Oh. Oh!

Have you ever judged someone for not "seeing" a street sign?  Like, how can you not know you can't DO what you just did?

Well, I know I have.

Which means I was extra shocked and embarrassed when I realized I'd missed a street sign for several months in a row.

At some point this year my drive to work got hit by some road work construction that made getting through downtown in the morning quite miserable, so after a few trips of this, I decided to change up my route a little to avoid that particular stretch of work. 

So I turn back on to the road I was avoiding but up a bunch of blocks and when I'm at the front of the line and the perpendicular traffic is turning left, I'd quite happily turn right myself, yay!  And off I'd go.

I was a solid few months in to doing this when one morning I noticed a "no right turn on red" sign and OMG was I embarrassed.

I literally had not noticed that sign and it's not like this was my first or second day doing the drive, it had been a while.  I was kind of horrified.

So now I've had a strong reminder that maybe those people who aren't doing the "right thing" are just like me and in fact considerate drivers who somehow completely missed a sign.  Crazy. 

I know driving can be stressful, and it's likely that the first time I tried the new route I was a little stressed and so just did what I have done before in these situations and then the next time just did what I'd done before, etc etc.  I'm grateful I did see the sign (oh no, now I'm singing that Ace of Base song! SORRY! D'oh!) and that I didn't hurt anyone or get in trouble or ticketed or anything.  But yeah, my bad! 

 

Updated to add:  So the morning after I typed this out, on my way to work the person in front of me did what I'm describing, so I was like ok it's not just me!  And then I noticed that the sign is actually not just a "street's" width away, it's across like six highway lanes so it isn't quite as in your face as most signs and maybe that's why I (and others) didn't notice it at first! Phew?