argh!
Being stuck behind a person who decides to stop at a green light is really cool. Especially when, in spite of people honking and passing on the left, they decide to stay there until the light turns red.
But what's even better is when, after the light changes - the light that was green but which you and the person in front of you are now legitimately stopped at, due to it's redness - an enormous freaking BUS pulls out of a parking lot and onto the road in front of you. And proceeds to travel, at 15mph, on tiny side streets that no bus has any business travelling, when they could have taken Moody Street instead of Newton Street, for the rest of your ride home.
I don't advocate aggressive driving and try to be patient (not always the case in my younger days but i've mellowed) behind the wheel. But come. the fuck. on.
I dunno. Maybe I need to just get the AC in my car fixed and relax.
But while i have my whining hat on:
WTF with the parking, people? There is an epi-fucking-demic of people parking overnight on the wrong side of my street, and subsequently obstructing two-way traffic in the morning. But do the Waltham parking enforcement people do anything about it? No, they're much to busy dealing with the very real menace to Civil Order presented by absent-minded slobs (ahem) who forgot to put a quarter in the meter before they got sucked into a pickup game at Danger Planet.
Now I realize you can't even park legally for $10 downtown, but as penalty for late payment for a service rendered - which is really what it is; no crime has been committed, no dangerous situation has been created, just a person using a service they forgot to pay for - the fine is exorbitant. Its like if you spaced out and forgot to pay your phone bill for a month, and then got hit with a $1,000 late fee.
EDIT: re the Green Light Lady - it should be noted that I drive a Honda, and therefore am physically incapable of "honking". I did however offer three friendly cautionary "beeps," at about 1-second intervals, to try to alert her to the fact that she was stopped at a green light as I was approching the intersection. The guy in the oversized silver pickup with the knobby tires who blew straight past us both in the left-turn-only lane at 40mph, however, simply made his point with the rumbling of his exhaust and the sound of 2 tons of steel moving much faster and much closer to you than anyone has any business being comfortable with.
But what's even better is when, after the light changes - the light that was green but which you and the person in front of you are now legitimately stopped at, due to it's redness - an enormous freaking BUS pulls out of a parking lot and onto the road in front of you. And proceeds to travel, at 15mph, on tiny side streets that no bus has any business travelling, when they could have taken Moody Street instead of Newton Street, for the rest of your ride home.
I don't advocate aggressive driving and try to be patient (not always the case in my younger days but i've mellowed) behind the wheel. But come. the fuck. on.
I dunno. Maybe I need to just get the AC in my car fixed and relax.
But while i have my whining hat on:
WTF with the parking, people? There is an epi-fucking-demic of people parking overnight on the wrong side of my street, and subsequently obstructing two-way traffic in the morning. But do the Waltham parking enforcement people do anything about it? No, they're much to busy dealing with the very real menace to Civil Order presented by absent-minded slobs (ahem) who forgot to put a quarter in the meter before they got sucked into a pickup game at Danger Planet.
Now I realize you can't even park legally for $10 downtown, but as penalty for late payment for a service rendered - which is really what it is; no crime has been committed, no dangerous situation has been created, just a person using a service they forgot to pay for - the fine is exorbitant. Its like if you spaced out and forgot to pay your phone bill for a month, and then got hit with a $1,000 late fee.
EDIT: re the Green Light Lady - it should be noted that I drive a Honda, and therefore am physically incapable of "honking". I did however offer three friendly cautionary "beeps," at about 1-second intervals, to try to alert her to the fact that she was stopped at a green light as I was approching the intersection. The guy in the oversized silver pickup with the knobby tires who blew straight past us both in the left-turn-only lane at 40mph, however, simply made his point with the rumbling of his exhaust and the sound of 2 tons of steel moving much faster and much closer to you than anyone has any business being comfortable with.