This happens all the time time with left and right turners - you can pull your car all the way into your lane to make the turn and not block anyone else’s driving, but they just don’t. I’m pretty sure that if you got out and asked these people why they block another lane, they would be surprised as hell to find out that they were doing that, or that it was possible not to do that. Or they wouldn’t care - “It doesn’t affect me - why should I care about that?”
You two might not have road rage, but it sounds like you’re carriers of it.
I admit, I speed up, usually only if I’m not sure you see me. If you turn on your signal in the right lane, and I’m in the left at say; your 7:00 or 8:00, I am already next to you so probably won’t see a reason to hang back. Instead, I scoot up quickly to make sure I’m visible and then get out of your way so you can safely change lanes.
…oh by the way, no, I am not in your blind spot on purpose, and I don’t intend to stay there. It’s just where I am in the passing process. Why do people insist on staying in my blind spot at any speed no matter what I do to lose them? HATE that.:mad:
With the greatest respect possible, do you have any idea how passively-aggressive dickish you sound here? There’s the law, and then there’s common courtesy. Even in crowded conditions, you can easily make space just by slowing down slightly. And if you need more space for safe driving - just hold off on accelerating back and you’ll have your safe travel distance in a few seconds. Meanwhile, other people may have a very hard time getting over without completely screwing up their lanes, as they’re forced to either brake more heavily to get behind you - solely because you wouldn’t let them in.
I occasionally drive in Atlanta traffic, and I’m pretty familiar with people like you. You’re not the aggro drivers - but you sure aren’t helping things regardless.
What about the freeways in LA (e.g. the 101) where you have the damned ramp meters combined with merge lanes that are about 100 feet too short? Starting from a dead stop behind the ramp meter, there is simply no physically possible way to get up to traffic speed by the time the merge lane ends, which means either the person in the thru lane has to slow down for you or move over, or you have to drive on the shoulder. So your options are to force your way in or possibly scrape a jersey barrier or a bollard or whatever random construction junk is left over there. It’s a lovely design.
I like to see the waste truck stuck in front of me on the 134 change lanes so I can gun it! For a whole three seconds until Mr. Jackassery cuts in front of me and ruins the rush.
What kills me out here in the west is when I’ve got 5-6 car lengths of space and someone want to get in my lane. I flash my lights, wave them on in, they hover and hover… and then the turn signal goes off. WTF???
I’m buying invitations next week so I can drive up next to their window, hand deliver the message and they can read their calligraphy-scribed invite reading, “You are cordially invited to share my highway lane. May your dick get supped upon as soon as you arrive at the office, right after you GET A CLUE!! Merge now, motherfucker! You’re cordially invited!!!”
– Lack of cruise control. They’re taking their clues from the other drivers.
– My other theory is they’re trying to use you as a shield against radar operators. This theory (and the above one as well) also works for people who tailgate you in the left hand lane, only to speed match you once you move over. Those are the worst for me because it means you either have to slow way down in the right hand lane to get behind them (which means they’ll also slow down,) or speed up to get ahead of them and repeat the process, or don’t do anything and get blocked when the two of you approach the next car in the right hand lane.
Here’s the other one too - when people literally don’t slow down or speed up to let you in from the merge lane. Dude, my lane is ending! I have no place to go. I have no problem dropping behind you, but you have to make me some room.
And it’s even worse if as in your example there just isn’t time to get up to speed.
And then the driver behind you is pitting you for not merging fast enough, while the driver already on the freeway is pitting you for trying to merge too fast.
With the greatest respect possible, I am not applying this to all cases, just to a few aggressive-aggressively dickish people trying to force their way in. I let in lots of people. I was only discussing worst-case scenarios.
With even greater respect, I’m not going to generalize about what sort of person you are from this single comment.
THIS! You aren’t better than me, you have to wait just like the rest of us. Cars like that should be blown to bits.
To me another facet is when people get real horny to get in front of you they are now in control of your speed. If you want to go faster you are stuck. I was there first and I don’t want to be stuck, so I chose not to by speeding up. If you want the lane, get in line behind me.
No, they’ve been trying to get into the left lane for the last 3 miles, but the second they turned their signal on the drivers in the left lane made damn sure there were no openings to merge into.
Actually you’ve averted a momentary slight slowdown in the left lane by contributing to a huge slowdown in the left-1 lane, because now instead of being able to slide into a normal opening, they have to stop and wait for a huge opening. If everyone drove this way traffic would come to a near stop.
In normal road configurations, it is the merger’s responsibiliy to match the road speed and line up where there is space. Through-drivers in the metged-into lane should neither speed up nor slow down if they can possibly help it, because changing speeds makes the merger’s calculations about where to fit in harder.
I agree that faulty configurations, such as a too-short merge lane, require some adjustment.
Where I am I usually see the opposite problem–people who put their signal on when it’s not necessary or helpful to other drivers in any way, like sitting in a turn-only lane. So I have to watch all of them blinking… blinking… blinking… for no reason. I know you’re all turning left; there’s a barrier, or oncoming traffic, plus signage, that prevent you from not turning. (And if anyone was trying to signal something else, like a leftward move out of what is mainly a left-turn lane, such as to U-turn, it is lost.)
It seems that 90% of the time when I slow down to allow someone to merge into my lane from the ramp, the other person slows down, too, as though angling to get behind me. As can be imagined, this turns into a dangerous clusterfuck.
So, I usually accelerate and give the other person a good opening to merge into.
We’ve been noticing a weird thing around here lately; where people get incensed when you don’t actually slow down and give them a written invitation for them to get in front of you, when normal merging procedures would have you just continuing on and them merging easily behind you. I don’t really know where people are getting the idea that you’re supposed to slow down and let someone merge in front of you when they can easily merge behind you. That isn’t how I was taught to merge some decades ago.
The other thing people do here that drives me out of my mind is not use the on-ramp properly; it’s there for you to get up to speed, not dawdle along and pick your nose just before you try to get into highway-speed traffic. When I’m Supreme Leader, not only will everyone be required to become excellent drivers before they’re allowed a license, but there will be a whole section on learning to merge.
This is why in Minneapolis people use their turn signals AS they change lanes. This gives the person behind you in the other lane no time to hit the accelerator.
Not all places are as bad as Minneapolis. When I visited a friend (back in the 90’s) in Los Angeles I was amazed at how friendly people were…if you needed to change lanes you signaled and people made room. My friend said that was because driving was so hellish in L.A. that people try not to make it worse
No…I am not kidding. I was there 3 weeks and that was my experience.
Herein Minneapolis, if you signal a lane change before you start changing lanes it is likely someone will try to cut you off.
