# Traffic Courtesies that aren't Laws **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [April 2, 2018, 1:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/traffic-courtesies-that-arent-laws/811636 "2018-04-02T13:25:09Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![HurricaneDitka](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/96bed5/32.png) [@HurricaneDitka](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HurricaneDitka)\ **Post date:** [April 2, 2018, 8:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/traffic-courtesies-that-arent-laws/811636/41 "2018-04-02T20:49:48Z")
> [@Jennshark](#): > > … My dad’s a truck driver and taught me to double-flash my headlights when a semi is passing and wants to get in front of me in a lane. This is to let the driver know that he’s safely cleared his trailer length. I do this all of the time – some drivers double-tap their brakes as a “thank you,” but many either don’t know what I’m signalling (or just don’t do the brake tap). Was anyone else taught this? I wasn’t “taught” that explicitly, but I noticed enough semi drivers doing it for each other that I’ve started doing it when I’m in a similar situations (like when a truck driver signals a lane change ahead of me). Can’t say that I’ve ever noticed the double brake tap in response though. ---
**Author:** ![HurricaneDitka](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/96bed5/32.png) [@HurricaneDitka](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HurricaneDitka)\ **Post date:** [April 2, 2018, 8:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/traffic-courtesies-that-arent-laws/811636/42 "2018-04-02T20:51:54Z")
> [@That\_Don\_Guy](#): > > … Here’s another one that’s not a law, and I’m not entirely sure how popular this one is; when there’s two lanes in each direction, and you come up to a traffic light, if you’re not turning right, you should be in the left lane - otherwise, you’re holding up the people who can turn right on the red. I appreciate the thoughtfulness of drivers that do this, or that pull enough to the left of their lane that it leaves room for right-turners to safely get around them on the right and make their turn without having to wait for the traffic lights to cycle. ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [April 2, 2018, 9:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/traffic-courtesies-that-arent-laws/811636/43 "2018-04-02T21:20:50Z")
> [@gigi](#): > > 😕 Our highways all say, stay right except to pass. It’s not being timid and slow, it’s staying in the traveling lane. > > But if someone is merging and there’s no one in the left lane for miles, friggin move left and don’t make me run out of on-ramp! OK, our highways generally have at least three lanes, and there never is a situation where there is no-one in the left lane for miles. Secondly, how is this a problem? If traffic is so light, just floor it when you’re merging (as you should well be, most of the time.) There are many places in downtown Chicago here where you’re merging into the _left_ lane, traffic is really heavy, and you have very little on-ramp to make it, and yet everyone manages to figure it out most of the time. Thankfully, they’ve gotten rid of most of the really “interesting” merges in the past few years, but there were literally a few where you had maybe an 1/8 of a mile to fit your ass into the traffic flow. ---
**Author:** ![gigi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/a587f6/32.png) [@gigi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gigi)\ **Post date:** [April 2, 2018, 10:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/traffic-courtesies-that-arent-laws/811636/44 "2018-04-02T22:29:57Z")
> [@pulykamell](#): > > OK, our highways generally have at least three lanes, and there never is a situation where there is no-one in the left lane for miles. Secondly, how is this a problem? If traffic is so light, just floor it when you’re merging (as you should well be, most of the time.) I am flooring it and am on a collision course with the person in the right lane. Although I can see the humor in no cars for miles and the only two there end up slamming into one another. ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [April 2, 2018, 10:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/traffic-courtesies-that-arent-laws/811636/45 "2018-04-02T22:37:25Z")
> [@gigi](#): > > I am flooring it and am on a collision course with the person in the right lane. Then don’t floor it and saddle in behind the vehicle in the right lane (they shouldn’t have to alter their speed at all.) Are you in a situation where you have a constant stream of vehicles in the right line where it’s a pain in the ass to merge in? I’m honestly not being snarky here. I’m just having difficulty imagining the situation. ---
**Author:** ![watchwolf49](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/e9c0ed/32.png) [@watchwolf49](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/watchwolf49)\ **Post date:** [April 2, 2018, 10:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/traffic-courtesies-that-arent-laws/811636/46 "2018-04-02T22:40:38Z")
La Mesa in California has an somewhat infamous on-ramp to the I-8 … super sharp curve then immediate merge into the left lane’s 80 mph rush hour traffic … white-knuckle time with your steering wheel … ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [April 2, 2018, 10:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/traffic-courtesies-that-arent-laws/811636/47 "2018-04-02T22:51:35Z")
