I have a few opinions on this matter. It is the responsibility of the person merging or changing lanes to do so safely and if I have to swerve or slow down significantly to avoid a collision, you’re the one driving unsafely. That said, even in a travel lane, out should leave a sufficient buffer in front of himself so that, if someone wants to merge in front, one need only slightly let off the gas for a few seconds at most to let them in or if they’re coming up in the merge lane beside or slightly behind, have enough room to speed up slightly and let them in behind.
To that end, people who speed up and prevent merging are assholes, and I see it all the time. Unfortunately, depending on how the traffic is going, it sometimes means that I have to make lane changes without signalling because signalling actually makes it MORE dangerous, as they’ll try to speed up and I may get hit while in the process of changing lanes. Even more frustrating is that I do have a led foot and tend to speed, but I also like to leave a nice stopping cushion as a precaution; however, I find in heavier traffic I often have to leave a cushion that I’m less than comfortable with people people will just zip right into any space their car will fit into without regard to their own safety or those around them.
Specifically to the OP, however, under typical circumstances, I will always either slow down or speed up slightly to let someone merge if it’s safe. However, if they are failing to reach highway speeds before merging or staying in the merge lane despite having plenty of room to merge, I assume they’re likely distracted and I will generally pass them rather than have a distracted driver in front of me. Also, when there is a merge lane in stop-and-go traffic, I have little issue letting someone in front of me, and I too try to take the first reasonable merge opportuntiy. However, those who zip right to the end past good merge opportunities or, worse, run on the shoulder to get farther up can kiss my ass. Again, it is the person merging who has the responsibility of entering traffic and if you pass up other opportunities for the sake of getting 5 car lengths farther ahead at the cost of more impact on traffic and greater risk, you can just keep waiting.
By the way. When one is merging onto the highway, it is THEIR job to get up to highway speed, it is not the job of those already on the highway to slow down or “let” anyone in. DAMNIT! Blaster beat me to it. But he wouldn’t have if my stupid connection didn’t pick just this moment to go bonkers.
Obstructionist driving is against the law here (and quite possibly where you are, too, since it’s rude and dangerous).
I don’t think we can assume anything about how clueless Acsenray is - I’ve been a driver for 28 years, and I’ve never heard of flashing your high beams to let someone know there is enough room. I’ve never considered that I needed the help - I can judge if there’s enough room just fine for myself.
Well, it is your job to come up to bandwidth. You can’t expect Blaster to type slower just because you want to get your post in ahead of him. If you had indicated that you wanted to post he might have slowed down … or he might have typed faster so there was room behind him.
I’ve seen and used the flash in bumper-to-bumper traffic jams and backups, when traffic is nearly at a standstill. I’ve never seen it when traffic is moving normally.
That seems a little slow to merge on to most highways, doesn’t it?
I think I’ll agree with several other posters…I think that flashing lights guy saw you entering the highway slowly and assumed you were being overly cautious. He flashed his lights to let you know to g’head and merge. He was probably pissed that you didn’t promptly and smoothly enter traffic.
Did you read the rest of my post? These are not freeways barreling through the countryside in straight shots. These are urban commuter roads with multiple splits and merges, lane narrowing, etc. It’s rare that traffic even gets up to 50 m.p.h. in the city at all. Most of the time, because of the congestion, you have to enter that highway from a complete stop and I can assure you no one is going 50 m.p.h. when they merge then.
And, again, given the distance between us, I could have been going 25 or 30 and still shifted lanes without ever getting close to this guy. It was not conceivable that I would have looked for a signal from this guy to let me know it was safe to change lanes.
I’m reminded of a time in Houston on a metro freeway when I was in the right lane, and the on-ramp was one of those poorly-designed horrors where cars suddenly emerge from a lower level. Wile E. Coyote, Sooper-Genius barreled up that ramp doing 60, secure in his entitlement to merge even though there was no room. Hmm, do I 1) floor it and rear-end the car in front of me to create room, 2) jam on my brakes so I get rear-ended by the guy in back of me, or 3) veer into the left lane and get squashed by a semi?
