The Wyoming Wave

As an initial disclaimer, let me note that I'm a Wyoming native, and that I started driving at a young age.  I owned my first care when I was 15 years old, before I actually had a driver's license.

Now, with that out of the way, I'm going to criticize the driving I've been seeing around here recently.

For some reason, a fairly high percentage of Wyoming drivers, in spite of having presumably passed the driving test and thereby being allowed to be the holder of a driver's license, are ignorant of the rules of the road. And by that, I mean they're unaware of the laws that pertain to driving.  Not just the speed limit, which people are aware of, of course, but often ignore, but the simple rules of driving.

Let me provide this example.

Almost ever day I have to come to an intersection where I turn on to a state highway.  When I do that, I enter the intersection from the west and turn north, so that I'm crossing against an oncoming lane of travel.

About 40% of the time, there will be another vehicle arrive, from the opposite direction, that also needs to turn north.  As traffic has not allowed me to turn on, both I, and the other driver, will be waiting at the intersection for traffic to clear.

Under this scenario, the vehicle that does not have to turn into traffic, and which does not have to turn across the other stopped vehicle,  has the right of way.  No matter, by my observation at least 60% of local drivers, if not more, believe that the first driver to arrive at the road has the right of way.  If that's the vehicle crossing the other stopped river, that driver will charge out and take the right of way.  Very frequently, moreover, the vehicle that does not have to cross against the other driver, but which arrived second, will sit there, refusing to move.

That takes me to the topic of this entry, the  Wyoming Wave.  In addition to not knowing the rules of the road, a large percentage of Wyoming drivers believe that the rules can be completely suspended by simply waiving to the other driver.  That is, the driver with the right of way will waive to the other driver, and believe that solves it all.  Sort of a "come on, . . . cross my lane of travel. . . I won't use my right of way. . ."

This practice is amazingly common, and doesn't apply simply to stops (although it is very common there).  I've seen it extremely frequently at four way stops, where a lack of knowledge on what to do is very common, and nervous drivers try to address more than one vehicle at an intersection at a time by doing it.  I've also seen the drivers of slow moving vehicles do it in no passing zones, which certainly doesn't make passing any safer.

Indeed, I've experienced it twice today. The first time in the first scenario I presented today.  I came up to the state highway and had to wait for traffic. A vehicle coming from the other direction did as I was waiting. We both were turning to the north, with my turn in front of him.  No matter, he sat there and then gave me the waive.  Ultimately he went when I didn't.  And then it happened when I arrived at work.  I was set to jaywalk across the street, which I shouldn't be doing, but as I was waiting there a car simply stopped in the street, as if there was a crossing, which encourages me to go into traffic, when nobody else will necessarily stop.

I thought perhaps my observations here were somewhat unique, but just the other day a client came in who lives in a smaller town in this county and commented, without prompting, that the driving in this city was "terrible".  It's funny, in a way, to note that, as at one time it was very common here to criticize Colorado's drivers, although I rarely hear that done anymore.  Given the widespread disregard for the traffic rules here, we'd be on thin ice now if we did.