Just for fun, I mapped this location. Check out this link. See the building with the red roof? I was on the other side of the highway, headed up the page (so to speak). Notice that the highway goes from 3 to 4 lanes there; the on-ramp is two lanes but one peters out at the next exit.
Um…WHAT???
Good luck with that at your trial.
People are supposed to drive in the right lane. There’s a reason the left lane is called such things as “the fast lane” and “the passing lane”.
In some states, you can be ticketed for parking your ass in the left lane. Hell, in some states, semi-trucks can be ticketted for being in the left lane for any reason other than that they are actively passing someone at the time.
Suggestion: Learn how to merge properly. That was the major lesson of my behind the wheel driving training when we got on the freeway. He made us stay in the right lane and learn how to deal with merging traffic.
He flipped off some jerk on public transit, ran away and then came to an internet message board to brag about it. Not enough rolleyes in the world.
Agreed. For the record, on the highway there is exactly one “driving lane”, and it’s the right-most (unless it’s an exit-only lane, obviously). The rest are passing lanes. There’s no such thing as a slow lane or a fast lane.
So he flipped him off? Jail is full of people who were too drunk to make rational decisions, like this asshole was. Should blondebear have flipped him off earlier and gotten in a fight instead?
I didn’t see it as bragging at all. Given this and your ‘merging’ ideas, I’d say asshole fits quite nicely.
blondebear, you experienced what is known in the vibro-household as a Spontaneous Birding Event (SBE). These can occur anywhere at any time, but I have noticed a positive correlation between SBEs and the onscreen appearances of George W. Bush and Tom Brady.
Anybody see this?
Agreed on all counts. It is the duty of the person entering the freeway to merge. It’s not always possible for people to avoid driving in the merge-lane. When I do (I try to move over when I see someone on the on-ramp headed to my general direction but, as I say, it’s not always possible), it’s certainly not to intentionally piss off the person merging; if you think it’s some conspiracy to get you mad, then grow the hell up and deal. But whatever you do, YOU have to be the one to fucking yield and merge.
So you flipped off this drunk, aggressive ex-con once there was no way he could touch you, but you left the other people on the train to deal with the consequences of your act, i.e. a now-really-pissed-off drunk ex-con. Seems pretty chicken shit to me.
Oh, come on now. If he’d ignored the guy somebody would call him a pussy, and if he’d done anything prior to getting off he’d get in a fight and somebody would be calling him a violent jerk. What do you propose he should have done?
That’s why I don’t do it. 
I’ve considered it though, just like I’ve considered punching my boss in the nose and most people consider moving to Canada when their candidate doesn’t get elected.
Well O.K., but to be sure, could you go back to the scene, take closeups from various angles and put together a Power Point presentation online?
Then we could take a vote on whether or not your actions were justified. 
I had a similar incident two summers ago. It was on a public street near a busy bus stop and the man was shouting at people as they went by. I don’t remember what he said as I rolled by on my roller blades with my dog, but I responded with a flourish of facetiae on the topic of his mother.
He jumped up and yelled for me to come back. I had to let go of the leash to stop and turn around and go back. I remember clearly that he began to wrap a long sleeve shirt around his fist. I’m sure it was meant to scare me, but I was sorely tempted to explain that the padding would make his blows hurt less and do less damage.
In the clarity of the fight-or-flight response I noticed that he was wearing crappy canvas shoes and that even in street shoes I would have had a couple of inches on him. With the roller blades I towered over him. He was babbling some crap about fixing me up as he wrapped the cloth around his fist.
I was rolling backwards, with my skates in a ‘V’ and I was waiting for him to get just a little closer before I stomped somewhere between his tarsals and his metatarsals. He made some comment about my dog and I realized she had come back toward me and was looking at me sheepishly.
I don’t know why, but I snapped out of it and left, picking up the dog’s leash and looking back at the man. He must have been in his late fifties and, under different circumstances, I probably would have given him change if he had asked.
It took a lot to walk away from him. (Roll away…) He started to strut and he was calling after me that I was whatever-I-was and how he would have whupped me or somesuch.
I started shaking and I felt sick to my stomach, then I got really tired.
When I told some friends about it, they said I was a chicken-shit and they said they would have kicked the old man’s ass.
How about twenty seven eight-by-ten colour glossy photographs with circles and arrows and a paragraph on the back of each one explaining what each one is? 
What about Canucks? Where do they consider moving to ??
I’ve finally gotten flipping off people out of my system. I used to do it much more often than was healthy, and not while walking away. I’ve discovered I get into fewer physical confrontations now… Somehow, it seems healthier.
I resent that.
What, in your opinion, is the proper response to grossly inappropriate public behavior? I admitted my feeble protest was “cowardly”, and was likely stupid as well…the guy might have had a knife handy for all I know.
But at that particular day, at that particular moment, I chose to sink to his level and use my own gesture. Perhaps I should have engaged the fellow in some sort of reasonable discourse regarding his lack of civility. Nah, I didn’t have the time.
Back when I was a more foolish, younger version of myself, I got the bright idea to throw shit out my window (like coins) at a guy that was relentlessly tailgating me over a bridge across the Ohio river. I had already tried the tapping brake light thingie, I even waved my hand in a “back, back” gesture to try to get him off my ass. Seriously, he was RIGHT on my bumper at highway speeds.
So, I grabbed a handful of coins and flung them out my window and had the strong satisfaction of seeing and hearing them plink off the hood of his fancy sportscar.
Needless to say, the guy was plenty pissed and managed to roar up next to me, whereby he proceeded to show me a handgun and give me dirty looks.
I gave him the “ooh, I’m soooo scared” mime and he immediately ducked into the far rigth lane to exit. Turns out he didn’t need to be in my lane at all (far left), he was just one of those a-holes that thinks that cutting a few cars off saves a significant amount of time.
All for naught, I thought, but I still remember that guy. He could have taken a potshot at me and we were both in the wrong.
Road rage is bad…and it literally kills.
Paging lobstermobster. lobstermobster, if you are in the building, would you please come to the service desk?
So you admit you were a coward, I’m ok with that.
People wonder why Americans are so averse to giving up their cars and using public transportation. The OP is one good reason. In a car you maintain your personal space wherever you go. I’d pay 10 dollars a gallon to avoid trains and buses. I know it’s wrong, environmentally speaking. If only I could afford a Tesla roadster…