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I'll save you the soapbox speech on why I hate California. I've decided to leave and I'm going to Idaho. However, I've heard strange things about drivers up there. Are these isolated incidents, or are they commonplace?
1. Drivers pull out quickly and then go slow.
2. Drivers will occupy each lane in a road and all go the same speed.
You can also add, slow on the get off at stop lights. Maybe texting, but they just seem synaptically slow. And not paying attention to the cycle on the lights. Example, 50 times thru an intersection and the driver still doesn't know whether the light is a lagging or leading left turn.
3. Drivers continue to turn left long after a green light has turned yellow and red.
Not in my experience. Savvy drivers in bigger cities will do that. It is how traffic keeps flowing. In Boise, and frankly, everywhere in Idaho, drivers will sit at the light trying to make a left turn, hold up traffic, and then when the light turns yellow they won't proceed. I've been in situations where drivers sit through several cycles because they don't have a clear chance to make that left turn, especially now in downtown Boise that they've changed the one ways to two ways. Makes trying to make a left turn ridiculous.
So many people drive here like there's no one else on the road. It's rude and inconsiderate.
One thing I find odd about Idaho drivers- they will make room for invisible cars. If you are stopped at a red light and there is an entrance to a strip mall or something, drivers will make a gap in case anyone wants to turn in. This is not an intersection where you are not supposed to block cross traffic, mind you.
Another thing that I've seen here is that truck drivers will cut people off on the interstate in order to change lanes if there is someone on the shoulder. I get that you want to make room for people on the shoulder, but what is more dangerous? Forcing a car to make a hard brake on a highway or keeping your lane?
picky... Your worst worry will be getting stuck behind a camper on a day trip to Stanley on HWY 21. Boise traffic is heaven compared to any populated place. The 5PM Friday rush hour traffic is on par with Austins 5PM sunday night traffic. I kid you not.
I repeatedly find people that will drive slowly (under the speed limit) when you can't pass them that will either speed up or try to block you from finding ways to pass them when you might be able to. It's as if they want to drive slow and want to force you to as well. I HATE THIS!
One thing I find odd about Idaho drivers- they will make room for invisible cars. If you are stopped at a red light and there is an entrance to a strip mall or something, drivers will make a gap in case anyone wants to turn in. This is not an intersection where you are not supposed to block cross traffic, mind you.
I always thought this was just common courtesy if it is a busy parking lot or side street. I always do this. I was actually taught to do this in driver's ed, 20+ years ago.
If the traffic in front of you is stopped anyway, you aren't going anywhere by pulling another 20 feet ahead. Might as well leave the gap. I never block a side street or parking lot just to pull another 20 feet ahead and stop anyway.
The one that gets me is when people stop in the middle of a mile to let someone out ahead of them. Not because traffic stopped, just because. I've seen this half a dozen times or so, so it isn't common, just really obnoxious. Someone in front of me will be cruising down the road at the speed limit, flowing with traffic, and suddenly just stop (or slow waaaay down) and wave a car to turn out in front of them. THAT causes accidents. I don't think I've ever seen anyone do it who didn't have white hair. Seems to be an old person thing.
The turning left after the light is long red seems to be an imported thing, possibly from Utah, where they have very few protected turn lights. When I went to college in Utah, almost 20 years ago, very few people in Boise ran the reds. When I arrived in Utah, I found that everyone does. When my mom came to visit, she was driving me to lunch one day, and I had to tell her that if she actually stops on a yellow, she was liable to get rear ended, because at least 3 cars go through every red there. It is one thing to be waiting to turn and go from the middle of the intersection after it turns red, and even for the 2nd person to go. It is something else to drive up at 40 MPH and go into the intersection after the light turns red and the oncoming traffic already has a green, which I see frequently these days. I had someone do that a couple weeks ago after I (the cross traffic lead car) had already started moving. I almost hit them, and their light had been red a solid 5 to 7 seconds at that point.
Oh, and I've never heard the phrase "lagging or leading left turn". I assume that means protected or unprotected, but I have no idea which would be which. It would also help if the city would stop changing the lights. At one point, all lights were either always protected or always unprotected. Then the city changed so that they were all arrows when they were protected, and solid when they weren't protected, and made most of them smart lights. For some reason, now they all flash when they aren't protected instead. But some are still solid. Arrow still means protected, everywhere in town I've been though. So if it isn't an arrow, I assume it isn't protected.
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