Still pissed off at people who cut in line on the road

The BBQ Pit
#1

This will be a continual point of contention until I figure out someway to get all of these assholes arrested and thrown in jail for acting so stupid and dangerously. What’s the point of going to Kindergarden if you don’t at least learn to stand in line and wait your turn.

Actually, what pisses me off too is that some people just sit there and take it. How about actually closing the gap and not giving them a chance to cut in front of you? Than maybe these pricks will learn to be a little more patient. I’m not talking about situations where traffic is heavy or there’s been an accident or some other unusual occurence or just times of simple heavy traffic. I’m talking about the times when these people KNOW that the lane is ending and they still decide they’re gonna try and cut in front of people.

And another question - what point is served by leaning the fucking seat so far back that you can barely see over the steering wheel? And why the hell don’t the cops do something about this? Is it cool or something to try and drive from a prone position? Wait - is that why I don’t ever succeed at picking up freaky chicks? Damn. I’ve been missing out.

#2

Great, all we need is more government controls on how we sit.

Do you remember back in Drivers Ed? They taught that you are always supposed to have both hands on the wheel at the 10 and 2 o’clock positions (at least I think those are the right position :slight_smile: )

How often do you drive slouched back with one hand? Do you ever roll your palm with the wheel to make a one handed turn?

As long as no one is killing each other, let them be. No more government regulation of our lives.

#3

Um, Freedom, maybe if their sitting position is so extreme that it causes them to drive recklessly and put other people in danger the cops should do something about it.

#4

Um, Freedom, you do realise that the reason that you were taught all that stuff was so that you would have more control over your vehicle and hence not kill someone, right?
The Government didn’t make these rules just because it likes to fuck with you…(I’m not saying that it doesn’t, just that in this case there are reasons…)

#5

johnnyharvard: Holy crap! You must live in Eagle River, Alaska, and drive to Anchorage on a pretty regular basis, because that is exactly what is happening every dang work day at the Hiland Road intersection just before getting on the Glenn Highway! You are exactly right. And how about trying to maintain a safe distance between your vehicle and the one in front of you - someone will always zip in there and then you gotta start all over again, until you realize you’ve been displaced by about a quarter mile behind the original vehicle you were following…ah well, it’s always something, isn’t it? Maybe a nice large loudspeaker on the front of my p/u would make a difference? How about “Ride of the Valkyries” on high volume like in “Apocalypse Now” - I bet that would get their attention! Wait a minute, didn’t those choppers have M-60s on 'em? And rocket pods…

#6

And, nine times out of ten, the asshole cutting in front of you and making you jam on the brakes is some yuppie dipshit in an expensive car. “Oh, I’ve got money to burn on a mobile status symbol, so the rest of you are of no consequence and I’m perfectly entitled to do whatever I damn well please!”

Bastards. They’ll be first up against the wall when the revolution comes.

A cubicle is just a padded cell without a door.

#7

Oh yeah. If you’re going to teach someone a lesson, you definitely want to do it while wrapped in 2,500 lbs. of steel. It makes the message that much more emphatic. Like people in front of you who drive too slow-- I bet if you zoomed right up behind them, they’d learn that you want them to go faster. And pedestrians who cross against the signal-- you could really teach them a lesson by bearing down on them and swerving off at the last minute. They’d never jaywalk after that, all right.

If the lane I am in is coming to an end up ahead and the next lane over is all stopped traffic, it only makes sense for me to proceed to a point where no more usable road exists in my lane before I attempt to move over. Would you rather have me stop 1,500 feet from that point just so I can wait for someone in the next lane to let me in? And why should that person have to let me in, when I could have merged 2,500 feet back? And so on and so on. Yes, I’m aware that I am passing people who have managed to navigate to a particular point earlier in time than I have. But I am also aware that until there is usable space I can merge into without disrupting the traffic behind me, it is safer for me and the people behind me for me to keep moving forward until I can either merge safely or until the lane runs out.

Traffic works like a fluid-- if there is an open space ahead, traffic should flow into that space so as to make maximum use of the available road. If traffic is going to come to a stop, it might as well take up the least amount of necessary road space so that exits behind it are not needlessly obstructed.

The idea that you can “teach people a lesson” with your car out on the highway is a dangerous and juvenile mindset. People who intentionally close up gaps between themselves and the cars in front of them to prevent people from merging in are much more of a menace on the road than people who a trying to merge. If you are in such a hurry to get where you’re going that you can’t let someone merge in front of you, you should have left a minute earlier.

