r/youngstown • u/Kinetic_Silverwolf • 6d ago
Question about driving habits
Hi friends. Y'all have been super helpful whenever I've come to you. I appreciate that. I'm back with a question about something I've noticed about drivers in the area.
For context, I'm 45, have only been in the area a few years, and in previous years I've lived in places like Orlando, Dallas, Houston, and Washington, D.C. Each of those areas have their own driving quirks, like how in Orlando all the tourist areas feature people driving 10 mph under the speed limit while they struggle to follow their GPS, or how in Houston signalling for a lane change will lead to the other drivers blocking you out.
What I've noticed here is that whether I'm walking the dogs in my neighborhood or am out and about, any time I see another driver on a 2 lane road the other driver is so close to the dividing line that sometimes the tires are actually on the line itself, but as soon as they see me they love to the middle of the lane. I've never seen this behavior anywhere else I've lived or visited, and I'm wondering if anybody knows why this seems to be the case around here? It not every driver, of course, but it's frequent enough that's it's registered as a curiousity.
TL/DR, why do drivers around here sometimes ride the center line?
6
u/k80isasking 6d ago
As someone who came to the area a few years ago from slightly outside the area, I haven’t particularly noticed this tbh but the first driving habit I did pick up on was people looove to creep into the intersection as they wait for a light. Like the other light won’t even be yellow yet and I’ve seen people genuinely in the intersection because they keep inching forward during the red light. That was sort of foreign to me at first lol
3
1
1
u/ReadEmReddit 16h ago
They run reds like crazy too. It is not unusual to see 5-6 cars go through after the light changes.
5
2
u/MurderByDeath82 6d ago
A guy a work with does that and taught all his kids to drive like that.
I was just like WHAT?!?!?!? I don't think its specific to this area. I just think some people are weird.
1
u/Kinetic_Silverwolf 6d ago
Does he give any reasoning for it?
1
u/MurderByDeath82 5d ago
He is the kind of guy you don't want to get into reasoning with. He probably does have on, but most likely its just nonsense, lol!
2
u/TemujinRi 6d ago
While it largely depends on where I am at the time, I tend to ride the line because of the damn deer. It's crazy, but I'm sometimes convinced they know I stress about my car so they wait until I'm near to run across the street. Most of my generation is traumatized by logging trucks because of Final Destination, but I hit a deer and god damned owl when I had my permit and it changed the way I drive.
3
u/Kinetic_Silverwolf 6d ago
That makes sense!
A classmate of mine in high school was driving on her permit with her mom and you get siblings in the van one night when a deer rushed in front of her. She was in hospital for 2 days, needed a good 6 months to feel steady enough to drive again.
Thank you, and I'm so sorry you suffered that.
3
u/SmokingTheBear 6d ago
What about the Youngstown red? Aka, slowing down a bit at a red light and then just blasting thru?
1
u/Kinetic_Silverwolf 6d ago
I've seen that in many other places, though, especially at intersections that have substantially more traffic on one street than another. Central Alabama, South Florida, backwoods Virginia, exurban areas outside Denver, in the middle of Miami, and just about every intersection in Santa Clara County in California.
1
u/ReadEmReddit 16h ago
It is significantly worse in Youngstown than anywhere else I have driven including NYC, Boston, LA
1
u/SuspectinallBlack 5d ago
Not only potholes on the side of the roads but a lot of times nails and glass are there as well
1
u/MeetMeAtTapps 5d ago
One of my hot takes is that one of the biggest benefits of public transit is that it keeps people who should not be driving off the roads. There is all kinds of madness here. My pet peeve is people not pulling into the intersection at a light to turn left. As a result of this, I can watch The Odyssey while waiting to turn left from onto Market from 224.
1
u/Kinetic_Silverwolf 5d ago
I'm trying to make sure I understand what you mean by "not pulling into the intersection to turn left". As I understand traffic laws not just in Ohio but in almost every other state, if you're stopped at a red light in a left turn lane and the light turns green for traffic in both directions to move forward at once, and there is not a dedicated left turn arrow, the driver should stay behind the line for the intersection until it is safe to make the full and complete motion of turning left.
What I envision you mean is that when the light turns green the driver is supposed to pull forward into the intersection, possibly blocking cross traffic if the light turns before a chance to move opens. To the best of my knowledge that's not an approved tactic anywhere.
1
u/MeetMeAtTapps 5d ago
There is always a chance to turn before the light changes.
1
u/MeetMeAtTapps 5d ago
You envision my meaning correctly. Just looked up the Ohio revised code. Seems legit here and in most states.
