How do you figure? I was rapidly approaching the end of the entrance ramp. At that point, I had just a split second to decide on one of two options: (1) I could have slammed on my brakes, hoping to not hit the guard rail, followed by an attempt to enter the highway (which had no breakdown lane here) from a dead stop; or (2) entered the highway slower than I would have liked (~35 mph), hoping that my blinking turn signal would, along with me obviously coming to the end of my lane, alert approaching drivers that they should let me enter. Instead, a semi decided to ride up my ass. Nevertheless, the main fault of this was the dumbass in front of me who refused to accelerate properly.
In retrospect, I should have hung back more to give myself more room, but the ramp was shorter than I expected, and I also didn’t expect the dumbass ahead of me to enter a highway in such an idiotic manner.
:rolleyes: Well, it would have made me feel better…
We have a lot of those around here, and if you ever listen to the traffic reports, you would find out there is a name for them. They are called “collector-distributors”, as they distribute onramp traffic to the freeway and collect offramp traffic from the freeway in a single lane.
Okay, but you aren’t really entitled to assume that roads are constructed just as they should be.
Sadly, dumbassery is all too common and something competent drivers should allow for.
Clearly, the other guy deserved nothing better. But he’d already showed his lack of awareness, so it’s reasonable to think he might not have been aware of the reason for your gesture, and thus might have reacted aggressively to it.
Among other drawbacks, a hostile gesture says that you were taken out of your comfort zone and were unable to demonstrate the “grace under pressure” that is the hallmark of a gentleman. By contrast, a thin smile in his direction says “Hey, no worries - drivers of the better sort are prepared to handle the problems that idiots like you create without fuss or strain.”
Indeed. I can’t really argue with that. In fact, that’s the usual look I give drivers who just inconvenience me, like the ones who refuse to get out of the passing lane on the highway, even though they’re going well under the speed of traffic.
In this case, though, I readily admit that the driver in question did manage to take me out of my comfort zone. As I noted above, I thought I was going to end up as a hood ornament on a semi.
Try this one, at Round Hill Rd in Greenwich, so that if you ever have to use it, you will be prepared and not have an accident. Both Round Hill Rd onramps have stop signs, but AFAICS, they are the only ones on Merritt Pkwy. A few of the others look a bit ugly-tight, though.
