One-way Blunders

One-way Blunders
Don’t assume everyone knows it’s a one-way street.
You’re riding through an urban neighborhood on our way to work on a two-lane road where both lanes go in the same direction. There are crossroad intersections ever 1000 feet or so with a stoplight or stop sign at each intersection. Most of the stoop lights are synched to each other. Allowing traffic to move at a steady rate. You are behind a lower car in the right-hand lane, so you decide to change lanes to overtake the slower driver. You pass at a relaxed pace, knowing that the one-way road continues for several more blocks. Once past the car you decide to move back into the right lane.
Only moments after you return to the right-hand lane a car pulls out into the left lane heading in the wrong direction! Yikes! The inattentive driver passes to your left with a puzzled look on his face as you attempt to signal his mistake. He disappears out of your peripheral vision still accelerating. Suddenly, you hear skidding tires behind you and the sound of crunching metal and plastic. You check your mirrors before pulling over to assess the damage.
The head-on collision involved two cars in addition to the errant driver’s vehicle. The first car in line took the brunt of the hit with the car following rear-ending the unfortunate driver. Cell phones were being dialed to dispatch emergency personnel, so you go on your way.
Your thoughts swarm around the narrow escape you just experienced. Hand you continued to ride in the left-hand lane, you could have easily have been the victim of the driver’s error.It may have been dumb luck that you were in the right-hand lane at the moment the driver entered the one-way street in the wrong direction, but you can be grateful that a lesson was learned without harm to you. While most drivers recognize a one-way street, there is the real possibility that an approaching driver unfamiliar with the neighborhood will turn from an intersecting road heading in the wrong direction. To avoid being caught up in this possibility, avoid the left-hand lane in two lane one-way streets.
Anita