As long as we’re complaining about drivers…
Posted on June 13th, 2008 – 6:05 AMBy Roadguy
Here’s something you never really want to see:
That would be a van coming from the wrong direction on a one-way street. It was about a block away when I first saw it heading toward me, so no collision was imminent, but even so, it was a little unnerving. I just kept slowing down and hoping for the best.
When the van reached the end of the block, it turned onto a cross street without stopping. (There was of course no stop sign facing it, because why would the city put a stop sign facing the wrong way?)
As a resident of a neighborhood with a lot of one-way streets, I see this all the time. If I’m on foot, I’ll often try to alert the driver. I’ve even been known to wave and yell if someone is about to head face first into oncoming traffic, and I’ve had a fair amount of success thwarting doom.
Because I was in the car this time, none of that would have worked. I considered flashing my lights, but that’s tricky to do with daytime running lights, and it’s not always noticeable.
If you have a strategy for or a story about wrong-way drivers, please share below. And keep an eye out for them in your travels today — after all, it’s Friday the 13th.
20 Responses to "As long as we’re complaining about drivers…"
If you think that’s bad, last week on my return trip from New England, I had to deal with a “wrong-way driver” on a 4-lane divided highway (something comparable to Hwy 10 north of St. Cloud). Fortunatley I didn’t hit him, but neither could I call the authorities because cell service was somewhat lacking. My banging away on the horn and high-beams didn’t do much either.
Since I am open to telling others how crazy they are, I can only be fair and admit my most embarrassing moment ever:
I was in uptown several years ago, and being a suburban-only guy way back then, I didn’t know uptown at all. The person I was with told me to turn left onto a street. It didn’t make sense to me, but I trusted my passenger, who was from the area.
It was a one-way street and I was going the wrong way; during rush hour!!! Thankfully, I was able to turn into a McDonald’s parking lot (which was also the wrong way) and get out of the situation without incident.
I was so completely embarrassed and dumbfounded that I didn’t want to drive for a week after that. I wanted to park my car and walk up to every car on that road and apologize in person to every single driver who saw what I did.
Since that time, I have learned to never trust the help from passengers, no matter how little I know the area. My passengers are amazed at the seemingly insignificant but illegal things I won’t do when they tell me to do something.
I, too, live in an area of one-way streets now, but I have only seen one person ever go the wrong way, and when they realized what they did, they turned off as quickly as possible.
Yah, even though I can complain quite a bit, I think the wrong-way’s on city streets are almost always honest human error.
OMG I live right next to 26th and see wrong way drivers almost everyday. I have seen 2 horrible accidents, one where the car flipped over! When I first moved here, I actually drove the wrong way on 26th for a block, and luckily there was no oncoming traffic. Also, the traffic on 26th and 28th are always speeding — the limit os 30, and most people do 50 at least. I think as far as the wrong way drivers go — distracted distracted distracted. They are usually on their phones. There really isn’t much you can do other than pray they don’t kill anyone.
I live right by where there’s a T-intersection formed by a one-way street ending at a two-way street. When I was crossing the one-way street a few weeks ago, I didn’t even think to check the two-way street for people turning the wrong way onto the one-way and as a result was nearly run over. I just raised an eyebrow at them and kept walking.
I remember reading several years ago that a state trooper said that when on a highway and a wrong way driver approaches, your best bet is to move to the right. The reasoning is that since the normal driving convention (in the US) is to keep right, the other driver will do the same subconsciously.
I further seem to recall that this particular trooper said that, as a rule, troopers are trained to keep right on the highways and not drive in the left (ahem, passing) lane.
I did the opposite once many years ago, and turned onto a two-way thinking it was a one-way. I was on 4th Street (a one-way) approaching 10th Ave, but wanted to head back towards Dinkytown so I turned onto 10th. It was dark out and there were lots of students staggering nearby (it was Homecoming at the U), and for some reason I was thinking that 10th was also a one-way.
I turned onto 10th into the left-most lane and was waiting at the stoplight at University Ave to turn left again, and suddenly cars were turning from University Ave and passing me (in the opposite direction) on my right. The third car that turned the corner was a Minneapolis squad car, which promptly turned on their lights. I had to “pull over” in reverse.
I hadn’t had a drop to drink, but that was a pretty expensive mistake. It could have been worse though, maybe if the cop hadn’t pulled me over, a different car would have clobbered me.
Yea, we’ve all made dumb mistakes, and let’s face it - those black and white one-way signs aren’t always the easiest things to notice to grab your attention.
I think the take-home message is that since we’re all used to two-way streets, one ways should only be used when we have a REALLY good reason for it. Most of the one ways in south minneapolis, especially uptown, are more confusing than they are useful, IMO.
