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San Antonio Traffic Woes

Sure I could talk about Jason Garrett remaining with the Cowboys, being by far the highest paid assisstant in the NFL, and how it must be nice to have as much money as Jerry Jones does.

But there's something far more pressing on my mind today: both written and unwritten traffic rules not being followed in San Antonio.

I'll grant you this problem is not limited to this city; however, it seems far more prevalent in this city than others I've lived in.

  • Unwritten Traffic Law # 1: Follow the wedge/go/wedge/go process when faced with a lane closure/merging traffic situation.
    • Regardless of how late you are or how important you think you are, you do not get to go past the people following the rule.  If everyone followed this process, the delays at lane closures would be at minimum cut in half.
  • Written/Unwritten Traffic Law #2: Obey Yield Signs/Don't be jerks to people who do obey yield signs.
    • Yield signs do not mean kind of slow down but it's up to the other person to get in somehow.  If you are being told to Yield, you must let the other person in, even if it means you have to stop.  And yes, this includes turnarounds too.  I can't tell you how many times I've been honked at for obeying this law.
  • Written Traffic Law #3: Slower Traffic keep right.
    • Seems simple enough, but too many people who are going slow insist on staying in the left hand lane.  Please kindly move over if you see a string of 1,534 cars on your tail behind you.
  • Written Traffic Law #4: 4-Way Stop means stop all 4-ways.
    • Here's the process for a 4-way stop.  You come to a complete stop.  The person who has come to that complete stop first, goes.  Tie goes to the person on the left.  This is regardless of whether you are on the street that sees more traffic or not.  You still have to stop.  You can't kind of slow down, then speed past as the person who was supposed to go almost broadsides your car.  Well, I guess evidenced by the experiences I've had, you can and do.

If these 4 laws were followed, driving around San Antonio would be a much less stressful experience.  Now if you'll excuse me, I have to figure out how to get Jerry Jones's job.

Published Thursday, January 17, 2008 4:11 PM by Mike Bachmann

Comments

 

Elnardo said:

Tie at a four way stop goes to the person on the right, as it does at any kind of loosely controlled intersection.

There is, believe it or not, no specific law regarding who goes first at a four-way or all-way stop.  The only applicable law states that drivers must stop and may enter the intersection only when it is safe to do so (§545.151).  This law leaves the right-of-way assignment up to the drivers.  So, there is a widely accepted convention that most drivers use to remove the guesswork.  Basically, it's first-come, first-served.  Implementing it is easy: when you stop at an all-way stop, look around and see who's already stopped.  When they're all gone, it's your turn!  If two or more people get there at the same time, then the convention is that the person on the right should go first, and it should follow clockwise from there.

As for the infernal wedge, half of the problem is the people who are letting the cheaters in.  Make them wait for all eternity, I say.
January 17, 2008 5:28 PM
 

NFL » San Antonio Traffic Woes said:

January 17, 2008 6:34 PM
 

CyberBob said:

Don't stop at the yield, please! I will run into the back of your car.
January 18, 2008 12:19 PM
 

Why do you WOAI guys do this? said:

The bloggers that work for WOAI are hilarious.  They get bored playing paper football with one another, so they go "Hey, let's rattle some chains in the Internet world".  What's the easiest way to do this?  Post a forum on the traffic issues in San Antonio.  This has to be at least the fourth blog on traffic issues in the last 2 months.  You get the same 5 or 10 idiots who come on here and start ranting about "Who yields." , "Why you should yield." , "People driving using cell phones", "People driving slow in the left lane", and so on and so on....  After those morons get tired of posting, the WOAI blogger who goes by Dodie Lee comes on and starts referencing anything related to the post as some religious experience.  This will kick up a few more controversial threads, and then the blog finally dies a slow death.

Do us a favor WOAI.  Come up with more original topics to discuss.  Rehashing the same ones OVER AND OVER gets a little old...
January 18, 2008 1:19 PM
 

Gary said:

We keep seeing these because the idiot's don't get it. I guess we could blog about a mom starving her babies, dad's shooting their babies or maybe hair care people saving babies. I would much rather see folks blow off some steam here bitching about someone who has managed survive their imcompententcy.....or one of these artices might be about one of us going on a road rage.
As for "   Why do you WOAI guys do this?   " you are probably one of the 5-10 idiots like me that write on these, but you keep changing your name.
January 19, 2008 1:29 AM
 

Great Driving History said:

How about the law that you are supposed to turn into the innermost lane during the turning process and then merging across the lanes of traffic by signalling?  I see about 3 in 100 do this, and I'm one of them... I've almost been hit by people who just cut across 3 lanes to get into the lane they want to be in.  If I hadn't been watching, they'd have had my bumper sitting on their hood or in their windshield.  It's amazing how little people care about others now...  which is why the first chance I get I'm moving far away from San Antonio, or any city for that matter, never to return.  Out in the country, 20 miles from anywhere, where I won't have to worry about getting mugged, shot, having my vehicle stolen, or any of the other threats that are associated with "the big city".  Maybe I'll still find some people who actually care, like the driver behind me this morning... they actually left space between me and them, followed properly, used their turn signal, didn't cut anyone off... it was actually kinda pleasant, kudos for that person.  :)  Anyway, enough from me... I'll be out of the city life in a few years and then I can be genuinely happy.

Accidents - 0
Tickets - 0
Citations - 0
Any kind of other miscellaneous violation - 0
January 22, 2008 9:00 AM
 

Ezekiel said:

June 27, 2008 9:26 PM
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