#8

Nurlman,

Please don’t take this too personally, because we haven’t met -But if you are one of those people who refuse to merge until the last possible moment YOU SUCK!

I don’t care how you justify it to yourself, that a is rude and thoughtless way to drive. If we all followed that “me first” mentality traffic would go no where at all.

Traffic flows in patterns BTW buddy, not like water dribbling into empty spaces, but MERGING as patterns often do.

Carpe Jugulum

#9

This thread reminds me of a particular simpleton that discovered the meaning of “poetic justice” on California Highway 18.

A number of years back my brother and I experienced a similar situation while driving up to Big Bear. It was a regular drive for us, as we had a cabin up there, and we knew the roads extremely well.

Seems there was pipsqueek teenager who thought it was funny to ride peoples’ bumpers and honk the horn incessantly. When it came time to pass, this twerp would hang back until the last second, zip past and cut in, causing the driver he cut off to stand on the brakes to avoid hitting him.

After a while of watching this happen in my rear view mirror, it was now my turn to be “the sap.” As he honked the horn and flipped me off I slowed down very gradually–a line of cars was building up as my brother asked me what I was up to.

Interestingly enough, they were a bit on the POed side at him and would probably be more than happy to help me with the surprise I had in store for him. I filled my brother in on what I had in mind. He snickered and turned red nodding his head affirmatively.

The passing lane (the last one before Snow Valley) was coming up and I could see him craning his neck to see when the lane actually developed for his next move in his “master plan.” “Go for it putz!”

As soon as there was an actual lane for him to move into, he swung his vehicle to my right and paced me door handle to door handle. I continued slowing slightly, and he continued his antics, much to his own entertainment. The line of cars behind me was now VERY LONG, and not a single car was behind his–great, no innocent victims. My brother made sure that he was the only occupant and kept me updated on his position.

When it came time for him to dodge in front of me, he found that my vehicle was no longer slowing. He tried to edge up as the lane began narrowing, but the van I was driving was “built to the hilt,” and it was no problem to keep just enough ahead of him that his cutting me off was going to be nearly impossible without a panicked stomp on the accelerator. The line of cars behind me was cooperating with me nicely–he couldn’t have fit in between any of them, even if he had a shoehorn and grease.

My brother hit my shoulder when he stomped on the accelerator. I ratcheted down the accelerator a bit and could hear him honking the horn. My brother said that he was waving at me wildly. I matched his speed and kept him on my rear quarter–the line of cars kept up with me. He was sunk.

No more lane, a few trees and a slight embankment–or he could use his brakes.

He chose the embankment and a particularly sturdy looking pine tree.

We, along with a few of the other drivers, turned off into Snow Valley’s parking lot and parked. Looking toward the road, we could see his wrecked vehicle (just inside the property line of Snow Valley Ski Area). Steam was pouring from the front of the vehicle.

We walked over to make sure he wasn’t hurt and discovered that he did try to lay on the brakes, but there was quite a bit of gravel on the shoulder of the road. He slowed just enough to avoid injuring himself. It was the car that was hurting–a Fiat Spyder.

Turns out it was his daddy’s car and he wasn’t supposed to be driving it at all, much less in the mountains. He was frantic, and we saw why…the dealer sticker was still taped to the inside of the cracked windshield.

We shook his hand, slapped him on the back and laughed our proverbial asses off at him. We laughingly wished him “good luck,” and really rubbed it in by saying that his daddy was going to kill him “ten times over every day for the next year.”

We settled up with the CHP officer that arrived, and it went down the way it truthfully happened. The officer wrote it up as operator error, and had himself a good laugh at the kid’s expense.

Almost 20 years later, My brother and I still laugh about the whole thing, but I know that I wouldn’t set someone up like that again–too easy to do, given the over abundance of idiots on the road; and too dangerous if things don’t go as planned.

No flames please. He deserved it and what’s done is done.

NOTE:
The pine tree survived the ordeal and is flourishing to this very day.

–Kalél
Common ¢ for all ages…
“Well, there was that thing with the Cheese-Wiz…but I’m feeling much better now!” – John Astin, Night Court
“If ignorance is bliss, you must be orgasmic.”

