Intersection irritation

Moving back to mom and dad's house messed with my commute.

It's longer by about 15 minutes, which means I have to get out of bed earlier. That's never good.

There's a railroad crossing about a mile north of our house. Trains sometimes come to a dead stop on the tracks--like last night--and block all north/south travel. Everyone scrambles east or west which clogs the nearby surface streets. Rather waiting for the train to get its choo out of the way, I took a detour to KFC and picked up dinner.

I also pass two more schools on the way to work. Every day there's a new San Marino High School student darting in front of my car, ambitious to be my hood ornament.

Those items I navigate with varying degrees of finesse or frustration, depending on how late I'm running. But what I find most vexing are the stealth left turners at the intersection of Winston Street and Huntington Drive.

It takes a while to cross six lanes of Huntington drive at the Winston intersection. Winston has two lanes. You can turn left or go straight from the left lane and go straight or turn right from the right lane.

I generally avoid the left lane if I see left turners signaling their intent. But sometimes I'll pull into the left lane if there's one car ahead of me that's not signaling to make a turn. However, as soon as the signal turns green, BAM. The driver flips on the left turn signal. Now everyone behind that car is trapped until the stealth left turner turns left or until the right lane clears to go around the sly lefty.

I don't get the last-minute signaling. There doesn't seem to be any "cost" to the driver in front to have the turn signal on the whole time we sit waiting for a green light. The failure to signal does cost all drivers behind the stealth lefty. What's that about? The driver who inconveniences the most other drivers with a surprise turn signal wins?

Maybe I should be glad these boneheads signal at all--and make a habit of choosing the right lane.