Sioux Falls Drivers Behaving Badly – November 10, 2021
Running people off the road and stopping traffic to unnecessarily allow a left turn make up the tales of travel trouble I have noted in Sioux Falls over the last few weeks.
Waiting to Merge Into My Fender
I was on my way home from work driving on northbound I-229. I got on at Louise Avenue. About the time I was under the Western Avenue bridge, a dark-colored SUV was reaching the bottom of the on-ramp in front of me, going fairly slow at first. I was catching up quickly but it sped up so that I was closing on it much more slowly. By the time I was halfway to the Minnesota Avenue exit, it was still on that far-right lane.
The on-ramp at Western stays as a lane all the way to the Minnesota Avenue off-ramp. Often times drivers will use it as a shortcut to hop over to Minnesota and never leave that lane. That's what I thought was happening with this SUV as it did not have its turn signal on and I was slowly creeping into its blind spot. It was going about 60 mph and I was going 65.
Suddenly the SUV starts merging into my lane about the time my front right fender is even with their back left fender. No turn signal was used prior to the lane change. It happened so fast I didn't even honk my horn. I instinctively mashed the brakes and barely missed trading paint with them.
This is why I often refer to I-229 as "The Racetrack."
Stopping Five Cars to Let One Turn Left
Yesterday I was driving south on Cliff Avenue waiting to turn left onto a residential street. Traffic was flowing and I was just waiting for a gap to make my turn. A woman driving a compact car in the oncoming left lane stopped and started waving for me to turn. Cars were stacking up behind her. I shook my head no and pointed at my eyes and then at the other oncoming lane in an attempt to tell her that I'm not going because I can't see the oncoming traffic in that lane. Then a man in a pickup stopped right next to her and he too started waving me in.
"Oh, good hell!" I said to no one in my car.
If you are wondering, no, they weren't making room at an intersection because traffic was backed up. It was flowing and she just started a backup of no less than four vehicles to let me turn.
This is why I love elevated boulevards and hate left turns.
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