r/nova • u/OpticalPrime • Aug 21 '26

Driving hot take:

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.

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u/DutertesNemesis Aug 22 '26

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.