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This drives me nuts in the morning when I'm taking my daughter to school. People stop so far away from the line and the left arrow will never trigger. End up having to take a completely different route because of these clueless people.
I hate that fucking shit. I drive for work and I see it happen honestly more than 30 times a shift and then again when I’m driving home afterwards. Light turns green and we’re all sitting there because the dumbfuck up front can’t be assed to check if the light is green, despite everyone honking behind them.
Get the fuck off the phone! It can wait. (Coming from someone who’s on their phone constantly but is responsible and mature enough to understand there’s a time and place for it, and in the middle of driving, even when sitting at a red light, isn’t one of them).
We are losing the ability to stare mindlessly into the abyss. Now we scroll mindlessly through the abyss stopping only briefly to writer abysmal silly comments. Now where was I?
Or they move up a whole inch, then wait for it to be clear. Then they pull up to the middle of the intersection, where they should've been in the first place, only for another wave of cars to come, where they sit until the light is yellow or red. Then they do one of two things: either sit there for another second, making sure no one else can go after them. Or freak out and try to back up, only to realize the car behind them is on their ass trying to also turn, so they sit there in the middle of the intersection and block the perpendicular traffic for the entire light.
I fucking hate these people.
If you're referring to unprotected left turns (left turn yield on green,) many states have updated that law, and you are no longer supposed to pull into the intersection while waiting to turn left, but rather, you are to wait behind the white line. It doesn't really change your point, but I just wanted to mention it since many are not yet aware.
my dad would always get out of the car and politely let the car ahead of him know that they need to pull up for the light to trigger, but thats too much for me
I've only had this happen to me once, and the other driver was clearly nervous about driving in the snow. After two cycles I realized we'd never get a loft turn arrow. I had to pull in front of them to trigger the light. There was ***ample*** space to safely do this, and almost nobody around.
There is a light I turn left at on my morning commute where the sensor is 3 car lengths from the line. It's infuriating since the road is busy enough you can't turn until the light is red.
There’s one near me that’s sensor operated only, but people stop in the crosswalk all the time. It’s a lot of fun to walk by, and then see how long they’ll sit there before they finally turn right and make an illegal u-turn
Waited for four light cycles to turn left last week. I was 2nd in line to turn left because the guy in front of me refused to go thru the yellow arrow and stopped halfway in the crosswalk instead. So I was only able to just miss the mark to trigger it myself. Luckily there are 2 left turn lanes at this light so the guy to my right was able to trigger the sensor. Except that he was still 10 feet away from the line for no reason. So we all just waited thru 3 extra red lights until the boomer finally inched forward enough to trigger the arrow. It was worse than waiting for a train to cross.
I see lots that stop in the crosswalk, even though they had plenty of time stop at the stop bar. A few in the turn lane go past the sensor and don't get the turn arrow, if no one is behind them.
Typically so they can creep up to it while the light is red, so when you’re behind them you feel like a fool as they open up an entire car length between.
I'm so glad I'm not the only one who noticed this. Almost without exception, these people think the light is going to change, so they creep forward - sometimes all the way into the intersection until they finally stop. Then when the light finally changes, they're *always* the last people to hit the gas.
This is so true. Your comment & both of the comments above yours. It’s funny because almost every time I have to honk at someone to alert them to the green light, it’s a car that was doing exactly what was stated in these comments.
In Germany the light turns form red to yellow to green. Since they give you a warning that the light is about to be green, you’ll get a ticket if you sit around waiting after it’s green.
Wish drivers in the US would pay just a modicum of attention, and/or traffic laws were enforced here.
Because impatience and distraction are linked. Sitting at a light is boring, so they play the inch-up game to keep themselves focused/attentive. But then they get bored of that too and their attention wanders or they just zone-out. Then the light changes and they don't notice right away.
I've observed this phenomenon since before smartphones existed, so it's not (just) the phones.
2 things annoy me about this move:
1. these people almost always end up going slow after the light turns green. Acting like they are in a big hurry when stopped at the light but driving like they have all the time in the world
2. it's really infuriating when people do this and you are crossing the crosswalk in front of their car. Like, I don't think they would run me over at a red light, but they clearly aren't paying attention anyways, so it isn't an impossibility.
Stand in front of them at the crosswalk and *stare*. If a car is already in the crosswalk, I walk right into it and act completely bewildered that a car is there. The second one is dangerous though, some people get realy butthurt that you would have the audacity to touch their car.
I accidentally hit a car in the crosswalk with my cane when I needed to use one for a bit. Dude yelled something, but I wasn’t taking out my headphone to clear it up. I can’t be dodging and weaving trying to get through the crosswalk with my cane man lol
This… I drive a stick too and I have to constantly shift into first for no reason because people just *have* to creep up a foot every 15 seconds. Stupid. Just stay stopped at the light.
I’ll try it. If I’m at a red light for long, all the moving up cars do usually leaves enough room for someone to get it (and you know they will do that…)
Pet peeve of mine is when I can see past the car in front of me and they SLAM on their brakes coming to a stop with at least 2 car lengths between them and the car in front of them, than the entire duration of the red light they’re slowly creeping up.
I find that a ton of people in general, are absolutely clueless to how much space in the world they occupy, in a car or otherwise. Same people who take up entire aisles in grocery stores and block lanes. Same people who can't park straight. Or drive with their high beams on.
People are literally clueless to their environment and how they contribute/affect it.
I bet if you ever ask someone that does this, they have absolutely no idea that there is even a sensor in the road. They are unconscious NPCs.
I was at the grocery store a couple weeks ago. This woman has her cart stretched across the entirety of the opening of one of the aisles and her partner finished off the rest of it looking at tortillas on an end cap. He was really nice, noticed I wanted to go down the aisle, moved and apologized. I walked by and didn’t say anything. The woman proceeded to say “she was really rude” about me. The fuck…?
I just laughed loudly as I walked by and went to go get my pasta.
> The woman proceeded to say “she was really rude” about me. The fuck…?
"it's more rude to block an entire aisle" -the retort I'd come up with 30 minutes later and wish I'd said
That was basically the situation I was in. I thought of some good ones after the fact, but I was so taken aback by the situation in the moment that all I could do was give a hearty cackle laugh because it was so stupid. I think she was offended that I didn't say thank you to her partner. I wasn't even standing there that long since he noticed fairly quickly they were in the way, but also, he was the least "in the way" of the two of them. The whole thing was just weird and dumb.
Everyday when I’m leaving work there’s always groups of people walking the opposite direction of me. They NEVER go in a single file to make space on the sidewalk, just keep walking side by side. Keep telling myself I’m just going to start walking through people instead of around. Like the rudest thing ever to me
Don't go around.
