Or, you know, just don’t use your god damn phone in the car.
I’m usually waiting for a pedestrian and the guy behind me is honking.
Sure, easing off the accelerator is a courtesy, but the person merging onto a 65mph freeway needs to be moving faster than 35-45 mph and expecting everyone to slow down for him. It’s a safety issue if I have to slow down 20-30 mph to let you into traffic. There is usually enough lane to get up to a reasonable speed prior to merging.
Conversely, here’s one that grinds my gears. If a police officer has someone pulled over or an emergency vehicle is on the side of the road, yes, you are supposed to either move over a lane or slow down if you are unable to move over. If the officer is in the median patrolling traffic speed, then you do not have to slow down if you are going the speed limit.
Yeah, this thread is really highlighting the geographical differences. All these people talking about the highway as if it only has a left lane and a right lane sounds like crazy talk to me. The Beltway has four travel lanes in each direction!
Heck, I’ve stopped at a green light to wait for emergency vehicles with lights flashing and sirens blaring, and still been honked at. Sorry sir, but 20 seconds are not going to matter in the course of your day, but they very well could matter a hell of a lot to whomever is waiting for that ambulance!
It is illegal on some highways, like the Pennsylvania and Ohio Turnpikes. IIRC signs are posted to stay to the right unless passing, and pass only on the left. It’s also illegal in England (although you have to switch around “left” and “right”). The first time my English friend saw me passing on the right on the Washington Beltway he said, “I can’t believe you are allowed to do that.” I said, “I can’t believe that asshole is allowed to drive 55 in the left lane.”
I always leave an appropriate gap in front of me, and don’t have this problem. Sometimes somebody will move into it, then I ease up for a second or two and let the space expand. Maybe later another car moves into the gap. So what? This isn’t the Daytona 500, I’m not going to lose, the other car isn’t going to win. I’m traveling at the same speed as the rest of traffic, I’m just not going to be part of a chain reaction crash.
I also don’t worry about counting. The simple question is, if that guy in front of me slams on his brakes, will I be able to slam on mine in time to avoid hitting him?
Sure, but rural or very small town life is so very different that 90% of us live. I always tell people: “Dont let you cat outside” then some guy always posts: “well, we live in the country and we have some barn cats that arent pets…”
Around here, you have to stop and give way at a stop sign. And you have to keep intersections clear. Any you aren’t allowed to enter an intersection if the exit is blocked.
Except if you are turning into a blocked intersection. If there are 50 cars lined up that have ROW, and the boom gates are down and the road is blocked. People lined up won’t enter the intersection, but people turning into IT will. And when the gates go up, and traffic starts again, it’s the next car facing the stop sign that gets to go first, not the car with ROW.
I don’t know why this is. It’s totally not the law. But it’s done and expected. Flooring it when the traffic opens could cause a crash, because the car facing the stop sign and turning into your road is going to be expecting you to give way.
Turning right on red.
There are some places where this is not allowed. There are obviously many times when this is not possible because of cross traffic.
But when it is allowed, and when there is no traffic coming from the left, GO already.
I find myself sitting behind people who I call the “Never on Redders” far too often. Many times there is a sign that says “No Right Turn on Red” and then beneath that in slightly smaller font is “Except Curb Lane”. I don’t know if they just can’t read the whole sign, they don’t know what a curb lane is, or what, but they will sit there through the whole light, even though there’s not a car in sight.
Sometimes I kinda disagree with the person in front of me on whether or not they should have gone, and whether they had room to go, but I won’t get frustrated over someone judging that they cannot pull out safely, that’s fine. It’s when there is no car, and really can be no car approaching that I start wondering who the hell let them on the road.
I don’t know if it is just ignorance, poor vision, or what exactly it is that causes this behavior, but I get stuck behind these guys a few times a week.
It may have changed by now, but in Pennsylvania 45 years ago it was illegal to change into the left lane solely for the purpose of letting someone merge from the right. It seems too many drivers were failing to check and driving into the path of someone coming up on their left side.
Or possibly, the rule was that you couldn’t move left unless overtaking.
I’m confused by talking about rural etiquette at red lights. In properly rural settings, there are no red lights. And while I’m an urban dweller now, I grew up 7 miles from the nearest paved road, and 30 miles from the nearest traffic light. I think I can speak with as much authority about rural traffic etiquette as the next guy.
Yes, and counting is the easy way to gauge whether you have enough stopping distance. Once you’re experienced enough, I suppose, you know it instinctively, but the 2 second rule helps keep you honest.
Yeah, around here “get off your fucking phone” is the etiquette. The guy dicking around on his mobile device is the one being rude, not the guy honking. (Also, there’s a nice staccato “tap tap” honk that isn’t aggressive, more like a tap on the shoulder and an “excuse me” than a “move asshole!” I’ll agree that someone who lays on the horn, especially a nanosecond after the light has turned green, is being a dick. But if I have a lapse of attention and a couple seconds after the light turns the guy gives me a quick “honk honk,” I’m not offended.)
I hate when people try to cross multiple lanes to make a difficult left hand turn when exiting say a shopping center as opposed to just making an easy right turn and then making a u-turn at the next light.
My route to work every day takes me briefly through a residential neighborhood that single lane exits into a very busy six lane road with three lanes for each direction. For some reason people are constantly trying to make that left turn across four solid lanes despite the fact cars are constantly coming from both sides and the stoplight is literally 30 feet from the right side of the road and it allows you to make a U-turn into the left lane. I’ve had people literally wait for 5 solid minutes waiting for the oncoming traffic to clear to make a left hand turn when they could have just made the easy right and then made a U-turn at the light in under a minute flat.
The left lane is for passing only in some states. Not in all states.
Today I got reminded of a misuse of the left tirn.
This dumb shit goes flying by me, drives 75 ft, then swerves into my lane and takes an exit.
What the hell is that? You can’t slow down for 1 min and follow a car to your exit? It’s going to hurt your precious feelings?
He or she endangered a lot of lives for nothing.
I’m not sure if he technically broke the law. It was pretty reckless.
I was in the center lane. That guy crossed two lanes of traffic and just barely flew down the exit.
There’s typically an intersection and red light at the bottom of exit ramps.
Good luck slowing down in time.
The left lane is for passing only, or for left turns or passing only, in most ALL states. There are only 6 states without some version of this law.