August 27: To the Left, To the Left

We all do it. We're either distracted by the radio or by the phone call we shouldn't be taking. Sometimes we simply don't know where we're going until it's too late. In these situations, we find ourselves merging through two lanes of traffic in an attempt to make that last minute left turn. It's embarrassing when it happens, but everyone does it.

Whether we're in a foreign city or we're involved in a heated debate on the Arizona Immigration Law with our passengers somehow we all fall victim to the same mistake. In the best case scenario, we will have realized our mistake on a vacant road and our error won't affect any other drivers. Worse case scenario? We're the first vehicle at a light two lanes from the turning lane with ten cars and trucks behind us and in the two lanes to our left. Light goes green and we hold back everyone behind us until we find two drivers to our left that are kind enough to let us through which in turn holds everyone behind them back. The latter was obviously an exaggeration but I've seen it happen.

When we witness such stupidity it angers us. Why couldn't the guy accept his mistake and face having to drive through the intersection and make (what my GPS likes to phrase as) the next legal U-turn? By cutting across multiple lanes of traffic, this imbecile has just made a lot of angry drivers miss a light that they normally would have made with ease.

What's even more common is seeing a car sitting in two lanes at once. You know what I'm talking about. We all do this one too. We pull up to the light and instantly realize our gaffe. We need to be in the next lane. What do we do? We put our vehicles in reverse (We don't actually have time to do this one very often but it does happen) and maneuver them to the correct lane. More times than not we don't have enough space to get our cars completely situated in the new lane so we're stuck in both. This doesn't cause near the headache that the first situation causes (although it can) but it leaves us visible to every vehicle behind us in both lanes. People laugh at us and complain about our lack of common sense without realizing that they too have been in the same scenario at least once before in the past.

These simple and everyday events can affect us in different ways depending on the mood we're in and the level of urgency we may be in. If we're late for work or some other engagement these situations are infuriating. If we're just out for a casual drive, we probably wouldn't even notice it. What I love, however, is witnessing a bashed up car making these mistakes. These are the people I don't feel bad for. These are the people that I laugh at and complain about the lack of common sense. A damaged vehicle in this situation is a person that should be driving with a little bit more caution and clearly isn't.

We all do it. Nobody is perfect. We're going to make mistakes, but if you don't learn from your mistakes, you should be made fun of. You should be laughed and pointed at. Being late to work and having to wait for the next light is sort of worth it when the person making you wait has a wrecked car.