My pet peeve is people who don’t know the rules of the road.
I often travel on 44 Avenue, the Stettler street that crosses Highway 56 by the Otherside Restaurant and the RCMP detachment.
On several occasions, as I travel westbound on 44 Avenue and stop at the stop sign on Highway 56, I’m confronted with people who obviously don’t know the difference between the rules of two-way stops and four-way stops.
Often times, once the traffic is clear and I proceed through the intersection, I get a somewhat unfriendly gesture from the motorist on the opposite side of the intersection who is attempting a left-hand turn. They think that because they were at the intersection first, they have the right-of-way and show obvious dissatisfaction with motorists like myself who proceed straight through the intersection.
Well, people — for your information — at a two-way stop, the straight-through traffic always has the right-of-way over traffic that’s turning. It doesn’t matter if you sat at that intersection for one hour, if you’re turning left across the traffic flow, you must yield to the straight-through oncoming traffic that might have only sat at the stop sign for one minute. It’s only at a four-way stop that whoever arrives there first also proceeds first.
That is my vent of the week, so folks, be sure you know the rules of the road before you decide to give someone that “unfriendly gesture.”
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