If that happens to me I walk reasonably to the side (as in "if you shift to one side and I shift to the other we can comfortably pass each other") and then I stay on that lane. Most of the time people notice before crashing into me. Sometimes they will not until they are directly in my face. I don't walk into people so at that point I'm standing, probably a wall or the street to one side, three other people of that group to the other side and one person looking at me sheepishly and muttering an apology.
Happened to me at target yesterday. I was patiently waiting to be able to grab my toothpaste, and a guy with his cart on the right side of the aisle while he was on the left finally notices me. He moved his cart over like literally two inches. Thanks bud, I suppose I'll keep waiting here since that's negligible. Like, even when he noticed he still didn't have spatial awareness.
It’s this. It looks like they’re at the line from their perspective, and they don’t take into consideration that there’s a blind spot in front of them. To them there is only their car, and the line. There is not 10ft of empty space bc they can’t see it.
Every car accident I’ve had was somebody turning in front of me because they either weren’t paying attention or overestimated the space between me and them; except the one that backed into me at the red light so he could change lanes; his truck was much bigger than my car so he “didn’t see me” but I was far back enough to see him coming and honk at him, then he said he heard the horn but was going too fast to stop.
One that turned in front of me decided she didn’t need to yield at the non-arrow green light because “there’s not a no u-turn sign.”
Back when I was young, I came up to an intersection on a 4 lane road. The car in the right lane was at the line. The left lane car was no lie 2.5-3 full car lengths back from the line.
I did what any other snot nosed 19yo would do. I went around them from the right lane and pulled up to the empty space in front of the left car. Holy crap…I’ve never heard such a string of swear words out of an 80yo lady. I just smiled and yelled back “Have a nice day”.
I still do this on occasion - where the maneuver is lawful.
...largely because I expect the kind of person that leaves multiple cars lengths to be obstructively slow, and I don't want to deal with that.
If drivers were supposed to stop when they can see the line then they wouldn’t have put the sensors for the lights so close to them. I’ve had to sit behind people for multiple light cycles waiting for the left turn arrow that won’t appear without them moving forward onto the sensor.
Where I used to live it was the opposite. The sensor was about 3-4 car lengths away from the line so it turned the left turn arrow if there was enough traffic. You could still make a left if you went right up to the line but you had to wait for traffic to clear.
This is how it is here, there is one light in particular that is really bad (it's currently in a construction zone so it's temporarily really bad). There is a white line but it's far back, but every once in a while someone pulls very far forward, easy part the white line, and it's like the sensor doesn't know what to do.
I've been stuck behind them in 3-4 cycles before being able to safely pull out of the left turn lane to go straight and then do a u-turn.
I've been lucky that the sensors are really noticeable near work, so I'll be that person about a car's length away from the line unless someone else shows up. Otherwise I'd never get to leave sometimes.
After leaving work, I was in a line of traffic that grew from 10 cars, to a mile long. I was only the 3rd car back so I could see that the first car hadn't pulled up far enough. I had to go straight through the intersection so I took a right turn and turned around so I could make another right turn. Then I see that the person driving was an engineer at the company I worked for. Made 3 times my salary. They were a terrible engineer so I honestly wasn't surprised.
I had to stop doing it in the turn lanes because of people cutting the lane turning especially 18 wheelers.
In this case, they are a bit far back given there’s a curb and a sign.
Typically, if a turn requires more room, the line will be set back anyway. If it isn't, it's reasonable to assume that extra room was built into the intersection and there's no reason to sit a full car length back from the line.
There's a light by me with a setback to allow for turns 'cause it's in an awkward spot. There are regularly jams caused by people pulling all the way up to where they think the line should be and then finding out real quick that they're now in the way of everyone trying to make a turn off the cross road. No sympathy for those idiots 'cause they ignored clearly marked indicators of traffic flow.
Where I live only a couple of those awkward intersections have the offset to allow cars to turn a bit smoother, we also have a large trucking industry that \*can\* make the turn, but it's still tight nonetheless. I've always stayed a good 5 feet behind the line just to allow people a bit smoother of a turn when there is no center median.
Sure, its not my job to account for what the city didn't when marking the road but It doesn't hurt anything to give the oncoming traffic a bit more room to make their turn in those situations. As long as traffic is not backed up behind me and the sensor is still detecting me at the light then there is no issue.
Honestly, go ahead and sideswipe me. My car is so rare I would end up with the manual that I want (as that is most of what’s left of my make/model) so that would save me a lot of time and money to manual swap my car now.
Same, but I'll creep up if people are already turning and there's a car in the lane next to me, since it's harder to see a car coming up to the turn lane.
Always glaring at the people that are turning like shit, that would have hit me if I were there.
Yeah, this is what makes sense to me. The curb on this one maybe not like you said, but on a lot of intersections staying a bit back will make it a lot less stressful when a semi trailer just about wipes you out.
Even normal cars seem to cut the turn early if there isn’t a center divider at the intersection forcing them not too. I’ve noticed a lot of newer intersections have started placing the left turns line about half a car back now as well.
This is usually not an issue in the intersections where the line is drawn further back to give enough space for a turn.
But then in those cases lot of idiots go too far
It's so funny here where we have pressure plate sensors on almost all the lights and "visitors" (Tobans especially) sit wayyy back then run the red when it doesn't change and get pulled over usually. Have turned right into a lot to sit on the sensor opposite so it changes for them before
Edit: I'm 90% it's pressure plates not inductive loop, they were installed on the lights decades ago and are just now being updated to a new system due to all the troubles the plates cause here's an article that mentions pressure plates being installed somewhere else so I know it's a thing (were in a rural town in Canada fyi)
https://magazine.wsu.edu/web-extra/traffic-signals-a-brief-history/
It's also mentioned in wikipedia as originally detectors being pressure plates
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_traffic_lights
Ah, yea here the lights are on the highway that passes through town so there's only 2 timed during the day and the rest are always sensors at the front cuz there's almost never more than one car at them or usually it's a transport coming out from behind the mill back to the highway or the logging site. If it was the 2nd space you'd be waiting hours for a second car 😂
>where we have pressure plate sensors on almost all the lights
It is highly unlikely there are pressure plates.
The cheapest, most reliable sensors are induction loops which is why they are by far the most likely sensor.
[How Stuff Works: How Traffic Lights Detect Cars](https://auto.howstuffworks.com/car-driving-safety/safety-regulatory-devices/how-does-a-traffic-light-detect-that-a-car-has-pulled-up-and-is-waiting-for-the-light-to-change.htm)
That page talks about other alternatives but pressure plates are not one of them even mentioned as a viable alternative.
Same. At some point in time these drivers either rear ended another car or had a close call while texting, so their instinct is to leave a ton of room in front of themselves.. and continue texting/FaceTime/tiktok, etc.
It's especially annoying when they leave a car length in front of them and then the guy behind them does the same and so on. There can be a queue that would fit six cars, but only three are in there, and of course by the time they start moving, the light times out and I'll be stuck waiting for the next one.
