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The "I ain't letting you over" mostly applies to those that pass up chances to get over but race up to where the lane ends and expect someone to let them over, sorry, not ME.
But just coming over when the lane ends isn't? The signs regarding lanes ending start at a mile or so sometimes more, that is PLENTY of time to get over.
So far it seems the people that think this waiting until the lane ends are in California, maybe that is why they have such a traffic problem?
The problem is were is the correct point to merge over? 1/10 mile, 1/4 mile, 1/2 mile, one mile, in advance? Many times I've been in a lane that is ending, but moving 50 mph. I decide to move over, so I slam on my brakes. So I can merger into the next lane, which is moving 15 mph stop and go because of the merging traffic ahead. After I get in the 15 mph lane, I watch 10 or 20 cars pass me on the right, and they all merge way up in front of me.
Just because there is plenty of chance to get over, I don't think the driver is necessarily wrong to stay in that lane as long as he can. It's his choice to decide how soon to move over. And even if he is wrong to wait till then end of the lane, its still not right not to let him merge. Two wrongs don't make a right. Not letting people move over is just dangerous, and irresponsible.
I agree 100 %. I try to stay 3 seconds length away from the car in front, and sometimes that means that I am the car that everyone cuts in front of to change lanes but that doesn't bother me. When I approach a ramp from which others are entering the highway, if it's my lane I make sure I create enough of a gap so that others can safely enter. I've never understood the drivers who won't give way or reduce their speed for literally a few seconds. Even if those who are already on the highway have right of way, it is safer for everyone if the drivers already on the road let others merge in safely.
Yes, it is. (And isn't it difficult keeping that 3 second length? Cars INSIST on filling that space because they just HAVE to get somewhere two seconds faster and haven't a clue about safe spacing.) However, those who say that they'll just bull their way in no matter what are absolutely a danger on the roadways and I seriously doubt that that attitude applies to just merging on freeways, it most likely permeates all of their driving.
The problem is were is the correct point to merge over? 1/10 mile, 1/4 mile, 1/2 mile, one mile, in advance? Many times I've been in a lane that is ending, but moving 50 mph. I decide to move over, so I slam on my brakes. So I can merger into the next lane, which is moving 15 mph stop and go because of the merging traffic ahead. After I get in the 15 mph lane, I watch 10 or 20 cars pass me on the right, and they all merge way up in front of me.
Just because there is plenty of chance to get over, I don't think the driver is necessarily wrong to stay in that lane as long as he can. It's his choice to decide how soon to move over. And even if he is wrong to wait till then end of the lane, its still not right not to let him merge. Two wrongs don't make a right. Not letting people move over is just dangerous, and irresponsible.
Not really. If it's the end of the other lane, the person who zoomed up to the front simply has to wait while the lane being merged into continues on its way until someone lets them in. That's not particularly dangerous unless that person doesn't have the sense to know not to bull their way in.
I agree 100 %. I try to stay 3 seconds length away from the car in front, and sometimes that means that I am the car that everyone cuts in front of to change lanes but that doesn't bother me. When I approach a ramp from which others are entering the highway, if it's my lane I make sure I create enough of a gap so that others can safely enter. I've never understood the drivers who won't give way or reduce their speed for literally a few seconds. Even if those who are already on the highway have right of way, it is safer for everyone if the drivers already on the road let others merge in safely.
Exactly each time you yield to a merging driver, you only add a few seconds to your trip. If you do it 50 times in one day, you only ad a minute or two to your commute. OTOH if you get a couple of idiots ahead of you who crash into each other because they would rather play chicken then let someone one else get in front of them. You will end up siting in a parking lot on the freeway for an hour, while the paramedics scrape their bodies off the pavement.
Rude uncooperative driving just messes things up for everyone. Not only is it dangerous, it costs everyone more time because of the traffic jams that these type of driving causes.
The "I ain't letting you over" mostly applies to those that pass up chances to get over but race up to where the lane ends and expect someone to let them over, sorry, not ME.
Actually, that approach just wastes time and makes traffic even worse. If the lane hasn't ended, then it's still usable, and it must be used for the sake of maximizing traffic capacity. There's no reason for people to "get in line" just because everybody else is merging into one lane a mile before they need to. It's just a waste of time for those who do. Of course, they're free to waste their own time, but I'm not going to waste mine just because they think it's rude if I use the merging lane to its fullest. If I'm in a merging lane, then I'm going to use the lane until I have to move over (read: no sooner than when a solid line instructs me to merge). In Pennsylvania, when they drop a lane entering a construction zone, they have signs posted that read "USE BOTH LANES UNTIL MERGE POINT." It cuts down on the traffic jams at construction sites.
