You're all up in my space yo!

My wife and I have lived in Tallahassee for almost two years now.  It's been fine for the most part.  Sure it's not a city we would choose to live in, but hey, it's an OK city.  EXCEPT, the way people drive.

Both of us have done a great deal of traveling through our years and we both agree that drivers in Tallahassee are some of the worst.  No, there's not really much traffic.  No, there isn't many crazy fast drivers.  People seem to forget how to use their turn signal.  The majority of time people turn, they don't use their blinker.  It blows my mind.

The lack of turn signal is irritating, but there is something far worse in my mind.

While I'm driving I usually am in a lane with a car right next to me.  Whenever a car turns (usually a left turn) they feel the need to make a wide turn resulting in them getting into the next lane before making the turn.  This freaks me out every time someone does it, especially on one way streets where the lanes are smaller.  There's no need to make a wide turn!  So why scare the hell out of other drivers by getting in their lane so that you can make an easy turn?

Here's a diagram of what I'm talking about. (Excuse the crappiness of these illustrations)

I'm in the yellow car, while a hummer is next to me.

Everything is hunky dorey.

 The hummer begins to turn, avoiding my lane all together.

And Voila! Everything is fine.

But here is what happens in Tallahassee.  We start out normal.

But when the other car starts to turn he inches closer into my lane. 

 I swerve to avoid him.

And there you have it.  Unnecessary reckless driving.

What I've learned from living here is that I can't trust other drivers as much as I used to.  Thanks Tallahassee.

Useless Handrails

All across the city of Tallahassee, FL there are new sidewalks being built.  Most of this construction is being done on a major parkway near my home.  Which is great!  But along with the new sidewalks come handrails.  Maybe it's just me but I usually see handrails for stairs, corners, businesses, or in parks.  But this is my first time seeing them by normal sidewalks.  Not only do they not have any noticeable use (next to high fall offs, handicap access, bus stops etc.)  but they are small in size (about 5 feet) and randomly placed along the sidewalk.  Who thinks of these things?

After driving several miles and trying to figure out the need for these random handrails I noticed how they are placed wherever there is a drain that goes to the sewer.  I guess that means a lot of people might take note of them and decide todays the day they finally can take an afternoon dip in the gutter.  Without the balance of handrails it was merely a dream before.

Let's stop building these handrails and start putting money into sidewalks in neighborhoods that don't even have them (like mine.)