The Burlingames

While waiting at a light in Fridley tonight, I was amazed to see another incidence of gas station stupidity. Tonight’s genius was exiting the gas station. I’ll set the stage.

I was stopped at the light on 73rd at Hwy 65. 73rd has three lanes as you approach the intersection: left turn, straight and right turn. The light was red and there were about five cars or so in front of me in the straight lane. The left lane was empty and the right lane had maybe one or two cars waiting. On my left, a couple car-lengths ahead, was a truck waiting to leave a gas station and turn left onto 73rd, which would send him the same direction I was pointed.

He pulled out of the station into the left turn lane, cutting off a car that was headed for the light. The other car laid on the horn and locked up the brakes. Then, rather than hurrying up to the light, the truck just sat there a few car lengths away from the light, blocking the vehicle behind who wanted to turn left. He continued to sit there even after the green arrow disappeared and the straight green came on. A few cars went straight, giving the truck’s driver his chance. He cut in front of the third or fourth car in the straight lane and proceeded to wait for the cars in the right turn lane to go. He finally turned right onto Hwy 65 and sped away.

The dumbest thing about this is the lack of thought on the truck driver’s part. The gas station had another exit further back on 73rd, which would have allowed the truck to get behind all the stopped cars and into the right turn lane with ease. That’s one of those spots where the city needs to do the thinking for the drivers by putting a median between the lanes, thereby blocking that exit from turning left onto 73rd. The day after they did that I’d probably see some rube drive over the median to turn left.