I imagine every one of us (who drives) has said something similar in the event of each of those comments.

And I have certainly used stronger language regarding those who deliberately "block the box", in intersections where the green-light traffic is not moving, but some ____ just has to pull *into* the intersection and sit there, blocking the cross-traffic when the light changes. A block from my office, there is a complicated series of 6 intersections as an 8-lane highway crosses over an 8-lane highway, with a shopping center on one corner, access to another shopping center 50 feet away, and a cross street leading to highrise offices another 50 feet away. Box-blockers manage to block at least one of these intersections at least once a week, with the resulting stopped traffic literally extending for a mile. The most interesting jam occurred when an extra-long 18-wheeler tried to leave one shopping center (apparently to cross the highway to the other shopping center) only to be stopped midway by an SUV which pulled out of the second center only to stop mid-intersection --in front of the 18-wheeler-- because the traffic was stopped because 2 lights down, vehicles from opposite directions had double-blocked "the box" in such a way that no one could move in any direction. Having arrived just as that SUV pulled in front of the 18-wheeler, I sat there for over 45 minutes until police managed to loosen the knots. My fervent hope (likely unrealized) is that every driver blocking the box was given a hefty fine.

Wow, Meldy, I've never had THAT happen to me, though I've been in those blocked situations. There is one intersection I go through on my way to work and I'd say that happens a minimum of once a week. Once it was me in the way and I was embarrassed, but I don't think msot people are.
I don't get too upset about my commute. It's a busy series of roads and it's going to get messy at times. I simply roll with the flow, try to keep the stress level down. I must say that sometimes, when everything goes right, it feels better than the usual drill.

OMG ........ you should come drive in our county seat. First off, nobody here even knows what the expression closing the box means. I'm serious. It's not illegal and in fact if you don't shove the nose of your car out in the intersection, then the yo-yo behind you is going to start honking his/her horn. Then it's an unwritten law that when the lights turn green, if you are trying to drive straight through an intersection, you sit there through a light change to let the intersection clear of everyone who tries to ride the tail of the cars who were blocking the box until they all make their illegal turns. It's a game of chicken, actually. You can call their bluff and take your legal right of way, but you'd better be driving a very old, very large truck. Danged, I wish I hadn't sold mine. It was pretty obvious that whomever illegally bashed into that thing was going to have more damage. LOL.

The big one is trying to drive straight through in one lane on any street in town. You can't. Every time you approach an intersection, the center lane becomes a turn lane, and you have to richocette back and forth at least six times to go six blocks. Of course, nobody from out of town knows this and they're constantly finding themselves in the turn lanes trying to go straight. So, they do.

Another big one? Parking on the no parking side of a one-way street facing the wrong way, and they think if they pull completely upon the sidewalk so their wheels are off the road, it makes it legal. Since the police don't ticket them,I guess it does.

Then there are the drivers I call rolling suppositories. IOW, they follow so closely behind you you can't see their head lights, and if you so much as hiccup at the brake pedal, they'd be up your..........well.......that's why I call them suppositories.

Nobody around here would understand what "block the box" means either. But what derives me crazy here are the people who go 30 mph on the 60 mph roads, and, of course, the people who feel that red lights don't apply to them.