Readers Write: COULD YOU PEOPLE PLEASE START USING YOUR FUCKING TURN SIGNALS PLEASE?
Dear Philebrity,After yet another frustrating drive into work, straight shot down 5th Street from Northern Liberties into the burbs, I would like to respectfully submit a smart driving tip for all Philadelphians: use your motherfucking turn signal. Turn Signal!
Feel free to post or use as a catalyst for some scathing social critique via blog. I just needed to tell someone who cared and you, Philebrity, have never let me down. Yet.
This one’s all you, Loyal Reader, as you’ve cut to the quick better than we ever could. But if it helps, we’ll tell you some of the words and phrases that came to mind when we read your email:
Sorry, it’s lunchtime. But we like this game a lot! Show us another one of those ink-blotty things later!
June 11th, 2009 at 1:00 pm
This. Especially on the highways, goddamn you people.
We all cruise 10-20 miles over the speed limit, don’t lie. Turn signals are the only things that cut down on the Death-Race-2000 aesthetic there, especially with other cars close by.
I can’t believe anyone really wants a driver behind them eating their SUV’s boat hitch. I’m a laid-back driver, I love to drive, but I Hulk up when someone passes me on 95 without a blinker.
June 11th, 2009 at 1:01 pm
Also, just because you happen to be making a right turn sometime in the next 6 blocks does NOT give you clearance to drive in the bike lane. And furthermore, you JUST passed me. Clearly you saw me and could have approximated my speed and come to the conclusion that I would reach the intersection at the same time you wanted to turn. Is it so much to ask that you wait for 2 more seconds until I clear the lane? And don’t even THINK about laying on your horn indignantly as if the whole bike/car animosity thing is entirely my fault. As soon as I can, I’m getting a Peewee Herman style foghorn mounted on my handlebars.
June 11th, 2009 at 1:05 pm
I know Philebs doesn’t drive, so the editorial lapse can be excused; but in common parlance (with “down” denoting south and “up” denoting “north”) anyone who does a “straight shot down 5th street from Northern Liberties” would actually be a serious part of the problem in Philadelphia traffic. Usually they can only manage a block or so (because they don’t want to waste all that time going around the three blocks that will take them to where they want to be legally), but wrong way drivers are an additional major stress for Philly driving.
June 11th, 2009 at 1:11 pm
I drove through New Jersey, New York, Connecticut, Rhode Island and massachusetts last weekend. Are drivers in any of the last 4 states mentioned aware that the left lane is for passing only? My biggest driving peeve!
I will admit to being a guilty New Jersey texter though.
June 11th, 2009 at 1:21 pm
Think I did the same drive as you last weekend philthy. Only had a problem with CT on the way up, since it became pretty much parking lot.
I completely accept NJ, NY, CT, RI, MA’s defacto “left land is the high speed lane” rule. What gets me is the guy behind you in the left lane who veers out right and then cuts in front of you in order to be … behind the guy in front of you who’s slowing the left lane, and then the cutting guy slows to a speed lower than the two of you were going when he got behind you.
June 11th, 2009 at 1:46 pm
I agree so strongly. I drive from Phila to Wilmington regularly and wish to obtain a giant scrolling banner for the roof my car to be used for the purposes of informing assholes that they are in the left lane, they are not high speed and they are definitly not passing.
95 Northbound right near the DE/PA border, where 95 and 495 (I think its 495) come back together, the far left lane ends. There are warning signs for at least a mile beforehand. Inevitably and almost daily, I see a driver on their cell phone, cruising along at about 45 mph in the left lane, only to be cut off or almost run off the road.
Idiots.
June 11th, 2009 at 2:33 pm
MY only beef is, youre a driver, and you need to stop in front of someones house to drop something off, delivery, someone off, whatever.. More often than not, people just block the street. (im talking fishtown here) when there is a perfectly good space a car or two from the house in question…instead blocking traffic seems like the better idea.. FUCK THAT
June 11th, 2009 at 2:37 pm
for the record, if youre driving towards philly on the AC expressway/42/76 on a sunday evening in the summer, the fastest moving lane is the right lane. why is that, when the left lane is the designated passing lane? BECAUSE PA DRIVERS PLANT THEMSELVES IN THE LEFT LANE AND DO MAYBE 5 MPH OVER THE LIMIT. yes, i grew up in jersey, and we certainly have our driving deficiencies, but PA drivers need to keep right except to pass (like the sign tells you)
June 11th, 2009 at 2:46 pm
I was just bitching about the same thing last week. It’s like people have decided turn signals are optional in the city.
Inhaler, that happens in South Philly, too. CONSTANTLY. Even when there is a giant open space that wouldn’t require parallel parking. Those people and lazy and inconsiderate and assholes. Also, many of them don’t have jobs and don’t understand that those of us who do would like to get out from behind them and get to work on time.
June 11th, 2009 at 5:37 pm
I have definitely learned that when driving south on 95 from northeast philly to center city, the far right lane is easily the fastest.
June 12th, 2009 at 10:17 pm
Here’s my favorite Facebook Group:
“Dear Pennsylvania: Get the Fuck Out of the Left Lane. Love, New Jersey.”
http://www.facebook.com/home.php#/group.php?gid=3483975231