Sittin' 'round waitin' on two green lights

So today, I’m driving back to work after picking up my latest lunch favorite from Einstein’s Bros. Bagel (holla!), when I have an interesting experience with Evanston, Illinois' traffic light system.

I miss the green light turning left onto Sherman from Clark Street, so I pull to a stop. Then, the green left turn arrow comes on, so I proceed to – well, turn left. On my right, I can see a pick-up truck coming down Sherman Street toward the intersection, clearly not intending to stop.

So as he enters the intersection, I stop right under the light to avoid a collision, but, I’m highly irritated because I have the right of way (Hello! A green light!) I lay on my horn – jackass!

Now let me just stop here and say – I’m from the U.P. (of Michigan – the Upper Peninsula), and up there, we don’t honk at people. However, I’ve been living in the city for over a year now, and during such time, I have honed my Chicago driver skills and also developed a little syndrome that my friends and family back home like to call “FIB’s” – I’ll let you marinate on that one for yourself.

Meanwhile, back at the Evanston intersection – I have the green light, and I am totally in the right here, right!? Turns out…kinda. As I lay on my horn, the kid (a Northwestern student, I surmise, by his age and the bumper stickers on his truck) rolls his window down and yells “Lady, I have a bleeping green light!” I say, “NO, *I* have the #?*! green light!” Our faces both slowly morphed from sheer anger to utter confusion when we both looked up at the light to find out, sure enough – both sides of the intersection have the ‘go sign’ engaged. Two conflicting green lights - me with the left turn green arrow, he with the straight-up green light. Special, right? Ughhhh.

Now I have to call in to the city of Evanston to complain about how their malfunctioning traffic signals nearly caused a terrible accident – not so near, as both vehicles were driving pretty slowly and the drivers were alert to the other car’s presence, but I may just jazz that bit up for a better effect. I’ll fill you in on that encounter - which is sure to be another treat, no doubt - later. TTFN.

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