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OK, this isn’t working tooo well- ignore the dots- they are just space savers.
I’ve seen the same behaviour on surface streets, which is not only rude but sometimes illegal.
This what you had in mind?
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Now hold on a minute, pardner. What I was saying is that when some goatscrote comes tooling up the shoulder past several hundred yards of stopped traffic expecting to be let in at the head of the line, don’t let him in. There’s nothing dangerous involved - dickless just has to sit on the shoulder until the traffic opens, which clearly serves him right. I’m not suggesting you cut someone off or anything aggressive like that.
You can generally tell whether the offender is consciously trying to cheat, or if he’s just stuck on the shoulder because of unfamiliarity with the area. If the person trying to get in has kids in the car, or is elderly, or is obviously an out-of-towner, I let him in. If he’s an asshole in a black SUV with tinted windows and wheel spinners not paying attention because he’s making a drug deal over his cell phone, then I do everything I can to keep him from squeezing in.
Well we’re in agreement–somewhat–on that if the aggressor is in fact willing to sit and wait for an opening.. IME often they’re not. I had the unlovely experience of being a passenger in a car that got smacked in the side by one of these assholes who was unwilling to wait. No one was hurt but there was the mother of all messes afterward. First the mind boggling traffic jam, then tow trucks, statements to cops, statements to insurance companies, court appearance, etc. All things considered, it woulda saved everybody a lot of headache to just let the putz cut in. (FWIW the insurance company also got snitty over contributory negligence, i.e. that the driver of the car I was in could have prevented the accident by yielding, even though he had the right of way.)
If it matters, the aggressive driver was a young girl in a Neon who apparently mistook aggression for driving skill. Mind boggling. She kept screaming at my friend, “It’s your fault! You didn’t let me in!” My friend just kept shaking his head, saying “So you rammed me?”
My whole point is that it’s almost impossible to underestimate the pure idiocy of many drivers. I hate when they cut in front of me. I’m just not willing to endanger myself by getting in a pissing match with them. Everybody has to balance their own risks. Anybody who wants to do differently is welcome to. Absolutely no sarcasm intended, btw. I just have ample reason to believe it can be a riskier proposition than it may appear on the surface. And to believe that overly aggressive drivers learn squat from being blocked off. They just get angrier and stupider. YMMV.
Veb
BINGO - We have a winner. This it the point that many of you don’t understand. In many drivers minds it is your fault and they are the one driving properly - they (the ones who cut the line) are the ones who really (in their minds and view of reality) are just taking the shorter of 2 lines, just like at the supermarket. And it is your fault for not allowing an orderly merge at the time where the 2 lines must become one (actually it looks like your friends insurance co agrees w/ this too, which I expected).
You have a view of reality where people should line up into a single line, that’s great but just try to remember that other people view reality differently and no less validly, this makes you the bad guy in their minds.
As for blocking the traffic continuing in the other lane, I would think the correct thing to do if you are in that lane and waiting till the last moment, if you see a space to merge take it (w/o disturbing the flow of traffic in your lane) if not then continue to the next exit. By waiting that long you are taking a chance that there will not be a point to safely merge.
Actually I do this some times when I have several choices of roads, if the exit is backed up I will continue in the thru lane, if I see an opening near the merge I’ll take it, if not I will continue to the next exit, which is my 2ndary route.
Probably the best solution is for the cops to ticket people who use the shoulder as their own personal driving space. I’ve seen this happen and it was better than sex. I’m not sure exactly what violation the ticket was written for.
No less validly, except of course for the fact that the person already in the correct lane has the right of way, and the person trying to horn in will almost always commit an improper lane change in doing so, if not more grievous traffic violations.
So yeah, except from a legal standpoint.
I don’t care what SUV-Man thinks he’s entitled to - I know that I am not obligated to yield to him unless signage instructs me to do so - while I will happily yield to someone who looks befuddled, if I see someone leave the through lane, zip ahead, and then try to get back in, I will hinder him in whatever legal and safe way I can manage.
People who engage in rude, unsafe behavior get no consideration from me under any circumstances. If I’m five MPH over the speed limit, cruising along in the left lane, passing cars in the right - and you come zipping up behind me at 15 over the speed limit and then begin to hover six inches off my bumper - well, I’m going to gradually slow down and arrange to nearly match speed with the cars on the right until you back the hell off.
Exceptions made for vehicles with their emergency flashers on, of course.
I have faith that people can be taught not to be jerks. Or that we’ll invent flying cars that are computer-piloted and eliminate the human factor entirely. Whichever comes first.
There was a tid-bit on the local news a while back the stated that late mergers were the single biggest cause of congestion in the twin cities metro area. There was talk testing a way of offsetting any 2 to 1 lane convergences to look more like two-lane on ramps, where people take turns, and no one lane is the obvious choice, people just pick a line, then it goes every-other at the convergence. It’s just that this isn’t really plausible for multiple lane highways.
I think if everyone knew that late merging was the single largest contributer, and some laws were put in to discourage it, people would be less willing to allow the scofflaws in and the scofflaws would abandon the practice.
I’m about two inches away from seeing your point, kanicbird. Your arguments in the other threads related to this topic didn’t do much for me, but this one is different. I’m always open to examination of different worldviews and their effects on practicality and decision-making. This view you propose, in and of itself, does make some sense to me.
