Sunday, May 06, 2007

traffic circle hell

the town we just moved to doesn't have many traffic lights; they have traffic circles. they are large, two-lane, easily navigable circles. if you've ever been stuck in the traffic circle hell in DC, then you will laugh at how elementary these traffic circles are. seriously.

but today when i was running out to get dog food at the grocery store, i came across - quite possibly - the stupidest person in howard county. a guy in a black mercedes was IN the traffic circle and he stopped in the middle of it to allow someone else in. in normal circumstances, letting someone into traffic is a really nice gesture. but in a traffic circle? idiotic. there are huge signs at each entrance that say 'yield to traffic'. in other words, wait until there is a break in the circle and THEN enter the circle and go around. the signs do not say 'enter the circle and then pause to let someone else in.'

have you ever seen that visa commercial where everyone is in the cafeteria and things are moving along smoothly because everyone is paying with their visa debit card? and then some doofus pays with cash and everything comes to a screeching halt with trays flying everywhere and people running into each other? yeah, it was like that.

traffic circle hell i tell you.

2 comments:

Lori Stewart Weidert said...

I was behind a lady in traffic that spotted oncoming police lights, about 1/2 mile away. She screeched to a halt (2 lanes only, no passing), and we literally waited for MINUTES for the squad car to approach...but it took a turn before it ever reached the bottleneck of traffic this woman caused.

When 2 back-up squad cars approached a few second after, you can imagine my profanity, as she halted traffic once again. True, we'd advanced to the point where the cops did have to pass us, but it took them a minute or two to get there.

When the road opened back up to 4 lanes, I gave her a good glare. Think it did any good?

Anonymous said...

Not only did we have a circle in the town I grew up in, we also had a triangle! Picture that traffic nightmare!