I love to drive and go on road trips. I have driven in many different countries, including South America, where traffic rules mean nothing. But what happened to me this Friday in San Francisco was unexpected and unbelievable.
I was sitting in rush hour traffic on a small side street to get on one of the main streets in Downtown San Francisco on my way home. I was second in the very right lane which allows left and right turns and was waiting to get going and go home after a long day of work. This was around 4:30 pm on Friday. So you know hell breaks loose on the Streets of San Francisco. Everyone wants to get out and go home.
So I was sitting there and waiting for the light to turn green. The car in front of me pulled into the intersection and was the last one to fit in because cross traffic pushed into the intersection just to move forward a bit and wait for the next light. So I couldn’t make it during the green phase of the traffic light.
Lights turned red and I was now sitting at the front of the line, ready to get moving. So I waited for the next green light and already saw the intersection filling up. The intersection was already blocked by cross traffic and they still had the green light on. So my light turned green but I wasn’t able to drive forward because the intersection was already blocked. I was waiting for the intersection to clear up, but nothing happened and my light turned red again.
I saw an officer in the mirror walking up to me. First I thought it was a cop and would help here to clear up the mess. He knocked on my window and asked me why I didn’t drove when it was green. I told him, that the intersection was full and I didn’t want to block it. He told me as soon as the light turns green pull into the intersection, I tried to tell him that I don’t want to block the intersection. But he wouldn’t even let me finish and started telling me that his lunch break is coming up and if he misses it, he will come back to me. So he threatens me because he wants to go for lunch? At that moment I noticed that he is no real cop, just a parking enforcement officer. From the outfit, he looks like a motorcycle cop but then I saw his trike behind me when he walked back.
He walked back to his little trike, which was 2 cars behind me. When the light got green this time I was lucky that the intersection was free and I could pull in. Otherwise, I would wait again. I don’t want to be responsible for a gridlock. I watched the guy making a right turn and going his way.
As I was stuck again at the next traffic light, I was thinking about what just happened. He wants to go on lunch and threatens other people on the road just so he can have his lunch break.
Hey, I want to go home too. I don’t feel any desire to sit on an intersection and not be able to move forward with a green light. I have better things to do. Nothing like this ever happened to me. I got stopped by police in Panama and they made up just some BS to get money from me, but that’s a different country and they didn’t even threaten me. This is an only in San Francisco Story. Where else would something like this happen?
Street View of this Intersection
Check out the Street View below. You can explore how congested it gets at this intersection. Do you wanna start a bet that everyone in this picture wants to get moving?
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Did something like this happen to anyone of you?
Peter has a passion for Traveling, Photography, and Geocaching. These are the best ingredients for amazing adventures all over the globe. “Traveling is fun, no matter if you stay in a luxury hotel or travel like a backpacker.” Peter shares his experiences on his Blog www.gatetoadventures.com
Some of Peter’s photos are published on corporate websites, in-flight magazines, travel guides, and much more.
