Rules Of The Road

We've got a lot of the "cross-merge" problem areas around Boston,
too, and every time I go through one I think "why the heck can't
these people learn to MERGE?!" They act like they're attempting
to do solid-through-solid tricks with automobiles, and then realize
at the last second that that's not going to work, and the result is
lots of idiots all bunched up and trying to do abrupt swerves and
start/stop to get across each others' lines and out the way they
want. If they just bloody left some ROOM ahead of themselves, then
it would be a solved problem with almost laminar flow. But short-
term thinking prevails just about everywhere, and they can't think
more than about a car and a half ahead.
.
Never seen low-rider parades on these, though. That's amusing.
.
_H*

 

Sorry if I'm a party pooper, but that's been my understanding since I started driving on limited-access highways in the 60's.

It happens every day at big interchanges, two-lane on-ramps and, in the LA and SF areas, everywhere! And 99% of the time it has nothing to do with bumper-to-bumper low riders.

I've taught Defensive Driving. Before I did, I learned---and later taught, because the question does come up---that in most other, NON-limited-access or NON-SIGNED situations (no "Merge", no "Yield", for example, 16 lines of cars exiting a large mall parking lot, and merging down to 4 lines, including many simple "courtesy" situations) the simply rule of thumb is to "think zipper". That is, take turns (one tooth, then one on the opposite side, repeat). As we all know, lotsa folks don't get that one either.

But for restricted-access highways, traffic in the lane you're trying to merge into always has right-of-way.

 

I refuse to obey most rules within almost any driving manual unless it makes sense for the applicable situation. 80% aggressive, 20% defensive is about how I drive. Way too many idiots out there, you CANNOT depend upon anyone to do the right thing at the right time. And this does NOT mean, for example, a-hole tactics like riding bumpers and flashing lights to get people to move, or cutting people off.

You control traffic around you by your driving style, NOT the other way around. Defensive driving is a recipe for disaster.

You get an even better perspective on this if you happen to ride a motorcycle.


h34r:

 

Absurd. Got kids?

 

Unlikely.

All depends on the situation.


As for the kids, what, am I supposed to answer no so you can somehow attach some sort of bias? Please...

edit: maybe I should stay out of this thread, driving threads are like politics to me.... lol

 

Oh sooo true... I commute 3 to 128S every day and back, and people just don't understand how making room for someone actually MOVES traffic along QUICKER.
Too much of this pointless "me first" mentality. :angry:

Although I have to think people are catching on, more and more I see those like myself, leaving plenty of room in front, and behind me. Sometimes, I'll even get someone doing the same thing as I right behind me, and we'll both space ourselves out so a bunch of traffic can easily move in.

 

You must be driving around in Alabama a whole lot................

 

No, not at all... Thinking about it, I would have to say, there are only 4 types of people that know just how dangerous driving on public roads really are:

1. Anyone who rides a motorcycle
2. Cops
3. A small percentage of drivers
4. Those who have had people they were close to die as the resultant of what some idiot did

Most, are completely oblivious to the horror lurking in the mirages upon the tar as they go on their merry way chatting on their cell phones...

h34r:

 

Maybe I need to refine my statement, it does read a little TOO aggressive... bah, don't want to get into it now...!

 

I disagree with this political point.
It may be safer to drive offensivly if your the only one. But how can it be safer if everyone around you drives like you? Each person controling the traffic around them like you said. Wouldn't you all be butting heads. No one is willing to back down. Each driver expecting the other to move and the other guy doesn't budge. There's going to be an accident. And it's not realy accidental.

 

Guess I'd have to fall under #3.

It's weird... most of my adult life I've had jobs that involved driving a lot of miles. I mean, a lot of miles. There've been times when I've driven 300-400 miles every day. And I must disagree with you Squid... defensive driving has saved my nice person many, many, many times!!!!! I can't begin to count how many "accidents" I've avoided in my life. I've been in two while I was behind the wheel.

Rear-ended someone when I was 16. My fault. Followed too close. Stopped doing that.

