxi.
 
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timwinters said:
But more importantly...that car coming the other way may not be getting a yellow light. The left turn arrow may come on at the end ofth cycle in their direction.



I had that happen to me once, long ago, at an intersection I wasn't familiar with in St. Louis. I turned left on the yellow and nearly got t-boned by a taxi.
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Why wouldn't there be enough room for you both to turn left simultaneously? Never seen a left turn lane with an arrow on both sides that covered the opposite direction left turn lane, unless it was three lanes turning, and even then, usually very well marked.
 
denverpilot said:
Why wouldn't there be enough room for you both to turn left simultaneously? Never seen a left turn lane with an arrow on both sides that covered the opposite direction left turn lane, unless it was three lanes turning, and even then, usually very well marked.
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Nate,

He wasn't turning left. He was going straight.

In this case, I missed the left arrow that came at the beginning of the cycle. The left arrow then turned to a solid green light...not an arrow...which in MO means you can turn if no one is coming the other way. Some states have a flashing yellow arrow which I like better.

Anyway...

So, I sat there in the intersection waiting for an opening, it never came. My lights (both straight and left turn) turned yellow. So I assumed the opposite direction traffic was getting a yellow light also. There was a taxi coming opposite direction, not turning, going straight. He was a quite a distance back from the intersection and I thought he'd be slowing down to stop so I went.

The problem was..his light (going straight) remained green because his left turn arrow turned green at the end of the cycle instead of at the beginning like mine did.

So I almost got t-boned.

Haven't made that mistake again!

Hope that made more sense...
 
In my town we are slowly moving away from the green left turn arrows that turn either red or solid green. They are being replaced (depending on the circumstances) with left turn arrows that change from green arrows to flashing yellow arrows. Before they turn red they stop flashing and stay steady. The flashing yellow lowers the confusion potential of seeing a solid green light and a small sign that says "left turn yield on green" and doesn't stop you like a red arrow does.
 
When the burger place doesn't put enough bacon on your bacon burger so that you can taste the bacon.
 
Restaurants that don't know how to make hot tea. The proper way is to put a teabag into a (coffee) cup or teapot, then pour the hot water directly onto the teabag so that it steeps.

They put hot water into a cup, then place a teabag on top of the cup's cover or onto the saucer next to the cup so that the water cools without letting the tea steep. Then, only after the order is completed, they let you put the teabag into the now tepid water.

Even worse is when they don't realize that hot water that they put into a waxed cup will melt the wax and spill hot water all over the recipient or the food in their tray.

Another peeve is with places that have run the hot water for tea through the coffee maker so that it picks up coffee oils to deposit into the tea.

Don't even get me started on those who expect me to re-steep my same teabag with the tepid water they brought with the tea.
 
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timwinters said:
Nate,



He wasn't turning left. He was going straight.



In this case, I missed the left arrow that came at the beginning of the cycle. The left arrow then turned to a solid green light...not an arrow...which in MO means you can turn if no one is coming the other way. Some states have a flashing yellow arrow which I like better.



Anyway...



So, I sat there in the intersection waiting for an opening, it never came. My lights (both straight and left turn) turned yellow. So I assumed the opposite direction traffic was getting a yellow light also. There was a taxi coming opposite direction, not turning, going straight. He was a quite a distance back from the intersection and I thought he'd be slowing down to stop so I went.



The problem was..his light (going straight) remained green because his left turn arrow turned green at the end of the cycle instead of at the beginning like mine did.



So I almost got t-boned.



Haven't made that mistake again!



Hope that made more sense...
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Ahh. Got it.
 
AuntPeggy said:
Restaurants that don't know how to make hot tea. The proper way is to put a teabag into a (coffee) cup or teapot, then pour the hot water directly onto the teabag so that it steeps.

They put hot water into a cup, then place a teabag on top of the cup's cover or onto the saucer next to the cup so that the water cools without letting the tea steep. Then, only after the order is completed, they let you put the teabag into the now tepid water.

