Now I know how you all feel about speeding, tailgating, aggressive driving, and the like, but I would like to know just one thing…
Does it piss anyone else off when you have a quarter mile to get up to speed entering a highway, with completely clear vision, and you’re stuck behind some bozo doing 35 all the way to the end of the damn ramp, where they come to a complete stop?
I just marvel at the sheer unadulterated stupidity of these people. Rather than pacing traffic and merging safely, they have to merge from a dead stop and risk the lives of all the other people already doing the speed limit.
I am not by nature a patient person, but I save my very best epithets for these people. This is my pet peeve, and people who do it right in front of me should thank their lucky stars that they can’t hear me yelling and screaming at them. I hate feeling like I’m gonna get buttrammed while trying to get on the highway, and these people do it to me all the time.
Not that this is gonna change anything, it’s just so incredibly infuriating to me. The people who do stuff like that should have their licenses revoked and be made to walk, since then they can’t do stupid stuff that might kill me and others.
I dunno. I think that even walking is a challenge for many of these people, since I’ve seen these same fuckwads darting in and out between parked cars. Most likely, they were doing situps under these cars, since that’s the only possible explanation for their behavior.
Yes! I hate that, too.
In NYC it’s actually made worse. Even where there is a lot of room for a long merge lane, more often than not, it’ll be very short with a stop sign at the end! They actually expect you to merge instantly! So when they have normal merge lanes and some goat-felcher decides to stop rather than match speed, ARRRGH!
This is my absolute most horrifying pet peeve. In Baltimore, the majority of the merge lanes are maybe 10 feet long. On the merge off 695 to my house, you seriously only have maybe a hundred feet. And you have to decrease to 20 mph at some point, and the whole endeavor is that much more difficult when some absolute fuckwad has decided to some to a complete stop in the middle of the lane trying to yield on to 695.
Also, I wish more fucking people would realize that when you are on the actual highway, people coming on have to yielf to you. When you are on 95 S going 70 mph please for the love of all that is good and holy DO NOT STOP to let traffic merge onto the freeway!
While were at it, can I send a fucking memo to people who think it’s okay to go the speed limit in the fast lane? I understand that it’s important and safe to go the speed limit. Fine, great, dandy. But other people want to go fast. I would like to drive down 95 heading toward school and be able to go 80 the whole way. But some weinerhead going exactly 55 (cruise control, grampa?) has to cut me off and ruin my whole fucking trip.
And HEY! That tunnel you’r driving through? I know it might seem scary at first, but it’s really just a two-lane highway with WALLS. There’s no need to go 35 fucking mph when the speed limit is 55. There are no surprise right turns or anything. It’s not even remotely fucking narrow. There is no need to hold up thousands of drivers trying to get to work because you’re frightened by the itty bitty tunnel. Maybe you should take 695 if the whole ordeal is such a fucking traumatic occurance.
You know what else? When 95N merges into 895, there’s nothing too hard about it. Really, I promise. Three lanes unite with two lanes. No one has to merge, or even shift lanes right away, because there are no exits for a while. So why does traffic always come to a complete stop? Anybody know? What is so fucking hard about this driving maneuver that everyone needs to slam on their brakes and change lanes like it’s going out of style?
-Sarah, who drives back and forth to school each day for an hour total on 95 and has dislocated her middle finger from frequent use.
Not quite the same scenario, but just the other day I had to deal with one of the most DANGEROUS, STUPID manoevers I have EVER seen on the road! I drive up a rural highway to go to school, and at one point this road goes onto an overpass over HWY 401 (the busiest highway in Ontario, for it’s entire length!).
On this particular day, the 401 was backed up beyond what is normal for it (i.e. standstill versus really really slow), and so the lanes approaching the onramps were also backed up in both directions. I get over the overpass, and go to continue on my way north, when some fucker in the southbound lane decides that since, apparently, ALL traffic in his direction was stopped, it was somehow OK for him to get to wherever the fuck he was trying to go by getting onto the northbound lane and drive South!!!. The fucker came within less than 2 car lengths of hitting me face-on, and then proceeded to give me the finger when he had to swerve back into the southbound lanes (nearly hitting someone else in the process!). As I kept driving to school, I looked in the rear-view, and he was doing the same thing again!!!.