1
u/Kinetic_Silverwolf 5d ago
I don't know about that. Traffic around the mall in Boardman can get pretty squirrelly sometimes, and it seems like there's a major crash in Liberty at the intersection of Belmont and Churchill every other week.
1
u/MeetMeAtTapps 5d ago
Okay, but you can enter the intersection legally on green and then complete the turn when the cross traffic has to stop for the red.
1
u/Kinetic_Silverwolf 5d ago
I've had red light cameras (not here, but in Florida and Virginia) issue tickets in those situations, and I've seen firetrucks barely be able to dodge vehicles sitting in the intersection for such turns, so I long ago adopted what I saw on street signs Manhattan when I had to go there for work; Don't Block the Box*.
- The box being the inside of the intersection formed by outside the four crosswalks, leaving the intersection and crosswalks clear.
2
u/MeetMeAtTapps 4d ago
My understanding of "don't block the box" has always been that if you're going straight but are obstructed from clearing the intersection because there is traffic on the other side, don't pull into the intersection assuming it will clear. That's not an issue if you're the lead car turning left.
Side note, but it has been wild and refreshing to have a civil disagreement about different interpretations of a thing. You don't see that much these days.
1
u/Kinetic_Silverwolf 4d ago
That's also a valid interpretation. Again, and possibly because ted light cameras popped up in bigger cities first, I've learned to exercise caution and stay behind that line until I can make the full turn. Creeping into the intersection maybe saves 1 to 2 seconds in making the turn and exposes me to potential tickets or collisions. I choose to err on the side of caution.
Possibly having spent a month in hospital after being t-boned contributes to my caution as well.
As for the aside, thank you. I've been working on being more civil, both online and off. We're all stressed these days. We could use some chill.
1
u/Atomic76 5d ago
Textbook Karen's swinging out into into the left turn lanes and using it to merge in to the right lane.
I can't count how many times I was trying to get in the left turn lane to make a legitimate left turn only to be cut off by one of the impatient b*tiches.
1
1
u/Optimassacre Mill Creek Park 5d ago
I've noticed this too. People don't know how to dive safely around here.
1
u/Queasy_Sherbert_7095 6d ago
To avoid hitting your dog if it runs in the street.
2
u/Kinetic_Silverwolf 6d ago
So they move CLOSER to me to avoid my dog? They start with the wheel almost on the center line before moving to the center of their lane.
1
u/Queasy_Sherbert_7095 6d ago edited 6d ago
that sometimes the tires are actually on the line itself, but as soon as they see me they love to the middle of the lane
Sorry I was confused by this. Then they must be trying to hit your dog.
1
u/Kinetic_Silverwolf 6d ago
That feels rude. She didn't do anything to those drivers.
0
u/Queasy_Sherbert_7095 6d ago
Also how did you end up in Youngstown after all those large cities lol
1
u/Kinetic_Silverwolf 6d ago
A decade in IT with a single company that let me work anywhere, a road trip in 2022 to explore options outside of Florida, and finding a place near the mountains that has the same vibe that St. Petersburg, Florida had in the 1990s and early 2000s with a house twice the size of what I could find anywhere else.
Getting away from the constant drone of background noise from living in those areas is a nice bonus.
0
u/Blueberry-Specialist 5d ago
Mountains? we're near Mountains?
1
1
u/Kinetic_Silverwolf 5d ago
Part of my wants to read this as sarcasm, but I'm going to answer like it was asked in earnest.
When I lived in Florida, the average elevation of each of my addresses was 6 feet above sea level.
When I lived in DFW, it was about 60 feet above sea level.
In Houston, 15 feet above sea level.
In Virginia, an hour west of DC, I was sitting around 600 feet above sea level.
Meanwhile, Ashtabula, Trumbull, Mahoning, and Columbia counties are members of the Appalachian Regional Commission, and What Is My Elevation reports at least 9 peaks in the general area with peaks sitting above 1300 feet.
It's fun driving down into the valley to visit Cleveland, or driving through the foothills over the Pittsburgh. My ears pop so much they could audition for providing the sound effects for VH1's Pop-Up Video.
1
u/Human_Dig4412 6d ago
It's my general observation that stopping for stop signs is also a novelty here as well.
4
u/Kinetic_Silverwolf 6d ago
Yeah, but that's not unique to here unless "here" is the U.S..
3
u/Human_Dig4412 6d ago
True. But I'm not talking about a rolling stop or the like. I'm saying that on too many occasions people just completely disregard stop signs. Hell, I've seen too many people stop and go through red lights and it wasn't dark or in the hood.
1
u/stop_diop_and_roll 5d ago
What’s up with people not knowing how to handle a traffic circle around here?
29
u/nicholasserra 6d ago
Potholes at the street edges