A few years back, someone next to me suddenly swerved into me. The guy was trying to get to a parking space and didn't even look. Nothing I could do (other than just not drive).

That's it. And I've driven (quick estimate) average 35k miles every year for the last 20 years. Probably half of those miles were on unfamiliar roads.

I'm alive thanks to my driving defensively.

 

Mystery Squid, you say "Way too many idiots out there, you CANNOT depend upon anyone to do the right thing at the right time." And, then you say, "defensive driving is a recipe for disaster."

This is a contradiction. Part of the definition of defensive driving is to watch out for the other guy and to EXPECT THE UNEXPECTED.

You DO drive defensively!

 

It wouldn't have surprised me if you had found a couple of police cars at the head of the line, guiding them through traffic.

We went on a trip down to South Carolina this summer. Somewhere around Virginia, we passed an endless column of motorcycles traveling in the other direction on I95. I'm talking about thousands of motorcycles. We were doing about 70 mph in the opposite direction and it still took several minutes to pass them all.

There were two police motorcycles leading them and police cars were blocking the on-ramps while they passed.

I was just happy I wasn't on one of those on-ramps.

 

I've been bothered by the yield signs and the implied need to yield going onto highways for a long time. I was taught the car entering first has the automatic right of way and the yield means you must wait for them to pass if you arrive simultaneously. But in normal intersections the car on the right has the right of way too, and I virtually never see that adhered to.

That is clearly not what is meant by the yield entering a highway today. But I still don't know what it means. There are two problems with it:

1 It can't work. I have driven many slow cars for years, similar to VW bugs, that took close to 30 seconds to enter a highway. They can never enter without making some one on the highway slow down or yield to them, if there is any traffic.

The same is true for virtually any loaded up truck! Do they have different rules or does the law mean they should stop on the ramp and just sit there till 2 AM when the traffic is light?

2 Around here the ramps are all far shorter than in western states. You can follow the rule and enter the highway very slow so that you could yield and stop if needed, thus annoying most everyone on the highway by entering at a non matched speed.

Or you can try to merge at speed in which case you don't have a chance to stop if there is a need to yield. The only case where you can yield and merge at speed is when you are blocked and there is a break down lane you can continue in till there is a space. This is often not there.

Driving a Prius I can now merge a bit easier, but I also drive more in the right lane and I find the way people merge is generally pretty bad no matter which way you look at it. There is clearly much confusion and no uniformity in how people handle it.

What annoys me most on the highway is the mergers that come on right beside me and stay beside me so exactly I am forced to get out of their way but it is not clear if I should speed up or slow down.

 

This reminds me of something from the Great Gatsby...

 

Eh... that's a bit of a vast generalization.

About 2 weeks after I got my Prius, I was driving my mom and my grandmother back home from a doctor's appointment in New York City. We were headed into Brooklyn. It was right around rush hour, so I got stuck in traffic on the highway. Bumper to bumper... basically a parking lot.

Some assclown on a motorcycle decides he's too good to wait in traffic.... basically, when you say "I refuse to obey most rules within almost any driving manual unless it makes sense for the applicable situation." I think that's what he was thinking too.

He starts going in between the lanes of bumper to bumper traffic. This is new york, we're talking about, so the lanes are narrow enough already. The dumbass hits me on my bumper, when he realizes what he did, he once again decides he's too good for the law, and runs off.

Hit and run.

I get stuck with the bill. $400 at the body shop. :angry:

Yes... he knows how dangerous the roads really are.

 

Yes it is.

There are nice person-clowns within every driving/piloting genre.

BTW, what's wrong with lane-splitting? You sound like one of those people that get pissed just because someone CAN pull it off. Like many non-socially-acceptable-driving practices, there's a right way to do it, and a wrong way. The right way is to slowly navigate through traffic, the wrong way (although far more amusing way) is to do it on one wheel! :lol:

 

My problem was less with what rules that guy broke, but the arrogance with which he did it. And the fact that he ran.

fscking coward.

I mean if you hit someone, and it was totally your fault, why would you run? The unfortunate answer is because he COULD.