No left turn allowed

I've been known to make a right hand turn to go left.

I've always thought it's because of my impatience.

Now I can say it's because I'm eco-friendly, I'm green, I'm lessening my carbon footprint.

There are many places in my usual driving routes in my neighborhood where I hate to make left hand turns either because the light is way too long or because the traffic is way too heavy.

So I turn right, find a convenient place to pull a U-turn (sometimes legally) then merrily continue on my way.

This no left hand turn idea, I found, is all but institutionalized in the state of New Jersey.

My wife Jane and I spent a few days in the Monmouth area recently and I was surprised frankly in the many instances where I was forbidden in making a left hand turn, even along your average two-lane road.

For example, I needed to withdraw from cash from my bank that had an office near the hotel where we stayed. I was traveling north on the two-lane road but was prohibited from making a left hand turn into the bank's parking lot. I had to continue on, turn into a convenient parking lot to turn around and make the allowed right hand turn to the bank.

There are a lot of places in New Jersey where you have to turn right to go left by using turn out lanes from congested roads in commercial areas.

When gas prices started to get a little crazy, delivery companies such as FedEx started finding ways to get more mileage from a tank of gas. They made sure tires were filled to the proper pressure. They made sure engines were tuned up. And the logisticians determined that their companies could save more fuel if they didn't sit idling at traffic lights or waiting for traffic to make left hand turns.

As long as there's right on right, we're good for the environment.

It gives a whole new meaning to the thought that two wrongs don't make a right. Three lefts make a right.