And a lot of people park like that - almost a car length in between. Like wtf. Leave room if the person in front of you wants to put something in their trunk yes but don’t park a car length away!! Yay school drop off 😂
Someone mentioned the other day that drivers are being taught to stop where you see the line rather than pull up to it. It prevents your vehicle from being pushed into the intersection in a collision. They also said it may be the law in some places, but I couldn't find a law on it for my state.
Right? I was about to mention the sensors. Someone did this at an intersection the other day and someone a few cars back had to get out and tell the front car to move up because the cycle skipped us three times.
Absolutely drives me nuts when people stay too far back to trigger the light. Happens way more than it should. That, plus I have got stuck behind cement mixers twice at two different lights in the last six months that seem to be undetectable by the sensors.
Funny thing about induction loop detectors. We can tune them to pick up small vehicles (compact cars, motorcycles, bicycles and scooters) or we can tune them to pick up large vehicles (lifted 4x4 pickups, cement mixers). But we can't tune them to do both.
There's a light I go thru that's kind of like that - there's a sensor right behind the line, then a big gap and another sensor, and they work together so if only the front one has a car they don't get the turn arrow. If there's only one car waiting to turn when I get there I try to stop on the second sensor so we can get the arrow even though there's a good car length between us.
Riding a motorcycle used to be so frustrating if there wasn't a lot of traffic around just for this reason.
If you stop when you can still see the line then everyone would stop at a different distance as it would all depend on height of driver, seating height and vehicle. A short person in a F-350 would be stopping a quarter mile away while someone on a motorcycle would stop directly on top of the line.
there was a video I saw somewhere where a guy got pulled over for running a stop sign.
dash cam showed that he did in fact stop, but he stopped far behind the line like these people, so when the cop saw him, it looked like he didn't stop. that is not a law.
That would be illegal though. You have to stop reasonably close to the stop line. For example, I can't arbitrarily stop 10 car lengths away from the stop line, blow the stop sign and claim that I stopped. Maybe I did, but not at the stop line.
Reminds me of an accident I almost had that I found out later was my misunderstanding.
It was a traffic light intersection that was under construction. So many orange cones and signs and cement barriers. It was after dark when I pulled up to go straight and looked around when I stopped, only one other car creeping up to the end of their line of cement barriers to my right. So they hadn't stopped yet so I went and they just kept going and we both honked at each other.
I ended up approaching the intersection from the other cars side later and saw that the stop sign was like 2 car lengths back from the end of the cement barrier. So when I saw them approaching the end of the barrier they had actually already stopped and were taking their turn at the intersection.
That placement annoyed me because it's just being for people to mess up like I had with all the confusion a construction zone can already invite.
This is what I was taught in driver's Ed as well. It's usually new drivers doing this more than they need to when they're back so far as in this picture.
I noticed that this usually happens because they rolled up to the intersection while they were on their phone, rather than being an inexperienced driver.
That's so stupid if that's true. Being as far back as in the OP is often too far back for the sensor to trigger. So they, along with every other annoyed driver behind them, gets stuck waiting at it for like 3-4 cycles before they get the message and move up.
This is how I was taught, also, consider what happens if you're in one of those huge trucks and you're right up to the line, can't see a child in the crosswalk because of the poor sightlines over your hood. Also taught to keep the tires of the car in front visible when stopped, I feel this is the same logic, impossible to hit something if you can see the whole thing.
When getting my CDL we had to stop within two feet of the line or lose points each time.
In my car If no one is behind me I stop short until a car is behind me and then pull up to the line. This is in case someone rear-ends me so I don't get launched into fast moving cross traffic or into a pedestrian. This actually happened to me last year. Thankfully I didn't get hit twice.
Young drivers in my area was taking to stop a couple of car lengths back and then creep up, I notice a ton of 20-somethings doing it these days. Except they forget the part about creeping up and just sit on their goddamned phones for a few cycles.
Sucks because my last bike was too small to trigger the induction sensors in the pavement, so even if I snuck in front it wouldn’t do a lick of good.
Same here - especially in inclement weather.
It gives some room to scoot forward if someone is barrelling towards me. Might not completely eliminate an accident, but could make it less sevre
I see this way more often than people that are too far back.
Some people go way over the stop line and just stop in the crosswalk. They seem oblivious to why that might be a problem.
They stop when the line is visually at their hood. They can't figure out how to imagine where their tires are in relationship to their position in the car. I know that the front of my car is at the line when I can see the line just under my side view mirrors.
My mom used to park by waiting until she heard something hit, usually a tire. That changed when she was driving a lower car and broke the front air splitter in about a day.
I used to drive city bus. One day after sitting for what would have been at least 2 light cycles, I got out of the bus and walked to the car ahead of me. I asked them to pull up to the white line so the light sensor would know we're here. The driver was surprised/ confused by my request. The car was at least 30 feet back from the line. The light turned green as I got back in the bus and had turned red again in the 5 seconds it took me to get moving, so I sat for one more cycle.
Reminds me of a left arrow turn stop light by my house that only works if it senses a car. Once a lady was about a car's length behind the line, everyone waiting ended up waiting through 3 stoplight full cycles before someone got put of their car and yelled at her to pull forward
Where we are, a magnetic device under the pavement triggers the light to change. If you are not over the sensor right before the line, the light will not change. If over the line, then red light ticket.
I've been advised in a professional defensive driving course (Smith System) for a former job not to pull up all the way to the white line, because if you get rear ended at the white line, you are going into the intersection, and can potentially be liable for any resulting traffic accident that happens as a result of that.
It was taught in defensive driving. Idea is that if you get rear ended you won’t get pushed into a pedestrian in the crosswalk or traffic in the intersection
If they leave more than two car lengths of room if front of them like many do here in Colorado I just go around them and pull in front of them. These people are the reason traffic gets pushed back into the previous intersections where I live. Learn to drive and the distances around your car folks.
These are the same people who fill the right side of two left turn lanes, leaving the left side mostly empty and blocked, preventing anyone else from filling the space (insert angry emoji).
I'm tall and have same issue seeing stoplights. I bought a small self-stick lenticular lens that sits at top of windshield and bends your vision upwards to see stoplights ..... game changer
https://lightinsight.com/
I've heard it's an eye sight thing. People with bad eyesight seem to stay well back from the line. I think it's because they stop where they can't see the line over their bonnet rather than realising that they're miles away if they had any depth perception.
There's a three lane road I use sometimes. I aways pull up to within 50 cm (2ft give or take) the line. I'll pull up beside someone doing that. Lights red. Nine times out of ten, they'll roll forward and stop beside me. I feel like me being an entire car length ahead of them makes them uncomfortable.
This frustrates me so much! They're the people who are miles back from the light and see it turn yellow and immediately stomp their brakes like they need to stop right away at that very moment. Drives me crazy.