#10

When I say “teach someone a lesson,” I don’t mean running someone off of the road or trying to get them to wreck - I’m just saying that if traffic is backed up and no one ever braked and let the assholes into the lane, then maybe said asshole would think twice before he sped past the line of cars and then jumped in front of them at the last second when the lane ended. He’ll just end up sitting until he got to the end of the line, anyway, and then maybe after that happened two or three times he might just decide to get in line in the first place. It’s not a question of being aggressive or being inconvenienced, it’s just common courtesy not to cut in front of someone in a line. That’s kindergarden stuff.

Maybe I’m a chump, but when I know that a lane is about to end, or that there is only a one lane entrance ramp onto the freeway, then I take my turn and end up waiting in line behind everyone else that’s already in the lane that continues. I don’t just hop into the free lane and then expect to take advantage of someone later on down the road.

For instance - I’m driving down the freeway and I see a sign that says “contruction - left lane ends, merge right” I will immediately begin to look for an opportunity to get into the right lane. If there is a line of traffic, I will slow down until I can get in to the end of the line. A lot of these assholes, however, will see the empty left lane as an opportunity to speed up, and then, at the last second, they will break and try to swerve into a small gap between cars.

And yes, I slouch in the seat and drive with one hand on the wheel. What I’m referring to in my gripe is that idiot that actually reclines the seat almost as far back as it will go and still allow him to peek over the top of the dash at the road ahead. That shit is freaking dangerous, no matter what kind of personal freedom they might be entitled to. You usually recognize these winners by the fact that usually all you see in such cars a baseball cap just about level with the top of the door frame. Then, those same fuckers also seem to want to drive fast and weave in and out of traffic. So they drive dangerously and then are so low in the seat that they can’t properly observe traffic or operate their vehicle.

#11

We may be making different assumptions here. Let’s take it one step at a time:

I’m driving down the highway when I see a sign that says my lane ends in 1,500 feet and I need to merge right. I look to my immediate right:

(a)–if there is room to merge and maintain my current speed, I will merge immediately. The person behind me is not endangered because I am continuing to travel at the general speed of traffic after I merge.

(b)–if there is no room to merge because the entire right lane is stopped or moving very slowly, I will stay in my lane and gradually slow down as I try to find some space between cars that I can merge into. I will not immediately come to a stop in my lane while I try to find “my place” in line behind everybody who was there first because there are cars behind me that are not expecting me to come to a sudden stop, and stopping while there is still useful road ahead merely creates a traffic blockage in my lane further back than it needs to be.

©–if there is room to merge to the right, but traffic up ahead is slowed or stopped, I will have to make a decision based on how fast I am traveling, how fast I’ll close the distance to the next car in the right lane, whether I will have to quickly brake and endanger the guy behind me in the right lane, and so on. If there is any doubt in my mind that I can merge and slow down safely to both myself and the people behind me, I will err on the side of not merging, and take my chances on finding some merging space (or some considerate person) up ahead.

You seem to be talking only about example (a), or at least one side of example ©. I agree with you that, if there is a way to safely merge at the end of the line, that is the polite thing to do. However, situation © turns into situation (b) very quickly-- when everybody merges to the right, the line of traffic in the right lane extends well back while the left lane stays compartively clear. Those drivers coming up on that traffic situation after you are more likely to face situation (b) and may sometimes have to cut in front of you.

This happens often. People are daydreaming while driving and forget that their exit is coming up; people are unfamiliar with the road and aren’t aware that traffic for Exit 18 always backs up to Exit 16; some people misread the traffic flow and assume there will be space up ahead when there isn’t. And yes, some people are assholes and just cut you off. In all of these situations, someone will have passed lots of people waiting and will need to merge. By playing the Virtue Policeman, and refusing to make room to let them in front of you, you are endangering yourself, them, and the cars behind them.

Who are you kidding? Have you ever watched what happens in a traffic jam? Any open space is quickly filled by a car oozing out of an area of greater pressure and into the area of lesser pressure. Traffic may flow in patterns when it’s moving at full speed, but as soon as congestion builds and the speed that everyone travels at starts to slow, those patterns collapse into a very fluid dynamic. Next time you’re in moderate to heavy traffic, watch how cars flow from a slow moving lane (with high density) into a fast moving lane (with low density).

#12

Sometimes, if you’re lucky, a trucker will position his rig so that it blocks the cheaters from trying to jump the line. I always give them a wave when they do.

