I generally try to avoid driving in any congestion that bad, but what I do see a lot in the (semi-)rural highways around here is people speeding up when you try to pass them. People who were going 40mph in a 60mph zone but speed up to just above the limit once you move into the left lane to pass. I’m sorry…did I wake you? If you’re so eager to keep your pride of place (12th car past the Carlisle exit), perhaps you should be driving the speed limit ALL THE FUCKING TIME so I don’t HAVE to pass you…
I don’t think D_Odds explained himself well (and he should correct me if I’m wrong). The other lane isn’t unused, it’s the highway. The queue is for the exit ramp. If people used all available lanes for this exit, they would be blocking the flow of the rest of the drivers trying to avoid the exit.
You are speaking of the generic ‘zipper’ merge, which I always honor. This stretch is not a zipper merge. This is a three-lane highway (in each direction) with a two lane exit (with ample signage) at the bridge. Right lane must exit, middle lane has option, third lane is always thru-traffic. Third lane is not merging, it is straight-through.
Okay, so the people in the third lane are just blocking through traffic.
That is how I would read the stuation.
Turning on your signal is a warning that you intend to change lanes. That does not mean that all other drivers have to immediately slam on the brakes to make your life as easy as possible. I sometimes let people in, sometimes I don’t, whichever is most convenient for me, the person currently in the place you want to be.
No lanes disappear. One is dedicated to the bridge, one is option, one is thru-traffic. Given the backup is at the bridge, anyone going past the bridge wants the left, and anyone going to the bridge the two right. Shitheads wanting the bridge taking the left will sometimes end up blocking the third lane for a short time until some ‘kind soul’ lets Mr. I-don’t-have-to-queue in.
Or, on preview, yeah, what you said…
As I said before, there was no reason for him to do that, from a quarter of a mile away.
No one needs to be “slamming on the brakes.” I’m talking about heavy traffic situations in which most lanes are traveling at the same speed and no one should really be going fast enough to have to slam on their brakes when someone needs to change.
Furthermore, what I see most of the time is cars speeding up to block lane-changing. Can you justify that?
What’s your goal? To be in that spot? No, it’s to get to your destination without misfortune. Letting someone into a lane in heavy traffice has a very small or negligible chance in bringing about a negative consequence relative to that goal.
Driving should be co-operative, not competitive. Let the guy in front of you do what he wants to do. Ultimately, it doesn’t inconvenience you at all.
Anyone in Massachusetts taking 93 to route 3 South going to Cape Cod in the summer knows exactly what you’re talking about.
You probably drive too fucking slow. If there’s enough room to “land an airliner or two” or “veritable acres of space,” just signal and get over already. I hate waiting for people like you to decide if 5 car lengths is enough room to merge.
You have no idea what you’re talking about. I was entering a highway and signaling to change lanes. This care was literally nowhere near me. He wouldn’t have had to wait for shit. The only reason I hesitated was because of his weird signaling behavior.
Driving is 90 percent waiting. What kind of mental damage is the wait causing you?
All that space was in the lane next to him…so how is that his fault? Jesus, I see drivers like Ascenray describes all the time. They take it as an affront if you try to merge into “their” lane, and drive fast to cut you off. Happens to me every day.
Everyone’s saying “oh, the flashing lights was a polite signal” but ignoring the guy laying on the horn. How do you spin that one to be Ascenray’s fault?
I understand what he was saying. You put on your turn signal and don’t go anywhere. The other driver flashed his lights and you still sat there. If he eventually is in your blind spot, that might be when you decide to move.
If I slow down and wait for you to merge and you never do, I don’t know what you are doing or even if you are paying attention. When I give up and close the gap, one of two things invariably happens: they get all angry like you just did and assume I was blocking them even though I slowed down to accommodate them, or they just try to merge right into the side of my face.
It’s one thing if there are two car lengths and someone speeds up to block you. That’s an asshole move for sure.
But TWENTY car lengths? He’s too scared to merge because someone flashed his headlights or honked TWENTY car lengths behind him? They must have been McLaren F1s to make up twenty car lengths and block him in the 1 second it would have taken to change lanes.
Neither of the situations I described required anyone to slow down. They both had to speed up to get anywhere near me.
In neither case did enough time pass for the following driver to actually have to wait for anything. There was no chance of our cars coming anywhere near each other unless they intentionally sped up to make it happen.
Happens to me almost every day. I hate those fuckers.
Being confused about the flashing light invitation to change lanes clearly shows that Ascenray is clueless on the highway, potentially dangerously so. I’d do the same thing if Ascenray was signalling but not moving, with plenty of space available, and a clear invitation. I’d assume that the car was driven by someone senile or distracted, and thus potentially dangerous. Sure as fuck I’d speed up to minimize my time in the blind spot of someone that confused. Also I make it a general policy to not be behind drivers that are always about to cause an accident.
Guy with the horn? Probably an asshole, regardless of Ascenray’s lack of driving ability.
I never said you forced anyone to slow down. You asked why waiting bothered me; I told you what my experience has been. Please read more carefully.
What I said about you was, if you weren’t so slow yourself you could have easily merged with a 20 car length buffer, and if you think a car can make up 20 car lengths to zip up and block you justlikethat then you don’t have sufficient reaction time to be driving anyway.
Yeah, they didn’t roll out the red carpet and meekly pull over onto the shoulder so you could merge, but so what? Did you ever consider the horn might have meant “just move over already?”
Or you could just be confused about the speed of traffic around you, just like you’re confused by invitations to change lanes.
I’m sorry, but that’s just bullshit. I had good reason to be confused by someone signaling me in a situation in which it was not appropriate or logical to signal me for any reason.
Do you really flash your headlights every time someone merges onto the highway anywhere within your range of vision?
I didn’t signal but not move. I signaled, saw the weird flashing and aborted my lane change to see what the fucker was up to. My signal clicked no more than three times in that period. I didn’t ride for miles with my signal cluelessly on.
So much space available that no reasonable driver would have felt any need to signal.
In the circumstances, the signal made no sense and thus wasn’t clear at all.
You’re bringing a whole lot of personal baggage to this, ain’t ya?
He isn’t the only asshole in my rearview mirror at this point.
Hell, I could have easily merged back and forth four or five times, given the room available and the relative speed of traffic. The reason I hesitated was because of the bizarre behavior of the car behind me, and subsequent events bore me out. When someone hits metal for no reason to pass you from a quarter mile back only to have to slow down or stop right away that’s the potentially dangerous driver.
I didn’t think he can do anything of the sort. Given his bizarre behavior, I didn’t want to be near him when he tried something odd, and I was right about that. He was acting like a lunatic so I preferred to stay put until he was out of the picture.
No, because he honked as soon as I signaled a lane change. Who the fuck does that? A honk is a warning signal. You don’t just keep on doing what you’re doing when someone honks. And then when I decided to go ahead and do it anyway, with a fresh new signal, he lays on his horn and guns it to swerve around me. It was even more bizarre because given the distance between us, it took him forever to catch up with me, and then only to have to stop at a light.