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How to shut a Masshole up at an intersection

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Maybe they were honking because the light was going to turn red. There are a lot of intersections around here that have a wicked quick green arrow (or no arrow at all) and you have to drive one car length into the intersection and wait, or you'll be stuck there forever. The left from Comm Ave onto Harvard in Allston is a good example.

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Reread the linked article. No light there.

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Oops, looks like I focused on the first paragraph and ignored the rest. Hopefully my comment will help the new Boston drivers out there.

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If it'd been Mr. doing the yelling, the other driver would've escalated it.

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For a while in Newton, they rearranged the Centre St/Cypress St split so that Centre St drivers no longer had a stop sign just to keep driving on Centre St (makes sense right?). However, drivers who regularly drove there had no idea that they should take the priority because Cypress St had the new stop sign and left turners onto Cypress had a "wait your turn" sign.

I would constantly need to honk to get people to go otherwise the other directions would just keep going and block us out. One time, I honked at both cars in front of me in a row. The guy in front of me pulls up to the red light at Beacon and I go to turn right onto Beacon next to him and he yells, "What's your problem, moron?". I said "There's no stop sign there any more, you gotta take the right of way, asshole". He suddenly calms down and goes "...oh".

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His wife was likely getting beeped at for not being far enough left in the lane so other drivers could still turn right while she waited. This might require being slightly over the center of the road, but that's OK as long as they have enough room. When a MBTA bus is at the bus stop there, drivers will have to cross the median to go around the bus also.

On residential one-way streets I witness much stupidity at intersections. People can use the whole with of the road, but left turning drivers are often too stupid or zombified to think or others and leave room for others to take right turns without waiting and producing excess greenhouse gas.

Another example of zombie drivers is not going right on red at traffic lights. So many intersections have unnecessary right turn restrictions that people don't even notice when a No Turn On Red sign is missing! I give a brief beep in this situation.

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The person waiting ahead of you has a better line of sight across the intersection and may see oncoming vehicles, bicycles, or pedestrians (or even a "No Turn on Red" sign) that you can't. Sometimes people wait for no reason and might deserve a hint to proceed, but if you beep your horn at someone who's reasonably exercising caution, then you are the {...fill in the blank...}.

There's no requirement to turn right on red, and your annoying beeping might only cause the other driver to deliberately wait until the light turns green, just to annoy you in return.

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Its more likely that people stopped and not turning on a red are using the red light as an opportunity to text or dial on their phone, rather than pay attention to the road and try to get somewhere before using their phone again.

Few self-righteous people think of how inconsiderate they are being towards others who share the road with them, especially those waiting behind them.

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Massachusetts was the last state to legalize RTOR, and, like with so many other things about which we have a parochial attitude, we declined to do it because we pleaded that we're "special": heavy pedestrian traffic in the heavily populated parts of the state, intersections that have more than four roads meeting at them, intersections with narrow roads and limited sight lines, roads that don't meet at right angles, and so on. To be honest, there's actually a point there....

So then the Feds rammed "You shall legalize RTOR" down everyone's throat the same way they did with the 55mph national speed limit in 1974 and the 21 drinking age in the early 1980s: Do it or you'll lose federal highway funds.

So Mass. legalized RTOR, but then put up "No turn on red" signs at darn near every intersection in the eastern half of the state.

"Fine," said the Feds. "You have to come up with engineering warrants for every last one of those signs, or you'll lose highway funding."

At that point, Mass. just gave up.

I suspect that a lot of people around here *still* think RTOR should be illegal statewide, and refuse to take a RTOR on general principles.

Bonus question for extra credit: what does a right-pointing arrow mean in Massachusetts? In 49 states that I'm aware of, it means "No right turns permitted now," but the Mass. Driver Manual, at least of a few years ago, offhandedly says "it means the same thing as a red ball", which would seem to me to mean that RTOR is permitted except in the absence of a regulatory sign prohibiting it. One other theory I've heard says that it means "RTOR allowed after a stop, except in the City of Boston which was granted home-rule on this, and in Boston, it means NTOR, same as it does elsewhere in the U.S."

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Mass. General Laws Chapter 89, Section 8, states:

At any intersection on ways, as defined in section one of chapter ninety, in which vehicular traffic is facing a steady red indication in a traffic control signal, the driver of a vehicle which is stopped as close as practicable at the entrance to the crosswalk or the near side of the intersections or, if none, then at the entrance to the intersection in obedience to such red or stop signal, may make either (1) a right turn or (2) if on a one-way street may make a left turn to another one-way street, but shall yield the right-of-way to pedestrians and other traffic proceeding as directed by the signal at said intersection, except that a city or town, subject to section two of chapter eighty-five, by rules, orders, ordinances, or by-laws, and the department of highways on state highways or on ways at their intersections with a state highway, may prohibit any such turns against a red or stop signal at any such intersection, and such prohibition shall be effective when a sign is erected at such intersection giving notice thereof. Any person who violates the provisions of this paragraph shall be punished by a fine of not less than thirty-five dollars.

So, it is legal to turn right on a red arrow if there is no "No Turn On Red" sign. The key phrase here is "steady red indication", which means either ball or arrow.

