[genewitch]

Nothing annoys humans more than someone who obeys traffic laws in front of them. I've read the vehicle code, i know where you're supposed to leave gaps, time to clear, how long to stop. People get mighty aggressive if they perceive you as "losing them time".

At least here in the deep south people don't pack intersections before a light change like they did in southern california, that made driving way more tedious than it needed to be. Nothing like being at the front of the line, light changes in your favor, and you gotta wait for all the late-left-turn people sitting in the intersection.

eta: after watching the video; I've never seen a human do this without being impaired in some way. That is, i've only seen this a couple of times, and it was obvious the person shouldn't have been driving.

[deepsun]

I've driven in many states, and IMO the state doesn't matter (north/south etc), but the metro size. The bigger the city -- the worse people drive. E.g. Chicago is pretty bad, being north.

[oglop]

No. Boston drivers are just about the worst I’ve seen. Worse than LA. Worse than any southern city. Boston isn’t small but it isn’t LA but it’s far worse.

[seanmcdirmid]

Have you driven in New Orleans before? It’s a small metro, but some of the craziest most aggressive driving I’ve ever seen.

[genewitch]

Dallas is worse, depending on how you define "aggressive." (i live ~2 hours from NOLA and ~5 away from Dallas.) During rush hour i traffic break and Dallas and Vegas have the highest ratio of people that will do the "cut you off then brake because there's only 100' of runway, there". NOLA feels like inept drivers (oblivious is how i describe many Louisiana drivers, in general!)

[seanmcdirmid]

I was living in Vicksburg as a kid, so the three big cities we would visit were Memphis to the north, New Orleans to the south, and Dallas to the west (skip Shreveport). And…I have no memories about crazy drivers cutting lanes like they didn’t exist in Dallas or Memphis.

[jesseendahl]

>At least here in the deep south people don't pack intersections before a light change like they did in southern california, that made driving way more tedious than it needed to be.

In many many many intersections in LA, there is no protected left, so the only way to turn left is to sit in the intersection and then turn on red. I’ve seen a lot of people from the suburbs not understand this, and let 2 or 3 cycles of the light go by before they realize. And everyone sitting behind them waiting to also turn left gets (understandably imo) really annoyed.

[colanderman]

We solved this problem in Massachusetts, it's called the "Massachusetts left". So long as you're the lead car stopped at a red light. The moment it turns green (or ideally, just before) you slam on the gas and whip left in front of oncoming traffic.

In fact it's the one time you can use your blinker as an honest signal and oncoming traffic will actually wait for you to make the left and get annoyed if you don't.

Just make sure to check the license plate of the lead car in the oncoming lane, if it's not a MA plate abort!

[HeatrayEnjoyer]

I cannot fathom that this is a sanctioned traffic move. What is to stop someone driving straight from also gunning it on green?

[colanderman]

In Texas there was a cowboy.

Everywhere he drove, he'd run red lights at full speed.

He had a passenger one day, who asked him, why don't you stop, that's dangerous!

He said, it's because I'm a cowboy.

Soon they came upon a green light. The cowboy hit the brakes and came to a complete stop.

The passenger asked, why'd you stop, the light's green!

The cowboy said, we gotta stop because there might be another cowboy coming through.

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(To actually answer your question -- you have to watch the opposing driver. If they hesitate, or ideally, flash their headlights, you're good. If they also gun it, abort and hang out in the intersection until red. Exchange gestures as appropriate.)