Even worse is when they don't realize that hot water that they put into a waxed cup will melt the wax and spill hot water all over the recipient or the food in their tray.

Another peeve is with places that have run the hot water for tea through the coffee maker so that it picks up coffee oils to deposit into the tea.

Don't even get me started on those who expect me to re-steep my same teabag with the tepid water they brought with the tea.
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All people don't like tea the same way so I'm guessing that's why they don't put the tea bag in. Some people dip the tea bag in a few times then take it out. Others like it stronger. They probably got yelled at one too many times so they decided to put the tea bag on the side and let the customer do it.
 
Another favorite of mine when I worked at Dunkin Donuts was:

Me: Your total is $3.25 please
Customer: The other Dunkin is so much cheaper!
Me: Great! Why don't you go there then?
 
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jordane93 said:
Another favorite of my when I worked at Dunkin Donuts was:

Me: Your total is $3.25 please
Customer: The other Dunkin is so much cheaper!
Me: Great! Why don't you go there then?
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We hear this all the time at the hotel...except that it is US that was so much cheaper, because we are in a seasonal market.

Example: The same room that cost $69 in January might be $169 in July. Explaining how supply and demand influences the free market to people who went to government schools could be a full time job.
 
jordane93 said:
All people don't like tea the same way so I'm guessing that's why they don't put the tea bag in. Some people dip the tea bag in a few times then take it out. Others like it stronger. They probably got yelled at one too many times so they decided to put the tea bag on the side and let the customer do it.
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Often, the instructions for how to brew tea is printed right on the teabag tag.
 
AuntPeggy said:
Often, the instructions for how to brew tea is printed right on the teabag tag.
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Yea but some people like their tea differently. Some only like to dip the tea bag in a few times. So if the tea is brewed and it's brought out to the customer who only likes the bag in for a few seconds, this could be problematic. People love to complain so restaurants would rather have the customer make their own tea.
 
jordane93 said:
Yea but some people like their tea differently. Some only like to dip the tea bag in a few times. So if the tea is brewed and it's brought out to the customer who only likes the bag in for a few seconds, this could be problematic. People love to complain so restaurants would rather have the customer make their own tea.
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That's ok if they bring you the water boiling hot in a small thermos. It doesn't work if they take it off the lukewarm tap on the Bunn coffee maker and allow it to sit 5min while they update their facebook status.
 
Thursday, boarding the airliner, there were 17 people who claimed they needed to pre-board for mobility or medical reasons; two wheelchair-bound elderly women (that's fine), one grotesquely-obese woman (had to be 450 lb.), self-loading but simply massive (probably best pre-boarded for pure logistical reasons), the balance all appearing simply fine, ambulatory, no medical devices, carrying bags, etc.

One of 'em was in the exit row when I got on!

Not amused.
 
Airlines bring out the absolute worst in human behavior.

The one carry on bag plus a personal item that fits under the seat often turns into two bags in the overhead plus a folded coat and hat placed beside them. Effectively taking up 3 spaces. Me-first jackarses.
 
kyleb said:
Airlines bring out the absolute worst in human behavior.

The one carry on bag plus a personal item that fits under the seat often turns into two bags in the overhead plus a folded coat and hat placed beside them. Effectively taking up 3 spaces. Me-first jackarses.
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It's funny how hard we worked to bring prices down so that the common man could afford air travel -- and then we are surprised when passengers behave like common men. lol
 
Why do they give you your receipt under your change?

I may or may not want the receipt but I never want the receipt with my money. Money goes in one place and the receipt goes in another, so now I'm left to do a mini sort right there at the register.

It'd be easier if they gave you the money, let you put that away and then offered the receipt. I don't think it'd add any time and would in fact expedite the process.
 
CheckCard! All you get is a receipt (if ya want it) and your card back, easy peasy.
 
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