Small town driving.

[LaraMN]

I've been living in my hometown of about 11,000 people for three years, after living in the Minneapolis/St.Paul area for a number of years. While I enjoy the spirit of friendliness and courtesy that I'd say characterizes my town; the way people drive makes me NUTS! People drive far below the speed limit and routinely slow down to look at things, like shrubbery and newly painted curbs, regardless of who is behind them, because there's sort of this assumed level of patience and laid-back sentiment. The perfect example of small town Minnesota driving is this though:

I pull up to a four-way stop. I KNOW that I should be going third. It is OBVIOUS, the order that each vehicle has arrived at the intersection. There are clear rules about who is supposed to proceed through the intersection; but we MUST have a physical dialogue/negotiation session about it. (note that all communication is by way of waving, gesturing, and facial expression)

Car 1: (should be proceeding) waves to car 2, indicating "go ahead, please,"
Car 2: (should wait) waves back to say, "no, no, you were first, go ahead,"
Car 1: (looks at me in Car 3) "maybe you would like to go,"
Me: "No. go. you're supposed to."
Car 2: "Oh, there's a third car! Why don't you go, car 3?"
Me: "No! You are BOTH supposed to go before me!"
Car 1: Inches forward, then stops, and decides to wave Car 2 on, AGAIN!
Car 2: "Oh, no Car 1, please, you go, I should hate for you to go second."
Me: Gets irritated and just GOES, because NO ONE ELSE WILL!
Car 1 and 2 look at me like I'm a big jerk.
:banghead: :rofl:

[mark414]

1. that exchange is hilarious

and dead on...since june i have been back living with my parents in a town of 10,000 in southeastern wisconsin...i feel your pain

[LaraMN]

4. In the grocery store parking lot today,

some lady stopped and proceeded to have a conversation with a pedestrian, while blocking the entire flow of traffic through the lot. Aughhh!

[In_The_Wind]

2. Somebody's gotta go first.

:shrug:

[LaraMN]

7. I tried to be nice, I really did.

:D

[In_The_Wind]

10. Oh Honey I think you always try to be nice.

It's a darned good thing that all 3 of you didn't decide to go first at the same time. :scared:

[Broken_Hero]

3. And this is repeated across the country

countless times...what you described has happened to me three times the past year...at least three that I can remember...:) I'm in a town of roughly ...400 plus people, and the driving habits are a lot different than bigger city driving.

I understand the slow driver syndrome, and i'm not talking 1-5 miles below, I'm talking 10-20 miles below the limit in some cases, and that just drives me crazy. My father in law falls into this a lot and its annoying, which brings up another habit of his...

Whenever my wife and I follow him in his car, he goes crazy insane fast...like he is trying to lose us. On the other hand, when he is following us, I kid you not, he goes 20mph less than we are...

When we got our washing machine from the Ark side, he followed us down, and the speed limit waws 60. My wife and I were doing 50, and my FIL was at least a solid mile behind us, holding back a whole line of traffic...I just don't understand it...:shrug:

Another good one, which seems to effect the Ark drivers more than any, is the left hand hammer lane. If i had a dollar for each time I saw a car in the left lane pacing the car in the right lane, I would be up to my neck in dollar bills....

[mark414]

5. sometimes that makes me want to commit murder

or at least shoot their tires out...when someone just sits in the left lane, usually going slow, and even not moving over if they eventually get the chance...be a considerate driver! and look out for other cars on the road

[LaraMN]

6. Lol! My husband claims I only drive defensively in the mall parking lot,

but I am a TERROR, compared to the majority of my fellow in-town drivers.

[Broken_Hero]

8. The traffic has started to turn my wife

crazy...the Arkansas drivers do her in big time...she commutes to the NW Ark everyday, and the traffic/idiots are so abound she comes home almost every day griping about "this and that driver! ARRGHHH".....And I do have to agree with her...:)

[redqueen]

9. hahahahahaha

I live in a town of less than 2K, but we don't have that.. it's pretty nice!

Thanks for the story and the smile. :)

Okay well we do have the slow drivers... but I'm getting used to it.

[billyskank]

11. I like it when 3 cars all pull up simultaneously at a roundabout

there are a few really tiny roundabouts where I live, which are nothing more than a white circle painted on the road. The ettiquette is, you give way to your right, i.e. whoever is already going round the roundabout has right of way.

But there is no ettiquette for when three cars all arrive at the same time, which happens surprisingly often! You get all three sitting there, wondering, who the fuck is supposed to go?

[1gobluedem]

12. And then there's the opposite

The campus where I work has many, many 3 and 4 way stops. Apparently students believe that it means stop for a split second and then go no matter what the correct order is. :crazy:

[cwydro]

13. ROTFL

:rofl:
You should write comedy! Oh wait, you just did...

[rug]

14. .

[HarukaTheTrophyWife]

15. Four-way stops are the dumbest traffic control idea ever.

NO ONE EVER KNOWS WHO SHOULD BE GOING! Someone is going to always end up being that asshole who goes, even if they did originally have the right of way.

The town next to mine has them everywhere, but not on the busy mainstreet, where they intelligently just use traffic lights. No. They've decided to make most of the tiny little side streets four-way stops. There is no reason that simply having a regular two-way stop would be insufficent. I'm convinced these retarded 4-way stops must cause way more accidents than necessary, but yes I do regularly experience that dilemma.

Fortunately, since I'm in NJ, I don't experience too much of the slow drivers, even in the really rural parts. If someone is going obscenely slow, they're usually from PA. PA drivers will act like maniacs in their homeland, but you dump them in NJ and they drive at the relative speed of a stoned grandmother.

[Lydia Leftcoast]

16. My take on small town driving (after seven years of living in a

small Oregon town)

Me (walking the six block to downtown Small Oregon Town)

Acquaintance: (pulls up in car) Where are you headed?

Me: Downtown.

Acquaintance: Is your car in the shop?

Me: No.

Acquaintance: (shrugs) Well, I can give you a ride.

Me: Oh, no thankyou.

Acquaintance: It's really no trouble.

Me: Actually, I prefer to walk.

Acquaintance: Really, it's no trouble.

Me: No, I'm walking for exercise.

Acquaintance: Look, I'm going all the way to the Local Restaurant. I could drop you off anywhere along Third Street.

Me: No, really, I'm walking voluntarily.

Acquaintace: You are? (thinks about this)

Me: Yes, I like to walk.

Acquaintance: You do? (thinks about this) Okay, but I'll be at the Local Restaurant for about an hour, so if you need a ride home, just look me up there.

**************

True story: I was walking along the Third Street mentioned in the dialogue above, when a woman got out of her car and asked where the Local Fabric Store was. I told her that it was two blocks down the street. "Oh," she sighed. "I'll have to drive then."

I continued walking, and I had passed the Local Fabric Store while she was still circling the block looking for a parking space.

I refer to people like that as "car potatoes."