Rant: Driving and Traffic in Pittsburgh

It’s been a while since I’ve really gone on any rants, but I’ve been rather pissed lately when I drive my car, and I don’t like it… I loved driving, but now I hate it, I hate these mother fucking prick ass bastard drivers out there today…

I live in Pittsburgh, not by choice but by birth, and yeah sadly I’m still here.. but it’s not really that bad… unless you drive everywhere as I do…

Pittsburgh has lots of tunnels and for some unknown reason people feel they must hit the breaks when they come to a tunnel… Five days per week I drive through a tunnel going towards town, called the Squirrel Hill Tunnel, in the mornings, and every 4 out of those five days traffic enters the tunnel going 10 miles per hour, but yet exits doing 60 mph… There’s some time-tunnel effect going on that I just can’t explain I guess. And this need to brake for tunnels causes traffic to back up for miles and miles… This not only happens in the morning but of course in the evening coming out of town as well. I don’t understand it, why do people feel the need to slow down or brake for tunnels? It’s just a tunnel, it’s not going to collapse on you, it’s not going to close, it’s open on the other end honestly ….

The next thing I’d like to know is WHEN was a law enacted that allowed a LEFT turn on RED? When the opposing traffic has a green light… The other day myself and my family were almost killed by this asshole who felt he was special and allowed to turn on red… My light turned green, dude drove up and actually stopped for the red light, I started to go and then the dude made his left turn on red, if I wasn’t paying attention we would have been in a nice accident… This isn’t an isolated incident either it happens all the time!

Speaking of red lights what makes people think they are so fucking special that they don’t have to stop for them? What makes you so important that you don’t have to obey the laws?!? The other day my wife asked me why I was slowing down coming to an intersection where my light was green, just then some moron sped though their red light right past us… DUH, wonder why I slowed down…
Speaking of left turns, every morning when I take my youngest son to daycare I go on the Blvd of the Allies, a main road to PGH, well near his daycare is Magee Women’s Hospital and one of their parking lots is across the street. There are two signs there that say NO LEFT TURN 7AM to 9A, this is there because it is dangerous with the morning rush hour traffic, but yet at least three times per week I get stuck behind some asshole turning left and backing up traffic…

The same goes with STOP signs as well!! It says STOP, not slow down and continue on through, and especially it doesn’t mean to SPEED UP if you see someone coming though the intersection so you can cut them off and almost kill them!

I live on a main thoroughfare where you can only park on one side of the street, and that would be the side I live on, so I basically have to drive on a parallel stree, pass my house and turn left, and then left to get onto my street to get to my house. The street I go up has stop signs at the intersection I go up and I don’t have a stop sign, so this means I have the right of way, people are supposed to stop and let the traffic coming though the intersection proceed, but no, no one ever does, well maybe 1 time per week someone actually stops and lets me through. Yesterday I was coming home, cruising through, chick on cellphone totally ignores the stop sign and just go right through it, I had to slam on my brakes to stop from getting hit by her… and then I proceeded through the intersection, but apparently dude who was coming the other way didn’t like the fact that I had the right of way and decided to ride up on my bumper beeping the horn, if my kid was not in the car I would have happily slammed on the breaks to see what the problem was exactly… I don’t get it?!?! he was pissed at me for NOT having a STOP sign and he did?!?!?!?

I’m on a roll here… SO since when did turn signals NOT become a standard item on cars? I have followed people and have watched them NEVER use a turn signal, too busy on the phone to reach over and hit the lever to let drivers behind them know they are turning.. The best is when they stop to make the turn, I can’t figure out why the hell the guy is stopping?! There’s no STOP sign, no LIGHTS, but yet they’re stopping.. OH they’re turning! I should have knew that huh?

As I mentioned I live on a main street, but where I live, on my side is just a strip of 10 houses with woods on either side and behind, and then houses again past the woods..so where the woods are there is no sidewalk, sucks having to cross the street… My wife took the car today because she had class so I had to walk to get the kids their haircut, this involved crossing this main thoroughfare.. Not fun… So there we stood, waiting for a break in the traffic or some nice person to stop and let us cross, 10 cars go by, 15 cars go by, 20 cars go by.. all looking at us as they drive by, I guess they’re wondering why were standing on the side of the road or something (DUH!)… SO, along comes a Police Car, I’m thinking GREAT now’s our chance, the officer will stop to let us cross the street right? NO FUCKING WAY DID HE STOP! He looked right at us as he drove by… Ignorant prick.. eventually we made it, but of course we had to repeat that again coming home… fun-fun

I drive a lot, and I see all sorts of just amazing things going on in other cars.. personally I hate talking on the phone in the car, it’s just too distracting, especially if I have my kids in the car with me. If someone calls me I’ll let voicemail get it or I’ll answer it (if it’s not in my pocket) and tell them I’m driving and call them back when I’m not driving, but I see like every other car driver talking on the phone… There was a time my wife worked the 6:30am shift, and we left he house at 6am, who the hell where all these people taking to at 6AM? What is so important that you have to talk while you’re driving? Better yet what is on the floor of the passenger side of your car that you just have to bend down and get while you’re driving?!? Another one would be to women: why the hell don’t you set your alarm early enough so you can put your makeup on at home and NOT WHILE DRIVING!

One thing I guess is that I can say that after you drive here for a while you get accustomed to the assholes out there, but why should I have to get accustomed to assholes who break the law and feel they are better than everyone else?!? Why can’t they just obey the laws! What the fuck is so important that you feel the need to endanger my life, the lives of my family and the lives of everyone else on the road?!

Oh and last I checked, when a school bus is stopped with blinking lights and the little STOP sign is out, that means traffic stops in both directions right?! That law is still the same as far as I know… But the other day when I was going to pick my son up from daycare, the school bus comes across the intersection and stops a bit behind me going the other way, now I’m past the bus so I can continue on, but I still have a red light… So I watch as traffic comes through the intersection only to have to stop behind the bus, and in the lane next to the bus, it’s two lanes, the bus is in the curb lane… Well the light starts to change, yellow, then red, of course you get the asshole blowing through the red light.. some dumb chick blows through, only to run full speed smack into the guy stopped for the school bus… this literally happened right next to me, her window was right next to me and I just looked at her and laughed and continued on my merry way… it was funny, really it was…

Oh well.. enough for now.. I feel better! Sort of, until tomorrow, or now.. when I have to run out and get cigs..

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