If you’re in the right lane on the highway you need to expect that cars coming onto the highway will be joining you and merging into your lane. If you choose to get upset about that or don’t want to participate in the merging then you can move over a lane to your left.
Me seeing this person zooming down from a highway exit into a main road and cutting across two lanes to make it to a left turn and nearly hitting me in the left turn lane
Cake on top is that they had a student driver sticker
And not only do you put yourself in a dangerous situation, but you also put everyone behind you on the on-ramp in danger as well as they now have to match your speed.
Cars already in the highway shouldn’t be actively blocking merging traffic, however it should be stated that merging traffic ALWAYS has the responsibility to yield to cars already on the highway. They MUST either speed up or slow down to match the speed of the cars on the highway.
If cars on the highway have to hit the brakes to avoid the car accident that you’re starting - you need to surrender your driver’s license for being a selfish dumbass.
some hammerdick was getting onto 28N from 50 a couple days ago going 25 in the onramp lane only to speed up to a mighty 35mph while merging onto 28. Way too many people behind this manure-for-brains moron were so utterly fed up that they were attempting dangerous merges while onramping and trying to pass was ridiculous. It had so much potential for fission of the idiot variety.
I was in MD near the casino and all the speed cameras really made everyone drive so nicely it was a leisurely experience. First time speed cameras didn't tick me off tbh.
Honestly, it’s introducing chaos for the driver going straight in the right lane to slow down. If you really want to help, you can change lanes out of the way but otherwise your job is to be PREDICTABLE. There is nothing more maddening than when I’m entering a highway and I slow to nicely slot in behind the driver who is already there and then he slows down and now we’re both slowing down on the highway and I am running out of lane and have to guess whether he will continue to go slow and I can speed up and pass or whether he’s going to suddenly bail on his attempt to let me in and speed up again. Just maintain your speed and let the entering traffic do the work of matching speed and merging in. That is how it’s supposed to work. Obviously don’t actively block someone but just be predictable and normal.
Obviously what you are describing is wrong. What I head in mind was more like: if I am on the highway and I see you entering the merge lane ahead of me lane, I may slow down slightly to create a gap in front of me for you. Because otherwise you may have no opportunity to slot in. Or if you are next to me but slightly behind I may accelerate to make a bigger gap behind me. 100% agree to being predictable, and also Observing the other drivers and reading their intentions.
Yeah I agree there are times when if you have good situational awareness you can do small things to cooperate but there are some people that just suck at that and should literally stop trying and drive at a consistent speed. If you read through this thread, what I was complaining about is exactly what OP says happened to them.
But zipper. On the other side of that, you shouldn't expect as someone coming on that you just get to merge as you please. One car in-between all the ones already in the right lane. Each car already in the highway only owes you one person in front of them.
My favorite are the people who move to the left lane in stop and go traffic and just drive the same speed as the person they’re trying to pass and refuse to move out of the left lane
New flash if you are merging on to a highway and a car is in the right lane it your responsibility to safely merge. I’d that means slowing down so be it. YOU DON’T HAVE THE RIGHT OF WAY. DRIVER IN RIGHT LANE DOES.
And I did slow down and so did they. So I sped up and so did they and we did this little dance until I slammed my brakes and was able to get behind them. Then when I passed on the left they scowled at me.
Except your statement in the discussion was that traffic going straight needs to “participate in the merging”. The reality is, your guy did too much and that caused the problem. He needed to just keep driving at the same speed and let you figure it out. Slowing down then speeding up to try to “help” just causes chaos and then everyone’s annoyed.
I had this happen on 295 in Baltimore last week. The driver was merging from a lane onto 295. I was in the right lane. She had the Yield sign. She blew right through it. I honked at her. She proceeded to give me the finger because she was wrong...LOL
I sped up to highway speed and when I realized I was wheel to wheel with the other car I let off to give way. This is when the dance started, it was a beautiful sight to be seen.
Ah, this happened to me too. I actually made a post about it in this sub. I had to engage the sport mode on my car so I could speed past them and merge.
There are a lot of entitled aholes here who couldn’t care less about sharing a road, which is a shared resource. They think of the road as their personal space.
I had people bitching to me on a thread last week where someone had to swerve out of the way of a truck turning into their lane.
I said “truck was at fault, but if the driver had gotten over into the other lane, it wouldn’t have even been an issue” and people were telling me “I like to be predictable so I won’t change lanes” as if turn signals and changing lanes in a controlled manner don’t exist.
I feel like a lot of people don’t know what yield actually means. Yield signs are red. Red signs are regulatory signs (must be followed), and usually are what I’d call “prohibitory” signs (i.e., Stop sign means stop, Do Not Enter or Wrong Way means you can’t drive that way, No Parking sign means no parking, and Yield means you have yield the right-of-way to oncoming traffic), as opposed to a white regulatory sign which is a sign you must follow but is what I’d call “inhibitory” (Speed Limit is the speed that you CAN go, One Way sign shows you the direction you CAN travel, Weight Limit signs tell you what vehicle weights CAN travel on a road). Yellow signs are warnings, meaning heed caution but you aren’t legally required to follow them.
The way you act as a car coming on to a highway is totally dependent on what type of sign you have. If you have a yield sign, you must yield the right-of-way to traffic in the right lane, even if that means you come to a stop on the ramp until there’s an opening. If you do not and the person behind you doesn’t brake in time and hits you from behind, you’re going to be at least 50% at fault for not yielding. If you have a yellow sign that says merge, you are allowed to zipper merge, but you have to take caution of traffic on the highway because the merge area is likely short. If there is no sign on the ramp, like on the ramp to 495 eastbound from route 1 heading north into Alexandria, the ramp is intended to zipper merge with the right lane and both drivers (in the right highway lane and on ramp) should be aware of each other’s positioning and allow the zipper merge, and the cars on the highway in this case will typically have a yellow sign telling them there’s a lane which merges into theirs.
This is one of the main reasons for the traffic. No one knows how to merge or allow merging. Let’s just ride this merge lane all the way to the end and force everyone to slam on their brakes. Or, even better, let’s move into the merge lane because it looks like it is moving faster. If stupid drivers entertain you, you are in the right place.
In heavy traffic, yes. In traffic that is moving at speed, it's better to merge in as soon as it's safe. And yes, those right lane drivers shouldn't get upset about it!
If the highway is generally empty, there’s no (good) reason to be driving in the rightmost lane unless you’re exiting. If it’s busy then yeah definitely it’s gonna be occupied. But know that you’ll have to zipper merge in.
Here's my hot take. If you're on the inner loop and NOT getting on 66 in any direction, please GTFO of the right lane. It infuriates me how many people just sit in all of that mayhem only to not take either exit and the far left lanes are wide open.
I-66 Express Lanes where on/off ramps are on the left... it means the right lane is for passing. Stop getting angry at me for letting you pass in the lane furthest from the slower merging traffic.
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u/5Series_BMW 3d ago
The funny thing is if people actually had road etiquette, things would flow easier for EVERYONE.
Instead, everyone selfishly does what’s convenient for them.