Monkeys Have Good Peripheral Vision
 

Scott en Aztlán wrote:

> So I'm in the right through lane of a six lane arterial surface street
> (3 lanes each direction, plus 2 dedicated left turn lanes and a
> dedicated right turn lane) at a red light. In the #2 lane to my left
> is a power blue Crown Vic; its driver has a cell phone held up to his
> right ear. To his left in the #1 lane is another car, the exact make
> and model of which I was not able to discern because the Crown Vic was
> blocking my view of it.
>
> As the cross traffic's cycle ended and the protected green arrow came
> on for our direction, the driver of the car in the #1 lane sees the
> green light in his peripheral vision and takes off. The monkey in the
> Crown Vic sees Monkey #1 start to move, and he starts to go, also.
> Both slam on their brakes when they realize that a solid line of
> vehicles is turning left in front of them, leaving the front ends of
> their vehicles hanging out embarrassingly in the intersection.
>
> It's just another example of Monkey See, Monkey Do.
>

I learned not to do that after exactly one incident. I was working as a
pizza delivery driver one summer while I was in college, leaving the
store I was following an older station wagon. She went to go on to the
main road and I followed, planning to stop at the stop sign. Well, she
misjudged it - and slammed her wagon into reverse. You've never seen
anyone work a stickshift as fast as I did that day! Good thing there
was nobody behind me because if there were I had nowhere to go - and she
wasn't paying any attention at all.

I find it hard to believe that everyone on the road has missed out on
such experiences, but watching people drive leads me to believe that
they sure didn't learn from them.

nate

--
replace "fly" with "com" to reply.
http://home.comcast.net/~njnagel

On Sun, 19 Dec 2004 07:38:36 -0800, Scott en Aztlán
> wrote:

>So I'm in the right through lane of a six lane arterial surface street
>(3 lanes each direction, plus 2 dedicated left turn lanes and a
>dedicated right turn lane) at a red light. In the #2 lane to my left
>is a power blue Crown Vic; its driver has a cell phone held up to his
>right ear. To his left in the #1 lane is another car, the exact make
>and model of which I was not able to discern because the Crown Vic was
>blocking my view of it.

Power blue? These details are important, ya' know. I can forgive you
for not getting the make and model of the car you couldn't see very
well, but we need to know. We also need to know the year, the engine
size, brand and treadwear of the tires, and whether there were any
fuzzy dice or air fresheners hanging from the rear-view.

>
>As the cross traffic's cycle ended and the protected green arrow came
>on for our direction, the driver of the car in the #1 lane sees the
>green light in his peripheral vision and takes off. The monkey in the
>Crown Vic sees Monkey #1 start to move, and he starts to go, also.
>Both slam on their brakes when they realize that a solid line of
>vehicles is turning left in front of them, leaving the front ends of
>their vehicles hanging out embarrassingly in the intersection.
>
>It's just another example of Monkey See, Monkey Do.

Hey, nobody's perfect....

I monkeyed the guy to the left of me (he was in left turn lane and had
the arrow, I was going straight and still had a red).

But I'm smarter than your average monkey so I stopped before I was
even in the crosswalk, but the blue Suburban to my right "monkeyed' on
my own manoevre - I couldn't see through the Suburban, but presumably
this ripple effect could have continued thru 2 more lanes.

On Sun, 19 Dec 2004 07:38:36 -0800, Scott en Aztlán
> wrote:

>So I'm in the right through lane of a six lane arterial surface street
>(3 lanes each direction, plus 2 dedicated left turn lanes and a
>dedicated right turn lane) at a red light. In the #2 lane to my left
>is a power blue Crown Vic; its driver has a cell phone held up to his
>right ear. To his left in the #1 lane is another car, the exact make
>and model of which I was not able to discern because the Crown Vic was
>blocking my view of it.

Power blue? These details are important, ya' know. I can forgive you
for not getting the make and model of the car you couldn't see very
well, but we need to know. We also need to know the year, the engine
size, brand and treadwear of the tires, and whether there were any
fuzzy dice or air fresheners hanging from the rear-view.

>
>As the cross traffic's cycle ended and the protected green arrow came
>on for our direction, the driver of the car in the #1 lane sees the
>green light in his peripheral vision and takes off. The monkey in the
>Crown Vic sees Monkey #1 start to move, and he starts to go, also.
>Both slam on their brakes when they realize that a solid line of
>vehicles is turning left in front of them, leaving the front ends of
>their vehicles hanging out embarrassingly in the intersection.
>
>It's just another example of Monkey See, Monkey Do.

Hey, nobody's perfect....

I monkeyed the guy to the left of me (he was in left turn lane and had
the arrow, I was going straight and still had a red).

But I'm smarter than your average monkey so I stopped before I was
even in the crosswalk, but the blue Suburban to my right "monkeyed' on
my own manoevre - I couldn't see through the Suburban, but presumably
this ripple effect could have continued thru 2 more lanes.