As my readers know, I occasionally round up a list of things that annoy me and blog about them. My last installment was back on August, so I thought it was time for another edition. Having just returned from a ten-day trip, I thought I would do a travel edition of my pet peeves.
Here are just a few things that annoyed me while I was on the road:
- Official signs on the Interstate that tell us what food and gas are available at the next exit – There should be a law that says any restaurant or gas station that is listed on that sign must be within a half mile of the exit. I hate getting off the Interstate only to find that I have to go two or three miles away from the Interstate to find the store I want. On the flip side, I love the signs at the end of the exit ramp that tell which direction each store is and how far.
- Turn signals – I know it is common place to complain that people don’t use turn signals. But this is actually a complaint about people that do. On a highway, a turn signal is supposed to indicate your intention to change lanes. It is supposed to be turned on for a second or two before you change lanes, not as you are in the process of changing lanes. When you swerve into my lane in front of me at the last second, the fact that you turned on your blinker at that same moment is hardly helpful.
- People who don’t know how to drive an SUV – Being able to afford an SUV is not the same as being able to handle one. It is a large vehicle and is not driven the same as a car. When I drove buses in Alaska, I had to get a commercial drivers license. The fact that you can own and operate an SUV without any special training is ridiculous.
- Interstate exits that are inappropriately numbered – The Interstate system is designed to be logical. North-south routes are odd numbered. West-east routes are even numbered. Major arteries have numbers evenly divisible by five. And mile markers increase from west to east or north to south depending on the orientation of the Interstate. Exits are supposed to be numbered according to the nearest mile marker, but not all states comply with this convention. I find that annoying. If I know my exit number and my current location, that should give me the ability to calculate how far I have to go. When the exits are number sequentially instead of according to the closest mile marker, it messes up the system. For the record, Massachusetts and Connecticut both number their exits wrong.
- Interstates numbered incorrectly – While I am on the subject of Interstate numbering, I should point out that some Interstates are numbered incorrectly. By law, an Interstate with two numbers must end at another interstate, and international border, or an ocean. Interstates with three numbers are either loops or spurs. Loops begin and end at Interstates and have an even first number, while spurs, which have an odd first number, can simply run out. Some Interstates do not follow this logic. For instance, I–83 in Baltimore simply ends at the Inner Harbor, which violates the rules of Interstate numbering. To be consistent, the part of I–83 that runs inside of I–695 should be renumbered to something like I–383.
- Connecticut – I experienced four backups driving the 125 miles through Connecticut. This is twice as many backups as I experienced in the other fifteen states combined. Most of these backups could have been avoided. One was caused by a junction between one Interstate and another. There was only one lane on the exit between them, but things could have flowed smoothly if everyone had simply moved into the right lane and waited their turn. Instead, a large number of cars rushed to the front of the line and forced their way in. They blocked the left two lanes while trying to push their way into the front of the line. This backed up the traffic in all three lanes for two miles. At another spot, I experienced a three mile backup in the north-bound lane because people were rubber-necking to see an accident in the south-bound lane. (Flashing police lights are so mesmerizing.) I remember this from the five years I lived in Connecticut. Drivers in Connecticut are not the best drivers in the world, and this combined with a lack of manners makes driving in Connecticut a frustrating experience.
- People who think signs don’t apply to them – When I got home to my parking garage, I was presented once again with a familiar sight: SUVs, trucks, and station wagons parking in spaces marked “Compact Cars Only.” I drive a station wagon, so I don’t park in these spots. But apparently other people think that these rules don’t have to be followed. So, they park in these spots, which means that people in small cars can’t open their car doors. Often, an SUV parking on one of these spots takes up two spots, which means there are fewer available spaces for the rest of us. Apparently, these people are willing to inconvenience lots of other people just to avoid parking twenty feet farther from the door.
Granted, most of these are minor inconveniences, but when you experience all of them multiple times over the course of a ten-day trip, they add up.
I first encountered the Phelps group when they were trolling on a Baptist discussion list back in 1994. When they picketed the Episcopal convention in Philadelphia a few years later, I managed to sneak through the police line that had been set up to protect them. While they were holding up their reprehensible signs, I held up mine that said, “God Loves Gays.” Unfortunately, the picture at the right is the only shot available of the event. It was taken back when digital cameras took pictures at 64 kilopixels.