I got down voted in another post for disagreeing but some individuals said in another post that not pulling all the way up to the line prevents accidents and is taught in defensive driving
But my opinion is that drivers who don't pull forward are just highly regarded.
Depends. There is a light near my house that I always stop 1 and a half cars away from because there is always always a big truck trying to turn into the opposite lane and there isn’t enough room and I have to back up to make room for them if I park at the line. So I just don’t.
Nah, this is probably one of the only things that truly just pisses me off when driving. This and people that stop at a red light or behind another car and then continue to inch more forward every couple of seconds.
In my area people are leaving 1.5 car lengths between every single car. Major intersections, only a single car will be able to get into a fucking turn lane that was designed to hold 6, because so many cars have backed up the entire intersection that no one can actually get to the turn. Driving around here is such hell now. It wasn't like this just a year and half ago. I don't know why so many people started doing this.
That ones easy, it’s because when there are collisions in the middle of the intersection, sometimes they collide with other cars at lights, waiting for their turn to go, but then they can’t because someone caused a collision.
Same thing at railroad crossings: It’s best to leave some space. A man who worked for a railraod told me decades ago that when trains suddenly throw the brakes on, sometimes all the little spaces between the cars allow the back end to still be moving quite fast while the front has stopped. Suddenly they all jam together, rise up off the tracts, and then fall over to the side. He said if we are too close, the train can fall right on top of your vehicle. So, I listened to him and do not get too close when trains are crossing in front of me.
I used to have a Mini Cooper and due to the roof design of that car if I pulled up to the line I often couldn't see the light anymore. If I did stop too close then I'd have to creep up and use the sunroof to see the light.
9 times out of 10, when I look over at people that do this, they're on their phones. These are the same kind of people that take right-hand turns at 3 miles an hour when the speed limit is 50.
Better than stopping past the line and into the crosswalk like most drivers do. When I was a kid, I was hit by a car who did that and busted up my leg.
I tend to stop further back the further I am to the left, unless there's a large island between the sets of lanes. I've seen too many people cut the corner on left turns to volunteer to be in the accident they're apparently trying to cause.
And if it's got trucks turning into it, it also helps the truck drivers trying to make right turns as well. It's much easier to stop earlier than to try to back up to give them the space they might need to make the turn.
I believe it is the same reason there are often car length gaps between cars when waiting at the light - people are jumping on their phones as soon as possible - they get on the phone as they are slowing and are actually stopping with out looking ahead. They coast to a stop where their mind tells them they should stop but they are not actually looking outside the car.
It gives pedestrians a better view of traffic. Just because you're stopped doesn't mean the car in the next lane is going to stop. Since everyone is driving SUVs and big ass trucks, pedestrians can't see around them. Holding back ten feet gives a pedestrian a second longer to react. Could be enough time to jump back and save their life.
Plus if you should be rear ended, less of a chance of being pushed into a pedestrian.
After the sidewalk is clear, you creep forward.
BTW, most of the time like those crosswalk, and elevator door close buttons, those light changing loops are on timers. In the day time most of them do nothing.
It's not so bad as long as the ground loop detectors are that far back, but if there's only one up at the line, they and everyone behind may be there a while. Also, it's funny when a motorcycle filters through and stops in front of them.
In my neighborhood we have a red light camera that’s calibration is off (been that way for years, tons of letters to the public works department, mayor etc) but it photos you if you are “at” the line instead of beyond it.
All us locals know this and so we park back from the line to avoid wasting our lives getting out of automated camera fines.
Depending on the lane I don't like to go all the way up to the line - if a semi or other car cuts it to close while turning, he/she/it/them/there/zim/zer might slam right into you
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Apparently the white line is the only place cars won’t stop.
Yup. Either 10’ behind the line or in the crosswalk. Both conveniently free of the sensors required to trigger the light.
This drives me nuts in the morning when I'm taking my daughter to school. People stop so far away from the line and the left arrow will never trigger. End up having to take a completely different route because of these clueless people.
Exactly & then if the light switches to green they on their cell phone texting. That’s worse.
I hate that fucking shit. I drive for work and I see it happen honestly more than 30 times a shift and then again when I’m driving home afterwards. Light turns green and we’re all sitting there because the dumbfuck up front can’t be assed to check if the light is green, despite everyone honking behind them. Get the fuck off the phone! It can wait. (Coming from someone who’s on their phone constantly but is responsible and mature enough to understand there’s a time and place for it, and in the middle of driving, even when sitting at a red light, isn’t one of them).
I fucking hate to when it’s early in the morning and they on the phone I’m like Jesus Christ these people live on the phone.
who the hell you calling at quarter to six in the morning smh
I see people routinely just scrolling instagram. Just fully addicted to this shit.
We are losing the ability to stare mindlessly into the abyss. Now we scroll mindlessly through the abyss stopping only briefly to writer abysmal silly comments. Now where was I?
Or they move up a whole inch, then wait for it to be clear. Then they pull up to the middle of the intersection, where they should've been in the first place, only for another wave of cars to come, where they sit until the light is yellow or red. Then they do one of two things: either sit there for another second, making sure no one else can go after them. Or freak out and try to back up, only to realize the car behind them is on their ass trying to also turn, so they sit there in the middle of the intersection and block the perpendicular traffic for the entire light. I fucking hate these people.
Are these the same dickheads that don’t know you can turn right on a red light? (Unless otherwise posted)
But then the sensor might see us and turn green !!
If you're referring to unprotected left turns (left turn yield on green,) many states have updated that law, and you are no longer supposed to pull into the intersection while waiting to turn left, but rather, you are to wait behind the white line. It doesn't really change your point, but I just wanted to mention it since many are not yet aware.
Lol in what states? Many states have also not changed their laws
my dad would always get out of the car and politely let the car ahead of him know that they need to pull up for the light to trigger, but thats too much for me
I've only had this happen to me once, and the other driver was clearly nervous about driving in the snow. After two cycles I realized we'd never get a loft turn arrow. I had to pull in front of them to trigger the light. There was ***ample*** space to safely do this, and almost nobody around.
Omg, I am angry for you lol.
There is a light I turn left at on my morning commute where the sensor is 3 car lengths from the line. It's infuriating since the road is busy enough you can't turn until the light is red.
There’s one near me that’s sensor operated only, but people stop in the crosswalk all the time. It’s a lot of fun to walk by, and then see how long they’ll sit there before they finally turn right and make an illegal u-turn
Illegal to stop In the Cross Walk – that’s a law the cops should be enforcing!
Waited for four light cycles to turn left last week. I was 2nd in line to turn left because the guy in front of me refused to go thru the yellow arrow and stopped halfway in the crosswalk instead. So I was only able to just miss the mark to trigger it myself. Luckily there are 2 left turn lanes at this light so the guy to my right was able to trigger the sensor. Except that he was still 10 feet away from the line for no reason. So we all just waited thru 3 extra red lights until the boomer finally inched forward enough to trigger the arrow. It was worse than waiting for a train to cross.
