Stopped At Red Light; Pull Up Already.

So I've noticed the growing trending of people leave evermore bigger gaps to the car in front of them. My issue with this is two fold, you stacked up the cars behind you to the point that poeple who want to access the left turn lane stacking up traffic further and because they don't pay attention they leave 3 or 4 cars who don't move the light.

I know the theories:

A gap leaves a driver an escape route, once there are cars both sides of you and behind you, unless you're driving Big Foot your not going anywhere.

A gap insures if you get rear ended you won't be the meat in the sandwich. Once there are six plus cars behind, the likelyhood of it reaching you is pretty small, unless of course a bullet train derails and lands in your lane. 

Why do I care; because perfectly timed lights no longer work like they should and people now start slicing around these cars trying to make the light. 

There is one plus; there is a double turn lane getting onto the freeway on my morning drive. Because the must leave 20ft in front of me crowd don't take off right away (texting?),  there's a 3 car length hole.  I simply drive past the line of cars, signal and slide into the 50ft hole. I'd prefer to just get in line but I'd rather spend 5-10 minutes less in rush our traffic (missing the light has a knock on effect). 

You're not a Cop pull up dammit!!!

With everything that the mouthbreathers you share the road with could do, this is the most annoying to you? 

Personally people that attempt to merge on the highway at 40mph because they are afraid of actually accelerating down the ramp make my blood boil...gaps at the stoplight are way down my list. 

I teach DE. I'm on the road everyday with students. They're taught to get no closer than seeing the pavement between the end of their hood and the rear tires of the vehicle in front. Just enough to allow moving to the side if the car in front stalls and they need to go around. Won't have to back up.  Also provides a small cushion in the event they get hit from behind. 

What you are witnessing is likely a distracted driver paying more attention to their phone. I see it everyday. The extra space. The head bob if they even bother to look up. I usually just scare them with a little tap of the horn. Funny to watch them toss the phone. 

I thought this was going to be about not pulling up into the hall effect sensor, but this is also very annoying. I do love watching 3 cars make it through a stoplight that should allow 10. Lucky for me my town(village) has no stoplight.

Everytime I pull up to a light and see this, I notice two cases:

#1- The driver has their head buried in their phone, oblivious to their surroundings.

#2- The driver is elderly and cannot see over the hood, so they keep some distance behind the vehicle in front of them.

I call this the "Cleveland Creep".  People stop two-three car lengths back, and inch forward during the red light.

I take great pleasure in the fact that this shiny happy person maneuver will kill DCT transmissions.  Sow what you reap.  If only all cars had DCTs.

TGMF said:

With everything that the mouthbreathers you share the road with could do, this is the most annoying to you?

The most annoying, traffic-signal related, is people who stop beyond the stop line.  Which, technically, is running a red light, since they entered the intersection.

And then the morons wonder why the light never changes to green, even though there is usually a giant sign, right there, even with the sliding door on their minivan, says "STOP HERE ON RED"...

Clueless morons.

I just hate people who won't berking go on green. I wish we had signals that went yellow and then green so we could start treating them like Christmas trees. 

In reply to Daylan C :

We do, if you watch the lights going the other direction.

Around here they've installed crosswalk lights at almost every intersection that count down until the lights go yellow. I really appreciate them for figuring out if I want to accelerate through or coast to it because I'm catching a red regardless.

buzzboy said:

I thought this was going to be about not pulling up into the hall effect sensor, but this is also very annoying. I do love watching 3 cars make it through a stoplight that should allow 10. Lucky for me my town(village) has no stoplight.

I once got stuck in an intersection for three cycles due to that. The car ahead of me and myself were making a left in the left turn lane. The car ahead of me inched into the middle of the intersection but didn't actually go until the light had gone red. Because I had also inched out, I was beyond the hall sensor and the car behind me was before it. The light cycled three times, ignoring the turn lane before I finally ran it.

mad_machine said:

I once got stuck in an intersection for three cycles due to that. The car ahead of me and myself were making a left in the left turn lane. The car ahead of me inched into the middle of the intersection but didn't actually go until the light had gone red. Because I had also inched out, I was beyond the hall sensor and the car behind me was before it. The light cycled three times, ignoring the turn lane before I finally ran it.

If you were in PA, you would have been violating a section of the Vehicle Code which states that you have the duty to not obstruct intersections, meaning that if you are across the line when the light turns red, you must clear the intersection. Backing up is also illegal, so you have to proceed. 

In reply to Tom1200 :

I’d never seen this until we moved to the coast, but it seems like at least 50% of the drivers are guilty of it here. 

Tom1200 said:

So I've noticed the growing trending of people leave evermore bigger gaps to the car in front of them. My issue with this is two fold, you stacked up the cars behind you to the point that poeple who want to access the left turn lane stacking up traffic further and because they don't pay attention they leave 3 or 4 cars who don't move the light.

I know the theories:

A gap leaves a driver an escape route, once there are cars both sides of you and behind you, unless you're driving Big Foot your not going anywhere.

A gap insures if you get rear ended you won't be the meat in the sandwich. Once there are six plus cars behind, the likelyhood of it reaching you is pretty small, unless of course a bullet train derails and lands in your lane. 

Why do I care; because perfectly timed lights no longer work like they should and people now start slicing around these cars trying to make the light. 

There is one plus; there is a double turn lane getting onto the freeway on my morning drive. Because the must leave 20ft in front of me crowd don't take off right away (texting?),  there's a 3 car length hole.  I simply drive past the line of cars, signal and slide into the 50ft hole. I'd prefer to just get in line but I'd rather spend 5-10 minutes less in rush our traffic (missing the light has a knock on effect). 

