One thing I’ve noticed since moving to North Carolina is that the drivers here aren’t very good at driving. This is something that gets said in any locality, I know. But never before have I encountered so many people so desperate to get where they’re going that they completely disregard things like yield signs and other cars. It’s a fairly simple concept, yield. If there are other cars coming on the road you’re turning on to, stop. If not, don’t stop. And yet it seems to be completely alien to most drivers here in the Triangle.

There’s a particularly interesting merge on 501 North where 147 North exits onto an offramp to Hillsborough Road. The offramp from 147 North onto the 501 North offramp to Hillsborough Road has a yield. So the people coming off 147 should stop if there are drivers on the exit from 501. No one does this. The exit becomes a mad dash of acceleration and brake lights. It is the Thunderdome of my evening commute.

Yield is not a controversial idea as far as I know. Even in downtown Washington, DC it is fairly well understood. But I have yet to find a posted yield sign in the Triangle that is regularly obeyed. Not that I’d be hard pressed to find one in DC that is regularly ignored, but this isn’t the capital city of the nation we’re talking about here.