I live in South Mpls and have never gone the wrong way, unless I did so on purpose. There is a (new) one way alley between E 27th and E 28th Street, for the new apartment building there. I needed to get through that area and decided to go down that quarter block stretch the wrong way. Otherwise, its as simple as looking at the signs. It amazes me that people could make this “mistake”. Just keep your eyes on the road (and not your phone).
As long as we’re feeling confessional…
I did a version of Joe G’s mistake a couple of years ago on a road I drive on all the time. 36th Street goes from being a two-way to a one-way, and I moved into the left lane (which was still an oncoming lane) a block early. I figured it out pretty quickly and got back over without police encouragement. I wasn’t on the phone or intoxicated or anything — a premature “senior moment,” I guess.
I’ve done it myself, and felt the proper idiot afterwards. Since most people tend to make bonehead mistakes once in a while when driving I usually resist the urge at displaying indignant outrage when I see other people do things like this.
Besides, they may be a lot bigger than I am……..
One time I was going south on Hennepin Ave and turned right to go Lake Street towards Excelsior Blvd thinking it was still a two-way street.
Cars coming at me from all lanes, I had to quick turn right into an alley and find my street that I needed to go on in order to go towards St. Louis Park.
This happened at night time. I don’t recall seeing any “No Turn on Right” signs in the area.
I kid you not, but last week in Burnsville on County Road 5, there was a SUV driving backwards for more than one block on the wrong side of the street.
When you see those kinds of things you wonder “what!”
He/She was able to back up in a straight line and stayed in one lane, which was good.
How timely!
Just this morning on my way to work I turned from 28th St. onto Stevens Ave. (to get to 35-W). A van in front of me was sort of straddling the two (opposing flow) lanes. Finally, he decided to move over into the left (oncoming!) lane. Now, the striping on that portion of Stevens isn’t the best owing to various kinds of construction along that stretch, but when the van driver realized his mistake (sitting at the red light at Lake Street), he decided to “fix” the problem by DRIVING THROUGH THE RED LIGHT, crossing Lake St. onto the portion of Stevens that _is_ a southbound one-way.
Of course, then he didn’t realize that that portion of Stevens is a one-way so when he got to 31st St. and realized that he needed to be in the left lane to enter southbound 35-W, he pulled the last-minute lane shift, sticking his front-end into the left lane and leaving his read-end in the right lane.
*Sigh*
Jeremy H., I’m glad you’re a perfect person. When a person is in strange territory and looking for street signs hidden behind trees on any of the four corners of an intersection, etc., there gets to be a lot to absorb, and one-way signs, which look an awful lot like speed limit signs, can easily be overlooked. Hopefully now you won’t be quite as amazed and will be a little more forgiving.
Bill,
There’s at least one trooper out there who was sick the day they told them to keep right.
I was on 169 between St. Peter and Mankato awhile back and encountered a LONG line of cars in both lanes, like 30+ cars deep in each lane.
On a curve I was able to see a cop in the left lane doing about 60 mph(the limit is 65).
He was blocking the left lane and no one had the guts to pass him on the right. I was so ticked. The moron single handedly was creating a very dangerous situation, as I could see people ahead of me getting impatient, tailgating,veering onto the left shoulder, etc.
How could this cop, who is trained and paid to be observant, not notice the havoc they were creating? Hard not to notice 60 cars stacked up behind you. Probably on a power trip.
Finally after about 10 miles he turned into the median.
This was the same day someone in St. Peter decided it would be a good idea to close 169 thru town for their annual celebration. No cops directing traffic, no signs, no detour, just road closed, good luck. Of course it was uncontrolled chaos on the side streets. It took me an hour to get thru the town of 8,000.
Between the braindead cop and the imbeciles planning the event in St. Peter, I was ready to go Postal!
Jeremy H,
You will.
I once (many years ago) directed an out of town friend to go the wrong way on 4th by the U. In my defense, it was POURING rain and no one else was stupid enough to be out on the roads… we were headed the bar - no silly thunder storm was going to ruin a good night of drinking for us!
(Did I mention this was years ago?)
I’ve seen many people drive the wrong way on one-way streets especially around the U of MN campus. What I would really like to see is more “you are driving the wrong way” kind of signs on streets… like maybe the back side of stop signs on one ways… Say something clear “WRONG WAY” in very bright colors… Yellow and black.
White and black doesn’t seem to work well enough 
While gazing out my condo window one day, I saw two people within FIVE minutes, driving the wrong way on my one-way street. I wonder how many people do it when I’m not looking!
