At a busy traffic light I can see the tension. We have one here where the left turn signal is far too short. During peak hours, only about 1/3 of the cars trying to make that turn get through. The folks queued up for the turn lane end up blocking traffic in the through lanes because the turn lane is full. They don't have a choice but to block traffic, if they miss that turn all the options afterwards to make the left turn are even worse.
I go through one of those every day on the way home from work- usually 3-5 cars in queue, and only 1 or 2 get through per left turn arrow. Almost as you described it- left turners from cross traffic cheat out into the intersection at red lights blocking the people with the current green left turn arrow until they clear out. Worse is when there is gridlock and idiots cheat out into the intersection with nowhere to go as the light turns red- this only increases gridlock.
My biggest pet peeve is what I call the 'entitlement lane'- people rolling up to a red light in the
parking lane instead of acting like a normal adjusted adult and waiting in line 3 cars back. They end up causing a jam up as they get through the intersection using the parking lane then having to cut someone off up ahead because of a parked car in their way. This is the exact same thing as cutting in line at a grocery store.Some people would have no shame in doing that either, but its much easier (and safer) to cut in front of angry 250lb white guy using a SUV on the street versus in person at the grocery store.
People DO have a choice not to block traffic, but too many people are selfish aholes who think that getting somewhere 1 minute quicker is more important than everyone else's safety or time.