You're not a Cop pull up dammit!!!

You’re inserting WAAAAAAY too much logic here. These people are thinking about NOTHING!!! 

What drives me nuts is the berkeleyers who stop 10’ short, then spend the entire light cycle inching forward like they’re berkeleying deep-staging. Again: No logic. It’s just that 90% of people are self-absorbed mouth-breathers who just want to do the thing that they want to  do regardless of whether or not they’re driving everyone around them berkeleying insane.

Everyone else is the worst driver in the world, and you're always the best driver in the world.

I can't wait for self driving cars, then we can blame a third party. 

It’s better than the one light I have to endure to get home...

Back when I had my lowered Dakota, that light would NEVER see I was there and would cycle all the other lights but the left turn arrow so I could turn. Didn’t matter where I placed it at the light, it never triggered. I ran that light more times than the fingers and toes I have...

Sometimes it gets really bad at the traffic light near my house due to people not getting right up to the line. I've seen it happen more than one occasion with the driver being oblivious to it., the line adds up to nearly half a mile of cars being backed up.

Luckily, there was a turn lane that while it does not have a turn arrow, I was able to line up to the line to trip the light and remove people of their misery of waiting and I would take the alternate route home.  Motorcycles have an issue with that particular light I noticed...

Knurled. said:

I call this the "Cleveland Creep".  People stop two-three car lengths back, and inch forward during the red light.

This.  The tailback is 150 yards.  By the time the  light turns green, it's down to 50 yards, done in 10-yard increments every few seconds.  Just berking stop in the right place and stay there, if for no other reason than that it gives you more uninterrupted time to check your FB status.

snailmont5oh said:

mad_machine said:

I once got stuck in an intersection for three cycles due to that. The car ahead of me and myself were making a left in the left turn lane. The car ahead of me inched into the middle of the intersection but didn't actually go until the light had gone red. Because I had also inched out, I was beyond the hall sensor and the car behind me was before it. The light cycled three times, ignoring the turn lane before I finally ran it.

If you were in PA, you would have been violating a section of the Vehicle Code which states that you have the duty to not obstruct intersections, meaning that if you are across the line when the light turns red, you must clear the intersection. Backing up is also illegal, so you have to proceed. 

easier said than done with the traffic. I was not actually in the intersection, but just across the crosswalk. the Sensor was WAY behind the line at that light. I noticed the moved it when they recently repaved

What annoys me is the "shiny happy person" who rides my bumper in high speed traffic all moving at about the same speed hoping I will move over so he can then ride the next person's bumper and get that person to move over, etc.  In Houston, Texas its mostly people in oversize 4-wheel drive pickups with perfect paint, which indicates they don't need a pickup truck or 4-wheel drive, just something to compensate for other attributes they lack.      Some of these people will literally try to kill you to force you to move over, dashing in and out of lanes, forcing themselves in to gaps they cannot fit into unless the victim slams on the brakes to avoid a collision.     This behavior is one of the few times I wish a cop were around.     

Light sensors?  Try riding a motorcycle.

TGMF said:...gaps at the stoplight are way down my list. 

Yeah of course its way down the list (it wont kill you) but its still on the list.  I agree with the OP.  If you're living in an area without grid lock on city streets maybe it this behavior doesn't matter so much.

Daylan C said:

I just hate people who won't berking go on green. I wish we had signals that went yellow and then green so we could start treating them like Christmas trees. 

If you passengers are able to get their heads off the right side widow as you go make a left on an advanced green light, then you are not going fast enough!

Hard to believe how much people obsess about 0-60 specs when buying a car, when everyone seems to be into hypermiling!

Pete

The gaps between stopped cars aren't specifically what bother me, but it's something very close. It's the people who, when the light turns green, don't go and then don't close the gap. Not just the car in the front of the line, but anyone else behind them as well. For every second or two each of these people waste before accelerating from a stop, they're effectively preventing another car somewhere in line behind them from making the light. The guy in the 3rd spot in line who took 5 seconds to get started and then only accelerated to 5 mph, leaving a 10 car gap between him and the car in front of him at the light? Yea, he just prevented 10 people behind him from making it through the light and now they're going to have to wait 5 minutes for the next cycle on this busy intersection. Congratulations, your inattention and lack of respect for your fellow drivers just wasted 50 man-minutes of someone else's time.

In reply to Tom1200 : I have two things I really get upset by.  

First is the Mr Magoo  types.  Near blind oblivious to events and traffic around them.  Usually driving a mini van of some sort at least 10 mph under the speed limit.  

Second are the lookee loo types focused on the scenery,  houses, anything but driving. Included in that group are the realitors looking for their next house to flip or sell, people not familiar with the area looking for an address

snailmont5oh said:

mad_machine said:

I once got stuck in an intersection for three cycles due to that. The car ahead of me and myself were making a left in the left turn lane. The car ahead of me inched into the middle of the intersection but didn't actually go until the light had gone red. Because I had also inched out, I was beyond the hall sensor and the car behind me was before it. The light cycled three times, ignoring the turn lane before I finally ran it.

If you were in PA, you would have been violating a section of the Vehicle Code which states that you have the duty to not obstruct intersections, meaning that if you are across the line when the light turns red, you must clear the intersection. Backing up is also illegal, so you have to proceed. 

What few people seem to understand is that "green" does not mean "go".  It means "You may cross the intersection if you can exit the other side."

If traffic is backed up, you must stop at the start of the intersection until there is room for you on the other side, even if the light is green.