Happens all aver the place, and the bigger and busier the road, the more likely it is. Some of the interstates heading in and out of Chicago are 4 or even 5 lanes in each direction, and people will pass using any of them. Happens less in the far right lane because there is so much traffic coming and going on the entrance/exit ramps.
Did you read my entire quote? Because I don’t think I made it clear enough but I meant that people pass me and then scoot into the (to me, quite tiny) space between myself and the next car, for no apparent reason than to make the road less safe for both of us.
Not true, of course. A signal is a request, and you MAY NOT-- EVER – change lanes until there is room to do it safely. Even if you miss your turn and have to go miles out of your way. You can feel differently about it, of course, but you’d be legally wrong and unsafe.
Speeding up to cut someone off is ALSO wrong and illegal, of course. But a certain number of drivers “perceive” that someone sped up to cut them off and get angry about it when in fact it did not happen.
My own policy is to always maintain my speed unchanged when approaching a merge ramp (as required by law, so the people coming on have a chance to gauge my speed), and to let in anyone who signals, if at all possible, and freeze out, if it can be done safely, anyone who doesn’t signal. At least one game theory study claimed that traffic proceeds most optimally when drivers make allowances for each other until someone misbehaves, and then “punish” the misbehaving driver.
Hey, how can I work if I’m dead?
Can I pit tailgaters too? This area is the WORST I’ve been in. Usually traffic isn’t terrible. Freeway, with two lanes either way. This being California, usual speed on a freeway is about 70mph. I go 70-75, in the fast lane. The slow lane is for trucks. It seems like every other morning there’s some jackass crawling up my tailpipe so far I can’t even see their headlights. This pisses me off. Sometimes I slow down (and yes, I know that’s stupid, immature, and jerkish). Otherwise I hold my speed. Typically traffic is light enough that they could go around me at the 80 or 90 they want to go. I’ll note, that if I can tell they want to go faster and they don’t tailgate, I’ll move over.
Who are these people that are in such a damnable rush to go to work? And why can’t I get a job like that?
But…but this goes against the first rule of merging onto the expressway, i.e. “Look out, it doesn’t matter if there’s a car in the right-hand lane already and they can’t get out of the way, HERE I COME BOZOS!! YA-HAAAA!!!”
I think you guys are talking past each other.
Suppose there is currently room to safely change lanes, but you know from experience that if you put on your turn signal and wait a couple seconds before moving over, that guy 10 car lengths back in the lane you’re moving into may well speed up and take away the available room.
In that situation, you simultaneously put on your turn signal and start changing lanes. It’s a notification: “I’m changing lanes. It’s safe for me to do this right now, and if you close that gap, you’ll be tailgating.”
When there’s already enough room to safely change lanes, fuck requesting. The only time you need to put on your turn signal as a request is when there isn’t safe room.
WAG They want to get the clock started so they can clock out sooner.
I spent a few days visiting Minneapolis earlier this year. I did a fair amount of driving every day.
I found the drivers to be pretty civilized. Traffic flowed quickly and efficiently. I didn’t find drivers to be either timid or aggressive.
I don’t know what that says about the conditions I’m used to driving in. Perhaps my out-of-state license plate bought me some courtesy.
Not really. Law aside (although I think the law would agree), safety requires you to wait for people to have a chance to react to your signal.
Otherwise, the signal is pointless.
A situation I’ve seen often enough is that there’s room, but two separate drivers decide simultaneously to merge (for example, right AND left lane drivers want into a center lane.) If they both just suddenly moved “because there’s room” in the lane they want, they’d collide (or veer aside frantically to avoid collision.)
You must (MUST) signal and wait before changing lanes. You may not LIKE that, but it’s true.
If somebody’s far back and speeds up, you can decide to go over anyway. That’s you business. But if he’s so close that the moment he taps the accelerator you CAN’T cut him off in response to his response, you shouldn’t have changed lanes anyway – what if he had routinely altered his speed without even seeing your signal? You didn’t actually have the room to do so safely. And you don’t have the right to do so unsafely. Even if you assume, based on experience, the guy 10 car lengths back is going to be a dangerous asshole. Even if he turns out to be.
A lot of people think their whims or “rights” trump the rules of defensive driving. That’s why these numbers are so big: US Gov’t 2012 Statistical Abstract traffic accident statistics [warning: .pdf].
The signal shouldn’t even depend on the proximity – or the presence – of people at all. You should signal even when there’s no car in sight all the way to the horizon. Why? Because it’s a habit and safe habits save lives, and you only have the habits you practice.
It’s true that people should let you in if you signal, and they shouldn’t be speeding up to cut you off. But you can’t arbitrarily change the laws of your state – or of physics – or of human reaction time – just because you don’t want to be cut off.
No. Quite often, safety demands that you make the safe lane change while it’s there, rather than giving assholes on the road an engraved invitation to close that gap and leave you with a much more marginally safe lane change.
Not hardly. The signal tells people, “I’m moving this way intentionally. I’m not just inattentively drifting a couple wheels across the lane markers, so you don’t have to worry about my drifting back. This is an actual lane change. If you want to move through the spot I’m moving out of, just wait a second.”
And what does this have to do with the price of beans in Burma?
In 40 years of driving, I’ve never - NEVER - seen that situation resolved by one driver seeing the other’s turn signal. It’s tough to see the turn signals of a car that’s abreast of you even if it’s just one lane over, let alone two, and you’re rarely looking two lanes over anyway.
