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My Corvette is extremely low(stock position) and when I enter a parking lot from the street, I usually have to come to a complete stop because the level of the road changes right at the entrance, and I would bottom out before ever getting into the parking lot.
Fortunately I am always with the green light when turning into the parking lot, and wait if there is any opposing traffic.
With Speed bumps, I have to stop also, before going over them.
What I described is a very dangerous situation in my area where the roads next to the mall can be as high as 50mph avg speed and the posted speed limit is 40mph. Now, it doesn't matter if the speed limit is 35mph. Someone is gonna speed and someone will make that mistake and paying for it.
I had 2 cases where someone was dead stop in the middle of the road backed up by someone in front. Now I did manage to stop but it was about 2 car distances close when I stopped from 50mph. The person never looked over and assumed that traffic would stop. In NJ, accidents happen daily and almost hourly. These kind of situation happens more frequently with holiday shopping.
If I look at the news feed in NJ, there are auto deaths almost daily here and most of the accidents are not related to speeding.
Just because the sign states some speed limit doesn't mean it's always a safe speed all the time. You KNOW there will be drivers maneuvering around an entrance to a shopping center parking lot. It's a permanent feature at that spot, not something that is here today gone tomorrow. You should expect them not to pay as much attention to the road traffic because they are focused on what's ahead of them. Mentally they may already be plotting their parking spot (those few spots closest to the mall entrance of course). SLOW DOWN and expect stupid stuff like this. There are thousands of intersections just like the one you described. Talk about assumptions. Cautious drivers expect these situations and act accordingly.
Last edited by Parnassia; 12-22-2018 at 12:17 PM..
The most dangerous situations develop quickly when a driver makes a split second decision to turn a different direction, or something unexpected without forethought. I see this quite a bit. Often the driver is unsure where they are going and instead of maintaining the flow of traffic and circling the block one more time, they may slow as if going right and then all of a sudden shoot across a lane of traffic the opposite direction. In that short period of time they forget about the regular flow of traffic. Same with driving into a mall and then stopping, or going very slowly. I also see this on exits from the freeway a car may start to exit and then suddenly cut across and try to re merge on to the freeway. About the only way to deal with it is to give them more room if they are behaving abnormally, or appear uncertain because anything could happen. With so much traffic any unusual erratic move, there is little room for avoiding a collision in these cases because other drivers will have to anticipate it as well.
Holiday shopping traffic contains far more idiots, morons, and numbskulls than normal traffic.
My solution - I don't go anywhere near a mall or shopping area in December during a crowded time. If I cant go at 9am weekday or 8am Sunday it doesnt happen.
My Corvette is extremely low(stock position) and when I enter a parking lot from the street, I usually have to come to a complete stop because the level of the road changes right at the entrance, and I would bottom out before ever getting into the parking lot.
Fortunately I am always with the green light when turning into the parking lot, and wait if there is any opposing traffic.
With Speed bumps, I have to stop also, before going over them.
Bob.
That's the kind of thing you have to plan for and give yourself extra distance when pulling out. Or like you, just wait until you have a protected green arrow to make your turn.
That's the kind of thing you have to plan for and give yourself extra distance when pulling out. Or like you, just wait until you have a protected green arrow to make your turn.
But even then, I have to stop before entering the parking lot because the road is much lower than the sidewalk I am going over when I enter the parking lot from the street.
People behind me, making the same turn to the parking lot, do not expect me to stop, and plenty of times I have heard their horn blasting.
To them I say TS.
Similar but different experience. I was in the outside lane of a 4-lane street (2 lanes each direction). Traffic was fairly heavy, and the road had some snow and ice on it but not enough to slow traffic much. So I'm just following the pickup ahead of me (also driving a pickup) probably 50 feet behind it. Another car is next to me on the left, so I can't pass. All of a sudden the car ahead of me switches lanes and... there's a dang car stopped in my lane. The driver is pointing to a business on the right but just stopped dead in his tracks.
My choice was to rear-end the car or jump the curb onto a sidewalk and bust through a wooden split-rail fence, which was what I chose to do. I passed him on his right (on the sidewalk) and ended up in the parking lot for the business the guy was pointing at, then saw him pull in and park. He looks at me like, "Why did you do that?" I looked at him and rolled my eyes, went in and told the manager what happened to his fence and left my name and number. I got off pretty easy, $150 for a fence post installed.
I'm pretty sure it would have been my fault, legally, but the clown who decided to stop in the middle of a busy, icy street was certainly partly to blame. Grrrrr. In addition to his wife(?) next to him, he also had two kids in the back seat. Luckily nobody was on the sidewalk or I'd have had to rear-end him at 30 mph. It wouldn't have been pretty.
I always enjoy the people who enter the plaza then stop at the first intersection when the flowing traffic to the exit/entrance has the right of way. I get a kick out of this because it confuses everyone else sitting waiting their turn or moving along. But it's not as much of a peeve as people who lineup at a gas pump just so it can be on the filler side when all the pumps stretch to either side of the car no matter how you pull up.
My Corvette is extremely low(stock position) and when I enter a parking lot from the street, I usually have to come to a complete stop because the level of the road changes right at the entrance, and I would bottom out before ever getting into the parking lot.
Fortunately I am always with the green light when turning into the parking lot, and wait if there is any opposing traffic.
With Speed bumps, I have to stop also, before going over them.
Bob.
Yeah, a lot of these places have those annoyingly bumpy curb/ramp entrances (whatever you call them). I don't have a lowered car, but I still slowly approach them, as the jolt is obnoxious. That being said, I make sure I have plenty of time/distance so that oncoming traffic doesn't have to hit their brakes.
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