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Keller @ Large: Why Is Turning So Difficult For Drivers?

BOSTON (CBS) - When, exactly, did making a turn become mission impossible for the drivers around here?

I first started to notice it about a year ago, and it's been getting worse.

I'm talking about drivers who come to a standstill as they contemplate an unimpeded right turn, gathering their thoughts and marshaling the superhuman energy needed to turn the wheel and give it gas at the same time, then inching forward as if there were a bowl of goldfish on the seat next to them.

This is not good old-fashioned caution; it's a form of paralysis that seems to be taking over the driving population while they sleep at the wheel, a local version of the movie "Invasion of the Body Snatchers."

Left turns? Forget it.

I wish I had a buck for every time I've sat through multiple light cycles as the clueless driver ahead of me waits for oncoming traffic to let him or her turn.

And I want to say, helpfully: You have a nose. Stick it out there while we're all still young.

Why has turning become such a hassle for Boston drivers?

Could it be that our ability to think and react is drowing under the tsunami of distractions we ride with - smartphones, GPS, and whatever else people are doing instead of driving?

Is it a symptom of more generalized fear, of what might be around that corner, what terrifying thing – a road race, a stoplight, maybe even a speed bump?

Whatever's causing it, it's making traffic worse, at a time when you didn't think it could get any worse.

You know that song: "To everything there is a season/Turn, turn, turn"?

Good advice.

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