[Archived]

Hey Dick, Now days doesn’t that have to be in at least six languages?

[Tim]

Unless you send them a text…they won’t see it. They are not looking for traffic, they are looking down at their phone. You are just a distraction that they don’t want to deal with until they are done texting.

[Mike]

Dick gets free dues next year for that post.

[Archived]

Excellent !

[Archived]

So many are in such a hurry to merge that even if they see you they don’t seem to understand that you might be towing something. I tell you how many times I have watched drivers try to pull in as I pass and then suddenly realize they were about to hit my toad! Luckily, I haven’t had the towed hit yet!

[John]

I was thinking about installing a defensive flares launcher…

[Archived]

Merging is one thing, but most don’t know what the merge lane is also for, goosing the accelerator, and you guessed it “merging”

[Mark]

My thoughts exactly Les !! Think I`ll get a magnetic sign like the trucker for traveling. Having too many near hits lately.

[Rudy]

“Having too many near hits lately.”

That’s what the air horns are for. When I see a car in the merge lane that doesn’t appear “to be awake”, I have no hesitancy to give him or her a blast of the air horns … and not just one, short blast.

We have an air operated train whistle. I want to add a “train horn” … louder, deeper. I’m thinking about installing it in the curb side of the engine bay for the listening pleasure of cars merging.

[George]

Have you noticed that there are no longer ANY merge signs on the on ramps? Not sure who decided that the States could no longer afford to remind drivers that they DO NOT have the right of way when coming from, what used to be known as, an acceleration ramp.

[David]

And if no one is in the left lane is it a big deal to move over ? To me thats just common courtesy. I’m always thinking when someone doesn’t move over and no one’s beside them ” you wouldn’t work for me very long”. But what do I know I only drive 8000 miles a month.

[Deleted User]

Jeff your point is valid, but bear with my twisted mind for a moment and see if you consider an alternative.

For years my driving has been about anticipation. There are far too many instances to recount, but as an example a driver tends to get a sense when another driver is going to do something, or have to do something. Coming up in the passing lane on a truck in the slow lane that is coming up on a slower vehicle is an opportunity to maintain speed and end up forcing the truck to be stuck behind the slower vehicle until I pass is an option, but if I anticipate his need I can back out of it a little, give him a flash of the lights, and let him step in front of me so he can get around the slower vehicle.

Dealing with merging traffic presents more opportunities to anticipate another driver’s needs or actions, but up to a point. For decades I have tried to be courteous. I would move over when I could. Sometimes in weak moments I would kick up the speed a notch to let merging traffic have an opening behind me to get in the lane of traffic. Sometimes in a weaker moment I will back it down a little if I was not going to really screw up following traffic.

But over time I started to get tired of people who do not realize I cannot move over due to a car next to me, and because they do not understand the concept of adjusting their speed as needed, the morons instead match mine as they run next to me and end up running out of merge lane. At that point they brake hard or run on the shoulder until they can get into the traffic lane. At their earliest opportunity they then pass and blow their horn and give me the finger.

So now I consider it my public duty to assist with the education of those folks who haven’t yet mastered the art of merging. By maintaining my lane (also known as the right of way) these folks should begin to figure out if they want to enter an interstate they have to speed up or slow down so as to end up with an open spot on the right of way that they can merge into. If I keep moving over how are these students going to learn???????

I find it incredible someone in a tiny Prius that is afraid of stepping on the gas pedal because that act of accelerating will cost them 1/1000 of a MPG, while an 80,000 pound truck always seems to be able to merge.

After a while we get tired of getting the finger, having a horn blown at us or having to do a panic braking event because someone doing 28 miles an hour feels entitled to jump 15 feet in front of us from the on-ramp.

[Jimmy]

[Fred]

[Hey Dick, Now days doesn’t that have to be in at least six languages?]

Why?

[Archived]

I stopped moving over to the fast lane long ago.

I want to extend the same courtesy to some one that they are about to extend to me.

Nothing wrong with moving over but the problem then becomes this moron will get into the traffic lane and sit right beside you and now your in the fast lane and have traffic behind you pissed off because you are holding them up.

So now you have to floor board the accelerator or hit the brakes and slow down so you can get back in the right lane.

Happens every time.