One thing is for certain; if you can drive in New Jersey, you can drive anywhere.
I never thought the day would come when I would have my picture taken at a traffic light.
And, as one might guess, the picture was not one I smiled for.
It was not all that long ago when drivers and their vehicles were potential subjects of a portrait taken by the infamous red light cameras that sprang up all over the state. For the moment, cameras have been turned off, but we don't know if the lenses will be dusted off and these cameras will be used again "down the road."
As I ponder this topic, I consider the things that have changed since I first climbed into a vehicle as a licensed New Jersey driver.
When I first got my license, for example, a driver couldn't make a right turn on red. While states in the west had allowed RTOR for many years, the eastern part of the country only came around to the concept in the late 1970s after the first of two gas crises. It was seen as a fuel-saving measure; one of the few places that it's still prohibited is New York City.
Having trouble seeing the traffic light because of sun glare? It wasn't all that long ago when it was nearly impossible to miss a traffic light. Why? Because in days gone by, traffic lights stood smack-dab in the middle of intersections. Even when I was a child riding with my parents, I pondered the sensibility of mounting a traffic signal on a massive concrete block in the middle of the street.
And prior to that, think of the brave police who had to direct traffic by hand while standing in the middle of that motorized maelstrom.
The hand signals I see have less digits showing Perhaps you remember taking the driving test and answering questions about hand signals for turns. There was a time, of course, when cars didn't have turn signals and people practiced automotive semaphore to navigate - which I, as a precocious lad and then a stick shift driver, wondered as to how it should be done if one hand was signaling and the other was shifting; who was steering?
Nowadays, most motorcyclists have turn signals. It's still included in testing these days, under the premise of "if your turn signals aren't working." Tell that to the people whose turn signals are working and who still don't bother to use them.
MORE: Vintage photos around New Jersey
It would be unfair to not point out that the recent work on the New Jersey Turnpike, adding more lanes between exits 8A and 6, has been a godsend to Garden State travelers. Good on you, Department of Transportation; but there are still sections of the roadway, as well as Route 287, that can aggravate even the most passive driver.
One thing is for certain - if you can drive in New Jersey, you can drive anywhere. From the close quarters of the Garden State Parkway (what are there, eight lanes in some sections of the GSP?) to the jughandles we navigate to the narrow stretches of roads in rural areas of the state.
Here's a gallery of vintage scenes from streets and roads around New Jersey.
Can't get enough? Here's a link to last year's gallery.
Greg Hatala may be reached at ghatala@starledger.com. Follow him on Twitter @GregHatala. Find The Star-Ledger on Facebook.