I chose 4) continue at current speed with warning honk, leaving behind an irate would-be merger who absolutely knew that dammit, roaring up the ramp at high speed means you’ve gotta let me in.
I just got back from a month long, many thousands of miles road trip in a 35 foot long RV towing a car. Accelerates like a dog, brakes like a dog, and handles like a drunken sailor. I spent many a terrifying hour driving on highways and interstates in heavy traffic in towns we had never been in before.
Let me tell you, do THAT for a vacation and you’ll have a new “appreciation” for people that can’t drive, won’t cooperate, won’t get out of the fucking way, and don’t have a fucking clue on how to merge.
I will block people from changing lanes if I have seen them sitting with their blinker flashing but not moving over even when there is plenty of opportunity. My feeling is that they’re shitty drivers and I don’t want to be stuck behind them. By preventing them from getting in front of me they become someone else’s problem.
That probably makes me a bad, but typical, driver.
I wonder if driving is a little bit like intelligence when it comes to self-evaluation. People will almost always over-estimate their intelligence. I’ll be it’s the same with driving skill.
Similarly, dumb people are always the first to talk about how dumb other people are. Maybe bad drivers are the first to complain about other’s driving skills. Not directed at OP, just making an observation.
I have, on occasion, flashed my lights to let someone know that I saw them, recognized their intention to merge, and would be patient while they shifted into my lane. I’ve never noticed anyone confused by that. Of course, a lot of my commuting is on the Beltway around DC, where there is pretty much never a textbook amount of space for changing lanes.
I remember seeing it done 50 years ago and quite often since. It’s still widely practiced by truckers and a lot of people who travel truck shipping lanes (especially at night)
It was probably more prevalent in the days when two lane highways were the norm for truck routes. A large semi passing another semi has a harder time judging the end of his trailer against the front end of the cab of the semi he just passed. The driver in the passed truck had a better view of the situation and his courteous signal was a quick flash of his bright lights. That flash enabled the passing driver to spend less time in the passing lane “danger zone”.
The passing trucker sometimes fires back a quick “thank you” by flashing his running lights.
Traveling overnight through Texas last June I saw truckers still doing this and I still do it myself. It usually results in a “thank you” flash from the trucker.
I learned this language on Route 66 as a young boy riding light at night from St. Louis to Albuquerque. Back then all the truckers used these signals and were grateful (thank you flash) when auto drivers participated in the signaling.
Sure is. Everyone who drives more cautiously than you is an idiot and obstruction. Everyone who drives more recklessly than you is a maniac. Both are dangers.
…we have a thread right now in the pit about a guy who had merged in front of someone on a highway in a way the other guy didn’t like and the guy threw a ratchet through his window…
So, yeah, I understand why **Acsenray **would be cautious.
Here is the place around here where this happens. There are 4 lanes going north, the leftmost a carpool lane, and two lanes exiting. These usually move faster, and are “exit only” for the last 1/4 mile or so. There are always idiots in the leftmost of these lanes who zoom up to just before the ramp then push their way in. I used to try to let them in, but there are always some people who feel they have to leave a car length per mile per hour of speed.
People doing this makes congestion worse. The right through lane is always slower than the middle lane strictly because people brake when these clowns enter and thus slow up traffic. A road can handle lots of traffic, but slows up when people are changing lanes or braking to keep distance. That’s why traffic speed up after an entrance ramp, even when there are more cars, and why metering lights improve the flow of traffic.
The only other time I won’t let someone in is if there is tons of space behind me, but the clown has to speed up to try to push into the one car length in front of me. That is fairly rare.
Oh please. The OP in that thread admitted he escalated that situation by giving the guy the finger; that’s not the same thing at all. I have never once seen anyone get upset over merging into a football field-sized gap.
I’ve seen enough crazy behavior on the road and an almost daily stream of accidents to give people a wide berth when they show signs of odd behavior. Why wouldn’t I?
