Sunday, May 1

It's FOUR Feet

So I'm sitting in the left turn lane in downtown Salt Lake City at the corner of 3rd West and North Temple. Ultimate goal is to go southbound on 3rd West. You know the corner.

I'm sitting behind a couple cars, waiting our turn. At least it seems there are a couple cars. In fact, there's only one; and it is sitting a good fifteen feet from the crosswalk.

One signal. Two signals. On number three, I'm getting a bit steamed, and so are the drivers behind me, a good five or six by now. So I take the initiative, get out of my car, walk up to the oblivious female driver, and ask "Would you be so kind as to move your car up about ten feet?"

She does, as I'm walking back to my car. And wouldn't you know, on signal number four, we finally get a green arrow. And I can hear the applause from the drivers behind me.

OK, so this wasn't recently, as I have no real reason any more to be this far north, at least on a daily basis. I rarely get further north than about 60th South. This happened ten years or more ago. Since I'm sure it's now a nightmare in itself to make a left turn at that intersection, since North Temple is chewed up beyond any recognition of what it was previously.

Oh yeah, the point.

In Utah, there's an oft-misinterpreted law that says one must wait FOUR feet behind a crosswalk so as to not impede foot traffic in said crosswalk. I don't recall any such law in California where first I learnt to drive. In fact, I seem to recall getting that question wrong in my first written drivers' exam when I first got to Utah.

FOUR feet. Not FOURTEEN. And certainly not FORTY. Fellow Utahns: Take a look at how far some people are behind the crosswalk at your next red light.

NOW you know why.

1 comment:

Unknown said...

The stop line that is "sometimes" painted behind the crosswalk line is 4 feet away. That silly person you described and spoke to was too far away from the induction coil that senses the cars in the turning lanes and changes the protected arrow color from red to green. Utah drivers...

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