Now, if you can convince me that the majority of the drivers who engage in this behavior are doing so in a calm and rational manner, operating from the logical directives of their applied worldview, as opposed to acting with the giddy and spiteful mindset of a third-grade bully who cuts in the lunch line, I’ll be sold.
I’ll be waiting.
The most beautiful thing I have ever seen in my entire life was at an exit where it split two ways, like the one in the OP. Some assmonkey tried the zoom-to-the-front stop-and-cut-in maneuver at the front of a long exit line. A cop pulled up behind him and proceeded to bitch him out and then made him take the other (wrong) exit.
I nearly wept.
Well, Dave Barry says that there is one thing that we all share…the inate belief that we are above average drivers
I’m with TVeblen on this one. While I hate assholes who run up to the front and try to cut in, the risk of trying to block them off outways that short moment of satisfaction I may gain from it. If some jerk was to ram into me because I wouldn’t let them in, there is then the hassel of dealing with them, the cops, the insurance co., etc. It’s not fucking worth it. Of course, the consequences could be worse.
So I’ll let them in(bitching the whole time, of course), and let them have there moment of glory. And what? I may be two more minutes late? So what. I’ll forget the whole thing within ten minutes anyway.
Well said.
You shouldn’t be using your laptop while driving.
Make that more like two seconds. You have basically lost one whole car length, which at highway speeds adds up to a fraction of a second. This is why I can never understand people who drive agrresively. How many times has someone pulled a really risky manouver to pass me, and at the next traffic light I end up right behind them? There is just no reason whatsoever for ever driving aggresively and risking your life and the lives of your passengers and other motorists, unless you are taking part in the Indy 500.
To test this, have two people leave from the same place and drive to the same destination over a distance of say 30 miles (a pretty average commute, I would guess). One driver is as aggresive as possible, changing lanes all the time, cutting to the front of merging lanes, etc. The other driver drives calmly, but they agree that they will limit their top cruising speed to the same thing. I guarantee you that the less agressive driver will arrive at about the time the agressive driver has unbuckled and is opening his door. As an added benefit, he will be a lot less nervous than the agressive driver. Really, you should try this once. I have and it turned out just as I described.
Using my powers for good:
Traffic was slowly moving on I-35 both ways; a driver behind me–after, I’m assuming, realizing that he just missed an exit which would have given him an out to this crawl–pulled into one of those “Emergency Vehicles Only” dirt paths between both sides of the interstate. “There’s never a cop around when people do that,” I mused.
But there was this time. And he got his ticket! (Again, I’m assuming. I’m just happier with that assumption. Otherwise he got a warning and my happiness wanes.)
Using my powers for evil:
Again on I-35, but this time the traffic was much lighter and, unfortunately, the streets were much slicker what with the recent rain. A guy in this gigantic black SUV comes barreling from behind at–what seemed to me–90 + miles an hour. I’m passing someone in the left lane; he gets behind me and slams on his breaks, wildly gesturing for me to get out of the way (which I couldn’t just then–passing the other car and all). I turn my signal light on, finish passing the other car, get ready to switch lanes when he slips between me and the other vehicle and races on. “Wow,” I thought. “If there’s ever a person ever deserving to get in an accident…” (In my mind, of course, I’m thinking of a bang-up-the-car-but-no-one-is-hurt accident. My mind didn’t want bloodshed; it just wanted someone to pay a lot of money to get his car fixed.)
A minute or so later, as I’m turning a corner, I see that same vehicle come down from the air, hit the ground and rollover a few times. (He tried that slamming-on-the-brakes stunt again, but this time lost control due to the high speed and slick roads. He ended up swerving into an embankment, which launched him into the air.) I stop my car, pull out the cell phone and call 911 as I run toward the SUV. Turns out the guy wasn’t wearing his seatbelt, either, so he was thrown from the cabin. He’ bleeding from his head, trying to stand up and I, as well as the other people who stopped, are telling him to stay on the ground. Thankfully, we were across the interstate from a hospital and a nurse, on her way home from work, was one of the people who stopped. She was better able to help before the EMTs arrived.
From now on, however, I’m going to just wish that people get tickets.
Where do you come up with that? It’s amazing!! I truly wish I knew how to insult people that well. Right now the only thing that I say is ‘You tool’.
pardon my hijack.
In spite of the dark side of me wanting to have an anti Aircraft gun, or one ofthese , I think the best thing would be to have what the Danish police use. They stop the car’s electrical system, thus disabling the vehicle. Now, I wouldn’t use it on the asshat passing me at 90mph, but for someone trying to cut in front of me at 5mph, it would be simply splendiferous.
Or you could get the latest tailgater deterrance equipment for your vehicle.
[QUOTE=kanicbird]
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At which point that “someone” becomes a tailgater. Why should this be the preferred solution?
Here’s food for thought–Any maneuver in treaffic that cannot be performed safely is a bad maneuver. In this scenario, the one merging is attempting the maneuver. The Op is simply driving down the road.
[QUOTE=kanicbird]
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What in the world does someone’s view of reality have to do with obeying the rules of the road? I find this to be nearly incoherent. If in my view 110 mph is a safe speed am I allowed to go that fast and damn all those who see it otherwise? When 1 lane is merging into another, rather than 2 lanes merging into 1, it is incumbent upon the one merging to make sure it is safe to do so. Merely pulling ahead and signally an intention to merge is insufficient to establish “validity”.