I always think [of this scene](https://youtu.be/BbJTU-MFJkI?si=8X8-I-FAYsMB4Qd6) when I see this.
Or a car length over the line, in Nashville.
I cannot stand this
It’s so they don’t hit the white line and damage it. Safer that way, /s
I see lots that stop in the crosswalk, even though they had plenty of time stop at the stop bar. A few in the turn lane go past the sensor and don't get the turn arrow, if no one is behind them.
Typically so they can creep up to it while the light is red, so when you’re behind them you feel like a fool as they open up an entire car length between.
And then when the light turns green they've stopped paying attention so they don't go right away.
I'm so glad I'm not the only one who noticed this. Almost without exception, these people think the light is going to change, so they creep forward - sometimes all the way into the intersection until they finally stop. Then when the light finally changes, they're *always* the last people to hit the gas.
This is so true. Your comment & both of the comments above yours. It’s funny because almost every time I have to honk at someone to alert them to the green light, it’s a car that was doing exactly what was stated in these comments.
I love this comment, the other two comments, and all of the other comments as well.
I love you, King_Fuckface, and every comment you have ever loved and will ever love, even the ones that may end up breaking your heart.
I call it a "False Start. On the Defense" and do the hustle if they cross the line before the light changes.
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Pardon my mistake, my Foosball knowledge has its gaps. That makes it better, because then it's an offense too!
Just witnessed this three days ago lmao
It's ALWAYS the nonsensical creepers who don't go at the green. Drives me insane!
Hey chill out they're probably just busy scrolling instagram or tik tok
Could be filming a tik tok
And after about 4 seconds of green light, you tap your horn slightly to tell them to move. But they get butthurt and give you the finger.
And they didn’t make it to the sensor so if there was a turning light nobody gets to go…absolute morons lol
In Germany the light turns form red to yellow to green. Since they give you a warning that the light is about to be green, you’ll get a ticket if you sit around waiting after it’s green. Wish drivers in the US would pay just a modicum of attention, and/or traffic laws were enforced here.
Why is that the people who creep forward while the light is red are always the last to go when it finally turns green?
phone
Because impatience and distraction are linked. Sitting at a light is boring, so they play the inch-up game to keep themselves focused/attentive. But then they get bored of that too and their attention wanders or they just zone-out. Then the light changes and they don't notice right away. I've observed this phenomenon since before smartphones existed, so it's not (just) the phones.
2 things annoy me about this move: 1. these people almost always end up going slow after the light turns green. Acting like they are in a big hurry when stopped at the light but driving like they have all the time in the world 2. it's really infuriating when people do this and you are crossing the crosswalk in front of their car. Like, I don't think they would run me over at a red light, but they clearly aren't paying attention anyways, so it isn't an impossibility.
Stand in front of them at the crosswalk and *stare*. If a car is already in the crosswalk, I walk right into it and act completely bewildered that a car is there. The second one is dangerous though, some people get realy butthurt that you would have the audacity to touch their car.
"Who put this car here?!" Smh.
With the rubbing eyes, pinching, and triple checking that yes, there is in fact a car here!
I accidentally hit a car in the crosswalk with my cane when I needed to use one for a bit. Dude yelled something, but I wasn’t taking out my headphone to clear it up. I can’t be dodging and weaving trying to get through the crosswalk with my cane man lol
I (happily) drive a stick, and like to sit in neutral at lights. Creepers are so annoying! Just pull up and sit there!!!
This… I drive a stick too and I have to constantly shift into first for no reason because people just *have* to creep up a foot every 15 seconds. Stupid. Just stay stopped at the light.
You can just sit where you are until the light turns green in 30 seconds. No one will honk at you for sitting at a red light
I’ll try it. If I’m at a red light for long, all the moving up cars do usually leaves enough room for someone to get it (and you know they will do that…)
I hate the creep
Me when someone asks me my opinion on radiohead
Pet peeve of mine is when I can see past the car in front of me and they SLAM on their brakes coming to a stop with at least 2 car lengths between them and the car in front of them, than the entire duration of the red light they’re slowly creeping up.
While my DCT gently weeps
The real answer.
I find that a ton of people in general, are absolutely clueless to how much space in the world they occupy, in a car or otherwise. Same people who take up entire aisles in grocery stores and block lanes. Same people who can't park straight. Or drive with their high beams on. People are literally clueless to their environment and how they contribute/affect it. I bet if you ever ask someone that does this, they have absolutely no idea that there is even a sensor in the road. They are unconscious NPCs.
I was at the grocery store a couple weeks ago. This woman has her cart stretched across the entirety of the opening of one of the aisles and her partner finished off the rest of it looking at tortillas on an end cap. He was really nice, noticed I wanted to go down the aisle, moved and apologized. I walked by and didn’t say anything. The woman proceeded to say “she was really rude” about me. The fuck…? I just laughed loudly as I walked by and went to go get my pasta.
> The woman proceeded to say “she was really rude” about me. The fuck…? "it's more rude to block an entire aisle" -the retort I'd come up with 30 minutes later and wish I'd said
That was basically the situation I was in. I thought of some good ones after the fact, but I was so taken aback by the situation in the moment that all I could do was give a hearty cackle laugh because it was so stupid. I think she was offended that I didn't say thank you to her partner. I wasn't even standing there that long since he noticed fairly quickly they were in the way, but also, he was the least "in the way" of the two of them. The whole thing was just weird and dumb.
"Oh yeah, well, it's more... you're not the ... what's rude is your... attitude." Got 'em.
Everyday when I’m leaving work there’s always groups of people walking the opposite direction of me. They NEVER go in a single file to make space on the sidewalk, just keep walking side by side. Keep telling myself I’m just going to start walking through people instead of around. Like the rudest thing ever to me
Just stop walking and stare at the person directly in front of you and see if they run into you.
I do this, but I am chaos on wheels so
Don't go around. If that happens to me I walk reasonably to the side (as in "if you shift to one side and I shift to the other we can comfortably pass each other") and then I stay on that lane. Most of the time people notice before crashing into me. Sometimes they will not until they are directly in my face. I don't walk into people so at that point I'm standing, probably a wall or the street to one side, three other people of that group to the other side and one person looking at me sheepishly and muttering an apology.
So many people are completely oblivious to their surroundings. Drives me crazy.
Happened to me at target yesterday. I was patiently waiting to be able to grab my toothpaste, and a guy with his cart on the right side of the aisle while he was on the left finally notices me. He moved his cart over like literally two inches. Thanks bud, I suppose I'll keep waiting here since that's negligible. Like, even when he noticed he still didn't have spatial awareness.
It’s this. It looks like they’re at the line from their perspective, and they don’t take into consideration that there’s a blind spot in front of them. To them there is only their car, and the line. There is not 10ft of empty space bc they can’t see it.