I hate when people use excuses like that to be rude and not yield to other drivers, Dropping back one car length to allow another car to merge, only requires a slight tap on the brake. Maybe a 3 mph - 5 mph temporary reduction in speed. It should have no effect what so ever on traffic behind, unless the following drivers are seriously tailgating.
I think it's more complicated than that. Too often the slow merger does not speed up even after merging. Then I'm stuck behind them for miles. If they get up to speed when merging then there wouldn't be a problem tapping the brakes to let them in. It is the merging drivers responsibility to get up to the speed of traffic, not the traffic on the highway to slow down to a crawl so they can let the slowpoke in. Seriously, why is this so hard to understand?
I think it's more complicated than that. Too often the slow merger does not speed up even after merging. Then I'm stuck behind them for miles. If they get up to speed when merging then there wouldn't be a problem tapping the brakes to let them in. It is the merging drivers responsibility to get up to the speed of traffic, not the traffic on the highway to slow down to a crawl so they can let the slowpoke in. Seriously, why is this so hard to understand?
Because the people that think that the ramp has the right of way actually think that they, personally, have the right of way, all the time. That's been made pretty clear on this thread.
Here in Seattle, I've literally seen this multiple times: just me, the open road, and maybe 5-6 other cars. Some vintage 90s subaru outback merges at 45 mph, makes a bee line for the fast lane, and stays there going 51 mph. Speed limit is 60. Drivers get behind him, honking, flashing their brights, and he just sits there. Angry people pass on the right (the wrong side here in the states), and sometimes into the HOV lane.
What takes the cake though in my opinion are St. Louis drivers. Man oh man are they clueless. They see a Yield sign on an onramp and they literally take it to mean STOP. They literally STOP on the onramp. First time I encountered this I damn near rear ended a guy! I flashed my brights and honked my horn, and he had the nerve to give me the finger! Well I pass on the shoulder to prove you can indeed merge on a busy highway. Clueless!
When I lived in Pittsburgh was actually common practice to come to a complete stop at the bottom of the ramp and wait for an opening. I damn near shat my pants the first time I came flying around a ramp and found someone sitting there at a dead stop. In fact, on one of the entrance ramps onto the Parkway East -- what has to be the worst-engineered ramp in the entire U.S. interstate system, there is actually a stop sign at the bottom of the ramp (see link below). I had to blow by him on the right shoulder to avoid killing both of us. After a while it became a fairly common routine during my commute home: hop on the ramp to expressway, blow by someone sitting at the bottom of the ramp, and safely merge while they're still sitting back there waiting for a half-mile-wide gap to open up.
I think I have an even worse one for you. Go to Google Street View and check out Exit 12 on Interstate 75 (Cinci area). Totally scarier looking in person.
I-75 also has a surprisingly short ramp (for being in the middle of nowhere) at Exit 136 in Michigan, which is the Birch Run outlet mall, and is supposedly the second busiest I-75 interchange in the USA. Construction is not uncommon, either, so that darn ramp sometimes has a Yield sign at the bottom.
Yep. I've seen this both ways, and it goes MUCH more smoothly when people pay attention to the signs saying you need to merge and start merging right then. The people in the lane being merged into are much more likely to be accommodating (I've never had a problem with a car waiting and motioning me in, I do the same, and I've seen it happen often with others), whereas if someone goes zooming by them all up to the front of the line and tries to bully their way in, they're much more likely to be kept waiting because of their "I own the road and you should let me do what I want" attitude.
Around here, we have a lot of hills that have a third lane for slow vehicles ascending them. The rules there are simple, if you're not passing someone, you move right. I'm usually the guy moving right. In that situation, I don't move left until the very end of the slow vehicle lane. Even those "speed demons" in the left-hand lane will hold back and let me over when the lane ends. i do the same thing if I'm passing. I don't feel obliged to run people in the ending lane into the break-down lane because they didn't merge in a half a mile beforehand. Better that they keep right so as much faster traffic can get by them as possible. I don't think I've ever heard anyone advocate for early merging in that situation, and nobody seems to get mad at the right lane driver waiting until the last minute to move over.
If people had that same give and take attitude on the freeways when a lane closes, you would seldom see traffic jams just because a lane closes. For whatever reason, merging at the very end is preferred and more acceptable at the end of an uphill slow-vehicle lane, but the same concept on the freeway makes the early mergers upset.
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