People who try to do this bring out the asshole driver in me. I will do everything (short of having or causing an accident) to ensure that they are not able to complete their maneuver.
Why can’t people just make a plan that does not impede the rest of traffic?
Ok, the driver in the OP is no angel, but people like you who play games with a half-ton of steel and cock-block another driver when you know *perfectly well *their intention aren’t exactly aces in my book either.
It may not be. I base my claim entirely on a public access channel video presented by the Highway Patrol. This was several years ago, so my memory could be faulty, or perhaps the laws have changed, or perhaps they were just saying that it is a Really Bad Thing To Do. The video I remember described exactly the scenario presented in the OP, and my distinct impression was that it was an illegal maneuver, but I could be wrong.
Just because you want it doesn’t make it the right thing to do. If your intention is to cut me off by abruptly moving into my lane when there is nothing but 8 miles of lonesome road behind me and you immediately have to hit your brakes because the traffic is heavy ahead of me you aren’t exactly aces in my book either, even though I know perfectly well what your intentions are.
The Driver probably could have made a better decision that doesn’t inconvenience other drivers, but didn’t necessarily do anything wrong. The real wrong doers were the city planners that allowed a parking lot to have an exit so close to an intersection. This could have been avoided with better zoning.
As someone said in a different thread a while ago, the best driving is PREDICTABLE driving. It’s no better to be the guy doing something unpredictable or to be the guy letting someone else in when you shouldn’t.
Or a Right Turn Only sign from that lot.
Obnoxious at best.
The comments about the person letting the driver pull out reminded me of the worst traffic arrangement I’ve ever had to deal with, though, on my way home from a place I worked for a few months.
Near the entrance to the highway there was a spot where you came to a near-perpendicular “merge” into two lanes of traffic. In order to get from there to the highway on ramp you had to cross both lanes over a distance of maybe a couple of hundred feet. There was no traffic control at the intersection(s).
The really fun part was that at the time I left work every day, the near lane of this two-lane piece of road (which disgorged a few hundred yards down onto the west-bound lane of the highway I would be taking east) was always completely clogged with traffic and moving at about 2 miles per hour. The farther lane, on the other hand, was moving at about 50. To top it all off, the whole can of worms was arranged on a sharp curve (picture approaching a cloverleaf from the inside), meaning sight distance was nil.
You’d have to wait at this “merge” until some kind soul let you in (because there wasn’t going to be any gap), then sit there perpendicular to the traffic, nose out into the fast-moving lane for some minimal visibility, waiting for a gap there, then gun it and just hope you got up to speed and/or into the highway on ramp before someone slammed into your trunk.
I’m amazed I survived those few months.