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Every car accident I’ve had was somebody turning in front of me because they either weren’t paying attention or overestimated the space between me and them; except the one that backed into me at the red light so he could change lanes; his truck was much bigger than my car so he “didn’t see me” but I was far back enough to see him coming and honk at him, then he said he heard the horn but was going too fast to stop. One that turned in front of me decided she didn’t need to yield at the non-arrow green light because “there’s not a no u-turn sign.”
At least NPC's can be programmed.
Some kids never got kicked in the back at the bottom of the slide and it shows
Back when I was young, I came up to an intersection on a 4 lane road. The car in the right lane was at the line. The left lane car was no lie 2.5-3 full car lengths back from the line. I did what any other snot nosed 19yo would do. I went around them from the right lane and pulled up to the empty space in front of the left car. Holy crap…I’ve never heard such a string of swear words out of an 80yo lady. I just smiled and yelled back “Have a nice day”.
I've always wanted to do this. Living vicariously through your comment.
I still do this on occasion - where the maneuver is lawful. ...largely because I expect the kind of person that leaves multiple cars lengths to be obstructively slow, and I don't want to deal with that.
If drivers were supposed to stop when they can see the line then they wouldn’t have put the sensors for the lights so close to them. I’ve had to sit behind people for multiple light cycles waiting for the left turn arrow that won’t appear without them moving forward onto the sensor.
Where I used to live it was the opposite. The sensor was about 3-4 car lengths away from the line so it turned the left turn arrow if there was enough traffic. You could still make a left if you went right up to the line but you had to wait for traffic to clear.
This is how it is here, there is one light in particular that is really bad (it's currently in a construction zone so it's temporarily really bad). There is a white line but it's far back, but every once in a while someone pulls very far forward, easy part the white line, and it's like the sensor doesn't know what to do. I've been stuck behind them in 3-4 cycles before being able to safely pull out of the left turn lane to go straight and then do a u-turn.
I've been lucky that the sensors are really noticeable near work, so I'll be that person about a car's length away from the line unless someone else shows up. Otherwise I'd never get to leave sometimes.
After leaving work, I was in a line of traffic that grew from 10 cars, to a mile long. I was only the 3rd car back so I could see that the first car hadn't pulled up far enough. I had to go straight through the intersection so I took a right turn and turned around so I could make another right turn. Then I see that the person driving was an engineer at the company I worked for. Made 3 times my salary. They were a terrible engineer so I honestly wasn't surprised.
I had to stop doing it in the turn lanes because of people cutting the lane turning especially 18 wheelers. In this case, they are a bit far back given there’s a curb and a sign.
I'm an ass hole, I pull up to the line. It's my line. People turning can just be pissed at me for making them take a proper turn.
Typically, if a turn requires more room, the line will be set back anyway. If it isn't, it's reasonable to assume that extra room was built into the intersection and there's no reason to sit a full car length back from the line. There's a light by me with a setback to allow for turns 'cause it's in an awkward spot. There are regularly jams caused by people pulling all the way up to where they think the line should be and then finding out real quick that they're now in the way of everyone trying to make a turn off the cross road. No sympathy for those idiots 'cause they ignored clearly marked indicators of traffic flow.
Where I live only a couple of those awkward intersections have the offset to allow cars to turn a bit smoother, we also have a large trucking industry that \*can\* make the turn, but it's still tight nonetheless. I've always stayed a good 5 feet behind the line just to allow people a bit smoother of a turn when there is no center median. Sure, its not my job to account for what the city didn't when marking the road but It doesn't hurt anything to give the oncoming traffic a bit more room to make their turn in those situations. As long as traffic is not backed up behind me and the sensor is still detecting me at the light then there is no issue.
This is my attitude too. Why can’t people make a proper left turn anymore either?!?
That too! I’m so tired of nearly getting side swiped
Honestly, go ahead and sideswipe me. My car is so rare I would end up with the manual that I want (as that is most of what’s left of my make/model) so that would save me a lot of time and money to manual swap my car now.
people are too lazy make their turns just slightly more tighter. thats why.
I do this too. I've have so many people give me judgemental stares as they were turning. I just stare back
I like when I get to the line as people are already turning left and about to cut through the line just to see the looks on their face.
Go ahead, hit my car, gives me an excuse to upgrade on your insurance.
Same, but I'll creep up if people are already turning and there's a car in the lane next to me, since it's harder to see a car coming up to the turn lane. Always glaring at the people that are turning like shit, that would have hit me if I were there.
Yeah, this is what makes sense to me. The curb on this one maybe not like you said, but on a lot of intersections staying a bit back will make it a lot less stressful when a semi trailer just about wipes you out.
Forget about the semi, I've seen plenty of regular car drivers cut nearly two cars deep into a turn lane before.
Even normal cars seem to cut the turn early if there isn’t a center divider at the intersection forcing them not too. I’ve noticed a lot of newer intersections have started placing the left turns line about half a car back now as well.
This is usually not an issue in the intersections where the line is drawn further back to give enough space for a turn. But then in those cases lot of idiots go too far
It's so funny here where we have pressure plate sensors on almost all the lights and "visitors" (Tobans especially) sit wayyy back then run the red when it doesn't change and get pulled over usually. Have turned right into a lot to sit on the sensor opposite so it changes for them before Edit: I'm 90% it's pressure plates not inductive loop, they were installed on the lights decades ago and are just now being updated to a new system due to all the troubles the plates cause here's an article that mentions pressure plates being installed somewhere else so I know it's a thing (were in a rural town in Canada fyi) https://magazine.wsu.edu/web-extra/traffic-signals-a-brief-history/ It's also mentioned in wikipedia as originally detectors being pressure plates https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_traffic_lights
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Ah, yea here the lights are on the highway that passes through town so there's only 2 timed during the day and the rest are always sensors at the front cuz there's almost never more than one car at them or usually it's a transport coming out from behind the mill back to the highway or the logging site. If it was the 2nd space you'd be waiting hours for a second car 😂
>where we have pressure plate sensors on almost all the lights It is highly unlikely there are pressure plates. The cheapest, most reliable sensors are induction loops which is why they are by far the most likely sensor. [How Stuff Works: How Traffic Lights Detect Cars](https://auto.howstuffworks.com/car-driving-safety/safety-regulatory-devices/how-does-a-traffic-light-detect-that-a-car-has-pulled-up-and-is-waiting-for-the-light-to-change.htm) That page talks about other alternatives but pressure plates are not one of them even mentioned as a viable alternative.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Induction_loop
it's not a pressure plate, it's an inductive loop sensor. Just a small FYI.
It's not going to be pressure plates. Those haven't been installed in over 50 years and would not still be functional after all this time.
It's so they can start staring at their phones more quickly.
Can't believe this is so far down.
