Patio Pondering: The Wisdom of Turning Right to Go Left
Patio Pondering: The Wisdom of Turning Right to Go Left
The weather forecasters were right!
I woke to the comforting pitter-patter of rain on the roof and am now enjoying my coffee while watching it fall around the patio. This kind of rainy weather is perfect for pondering here on the patio.
But I am not reflecting on the accuracy of weather forecasting or even on how the rain changed my plans. Not today. Today’s thoughts are on the Left-Hand Turn.
The left-hand turn is inefficient, time-consuming, and dangerous.
I see that inefficiency when I drop off or pick up my son at school. The exit is supposed to be right-turn only, but when the police officer is not there, the mice will play. Inevitably, a left-hand offender slows the entire drop-off line as they wait for a break in both lanes of traffic. Sometimes their impatience nearly causes a wreck, but the left-hand offender does not seem to care how their choice affects everyone else. For the rule followers, this is infuriating.
The dangers of the left-hand turn are not limited to parking lots. Just last week, I almost had a collision with a Honda Accord while making a left-hand turn with a grain cart. To set the scene, I was hauling a full load to unload into a semi-trailer. A grain cart is essentially a portable grain bin; ours holds 1,000 bushels and is about the size of a New York studio apartment. We had flashers, beacons, and turn signals all operating, doing everything right, yet the driver still chose to ignore it.
As I began my turn, I caught a glimpse in the rear-view camera of that gray Accord pulling out to pass. I was already committed to the turn, and stopping an 80,000-pound rig is not as simple as stomping on the brake. Fortunately, I stopped just in time and avoided a wreck. Instead of any appreciation for not totaling their car, the passenger’s response came in the form of a few choice hand gestures and words even a novice lip-reader could translate. There was no acknowledgment of their improper passing at an intersection or disregard for my turn signal, only the frustration of being delayed by a tractor and grain cart doing things the right way.
Moments like these remind me of the stories from years ago about how UPS limited left-hand turns in their routes because they were inefficient and unsafe. That change, one of those aha moments, cut fuel use, reduced mileage, and made Big Brown more efficient.
A small adjustment to eliminate an unnecessary, risky maneuver saved UPS millions in time, fuel, and accidents.
So I wonder, what would happen if we all learned to “turn right to get left” a little more often in life and stopped forcing those “cross-traffic turns” ingrained in our routines?