DAZE WORK: Time to relearn rules of the road? Right on!

Blame it on being cooped up during the pandemic. Blame it on after-effects of the COVID-19 vaccine. Blame it on the bossa nova. Whatever.

However you look at it, it appears we all need a good driving lesson. And don’t even get me started on local scorn for the use of turn signals.

I don’t know whether we need group meetings at the BMV or Zoom sessions from our kitchen table but it seems a refresher course on the rules of the road is in order.

Call Jake from State Farm, I don’t care.

Just check out recent accident reports. First there was an accident involving a westbound vehicle on Franklin Street passing -- yes, passing -- another car just east of Durham Street when another driver turned right from the one-block section of Durham Street right into the path of the passing vehicle.

Recently there have been two accidents at that weird Franklin-Arlington street intersection. Both involved at least one out-of-town driver, so I’ll give them a break. Both were turning left off Franklin on Arlington in front of eastbound traffic that has the right of way, and ... crash!

Meanwhile, another non-local driver, presuming North College and Franklin to be a four-way stop -- despite signage noting that “cross traffic does not stop”-- pulled into the path of another driver on College Avenue, which does not require a stop.

Then there’s the Washington-Bloomington intersection where you can separate visitors from towns folk. Those who live here know eastbound traffic on Washington needs to be in the left lane, while traffic turning onto Bloomington Street is poised in the right lane. But a couple times a day, someone wanting to go east ends up in that turn lane and when the light changes, we have two lanes of traffic headed toward those in the left turn lane waiting to go south on Bloomington, a lane which is offset from the traffic lanes across the wide intersection. It’s also a spot where southbound traffic turning left often tries to beat the eastbound traffic through the wide intersection.

Sometimes it’s successful. Sometimes not.

The common denominator in all these accidents? Every one of those mishaps has occurred within about three blocks of my house. All within my post-Covid driving zone now that a jaunt out to Walmart is a long trip.

Coincidentally I had a scary near-miss on a recent Friday night, returning home after dinner at Putnam Inn and heading southbound on College Avenue. That’s when a woman in a silver SUV, who had stopped at the intersection, waited until I was about 20 yards away, and pulled out eastbound, again despite the Street Department-placed signs stating that cross traffic does not stop.

That’s only one of several close calls I’ve had lately. Had another coming home from work one evening via Franklin Street as I left the square eastbound with the right of way. That’s when a pickup at the stopsign decided to venture out into my path from North Indiana Street.

Thank goodness Jeep put good brakes on my Commander because I stopped on a dime this time, letting the big white pickup continue its journey north. What’s scary is I’m not even sure the driver knew he was in the wrong.

Often I’ve suggested that if I’m ever in an accident, it’s bound to be at the stoplight for the Kroger entrance -- again just a couple blocks from my house.

For some reason, the common sense of the right-on-red rule is lost on drivers leaving Kroger and turning onto Franklin Street or Indianapolis Road. While leaving the Kroger lot, many drivers seem to just turn right, like it’s their god-given right. No initial stopping or deferring to westbound through traffic.

The other evening, multiple drivers got into the mix as I sat about three vehicles deep, waiting to turn left to visit McDonald’s. How nobody managed to hit anybody or anything defies the imagination.

As I observed from a couple of car lengths back, a little red compact car started to turn right on red leaving Kroger but pulled out in front of a westbound SUV, whose driver braked, swerved and missed not only the red car but another vehicle trapped in what I like to called “no-man’s land” between the two lights on Indianapolis Road.

It’s a simple process, really. Stop for the red light. Look left and right. Look left again. If no cars are coming, you are now safe to turn right on red.

Not immediately. Not before. Not just because you can.

I don’t know who we need to turn to for driving lessons. Maybe the fellow who ran over the traffic sign by the bowling alley and drove around with it stuck in his front bumper the other night after driving straight through the intersection and ending up in the parking lot.

But hey, at least he didn’t wrongly turn right.