rox said:
Defective,
youa re right about that. We never ever slow to allow someone to merge. We move over a lane if we can and have opportunity but we dont' slow down. The idea is , "go faster so the merging traffice can get in behind you"You basically drive to your car conditions and road conditions. If you are stupid you may pay with your life, but people over here have very little sympathy for stupid anyway.
Well du-uh what a novel concept. Have folks accountable for their own actions AND not depend on everyone else to make everything OK for them.
I too have fingers that outrun my brain and turn letters around when typing but it isn't because I have lysdexia (what the ones with it call it) or particularly fast fingers!
I have always thought that it was my responsibility when merging onto a highway via an entry ramp to spot a "hole" in traffic and to match speed with it and merge into the rightmost lane of traffic in that hole. Way too many drivers just putter up the ramp and force their way into the stream of traffic as if they were not active participants but were trapped on a speed regulated moving sidewalk and everyone else had to do whatever waas required to accommodate them.
Then after barging into the traffic at a reduced speed they drive along for a 1/4 mile at reduced speed as if they were checking to see if the wheels were going to fall off or something and then blaze off, typically above the speed limit. If ever there were a time when their acceleration would be a good thing it would be when coming up the ramp and need to BLEND in with the other traffic.
I have been known to exceed the posted speed limit (more so when I had greater distances and less occupied roads to travel.) I was confident in my equipment and my skill but refuse to drive much faster than other traffic as with high closure rates and unpredictable actions from many drivers you are playing Russian roulette with your life and the lives of others.
I have been in several accidents but caused none of them. I have been rear ended 4 times, always in traffic at speeds less than 10MPH (my speed) but the driver at fault was usually following too close or looking at a short skirt on the sidewalk, or a 90+ year old guy just got confused at 25MPH and didn't put on the brakes soon enough and in one case a NARC cop undercover was eye balling the local bikini group at the beach instead of the traffic in front of him and plowed me.
You don't really want to fly by these idiots at a high closure rate because there is no predicting what they may do. I have seen a lady in A Cadillac Coupe de Ville come to a full stop in the middle of the LA interchange, put on her turn signal, change lanes, and then drive off. I have seen idiots put on their turn signals and then sharply turn a corner or make an abrupt lane change IN THE OPPOSITE DIRECTION!
In Oklahoma in rural areas some folks signal that they want you to pass by putting on their turn signal (left.) My driving being honed on SOCAL freeways and lots of business trips to DC and surrounds I always expected someone with their left turn signal on to turn left in some fashion and so it was inappropriate to get on their left side (what was desired by these rural types.)
What does all this point out? We need to loose our regional dialects, driving wise, get the h-e- double toothpicks out of the left most lane of a multilane road UNLESS PASSING and become just a little more European in our driving.
Pat
