Picture this: you’re sitting at a red light, first car at the intersection, with your left turn signal on. The car facing you flashes its lights or the driver gives you a hand signal that he’s going to let you go first. The light changes to green, you make your left, and then all the rest of the traffic continues on its course.
It sounds like heaven, doesn’t it?
Apparently only if you’re from New Jersey. The rest of the world would consider that maneuver the reprehensible Jersey Left, an oft maligned and misunderstood survival tactic of driving in the Garden State.
A true Jersey Left is when you jump the green light and scoot quickly into your left turn before the oncoming traffic begins. Out-of-towners consider this behavior “rude and obnoxious,” and by out-of-towners I mean anyone who didn’t grow up driving in New Jersey. (This group appears to be especially populated by ex-Californians, a surprisingly mellow subset of American Drivers, considering how much coffee they all drink.)
I had been a regular employer of the Jersey Left until a few years ago, when an ex-Californian berated me and my kind for my unseemly behavior. She cited laws and a bunch of other hoo-ha and, not because I agreed with her, but because I liked her, I stopped jumping into intersections and instead waited forever, enduring honking and exasperation at my back and once even having a car come around me from behind and make a left in front of me because he and his German sports car were far too impatient to wait.
But the initial scenario I described is not what I would consider a Jersey Left. When my oncoming counterpart waves me on to go first, I’m just being cooperative. Yet, to some, it’s still not kosher. “Those who allow the Jersey Left are more even despicable than those who take it,” wrote one of my uppity friends on his Facebook page.
A whole thread emerged wherein Jersey Lefters were accused of Me-First-ism and those waving them on were described as Enablers.
The truth is, If I make an assertive left turn, I’m not thinking “Me First,” I’m thinking “Me Ever.” To me, it feels more like one of those ethics questions about whether a penniless man should steal medicine to save the life of his dying wife. When I’m at an intersection waiting for 30 facing cars to pass while the 20 cars behind me wither away for an eternity, I’m happy to sit it out. But I feel compelled, for my eastbound brethren, to bust a move.
My friend’s Facebook thread characterized Jersey Lefters as selfish and inconsiderate. I disagree. Selfish and inconsiderate is the white SUV that parked at a yellow-lined curb at a busy intersection last week, prohibiting the bus from making its turn, resulting in the bus being trapped in the intersection and the drivers from every direction getting themselves into an inexorable gridlock that took three light changes to detangle. A Jersey Lefter is just someone trying to be efficient.
I looked briefly online to find a specific law that might apply to the Enabler – the one who says, “you go ahead and make your left, I’ll just wait the extra seven seconds over here and give you safe passage,” but came up dry. The Enabler is evidently free to bestow that act of kindness and it doesn’t seem like the Turn Taker is breaking any law by taking him up on it.
My heart sings when someone lets another car go first, even if it means I need to wait. That’s just niceness all around. We’re a crowded, rushed bunch, us Jersey Drivers. We need a little enabling every once in a while.
