Keep the other driver in mind when on the road

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There are some things drivers do which are inconsiderate and illegal.

There are other things they do which are inconsiderate and, while legal, don’t show much of a thinking process.

An example of the first one, which I have mentioned before, is a driver making a left-hand turn into the wrong lane. When I’m driving west on 15th Avenue and want to make a right-hand turn onto Foothills, I like to do it when there are people making a left-hand turn from the other direction.

Quite often you’ll see them do a double take as they realize they can’t turn into the lane they want to, since I’m going to be there and somewhere in the back of their mind I can see the memories from driver training that they have to turn into the near lane.

In the legal but non-thinking category, I have a couple of recent examples.

One occurred at the corner of 18th Avenue and Ospika Boulevard. A vehicle was southbound on Ospika, looking to turn left onto 18th. The left-turn light was finished, but they still had a green light to turn when there was a break in traffic.

Well, there wasn’t a break in traffic for a while, so they sat in the centre of the intersection. Then the light facing Ospika turned yellow, and the northbound traffic slowed down.

And the vehicle sat in the middle of the intersection.

And the light facing Ospika turned red.

And the vehicle sat in the middle of the intersection.

Finally, the driver realized it was not only safe to turn, but that he was now in an illegal position, since he was blocking the green-light traffic on 18th.

The other situation I saw was at the corner of 15th and Ospika (yes, I spend a fair bit of time in that area).

I was eastbound on 15th and saw traffic backed up in the curb lane more than usual. As I got closer, I saw the driver in the righthand through lane was sitting about three feet away from the dotted line, which meant she was blocking the people looking to turn right onto Ospika.

Nothing illegal, as I say, but inconsiderate and definitely showing a lack of thinking, since there was plenty of room for her to have stayed closer to the line.