> [@watchwolf49](#): > > La Mesa in California has an somewhat infamous on-ramp to the I-8 … super sharp curve then immediate merge into the left lane’s 80 mph rush hour traffic … white-knuckle time with your steering wheel … Wow. You guys get 80 mph traffic at rush hour?!?!?! Otherwise, that sounds like the on ramps that were around until a few years ago on the Kennedy here in Chicago. It was just “gun it and pray someone lets you in!” ---
**Author:** ![Jennshark](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/8e8cbc/32.png) [@Jennshark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jennshark)\ **Post date:** [April 2, 2018, 11:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/traffic-courtesies-that-arent-laws/811636/48 "2018-04-02T23:26:53Z")
> [@watchwolf49](#): > > La Mesa in California has an somewhat infamous on-ramp to the I-8 … super sharp curve then immediate merge into the left lane’s 80 mph rush hour traffic … white-knuckle time with your steering wheel … Oy vey, that is a nightmare of a ramp! When I lived in San Diego I’d do anything to avoid that mess when I visited my sis in LM. ---
**Author:** ![gigi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/a587f6/32.png) [@gigi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gigi)\ **Post date:** [April 2, 2018, 11:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/traffic-courtesies-that-arent-laws/811636/49 "2018-04-02T23:37:54Z")
> [@pulykamell](#): > > Then don’t floor it and saddle in behind the vehicle in the right lane (they shouldn’t have to alter their speed at all.) Are you in a situation where you have a constant stream of vehicles in the right line where it’s a pain in the ass to merge in? I’m honestly not being snarky here. I’m just having difficulty imagining the situation. No, they shouldn’t have to change their speed at all. And in fact they are perfectly within their rights to take no notice of me whatsoever. But the custom is to see someone coming up the on-ramp, and move to the left when it’s clear to do so. You don’t estimate whether you or they will make it, you just move over, so they will also not have to do any estimating or adjusting. It’s minor inconvenience, one that earns a stuck-out tongue but not the full stuck-out tongue with eyeroll and head waggle. 😛 ---
**Author:** ![Maserschmidt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/maserschmidt/32/18829_2.png) [@Maserschmidt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Maserschmidt)\ **Post date:** [April 2, 2018, 11:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/traffic-courtesies-that-arent-laws/811636/50 "2018-04-02T23:50:56Z")
> [@watchwolf49](#): > > A [Pittsburgh left](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pittsburgh_left) seems a dick move, but it’s illegal in Pennsylvania … > > The thing that gets me dragging my fingernails over a chalkboard is people who sit still in a left turn lane waiting for traffic to clear … because if traffic doesn’t clear, everybody has to sit for God knows how many light cycles … just stupidity … > > The technique is to pull forward some _into_ the intersection and wait … when the light turns red for the oncoming traffic, you’ll have the right to finish your left turn … sometimes a couple of cars can creep out into the intersection … > > Phaw … two rights don’t make a wrong but three rights can make a left … In Massachusetts pulling out and waiting to take a left is actually illegal, at least as described by the police officer in my recent drivers ed classes (when your teenagers take drivers ed here, you have to as well:rolleyes:) - it’s considered blocking the intersection. All the while he described that, pointing to the lanes on a big road diagram, I nodded sagely and thought “you are out of your fucking mind, I’m not sitting back and waiting.” ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [April 3, 2018, 12:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/traffic-courtesies-that-arent-laws/811636/51 "2018-04-03T00:50:47Z")
> [@gigi](#): > > No, they shouldn’t have to change their speed at all. And in fact they are perfectly within their rights to take no notice of me whatsoever. But the custom is to see someone coming up the on-ramp, and move to the left when it’s clear to do so. You don’t estimate whether you or they will make it, you just move over, so they will also not have to do any estimating or adjusting. > > It’s minor inconvenience, one that earns a stuck-out tongue but not the full stuck-out tongue with eyeroll and head waggle. 😛 OK, fair enough. I guess when I find myself in the right lane, I do try to get over. ---
**Author:** ![Voyager](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/voyager/32/133_2.png) [@Voyager](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Voyager)\ **Post date:** [April 3, 2018, 2:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/traffic-courtesies-that-arent-laws/811636/52 "2018-04-03T02:03:22Z")
> [@gigi](#): > > It’s an “ass move” if there is no one to your left and someone is merging onto the highway on your right. No, you’re not under a legal obligation, but when in Rome! I’m talking to you, big white SUV this morning. They had NH plates but I like to believe they just moved here from Mass. 😛 The case in the OP said heavily trafficked highway. In that case moving to the left lane to make it easier to merge might be dangerous and also might make it tougher for you to get back in. You also can let someone merge into the right lane, making their life easier. If no one is in the left lane, I agree with you. ---
