Pei Yung
What does this sentence mean? Doing errands where you only have to make right-hand turns. What does that mean?
Dec 21, 2016 1:00 PM
Answers · 6
2
It looks like it's from a TED talk from a speaker who works in time management. She's talking about questionable ways to save time that people have told her. (https://www.ted.com/talks/laura_vanderkam_how_to_gain_control_of_your_free_time/transcript) In many places in the US & Canada, at a stoplight, you can make a quick stop and then turn right without waiting for the light to turn green. So, if you were to follow that tip and run errands that only make right hand turns, you wait at fewer stoplights and may save some time. Do note that she is presenting that as an incredibly silly idea.
December 21, 2016
If this is in a North American context, it probably means that the writer is a nervous driver. When this person has to do some errands - for example, buying groceries - they only go to stores that they can drive to without having to turn left at an intersection. In countries where people drive on the right-hand side of the road, it's easy to turn right onto another road. Left-hand turns are more difficult, because you have to cross the path of other traffic. If any users of US English are reading this, please correct me if I've said anything above that seems out of place in a North American context. I've done my best to use context-appropriate language! NB The US and Canada are the only English-speaking countries which drive on the right, so it's the left-hand turns which are the easy ones outside N. America.
December 21, 2016
The sentence is really awkward. I guess the person has to take care of errands and when they drive in their car, they just need to turn right only when they do? The sentence doesn't really make a lot of sense honestly.
December 21, 2016
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