Merging Drivers

The BBQ Pit
#1

Boy, this is my third Pit thread today. I guess I’m feeling irritable. Anyway, just briefly:

Yielding is a big thing on the SDMB. There’s lots of dicsussion. Here’s a couple of very simple rules, simpler than most I’ve seen.
For both the merger and the mergee:

After following all appropriate laws for your particular merge (i.e., yield / stop signs), please use common sense.

Mergers: Do not continue along at your own speed! Either speed up or slow down to match the traffic. Do not stop when there is no stop sign unless traffic is stopped. Do not hit the ramp at 75 miles an hour when traffic is only going 35.

Mergees: Do not assume the person will find some magic way to get on the road without inconveniencing you. Do not assume that if you potter along at the exact same speed that that is OK. You also need to be aware of the mergers and respond. True it’s incumbent upon them to merge but they need your help to do it.

And a general sort of thing to lots of other Latham drivers:

When you come off the Northway to Exit 7 and you take the right onto 9, there is no Yield nor a Stop there yet you yield and stop anyway. Ok, I can deal with this, you want to be extra safe. But DO NOT go to the very next right turn, 500 yards away, onto 9R and blow right past the fucking yield sign like a bat outta hell.

This only confirms for everyone else your arrogance & stupidity: I stop when I want to, yield when I want to.

#2

I agree completely.

By the way, you drivers merging onto the 101 freeway ahead of me? Yes, yes, I see that the entrance ramp has a rather steep curve to it. However, once you hit the freeway, SPEED THE FUCK UP! Don’t leave me sitting behind you going 35mph, when there’s a truck going 65 coming up behind me. Son of a bitch, I can’t tell you how many times I’ve had to swerve off onto the shoulder because there’s no room for a truck to get over into the left lane in time to avoid me. shudder

#3

Excellent rant – on a subject that’s been done a lot, but deserves being driven home (pun not intended) because of its potential for serious damage or injury.

Of course, one of the best ways for the OP to avoid those problems is to stop driving in the Capital Area – which seems to attract the worst drivers in Upstate New York. (I gather from teleute’s post that California has much the same problem.)

But something my father insisted I learn when I was learning to drive, back in the later Pleistocene – if you’re on a four-lane highway and see someone ahead on an on-ramp, and you can safely move left to give him room to merge onto the highway, you’re obliged to do so by the rules of courtesy of the road.

Has that been totally ignored in recent years? I know that traffic is not so heavy everywhere in America that it’s never possible to do so – but nobody ever speaks of it anymore.

#4

Polycarp:

I almost always try to pull over to the left lane. Or drive in the middle lane, since I drive at least 65-70, so I don’t feel like I’m slowing everyone down.

And I can’t stop driving here, that would mean I’d have to leave here! And I love it here. (No sarcasm).

#5

Exit 7 is the one where the right turn on to 9 North is an extra lane, right? I have never understood why people stop there. My current headache is going from 787 southbound to 90, what with the construction on 90. Two lanes merging into one, and then a lane shift. Ugh.

I like it here too, Poly. I’ll put up with the lousy drivers.