OK, so say you’re sailing along an open local road, one lane each way in a 55 MPH area. There’s one vehicle behind you and no more for a mile, and that’s evident to anyone looking. Perhaps you’re going 57 or 58. From a side street with a stop sign turns in front of you a vehicle who doesn’t get up to speed and you have to hit your brakes to match the 40 they’ve gotten up to. They don’t cut you off and force an all-out brake-slam, but you do have to interrupt your driving pattern.
I say it’s fine to pull out if there’s room and you can get up to speed and not make me have to do any braking. Or even if I had to slow to the speed limit, a couple of MPHs, that’s fair, since i just have to pull off the accelerator.
Whine part: There’s **one car ** behind me! You can see that the wait will be five seconds, max! Must you pull out and force me to brake?!? Last night I used my horn and I am loathe to do so because no one does.
The worst example was last winter when admittedly there was a longer line behind me and they would have had something of a wait. But in that case I had to brake, and spun out and ended up facing the opposite direction on the shoulder. Very lucky.
Am I right in assuming I should be able to proceed on my established path and any turns in front of me should allow for that?
In such uncongestion, I’d say yes. It’d be a different story if it might be about the only time they’d be able to pull out for awhile.
I thought the thread would be about the times that the car in front of you is going way under the speed limit, or around the speed limit in the left hand lane of a highway, and you try to leave a decent amount of space between you and the car despite the fact that it’s going far too slow, and the car behind you decides to tailgate you! As if that will get the car in front of you to speed up.
That is the same line of thinking I follow, so I would say that yes, you are right. I shouldn’t have to break for someone entering the road in front of me. I consider that being cut off. YMMV, etc.
With you completely. If the road is crowded-- hey, sometimes you have to make due with the chance you get, even if it’s not perfect. If not, there’s no excuse for pulling out in front of someone and forcing them to slow down.
There have been many times I thought the same thing. Jeez buddy, you couldn’t wait 2-3 seconds for me to pass?
Then again, there are times when I’m looking to enter the traffic stream and the guy behind me starts honking because I DO wait the 3-4 seconds for someone to pass.
I am completely with you here. In fact this happened to me so much on my commute to work that I have started taking the freeway rather than the backroads to and from work. The back way is technically a little faster but I get so many people pulling out in front of me, forcing me to either slam on the breaks or slow down significantly, that it ends up being several minutes longer than taking the freeway.
What is even worse is when the other car gets to the stop sign with ample time to pull out and not slow you down, but decides to wait for you to pass instead, and then at the last second regrets the decision and pulls out in front of you anyway.
When I took driver’s ed (20 years ago in ME), I was taught that it was illegal to pull out and make someone touch the brakes. I may have been taught wrong, but I agree with the concept.
As long as they get back up to a good speed promptly, I wouldn’t mind slowing down 10-15mph. If they want to cut me off then drive 45 in a 55, I’m gonna be really pissed.
If someone pulls out in front of me, first I glance in my rearview mirror to I see there is a large pack of cars behind me, When this is the case I’ll be thinking, “I don’t blame you, I’d have done the same thing.” When I can clearly see that there would have been a safer, more sensible opportunity for the other driver to enter the roadway had he just waited a few more seconds then I get irritated. If the person seems to be in a hurry to get out on the road, by God he’d better demonstrate that he’s in a hurry and had better get up to speed to justify his hasty entry. What really torques me is when someone cuts out in front of me and then just puts along at his own leisurely (i.e. below the speed limit) pace. I also hate it when the other driver has a large truck that’s not going to get up to speed for awhile (if ever). I know it can’t be helped at times but it still pisses me off that I am the unlucky one who has to incur the added delay.
If you are pulling out onto a road in such a manner that someone has to brake to avoid hitting you, you are creating an unsafe situation. What if that person isn’t paying close attention? What if there’s a pine tree blocking their view and they don’t see you pulling out until the last moment? If they don’t slow down, they will hit you.
The person pulling into oncoming traffic in this situation does not have the right of way, so the onus is on them to assure that the way is clear before they pull out into it. If you are oncoming and close enough that you have to brake, then the way is not clear.
This hits a sore spot with me because about two years ago someone pulled out from a side street in front of me. I had to slam on the brakes to keep from hitting him, and he got mad because he decided I was too close to his rear bumper. He hung his head out the window and shouted things at me. I gestured in return. A couple of miles up the road I pulled into a gas station and there he was, parked in a no parking zone (presumably because he was so very special) buying a cup of coffee. When he saw me filling up he started shouting at me again. Jerk. (okay, so I’m still a little bitter)
This is the minor benign cousin of a much greater menace - the “Let’s go 40 mph up the freeway on-ramp, merge across traffic into the first or second lane, and then accelerate to match speed with everybody!” syndrome. Seriously, what the fucking hell is that? It sucks for all the people going 80 in the four lanes you cut across, and it sucks for the poor schmucks behind you who can’t use the on ramp for it’s intended purpose either. Why does this happen every day?
I call that “merging at a deadly pace.” It sounds like merging too fast, but it’s deadly because you’re being pokey and causing everyone behind you to merge at a speed which is different from the flow of traffic.
There have been times when I have misjudged the distance and speed of a car as I was pulling out. Upon my discovery, I slam the pedal to the floor and get up to speed as soon as possible. If the car behind me decides to demonstrate his disgust by tailgating me, he/she gets the standard procedure, which is for me to lock down the cruise control at the posted speed. Tailgating always makes me nervous, whether it is happening behind me, or if I’m a passenger in a tailgater’s car. This is why I plan to build the prototype “Too Close” light, to let the tailgaters know.
gigi, if that vehicle was a red Chevrolet truck, I wouldn’t be surprised. Stupid Twit gets me at least two days a week!!! He didn’t pull in front of me this morning, so perhaps he’s off visiting NH/VT!
We have at least 5 miles that sort of roads to reach anything out this way, and I prefer a route that is about 30 miles of it. Please send me the Dashboard Death Ray as soon as whomever has it is done with it.
Oooh, I hate that shit. Double death rays if (1) it’s a big-ass semi or truck that never gets up to speed and continues to block my formerly clear view (and yes, I am allowing enough following distance, it’s the principle of the thing) and/or (2) they turn off again half a mile down the road!!! AAAAUGGHHHHHH!!!@#$%^&***!!!
This happened to me this morning as well, travelling down route 236 in Eliot, Maine, doing the rated speed of 45, some MORON in a white piece of crap ford focus pulls out in front of me, out of the Dunkin’ Donuts parking lot, making me slam the brakes, there was less than a car length between us when they pulled out, and nobody behind me…
they then proceeded to do 30 MPH the whole way, it was the stereotypical “little old woman who’s head you can’t see in the car at all”, I couldn’t see anyone in the drivers seat from behind
i was wishing for concrete-filled bumpers (or at the very least, Atomic Land Torpedoes) so i could simply bash her car out of the way
you COULD have waited for me to pass before pulling out, “Grandma”
