Let me know if this sounds familiar: You’re driving on Kapiolani Boulevard in the left lane. The car ahead of you stops at a red light. A short time later the light turns green, and only then does the driver in front of you decide to signal that he’s turning left. That leaves you stuck behind him, the center lane to your right is cruising on by and you start thinking, "Does this driver think he’s conserving gas by not signaling earlier?"
Last week I took some time to vent my traffic peeves, including slow left-lane drivers. The story above would’ve made it to the top, but I forgot to mention it. But, boy, you readers made sure to remind me!
I asked for your peeves, and the responses jammed up my inbox like the Middle Street merge. Since last Friday I’ve received 103 messages.
I could create a book series compiling all your complaints, and maybe even make a multimillion-dollar movie trilogy out of it later. But since that probably won’t happen, I’ll save us all the trouble and sum up the resounding choral message you all have for Hawaii drivers: Use your turn signals!
Of the 103 messages I received, 47 mentioned signaling headaches. It was by far the most common complaint.
"I am not a mind reader. Signal!" one reader said.
"Honestly, do some people think that they only have a limited supply of signal blinks, and they could exhaust their allowance by using it too much?" asked another reader, an Australian native who’s lived in Hawaii for 25 years.
"It’s not like you have to pay a fee to use your blinkers," a woman said. "C’mon drivers, give us a clue!"
Many of them were about that left-turn scenario I described. Even my editor had the same complaint, and we both encountered the problem that same morning.
The Hawaii Driver’s Manual states that you must signal at least 100 feet before you change lanes, turn or stop. You all took the driving test. What’s going on?
Other big peeves include red-light runners. I see that a lot, too. It almost seems like yellow means, "Gun it, because you can still make it," and red means, "It’s OK, you still have like three seconds to head through the intersection."
There were also a number of you who agreed with my peeve about slow left-lane drivers. But also an equal amount who questioned exactly what constitutes slow driving and whether following the posted freeway limit (55 mph most places here) is considered too slow.
It’s a great question, and I’ll dedicate next week’s column to it. Thanks to your input, you’ve given me several weeks of things to follow up on. Until then, feel free to keep your thoughts coming, and keep using those blinkers.
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Reach Gene Park at gpark@staradvertiser.com or Twitter as@GenePark.