What inevitably happens is that, as you’re changing lanes, you see the other car changing lanes into the same spot from the other side - and he sees you, and more often than not, both cars back off and play ‘after you, Alphonse.’ And the rest of the time, somebody backs off.
All this says is that putting your turn signal on and starting to change lanes doesn’t mean you can stop looking.
Per the above: no, it’s not true. You may feel that it is, but that’s your personal delusion.
Let me use small words - and numbers.
One mile per hour is roughly 1.5 feet per second.
At highway speeds, it doesn’t take a second to increase one’s speed by 20 mph per hour. IOW, to close the gap between two cars that had been going identical speeds by 30 feet per second. 30 feet is roughly 2 car lengths.
Put on your turn signal, wait two seconds, and all of a sudden that guy 6 car lengths back is 2 car lengths back, and is going to be abreast of you in another second.
Six car lengths back is sufficient space at 60 mph. Two car lengths isn’t. But the fact that the asshole six car lengths back can close to 2 while you’re waiting a couple of seconds doesn’t mean that the original 6 car lengths was unsafe.
You, sir, apparently think you can tell other people that they should disregard rules of defensive driving that you don’t like.
Well, that at least is something we can agree on.
Not sure what human reaction time, or physics, has to do with your gripe, since I’m the only one who’s brought in any actual physics into the discussion.
As for state law, you keep spouting off about that, saying it’s on your side, but I’ve yet to see you quote a statute. Put up or shut up.
Have you considered that maybe it was a “your hair looks great” honk?
I always let people pull in front of me.
Except when their turn signal has been on for the last 3 cars passing them on the right when it’s Wednesday during the morning rush hour and my tummy is a little upset or I’m texting and I’m driving on the outside shoulder between Andrew’s Air Force Base and the Oxen Hill exit on the DC capitol beltway (outer loop) after coming off of Route 50 from Annapolis, MD after getting laid the day/night before. (By which I mean I was on Route 50 the day/night before because obviously you can’t be inbound on Route 50, get onto the outer loop of the beltway and pass either the Oxen Hill exit or Andrews Air Force Base.)
I’m the most polite fucker I know. 
Actually I know someone (Well, I’ve never met him but he’s my friend’s son-in-law.) who never lets anyone in front of him. He also has to be right in every circumstance, hates it when you point out something he’s done wrong and never lets you forget a mistake.
In other words he’s a butt monkey.
To the OP: maybe your roads are full of butt monkeys.
My dad once passed a guy on the right on the highway coming home from vacation when I was a kid, and the guy chased our car, brandishing a tire iron to threaten us. Just sayin’…there are some crazy fuckers out there.
This thread reminds me of my husband’s reaction to a driver on I-95 yesterday - I was in the middle lane, this guy was in the right lane stuck behind some moving truck. Traffic was steady enough that he could easily change lanes with plenty of room, so I maintained my speed and he was able to move over with plenty of room. Then he tapped his brake lights very quickly, twice, so I put my hand up in a brief wave (It was dark, so he probably couldn’t even see me).
Next thing I know, ElzaHub loudly says “WHAT THE FUCK is his problem? You let him over, why is he flashing his fucking brake lights at you?!?”.
I started laughing and said “Honey, that was a thank you. That’s how a lot of drivers say thanks for letting them in if it’s dark. He was being NICE and thanking me.”
Aooarently, they don’t do that in Ohio where he grew up. Hell, after living there for five years, I’m shocked to see anyone use a turn signal. But he’s so used to people being assholes on I-95 between Richmond and DC that he automatically assumed the light flashing was a dick move.
Flashing your brights used to be a signal that it was safe to pull in front of you.
Hell, I STILL flash my brights when it’s safe to pull in front of me…if the driver has put on the turn signals, and I know s/he wants in front. Most truckers know this signal, and will tap twice on the brakes when they’re safely in front of me, to say thanks.
This really does get my back up too and I’m not surprised it’s featured to a great length on a forum such as this because it happens so may times and it’s just ridiculous! Yeah if you see someone indicating, let them in because they may just be nearing an exit or a turn they want to make and so they may just cut you up anyway! I don’t mind admitting that I always do if I can’t switch a lane because I’m sure as hell not going to miss my turn when I’ve been signalling for often over 10 seconds, waiting for the twat in the inside lane to slow down just a fraction so I can make the move, so fucking irritating! They usually always speed up too if they can and they must either be blind or just plain ignorant because you know they would have seen you, you’re so close to them with a big flashing orange light going in their direction!
Provoking and the laws should be changed! In any case if they went into the back of you, you’ve got witnesses who would and should say you were signalling and the idiot must just not have been looking. You off the hook. Otherwise I find getting out the car which I’ve done almost every time and going up to their window usually shuts them up, they’re the type to start a fight but once challenged they back down, or lock all their doors and up their windows ha! Ignorant, spineless little worms and out of their depth on the British roads.
Ach! Zombies!
Having lived in most large cities in the United States, it has been my experience that the worst drivers are in Boston followed very closely by Washington DC. The average person in Boston and Washintgon DC are probably a bit smarter than average and about 80% of the people in those places think they are WAAAAAY smarter than average. Coincidentally, about 80% of drivers in these places suck balls.
Wait, so you admit that you were only going 50 mph on an interstate with only light traffic? Yea, I can see how that could cause issues with other drivers.
Yes, I know this is an old thread. I am sorry.