I must just say that I really hate Missouri driving. I have never gotten more frustrated on a more consistent basis than I do driving here in Springfield. Here are just some of the things that make me crazy:
1- People in Springfield don’t use turn signals.
2- People in Springfield text and drive. This may be true of drivers everywhere, but I never really saw it until I came here.
3- People in Springfield are overly cautious about starting through green lights. I think this is my biggest annoyance. Today I watched as a turning arrow turned green, then yellow, then went out before the first car had turned, and it was NOT a short green arrow. I have seen people sit and watch for a full twenty seconds before venturing timidly into the intersection. When people finally do start into an intersection, they take about twenty seconds to get up to 40 mph.
4- People in Springfield do not know how to work the right-of-way at four-way stop signs. If two or more cars pull up to a four-way stop at the same time, they will sit there… and sit there…sometimes they wave, each trying to get the other to go first into the scary intersection.
5- People in Springfield have no idea what to do with nice drivers. I don’t know how many times I’ve tried to let a car from a side road or lane into traffic by slowing down. They don’t get it. The drivers sit and stare at you as if there is something wrong. Even if you wave them in… they don’t come. Or if they do, they wait the mandatory twenty seconds before venturing into the roadway. I’ve quit trying to be a nice driver here because it just causes problems.
6- People in Springfield don’t know how to use multiple lanes. This is what the typical car lineup is at a stop light:
At first I thought it was people turning (and not using their turn signals), but no, cars just stack up in one lane. Cars will wait for the next green light to stay in their lane. It’s not always the right lane, either. Sometimes it’s different lanes at the same intersection depending on the time of day. I don’t understand it. I really believe that you can cut down your travel time by 30% just by switching out of the busy lanes.
All that being said, people here do seem to wear their seat belts pretty consistently. I guess that’s one thing they’ve got going for them….
So true.
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