**Author:** ![pullin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/c57346/32.png) [@pullin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pullin)\ **Post date:** [April 3, 2018, 9:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/traffic-courtesies-that-arent-laws/811636/53 "2018-04-03T09:51:47Z")
Freeway example: I’m toodling along at 65 in the right lane. Semi in front of me is doing 63. If fast moving traffic is coming up on the left, I slow and wait behind the truck to let them go by before pulling out to pass. I’ve never understood why some people want to pull out and hold up high speed traffic in the left lane while s-l-o-w-l-y passing the truck at a relative speed of 2 mph. I think it’s a dick move. Not a law, but if I slow and wait for high speed bunch\* to zoom by, then we’re properly sorted with the faster cars out front – easier for everyone. \*same rule for a single car, but it seems they’re usually in a group. ---
**Author:** ![Filbert](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/filbert/32/3433_2.png) [@Filbert](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Filbert)\ **Post date:** [April 3, 2018, 10:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/traffic-courtesies-that-arent-laws/811636/54 "2018-04-03T10:09:17Z")
> [@Dinsdale](#): > > One courtesy I despise is extending courtesy to someone entering a street from a parking lot or something, in a manner that inconveniences the driver behind. A few weeks ago I watched a bus stop in the middle of the road to ‘helpfully’ allow a waiting pedestrian parent with a pushchair and a toddler across the road. The back of the bus was smack across a mini roundabout, with a queue of cars coming from 3 directions, 'cos it was 5 pm, all blocked by the bus. Of course, the pedestrian, who could clearly see the snarl-up the bus was causing, tried to wave the bus on, but nooo… the bus driver was determined to be polite… and beeped, smiled and waved in encouragement :rolleyes: Probably the most spectacularly stupid display of attempted politeness I’ve ever seen. ---
**Author:** ![excavating\_for\_a\_mind](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/e8c25b/32.png) [@excavating\_for\_a\_mind](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/excavating_for_a_mind)\ **Post date:** [April 3, 2018, 1:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/traffic-courtesies-that-arent-laws/811636/55 "2018-04-03T13:01:37Z")
**Traffic Courtesies that aren’t Laws** The two-second rule. ---
**Author:** ![Riemann](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/riemann/32/3133_2.png) [@Riemann](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Riemann)\ **Post date:** [April 3, 2018, 1:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/traffic-courtesies-that-arent-laws/811636/56 "2018-04-03T13:45:51Z")
> [@FinsToTheLeft](#): > > There was a study on this recently that I read in the paper that indicated that early merging was actually a net negative on traffic flow. If you use both available lanes until the point of the merge you optimize use of the road. > [@Doug\_K](#): > > I keep seeing this claimed, but I’ve seen no evidence that any such study actually exists… I don’t see why you would need a study. A single lane is obviously slower than multiple lanes, or we wouldn’t have multi-lane freeways at all. It _must_ be true that it’s best if everyone uses the multiple lanes as long as they are available. The optimum must surely be to merge as late as possible while leaving enough room to make the merge maneuver efficient. Having said that, it may also be true that as an individual driver, conforming to the consensus merge position may be most efficient. In other words, if there is a consensus merge taking place half a mile earlier than necessary, you aren’t necessarily making things more efficient overall by unilaterally shooting up the empty lane. Failing to follow consensus behavior may make the merge less predictable and therefore less efficient. ---
**Author:** ![Doug\_K](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b5ac83/32.png) [@Doug\_K](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Doug_K)\ **Post date:** [April 3, 2018, 2:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/traffic-courtesies-that-arent-laws/811636/57 "2018-04-03T14:25:21Z")
> [@Riemann](#): > > I don’t see why you would need a study. A single lane is obviously slower than multiple lanes, or we wouldn’t have multi-lane freeways at all. It _must_ be true that it’s best if everyone uses the multiple lanes as long as they are available. The optimum must surely be to merge as late as possible while leaving enough room to make the merge maneuver efficient. No it isn’t. Anyone who has ever herded a group of children through a single door can tell you that a single line can keep moving at a constant speed. If two lanes wait until the last second to merge everyone has to slow down to allow alternating cars in. And the longer the two lines are, the more it progressively slows down until traffic comes to a near standstill. A zipper merge could work in theory if both lanes were spread out as if they were in one lane to begin with, but that just doesn’t happen in real life. When people get into the correct lane **before** traffic starts to pile up the line can keep moving at or close to the speed limit without a bottleneck. The people who are too impatient to wait in line are, ironically, slowing everyone, including themselves, down. ---