I think the problem with Nurlman’s point ‘b’ above is that people like this slow down so gradually that they just happen to end up at the front of the line trying to cut in. Methinks they don’t try all that hard to find a merge area. It certainly doesn’t take a quarter-mile.

The truth is, most people will make a spot for you if they see you trying to get over in your proper place. No one wants to let in a line-jumper.

If you don’t see an early convenient spot to merge, no one is saying you have to slam on the brakes. Just slow down to a normal crawl, smile at the driver to the right, and get in. Do you think jumping the line will make other drivers more likely to let you in?

#13

Johnny H, I’m guessing that the situation you mean most is the one where

  1. A lane is clearly ending at some point just up the road,
  2. There are some openings for people to merge in RIGHT NOW, which will mean no bottleneck up the road,
  3. Lots of people don’t merge, but accelerate to get to the last possible spot to get in, usually forcing their way in.

If that is the scenario, there are no acceptable instances (short of medical emergency) for someone to do this. They are assholes, at least while behind the wheel. I usually try to get out far enough into the vanishing lane to cut them off if I can do so safely–sometimes people will ride on the shoulder or off into grass to get around me. Big vehicles are the only ones who can really block them effectively, but I love it when they do it.

The people who do the zoom-cram in move should lose their licenses.

P.S. Once, on two consecutive week-ends, I was driving to my folks’ place. Weekend 1, there were no warnings of an upcoming merger, people did the zoom-cram, and we all parked on the freeway for a half hour. Week-end 2, they let us know miles in advance, people actually drove with courtesy, and we once had to slow down to 45mph.

Bucky

Oh, well. We can always make more killbots.

#14

You got it, Bucky.

There’s a difference between being geuinely surprised at a lane change and having to move over at the last second and then knowing for a long ways in advance that the lane is ending and then deliberately acting like a prick. When there is fair warning, there is usually a significant number of chances to change lanes safely and efficiently without having to slow down traffic or inconvenience someone else.

Although I am referring here to all instances where it’s pretty clear that the lane is ending, there are two instances near my house that really cause my feelings on this subject. If you live in Houston, you might recognize the two intersections.

**#1) Gessner Road northbound at Richmind Avenue. ** On the south side of Richmond, the road is three lanes; on the other side of Richmond, the left lane merges into the middle lane after about 50 feet.

For three blocks in front of this intersection, there are signs warning that the left lane is about to end, and most people who drive on the road will dutifully start to line up in the middle lane when there is red light at the intersection. Inevitably, there is some ass who will get into the left lane, drive past the line of cars in the middle, and then try and cram their way back into the middle lane once they pass through the intersection. This causes traffic in the middle lane to back up and usually stop. My gripe here is that this is not a major thoroughfare - it’s a road where almost all of the people who drive it do so on a regular basis, and they damn well know that the lane is going to end.

**#2) Westpark at Southwest Freeway. (US 59) **In this little dandy example of urban planning, there are two lanes that cross under the freeway and then turn left (north) onto the freeway feeder road. Unfortunately, only the inside lane on the feeder road has an entrance ramp onto the freeway. Westpark is a MAJOR commuting route and is EXTREMELY busy during rush hour and this entrance ramp is very heavily used during rush hour.

My problem here is that, obviously, there is usually a line of cars in the access road waiting to get onto the freeway, so the only rational - and polite - thing (in my opinion) is to begin to line up in the inside turning lane while still on Westpark. Inevitably, though, there are some jackasses who will knowingly whip past the people in the inside lane, turn out of the outside lane (which, in their credit, is perfectly legal) and then try and cram their way into the inside lane on the feeder so that they can enter the freeway ahead of everyone else who has been waiting in line.

This entrance ramp is metered during rush hour - there’s always a line of cars - so a lot of times these fools can’t find a space to cut in front so they’ll just go all the way to the end of the ramp and then just try and merge into the left lane from a stopped position.

This shit particularly pisses me off, because it causes the entrance ramp to be backed up even more than is necessary during rush hour, and then, when the ramp isn’t metered, people are beginning to accelerate onto the freeway and are moving at pretty high speeds when some motherfucker just hops right into a space not much bigger than a bicycle. In those situations, it’s not just rude, but it’s dangerous as all hell, too.

And before you ask, the inside lane on the feeder road is separated by a SOLID white line, so it is illegal to switch lanes before you get to the ramp. I have seen cops pull people over for crossing the white line, but they don’t do it nearly often enough IMHO.