Well, there are sometimes you can’t get on because drivers on the highway are rude and don’t even bother to give you an opening, which forces people to stop. Not to mention that around here, ramps are not long enough for people to get up to speed and find an opening.
Anyway, yesterday I was getting on the highway, and a person wouldn’t go any faster than maybe 50-55 mph in a 65 mph zone. Of course, you know there always has to be a line in the left hand lane going 70+ mph, so you have to wait in this dangereously slow line because some idiot doesn’t know what the accelerator is.
I believe that people in the right hand lane should be curteous and get over or slow down or do whatever to give them an opening. Of course, it gets on my nerves when they get into the fast lane and don’t speed up. Geesh, you are not going to get pulled over and it’s safer IMO.
Nope. I live in Altoona. I’ll admit that, like the vast majority of Americans I live in “bumfuckville”, as someone posted above, where you don’t have six lanes of insane people trying to prove Darwin right every day, twice a day, at 80 miles per hour. I’ve never had occasion (deliberately) to drive in either Pittsburgh or Philadelphia. Or any other city of that size, either. I’ve passengered in San Diego and on the Capital Beltway. That’s more than close enough for my taste…
Yeah, we already know you are an aggressive risk-taker with “driving issues”, obsessed with calling other motorists “fuckers” and bragging about your tailgating habits.**
Were you by any chance in central Ohio last weekend, badmana? You sound a lot like the driver who apparently was frothing at the mouth behind me because I had only gotten up to 40mph halfway up the highway entrance ramp, and figured he just had to pass me on said ramp and then flash me unflattering sign language to express his frustration.
Oooh, the unbearable rage of not being able to go as fast as you want whenever you want! The lack of immediate gratification in your driving endeavors must be horrible for you.
Not as bad as the slew of tickets, sky-high insurance rates and long hospital stays I foresee in your future, though.
The people I hate on the onramp are those that refuse to accelerate till the very end. They go up the onramp at 30-40, and then at the very end accelerate to match freeway speeds. Please note the guy in the large truck behind you can’t accelerate that fast (I am working on changing that), and I need more of the onramp to get up to freeway speeds. So if you are going 30-40 I can’t accelerate past that till the very end then I end up merging at 50 - 60 into trafic doing 65 - 70. Also because I have to floor it to even get to 50-60, and in my trucks current modified state that causes some black smoke from the exaust. Now not only am I merging at a slower speed, but the car behind me has to slow down because he can’t see.
Well Chuck, sorry that some drivers are making merging more complicated for you in your modified truck. Hope you get that fixed soon.
When that happens, you could try staying well back of the other guy, allowing you all the room you need to accelerate to highway speed once the other guy has merged onto the highway. On the other hand, if you were following too closely you’d have a harder time getting up to speed in time.
Course, it could be tricky if you were bombing down the ramp at 65 in a truck, looking over at the last minute to find that a) there was a car traveling in the spot into which you needed to merge, b) another vehicle was in the lane directly to the left of that car, not allowing him to switch lanes to get out of your way, and c) somebody tailgating you up the ramp, so that you had no way to safely apply your brakes.
Could be nasty. I’ve seen it happen.
I just did something stupid today. I changed lanes when getting on the highway right in front of a truck. Luckily I did speed up from 35 or 40 mph to 60 really fast, but geesh. What was I thinking?
I consistently drive in the right (slower) lane. I do this because 1) I don’t like to drive like a bat out of hell and 2) I don’t mind yielding to merging traffic.
It’s easy. You can usually see when somebody needs to get of the freeway at an on-ramp. Just ease off on the accelerator a little and make a space in front of you, or speed up a little to increase the space behind you. I actually consider it an interesting experiment in applied physics to work out the best way to do this. Or, if there’s room in the next lane to the left, I’ll shift over to let the other driver in. I don’t usually need to though, because I watch ahead and adjust my speed accordingly.
Try it, it’s kinda fun. (Ok, maybe I have weird ideas of what constitutes “fun.”)
It’s amazing to me that most people don’t think this way. My S.O. doesn’t. He just drives like there’s no merging going on.
The only time I usually get annoyed at merging drivers are the folks who don’t take advantage of the gaps available to them. I figure they’re mostly uncertain or un-confident drivers. But they’re the ones that make me mutter “Whaddya want – an engraved invitation??? Sheesh…” as I drive by them.
I have developed a question based on the feedback in this topic. Why do driving rules differ state to state? Wouldn’t it be much more practical to have National driving rules and standards?
Here’s a general rule I try to apply - If you’re not actively trying to contribute to the smooth flow of traffic, you’re probably doing something wrong. I find it can be applied to almost every driving situation. If you can clear the right lane to allow merging trafiic on the road, do it. If you can accelerate a little more to complete a pass and clear the lane for faster traffic closing on you, do it. It’s based on a cardinal rule, which everyone on this board should be familiar with - Don’t Be a Jerk.