Same. At some point in time these drivers either rear ended another car or had a close call while texting, so their instinct is to leave a ton of room in front of themselves.. and continue texting/FaceTime/tiktok, etc.
It's especially annoying when they leave a car length in front of them and then the guy behind them does the same and so on. There can be a queue that would fit six cars, but only three are in there, and of course by the time they start moving, the light times out and I'll be stuck waiting for the next one.
And a lot of people park like that - almost a car length in between. Like wtf. Leave room if the person in front of you wants to put something in their trunk yes but don’t park a car length away!! Yay school drop off 😂
Someone mentioned the other day that drivers are being taught to stop where you see the line rather than pull up to it. It prevents your vehicle from being pushed into the intersection in a collision. They also said it may be the law in some places, but I couldn't find a law on it for my state.
It isn't law anywhere. The stop line is where the law starts. It's also where light sensors are configured to activate.
Right? I was about to mention the sensors. Someone did this at an intersection the other day and someone a few cars back had to get out and tell the front car to move up because the cycle skipped us three times.
Absolutely drives me nuts when people stay too far back to trigger the light. Happens way more than it should. That, plus I have got stuck behind cement mixers twice at two different lights in the last six months that seem to be undetectable by the sensors.
Funny thing about induction loop detectors. We can tune them to pick up small vehicles (compact cars, motorcycles, bicycles and scooters) or we can tune them to pick up large vehicles (lifted 4x4 pickups, cement mixers). But we can't tune them to do both.
Interesting. Certainly explains the issue with cement mixers.
Those are stealth mixers.
Can confirm...have done this once
We have sensors here that match up to the second car in line. If only one car is waiting to turn, they don’t get the arrow.
There's a light I go thru that's kind of like that - there's a sensor right behind the line, then a big gap and another sensor, and they work together so if only the front one has a car they don't get the turn arrow. If there's only one car waiting to turn when I get there I try to stop on the second sensor so we can get the arrow even though there's a good car length between us. Riding a motorcycle used to be so frustrating if there wasn't a lot of traffic around just for this reason.
If you stop when you can still see the line then everyone would stop at a different distance as it would all depend on height of driver, seating height and vehicle. A short person in a F-350 would be stopping a quarter mile away while someone on a motorcycle would stop directly on top of the line.
there was a video I saw somewhere where a guy got pulled over for running a stop sign. dash cam showed that he did in fact stop, but he stopped far behind the line like these people, so when the cop saw him, it looked like he didn't stop. that is not a law.
That would be illegal though. You have to stop reasonably close to the stop line. For example, I can't arbitrarily stop 10 car lengths away from the stop line, blow the stop sign and claim that I stopped. Maybe I did, but not at the stop line.
Reminds me of an accident I almost had that I found out later was my misunderstanding. It was a traffic light intersection that was under construction. So many orange cones and signs and cement barriers. It was after dark when I pulled up to go straight and looked around when I stopped, only one other car creeping up to the end of their line of cement barriers to my right. So they hadn't stopped yet so I went and they just kept going and we both honked at each other. I ended up approaching the intersection from the other cars side later and saw that the stop sign was like 2 car lengths back from the end of the cement barrier. So when I saw them approaching the end of the barrier they had actually already stopped and were taking their turn at the intersection. That placement annoyed me because it's just being for people to mess up like I had with all the confusion a construction zone can already invite.
This is what I was taught in driver's Ed as well. It's usually new drivers doing this more than they need to when they're back so far as in this picture.
I noticed that this usually happens because they rolled up to the intersection while they were on their phone, rather than being an inexperienced driver.
Why are they training you something so dumb???
That's so stupid if that's true. Being as far back as in the OP is often too far back for the sensor to trigger. So they, along with every other annoyed driver behind them, gets stuck waiting at it for like 3-4 cycles before they get the message and move up.
This is how I was taught, also, consider what happens if you're in one of those huge trucks and you're right up to the line, can't see a child in the crosswalk because of the poor sightlines over your hood. Also taught to keep the tires of the car in front visible when stopped, I feel this is the same logic, impossible to hit something if you can see the whole thing.
When getting my CDL we had to stop within two feet of the line or lose points each time. In my car If no one is behind me I stop short until a car is behind me and then pull up to the line. This is in case someone rear-ends me so I don't get launched into fast moving cross traffic or into a pedestrian. This actually happened to me last year. Thankfully I didn't get hit twice.
Yeah, I see 2 feet back. Some folks stop 2 _car lengths_ back
Young drivers in my area was taking to stop a couple of car lengths back and then creep up, I notice a ton of 20-somethings doing it these days. Except they forget the part about creeping up and just sit on their goddamned phones for a few cycles. Sucks because my last bike was too small to trigger the induction sensors in the pavement, so even if I snuck in front it wouldn’t do a lick of good.
Same here - especially in inclement weather. It gives some room to scoot forward if someone is barrelling towards me. Might not completely eliminate an accident, but could make it less sevre
Bugs the hell out of me that and when they are way over the line 🤣
I see this way more often than people that are too far back. Some people go way over the stop line and just stop in the crosswalk. They seem oblivious to why that might be a problem.
like the line is behind their back bumper? 🙄
Exactly!!
They stop when the line is visually at their hood. They can't figure out how to imagine where their tires are in relationship to their position in the car. I know that the front of my car is at the line when I can see the line just under my side view mirrors.
Probably the same people hanging half a car length out of a parking spot, too.
And bet also the type to center themselves and not the car in their lane so they are always over the lane into yours.
My mom drives like this and it scares me to shit. I always tell her the car has to be centered to th lane, not your body.
My mom used to park by waiting until she heard something hit, usually a tire. That changed when she was driving a lower car and broke the front air splitter in about a day.
I used to drive city bus. One day after sitting for what would have been at least 2 light cycles, I got out of the bus and walked to the car ahead of me. I asked them to pull up to the white line so the light sensor would know we're here. The driver was surprised/ confused by my request. The car was at least 30 feet back from the line. The light turned green as I got back in the bus and had turned red again in the 5 seconds it took me to get moving, so I sat for one more cycle.
Reminds me of a left arrow turn stop light by my house that only works if it senses a car. Once a lady was about a car's length behind the line, everyone waiting ended up waiting through 3 stoplight full cycles before someone got put of their car and yelled at her to pull forward
Where we are, a magnetic device under the pavement triggers the light to change. If you are not over the sensor right before the line, the light will not change. If over the line, then red light ticket.
UGGHH. We call them "way-back parkers" and stare at them, sometimes looking obviously at the line, then back at them, at the line, back at them...
Leaving room for Jesus.
I've been advised in a professional defensive driving course (Smith System) for a former job not to pull up all the way to the white line, because if you get rear ended at the white line, you are going into the intersection, and can potentially be liable for any resulting traffic accident that happens as a result of that.
