Haha just last night I’m coming home from the southtowns with the woman. Traffic on the 90 was heavy because of all the rubberneckers looking at the recently extinguished car fire at the 290->90 split. So I’m being the good guy I am, letting people in.
A few minutes later we’re coming up to the NFB exit on 290W. There’s no traffic in sight behind me. Some douche bag in a Prius came hammering his little electric car up the onramp, tried passing me on the right, got stuck behind another car, put on his blinker, got all frustrated when I went about my business not letting him in, and almost missed the highway because he refused to slow down and merge behind me. Jackass.
no you are the asshole trying to talk on his cell phone, do homework, catch up on reading. type on his laptop. masturbate, air drum to skynyrd, and kiss your GF all while driving up on the shoulder, back to the left lane, and in reverse
Depends on the situation. If I’m in the lane going straight that does not end; I have the right of way, by law I do not have to let anyone in. I’ve driven people off the road before who refused to merge properly or weren’t paying attention to the lane/road ending.
I wasn’t on here 5 years ago for this but glad it came back up. This question boils down to two issues:
Signage and rules of the road.
Politeness and courtesy.
If you see a sign noting lanes merging, especially construction ahead, I start looking to move in the proper lane immediately. If traffic is backed up I do not proceed up the open lane looking to “jump in”. I immediately turn on my signal and wait for a car to allow me to get in.
If you see a sign telling you your lane is ending, why ignore it and decide to proceed? Do you ignore all the other signs?
Why do some think theire destination is more important so that gives them special privileges to rush to the front of the line in front of everybody else? Do they do this at restaurants, movie ticket lines, etc? I don’t think so. They do it because they are in a vehicle and figure there’s no chance of consequences. My rule of thumb is this. You show the politeness and courtesy at the proper time, you are happily allowed to merge. You act like a jackhole and figure you’re Gods gift to the earth, I do everything to make it miserable for you. If everyone merged with both urgency and courtesy, most of the traffic jams wouldn’t be there in the first place.
There are a number of non-construction situations like this right in my own town. (eg. Route 179 “Milestrip” merge into the traffic circle at Rt. 5) Posted sign WELL in advance of the merge yet some think they are going to race like mad and cut in at the last minute, on a hard right turn with concrete barrier mind you. I have schooled more than one driver on this maneuver and they were not too pleased. Too bad. Be courteous on and off the road and everything will be alright. You want to pull over and get out to “talk” about it, I’m more than willing.
i used to always take this approach when driving myself until i started making a lot of business trips in and around DC… i’d have a car load of people from our DC office in the car and the one guy was just relentless…he would always say “they wouldn’t build the road if they didn’t want you to drive on it…use all lanes to the merge!”
after having that screamed at my every other week for a couple of months i started driving his way and it actually worked out pretty well in the terrible DC rush hour traffic. in a lot of cases traffic gets all backed up because everyone jumps into the right or left lane a mile before the merge…if everyone went all the way to the merge and kind of ‘zippered’ together it would go a lot faster.
The way people merge and share now it’s more like “buttoned”. Oh and by the way, unless you’re the one behind the wheel…get your own car or shut the fuck up.
I am frequently frustrated by people who are afraid to be “that guy”.
At the weave lane where the 33E enters and the 33W leaves the 90E people coming from 33E immediately make a complete stop to try to merge onto the 90E; blocking people from exiting onto the 33W even though there is like 3/4 of a mile of lane left to merge with…