You know you're driving in MN when...
I know I've complained about Minnesota drivers before, and I'll continue to do so until I can drive my <10 minute commute to or from work and not see someone do something completely stupd/illegal. I still maintain that MN drivers are the worst because there is just no way to predict what you're going to get. Will this be the driver who is slightly aggressive and impatient, or will this be the passive-aggressive tailgaiter, or will this be the oblivious one who turns right with his left turn signal on? I've definitely seen examples of these drivers everywhere I've driven, but I've never seen them in the numbers or random patterns that we seem to get here.
I tried to find some good images online to explain some of the recent traffic nonsense we've seen recently, but can't really come up with anything. So you'll have to use your imagination.
Scenario 1:
You are driving on a four lane divided road (two lanes in either direction with a median in between). You're in the left lane, because you know that you will come to a T intersection at which you will have to turn either left or right; you need to turn left. There are no signs indicating that a double-left turn is appropriate. As you patiently wait for the line of cars in front of you to turn once the light changes to green, you notice the car in the right hand land decides to turn left.
Scenario 2:
You are driving on a four lane not divided road. You are in the left lane because at many parts of the road, cars are parked in the right lane, effectively leaving only one lane for driving. At the traffic light coming up, you see a car in the right lane with its left turn signal on, and a line of parked cars in the lane across the street. You slow down to allow the car in front of you, only to watch it turn right instead.
Scenario 3:
You are stopped at a red light, third in line. You can see through the car ahead of you and realize that the car is stopped a good 1.5 car lengths behind the first car in line.
Scenario 3.25:
The traffic light for the cross traffic starts to turn to yellow then to red. At the first hint of yellow, the first car (and maybe also the second car) starts creeping out into traffic. There is a delay between the red light for cross traffic and the green light for your direction. By the time the light turns green, the first and/or second cars have crept half-way through the intersection.
Scenario 3.5:
The first car stays put through the whole red light and begins to move when the light turns green. You realize that the car ahead of you stopped so far behind the first car because the driver needs to spend the whole light cycle slowly creeping up and up and up until the light changes.
Scenario 3.75:
You are actually the second car in the line. You can see through the car ahead of you and realize that the driver stopped a good 1.5 or more car lengths behind the stop line. The car either a) stays put the whole time, refusing to move up to the stop line, or b) uses the entire length of the red light to creep into the intersection.