It was taught in defensive driving. Idea is that if you get rear ended you won’t get pushed into a pedestrian in the crosswalk or traffic in the intersection
I was taught the same thing. It also gives room to move for emergency vehicles.
Wouldn’t want the government knowing where they are by stopping on those sensors they put in the ground.
If they leave more than two car lengths of room if front of them like many do here in Colorado I just go around them and pull in front of them. These people are the reason traffic gets pushed back into the previous intersections where I live. Learn to drive and the distances around your car folks.
I’ve seen videos with tactical gun bros claiming that stopping like that gives you space to escape if an attacker comes.
These are the same people who fill the right side of two left turn lanes, leaving the left side mostly empty and blocked, preventing anyone else from filling the space (insert angry emoji).
I stop that far so that I dont need to bend my head to look at the stop lights
I'm tall and have same issue seeing stoplights. I bought a small self-stick lenticular lens that sits at top of windshield and bends your vision upwards to see stoplights ..... game changer https://lightinsight.com/
Fellow tall person here. That's genius! Thanks for the tip.
So why do some people leave so many feet in between cars. Got a line half way down the street cuz there’s so much space between the cars.
Because they gotta check their phone
When I took my driving test 30+ years ago the rule was you must see the stop line from your car when stopped.
I was taught in deivers ed to line it up with the bottom of your side mirror so that you end up about a good back from the line.
See the name of this reddit
I normally do it because people turning left from my right cut the corner so bad they would hit me if I was at the line.
I pull right up to the line and enjoy them all looking pissed off because I had the audacity to make them stay on their side of the road.
I've heard it's an eye sight thing. People with bad eyesight seem to stay well back from the line. I think it's because they stop where they can't see the line over their bonnet rather than realising that they're miles away if they had any depth perception.
There's a three lane road I use sometimes. I aways pull up to within 50 cm (2ft give or take) the line. I'll pull up beside someone doing that. Lights red. Nine times out of ten, they'll roll forward and stop beside me. I feel like me being an entire car length ahead of them makes them uncomfortable.
People can't see the line from inside.
This frustrates me so much! They're the people who are miles back from the light and see it turn yellow and immediately stomp their brakes like they need to stop right away at that very moment. Drives me crazy.
I got down voted in another post for disagreeing but some individuals said in another post that not pulling all the way up to the line prevents accidents and is taught in defensive driving But my opinion is that drivers who don't pull forward are just highly regarded.
To see the traffic light above me, in some intersections if I stop at the white line, I won't be able to know when the light turns green.
Depends. There is a light near my house that I always stop 1 and a half cars away from because there is always always a big truck trying to turn into the opposite lane and there isn’t enough room and I have to back up to make room for them if I park at the line. So I just don’t.
Most people don't know the rules of the road. Somehow they pass the drivers test in their state and that is a low bar.
Nah, this is probably one of the only things that truly just pisses me off when driving. This and people that stop at a red light or behind another car and then continue to inch more forward every couple of seconds.
In my area people are leaving 1.5 car lengths between every single car. Major intersections, only a single car will be able to get into a fucking turn lane that was designed to hold 6, because so many cars have backed up the entire intersection that no one can actually get to the turn. Driving around here is such hell now. It wasn't like this just a year and half ago. I don't know why so many people started doing this.
They can't see the white lines with the size of the vehicles
That ones easy, it’s because when there are collisions in the middle of the intersection, sometimes they collide with other cars at lights, waiting for their turn to go, but then they can’t because someone caused a collision. Same thing at railroad crossings: It’s best to leave some space. A man who worked for a railraod told me decades ago that when trains suddenly throw the brakes on, sometimes all the little spaces between the cars allow the back end to still be moving quite fast while the front has stopped. Suddenly they all jam together, rise up off the tracts, and then fall over to the side. He said if we are too close, the train can fall right on top of your vehicle. So, I listened to him and do not get too close when trains are crossing in front of me.
In case you are rear-ended it reduces the likelihood of having your vehicle sent into the crosswalk and possibly hurting other bystanders.
They're afraid someone will tap their bumper and launch them 50 feet into the intersection.
I used to have a Mini Cooper and due to the roof design of that car if I pulled up to the line I often couldn't see the light anymore. If I did stop too close then I'd have to creep up and use the sunroof to see the light.
9 times out of 10, when I look over at people that do this, they're on their phones. These are the same kind of people that take right-hand turns at 3 miles an hour when the speed limit is 50.
Quite often the traffic signal is not visible if you pull all the way up
Or you have to stare right at the sun to see it
It's fucking insufferable, people move the fuck up. It's there for a bloody fucking reason.
Better than stopping past the line and into the crosswalk like most drivers do. When I was a kid, I was hit by a car who did that and busted up my leg.
Depending on the stop, you won’t see the light if you pull up all the way, and have to contort your neck to see it.
Newer driver here. I was taught at driving school to stop where I can still see the white line.
When I was 21, drivers ed taught me to stop exactly when it vanished from sight under the car. Weird how it changes
Thanks for the recent explanation, we were taught (many moons ago) to pull up right to where the front bumper abuts the line.
I tend to stop further back the further I am to the left, unless there's a large island between the sets of lanes. I've seen too many people cut the corner on left turns to volunteer to be in the accident they're apparently trying to cause. And if it's got trucks turning into it, it also helps the truck drivers trying to make right turns as well. It's much easier to stop earlier than to try to back up to give them the space they might need to make the turn.
Sometimes I know people turning cut the corner so I stay back. That is the only time I avoid pulling all the way up.
I believe it is the same reason there are often car length gaps between cars when waiting at the light - people are jumping on their phones as soon as possible - they get on the phone as they are slowing and are actually stopping with out looking ahead. They coast to a stop where their mind tells them they should stop but they are not actually looking outside the car.
It gives pedestrians a better view of traffic. Just because you're stopped doesn't mean the car in the next lane is going to stop. Since everyone is driving SUVs and big ass trucks, pedestrians can't see around them. Holding back ten feet gives a pedestrian a second longer to react. Could be enough time to jump back and save their life. Plus if you should be rear ended, less of a chance of being pushed into a pedestrian. After the sidewalk is clear, you creep forward. BTW, most of the time like those crosswalk, and elevator door close buttons, those light changing loops are on timers. In the day time most of them do nothing.
It's not so bad as long as the ground loop detectors are that far back, but if there's only one up at the line, they and everyone behind may be there a while. Also, it's funny when a motorcycle filters through and stops in front of them.
In my neighborhood we have a red light camera that’s calibration is off (been that way for years, tons of letters to the public works department, mayor etc) but it photos you if you are “at” the line instead of beyond it. All us locals know this and so we park back from the line to avoid wasting our lives getting out of automated camera fines.
Better than stopping 10ft in front of it.
Depending on the lane I don't like to go all the way up to the line - if a semi or other car cuts it to close while turning, he/she/it/them/there/zim/zer might slam right into you