Unlike Massachusetts, most other states have written their laws to specifically exclude a right turn on a steady red arrow indication. This approach is consistent with both the Uniform Vehicle Code and the Federal MUTCD, which both state that RTOR is permitted on a red ball unless there's a sign present, but is permitted on a red arrow only if there's a sign present (holy contradiction Batman!).

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I often get beeped at for not turning right on red at a particular intersection when I'm not planning to turn right, but I will be turning right at the NEXT street which is about half a block away. And no, it's not a right turn only lane.

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Except that Massachusetts is the only place I've seen this behavior. It's not like we have a monopoly on intersections with poor sight lines, either.

Mass. also has some incredibly poor placement of NTOR signs; it's not uncommon for them to be back from the stop line where a driver can't see them from a stopped position, or on a pole across the intersection where they "get lost" in the urban streetscape.

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Cities and towns post unnecessary restrictions often to cut down on potential lawsuits and no other reason. Despite excellent sight lines and low pedestrian volumes, NTOR gets posted along with speed limits without traffic studies.

I was really bummed when state law changed on valid NTOR signs. It used to be that the sign had to be located on a signalling device, and many are not. Now it can be posted any old where.

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Would be to have the mental ability to move cars up to 6 feet. Then I would be able to slide them 3 feet to the left so I can go around them, make them fit properly into a parking space, or place them onto the traffic sensor at a light. I wish I had this ability several times a week.

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The best part is the clueless commenter who can't figure out what a T intersection is. I hope that
person doesn't have a license.

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Follow all the rules.

Drive the speed limit. Stop fully at every stop sign and red light. Obey yellow light protocols properly (stop if you can - its the law). Yield at yield signs. Heed "no turn on red" signs. Stop behind stop lines.

Driving like a German is the ultimate in passive aggression against massholes.

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Driving like a German entails tailgating slow drivers to within centimeters.

Driving like a German also means keeping right on multi-lane roads unless passing. They will also get aggressive towards zombies blocking the passing lane, who are likely talking on the phone.

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Know what - not every road in Germany is an autobahn either! It isn't what you read in Car and Driver - their cities are older and as cow-pathy as Boston is, only with more people and a lot more bikes and trams in the streets.

When were you last in Germany?

In the cities - and I spent time in some big ones very recently - they yield to pedestrians in crosswalks during walk lights and to cyclists on turns as if their driving privileges depend on it. Because THEY DO. Too many tickets = license yanked. Hit a pedestrian or cyclist or tram = automatic at fault, likely license suspension unless you can prove it wasn't something you could prevent. Not an kph over the speed limit, either (speed cameras and, well, cops will appear from nowhere). Full stop at EVERY stop sign. Never dream of creeping beyond a stop line.

Truly astounding what happens when you combine a culture of precision with actual enforcement!

The aggressive tailgaiting is on the bahns, but that's an entirely different environment without non-automotive distractions. I did not see that in the cities. As soon as you cross into the cities, even on the bahns, those cars are down to speed ASAP.

In Munich, I saw ONE car honk at another who was obeying the laws in a way that you would whine was inconveeeeeeenient, and that driver was nearly immediately waved over by a cop who stepped out from the sidewalk to nail his ass.

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I wrote about most secondary roads outside inner cities and villages had impatient drivers and tailgaters. Was 10 years ago, though I understand much of the Autobahn still has no speed limit, and yet a consistently lower accident rate than US Interstates.

It was longer ago that I spent a couple months driving in Australia. Someone who just moved from Sydney described what sounded like a near police state with points on a license for the smallest of infractions, speed cameras, automatic license suspension from points, big fines, absurdly low speed limits, and huge car registration fees. Must be they are trying to promote domestic air flight over driving given the country's size and distances. That or driving slowly to go with working slowly and needing more people and expense to accomplish anything. Full employment socialist politics and nanny state.

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To piss off a Nutmeger, drive 80 in the left line on 95 between New Haven and New London. I swear, on that two lane highway the flow of traffic is either 90 in the left or 55 on the right.

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I wonder, how many readers know that Connecticut is the Nutmeg State?

" ... with thousands of miles of naturally occurring nutmeg bogs along Long Island Sound, and sprawling paddies of wild lyme trees in the Thames River valley; springtime fruit and spice gathering has been a Connecticut state tradition since pre-Colombian times. "

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Clarifying a few things since there is some doubt about my driving....I have made mistakes, like we all have, this is not one of them.
The street was only one lane in each direction, no room for anyone to squeeze by to make a right turn. If the person had gone around me, his only choice would have been to do so on my left side, into oncoming traffic.
I had more than enough sight line to see what was safe and what was not, no need to pull out further. There were other streets just adjacent across the road where drivers were coming from and making turns on to the main street that the person behind me couldn't see.
I think things could have gotten heated if I had call the other diver names or sworn at him, even though I am a female. But all I wanted to do was let the guy know I heard him and I was not polishing my nails, talking on the phone or something else, but rather waiting for a safe time to turn. Did I want to swear and call him names, f%*k yes. 

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You describe a situation where ignoring the other driver is more satisfying for me. You are not doing anything wrong; you're just trying to safely navigate a difficult intersection, and you're certainly not being discourteous to the driver behind you. He's not only ignorant of the traffic status at the intersection, but he's being very discourteous to you; he doesn't deserve the satisfaction of receiving any acknowledgment of his annoying behavior!

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