And as if that wasn’t enough, I was nearly hit by a full school bus a few minutes later when I was passing it legally, and the idiot driver decided to change lanes in order to make a turn. And these are the people we trust to get children to school safely???
Actually, neither the highway or the merge lanes have the right-of-way. It is both the responsibility of the people on the highway to consider merging traffic and adjust speed and lanes accordingly, and of the mergers to pace traffic before coming onto the freeway. (At least that’s what was taught into the NC Driver’s Education class, I don’t imagine it to be much different state-to-state).
But of course, those rules are never followed, and so the entire system breaks down, leading to exactly what happens in the OP.
When I end up behind one of these fucknuggets (in many cases some form of minivan or other large vehicle), I try to go down the ramp as slowly as possible as long as noone else is behind me. Many times doing that I can wait at the top of the ramp until they decide to mosey on in to traffic. Then you can merge at a reasonable speed. Of course, though, your mileage may vary.
Actually, eBathory, I do that as often as possible. It’s just not practical sometimes.
And while I’m here, I might as well bitch about another driving peeve. I wonder what it is that possesses people in the left lane to stop when traffic is heavy in the right lane. First of all, all you do is risk getting tattooed by people behind you. Second, the bozos in the right lane won’t cut you off if they see that you’re not gonna stop, because they don’t want to die any more than you do.
Timid people on the road are FAR more hazardous than speeders, in my opinion. I’ve seen the evidence of that borne out personally time and time again.
Use your head and it’s cool. Panic, and you die. To me, it’s that simple.
Oh man, I know this one well! There’s a jam in the middle of Santa Rosa, CA every day, all through the day, due to both the design of the onramps and the healthy supply of idiots who hit the brakes right before merging. I’ve witnessed it far too many times to believe it’s a fluke, it’s enough so I actively avoid going there these days.
Say, could you tell me what your car looks like so that if I ever see it in the rear view, I can be real sure to get in front of you and have the nerve to go only the speed limit?
This is a somewhat related peeve. I was driving home the other day along the western freeway and there was a bushfire ahead (yay bushfire season has started early this year). The speed limit is a 110 km/h so I am going along doing 130 - it is the safest road in Sydney in fairly sparse traffic on the three lane divided highway. I come around a corner and find that everything has just completely stopped. I am rapidly breaking and finish doing 20km/h. I think there must have been an accident, the bushfire has cut off the road, something must have happened. Nope, nothing. For some obscure reason everyone had decided to drive really slowly past the bushfire (even though it was not really close and you could only see smoke above the trees). I didn’t get it. No emergency vehicles around, no signs of an accident or anything, just some people slowing down for no better reason than to piss other people off.
And my mother is one of those people who is remarkably hesitant about merging or changing lanes. Everytime we are driving I have to tell her not to brake when getting into the overtaking lane, or when changing lanes going through the city. It frustrates me as a driver and as a passenger. Keep the traffic flow smooth, no needless braking on the road.
I respectfully submit that people with attitudes like yours are also a major problem. They call it the fast lane for a reason, you realize. Maybe it’s because people like to go fast, perhaps?
It’s not your place to enforce the law, my friend. That is the job of the police. Period.
“The law is the law, Jean Valjean!” is now and forever will be a bad attitude for ordinary people to have while driving. I can see that you will almost certainly disagree with me, but if you would just stop and think for one second, you’d realize the truth in what I’m saying. Let the guy go. It’s better for you, and it’s better for them. Nobody loses anything.
I don’t have a problem with speeding, but the very idea that someone would complain that people are jerks for OBEYING such a straightforward law in such an innocent way, is …just ridiculous.
I’m not much a vigilante. I don’t have any real ethics tos peak of so I see no point in enforcing any, but honestly! I mean, come on!
