Oh, man did I just get lucky. On my way home after a series of shopping frustrations and traffic hassles, I pulled into the left turn lane(s) to get past a long line of traffic, speeding toward the green arrows, only to see them turn yellow before I could make my turn. I can also get home by going straight through the light, which turned green after the left turn arrows went red. I normally wouldn’t do it but there were two beats and the person at the front of the line hadn’t moved. And I still has momentum. So I was that guy and blew on through the intersection merging back into the straight lane, bypassing all that traffic.
After I was committed, I noticed that the first car at the light coming in the opposite direction was a cop. Either they didn’t notice me or they didn’t care. I expected to see them to turn on their lights and chase me but they didn’t. The car that should’ve been behind me was also egregiously invisible; fucking slacker. But that also meant that they were giving the cop plenty of space to turn around and give chase.
Whew!
Maybe it was good karma because earlier this morning i gave up first position in the right lane at the light and merged behind some cars in the straight only lane because someone behind me turned on their signal well before they got to the intersection. (Holy run-on sentence, Batman!) I normally won’t be first in the right lane if I’m going straight but it’s been one of those days and I was ready to assume that I was giving up pole position to someone else who wasn’t going to turn. But I’m a big believer in signaling your turn early and giving up the right lane to people wanting to turn. So I hope that driver (two drivers in consecutive cars, actually) noticed me stepping on the brakes and merging into the left lane behind traffic about 30 yds from the light so they could make their turn.