**Author:** ![The\_wind\_of\_my\_soul](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/ecc23a/32.png) [@The\_wind\_of\_my\_soul](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_wind_of_my_soul)\ **Post date:** [April 3, 2018, 2:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/traffic-courtesies-that-arent-laws/811636/58 "2018-04-03T14:32:01Z")
> [@Voyager](#): > > The case in the OP said heavily trafficked highway. In that case moving to the left lane to make it easier to merge might be dangerous and also might make it tougher for you to get back in. You also can let someone merge into the right lane, making their life easier. > If no one is in the left lane, I agree with you. I just meant that there were a lot of people that needed to merge over. There was plenty of space for the person in the right lane to move over to the left. ---
**Author:** ![Maserschmidt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/maserschmidt/32/18829_2.png) [@Maserschmidt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Maserschmidt)\ **Post date:** [April 8, 2018, 1:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/traffic-courtesies-that-arent-laws/811636/59 "2018-04-08T13:20:23Z")
> [@pulykamell](#): > > There’s nothing an “ass move” about camping out in the right lane. If you’re going slower than the rest of traffic, you damned well better be in the rightmost lane! Camping out in the leftmost lane and not allowing cars to pass you is a bit of a dick move. Central lanes kind of anything goes, but should be moving faster than the rightmost lane. > > What annoys the crap out of me is people passing me on my right. This may be because in other parts of the world where I’ve driven, it is considered almost unthinkable to do such a thing (or passing on the left in left-hand traffic countries). When I’m driving in the left lane, I’m passing the cars on the right or central lane. Suddenly, I see some guy shooting up my ass about 20 mph faster than me so, of course, my intention is to signal, get into the lane to the right of me, and let him on his merry way. As I’m about to do that, speeding guy himself gears up to turning into the space I intend to turn into and this briefly creates an ambiguous situation of who is going to yield to whom. This annoys the crap out of me. > > In Germany, Austria, and Hungary, the “up the ass” car would remain in the leftmost lane, usually flashing their high beams signalling their request for you to move out of the way. (In the US, this type of high beam signalling is considered extremely aggressive, though. I didn’t get the sense it carried more than an “excuse me, I would like to get by” connotation on the Continent.) I rarely, if ever, remember the impatient car deciding “ah, fuck it, I’ll pass on the right.” > > Now, I guess that lane culture doesn’t really exist here in the US, so I can’t get too aggravated about it, but it still does peeve me. I agree with every word of this, and there isn’t a highway trip I make of, say, more than 30 minutes where I don’t recall with envy the orderliness of driving on the Autobahn. Everything annoys me, from people passing on the right, people camped out in the middle fucking lane barely going speed limit (or driving side-by-side with the car in the right-hand lane), or people in the left-hand lane not passing. ---
**Author:** ![echoreply](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/echoreply/32/3641_2.png) [@echoreply](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/echoreply)\ **Post date:** [April 8, 2018, 5:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/traffic-courtesies-that-arent-laws/811636/60 "2018-04-08T17:41:03Z")
I agree, if you’re in the right lane, and you can move to the left without impeding traffic, then that is a courteous thing to do at merge points. If you are in the right lane and can’t move to the left for some reason, then _keep traveling at the same speed_. The merging traffic has to judge how much to speed up or slow down to slot in, if the traffic in the right lane decides to race the merging traffic (“I win if I’m one car ahead!”) or slow down appreciably (“the nice thing to do is to slam on your brakes to create a gap!”) that makes it much more difficult for the merging traffic to predict what to do. (I’m not talking about dropping speed a mph or two to provide some separation.) Around here, I find people are often inappropriately courteous. In my 10 mile freeway commute there are two non-merge entrances, where the entrance lane continuous for a mile or more before exiting or merging. People will move out of the right (soon to be center) lane to let in the non-merging traffic. Some of the entering traffic will, of course, get out of the right lane immediately, as if it were a short entrance ramp, not a mile long lane. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/traffic-courtesies-that-arent-laws/811636.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/traffic-courtesies-that-arent-laws/811636.md?page=4)