By definition, if the speed limit is X and the road contains a ‘passing’ or ‘fast’ lane then the people travelling at speed limit X should be in that faster lane. All other lanes are indeed for slower traffic but that traffic should be travelling at X minus something.
Not that I’ve got anything against speeding (I plan to be doing it on Route 9 in about 5 minutes, myself) but I don’t see the justification in expecting another person to break the law for my own convenience. It strikes me as well…rude to do so. And you know how uncomfortable I am with that.
Really, I think it’s a matter of local driving culture. In central Iowa (my grad school days) there is a culture of, on four lanes, moving over so mergers can get in conveniently. I’m in the right lane, toodling along, I see someone merging on, I move over to the left lane to make way, he merges, I get back in the right lane when appropriate.
I must have seen this 20 times a day in Iowa. And, upon reflection, decided that it was the proper thing to do. I have the speed so I have the most manuverability, therefore I am in a better position to make the two of us safe than the merger. And I do it to this day (though the culture of the east coast is much less considerate on the roads than Iowa).
[sub]And has anyone but me noticed how often AD speaks of being ‘butt rammed’? Must be a thing about coming from Pennsylvania. Nice cheesesteak, though.[/sub]
On an unrelated but highly disturbing note, I saw a lady driving down I75 in Dallas during rush hour (very dangerous in and of itself) in a Honda Civic. Her 2-3 year old son was STANDING ON THE FRONT FLOORBOARD, IN FRONT OF THE AIRBAG, PLAYING WITH A SCREWDRIVER!!! Un-fucking-believable!
Related to the OP, I believe the city should go to the junkyard, get the most totaled car they can find, and place it strategically beside a busy road. Then, go to the closest medical school, get a few left-over corpses and misc body parts, and sprinkle them liberally around the newly created crash scene. People will initially stop and gawk, but will eventually become desensitized to the sight of the carnage. Once desensitized, people will not not stop and gawk at real accidents anymore. Do this a couple times a year, and you’re all set. I assume that’s what these idiots want to see when they come to a complete stop to ogle a car on the side of the road with a flat tire. Anyway, just my modest proposal.
I gotta disagree with the peeps who find it reasonable to drive the speed limit in the passing lane while holding up traffic. its a FREAKING passing lane! if you are not passing then get out of the lane.
Well, then how would you reconcile the posted speed limit (above which it is assumed you would not travel)(heh) with the ‘passing lane’ concept? If someone is already travelling at the posted speed limit there can be no legal justification for passing them, get me?
No, I specifically remember reading in my driver’s booklet that merging traffic yields the right-of-way. Maybe things are different elsewhere, but most of the time if what you describe is true, then there is an “Alternate Right-of-Way” sign.
As for speeding…let me describe this image so you can enjoy it as much as I do every morning. There are four lanes of traffic. The speed limit increases from 55 to 60 mph, so that’s the general recommended speed. Okey doke? Most of the time, there are plenty of cars in the road but everything is moving slowly. I’m going 70 or 75 in the fast lane behind cars going the same speed or faster. Over in the other lanes, traffic is basically keeping up, maybe going slightly slower, say 60-65 for instance. Then a few cars in front of me, a car going 55-60 cuts off a driver, causing him to slam on his brakes. Traffic in front of this continues at the same speed, but every driver behind this guy has to brake. He continues to do his normal speed, going slower than most of the cars in the other lanes. Traffic all around slows because a)drivers in the fast lane are trying to pass him, which jams things up; b)all the cars behind him have to go slower; and c)the general speed all over the highway decreases.
Now, I have heard that in Pennsylvania, you can get a ticket for just driving in the fast lane, but in Baltimore, I have never heard of it referred to as the “passing” lane. Plenty of people drive in it, and they drive fast. I don’t expect anyone to speed; I expect them to acknowledge that everyone in the fast lane is going well over the speed limit and that by driving the speed limit in the fast lane, they are holding up traffic.
