Just got back from a week at Universal Studios, and I must say Orlando drivers are creative.

For example, the first evening we were there I stopped at a red light at a T-intersection.  This was after a day at the theme park.  You know what I mean — 60 minute lines for 2 minute rides in 95 degree heat and everyone with 0 patience after the first 30 minutes.

Anyway, there were four lanes on my side of the street: the two left lanes had to turn left, and the two right lanes had to go straight.  I was in lane two, going straight, and at the head of the line.  The two left lanes got a green advance arrow and started moving.  A moment later, a lady in a dark blue SUV pulled up next to me on my right.  She motioned that she wanted to cut in front of me.  I shrugged and motioned “sure”, assuming that she wanted to cut in front of me after the light turned green.

Nope, that wasn’t what she had in mind.  While the light was red, she drove forward into the intersection, slashed in front of me, and attempted to barge into the rightmost turning lane.  It was full, so she had to wait until the green arrow was past red before she could make the turn.  At that point my light turned green, but since she was stuck in the intersection and blocking my lane, I had to wait for her before I could move.

It was kinda like this — me in blue, her in red…

Most interesting to me was how no one cared.

The next day, I was stopped at a different red light at another major intersection.  Ahead of me, some guy in a beat up compact sedan decided he had enough of waiting and cut across the median to make a U-turn.  The median was a grassy depression about 30 paces across.  So he went out, down, over, up, and then peeled out in the other direction.  It took a dozen seconds and was in plain sight of everyone in both directions.

Again, no one cared.

And this was only the first and second day we were there.  There were other stunts as impressive as these but I, like the locals, no longer cared.  When in Rome?