What are merge lanes for?



  • Stopping, of course!

    I have soup all over my floor thanks to a taxi driver who decided that instead of just merging into traffic they should stop half-way down the merge lane and wait.  Actually, it's thanks to a poor container and various physical forces acting on said container in response to said taxi driver.  This particular spot tends to trip up old people and Asians pretty frequently (I keed, I keed!  It's the women too!), but come on!  You're a taxi driver!

    You drive a flipping car all day every day [i]for your living[/i], but you still can't drive.  You fail.



  • I hope you waited until you got to work before you made the post.  



  • TRWTF is that you apparently think it's a good idea to eat soup while driving.  Can reading the paper be far behind?



  • @sootzoo said:

    TRWTF is that you apparently think it's a good idea to eat soup while driving.  Can reading the paper be far behind?

     

    I wasn't eating it, it was in a container on the passenger's side floor.  I even took extra precautions to make sure it wouldn't spill during normal driving.


  • Discourse touched me in a no-no place

    @sootzoo said:

    TRWTF is that you apparently think it's a good idea to eat soup while driving.  Can reading the paper be far behind?

    Or putting make-up on/shaving.


  • File a complaint with the taxi company.  That's why they have those special licenses on the back.



  • @sootzoo said:

    TRWTF is that you apparently think it's a good idea to eat soup while driving.  Can reading the paper be far behind?

    And risk getting soup on your paper?



  • Yes!  You know what we haven't had in months?  An argument about the merge lanes! 



  • @SuperousOxide said:

    And risk getting soup on your paper?

    I'm in class right now, trying my hardest not to laugh :)



  • Could he merge?

    Was there an opening in traffic for the taxi to merge into?  Those lanes usually have a yield sign at the end.  An incoming car has to stop if it can't safely merge.  And it's usually better to stop before the end of the ramp so that there's a chance to accelerate up to speed when an opening approaches.

    A year ago I was in one of those merge lanes turning right from one busy road onto another.  I was looking for an opening in traffic, so I slowed down.  Some butthole in a huge SUV was riding my tail, trying to intimidate me into continuing even though I couldn't without cutting somebody off.  I tapped my brakes and, being way too close, he had to slam on his (probably spilling soup all over his floor).  Once I merged he pulled along side and screamed at me out his window, stalking me for two miles until I pulled up to a security booth.

    It still infuriates me whenever I drive past that intersection. 



  • @AlpineR said:

    I was looking for an opening in traffic, so I slowed down.  Some butthole in a huge SUV was riding my tail

    If *you* had been in an SUV this wouldn't have been a problem as you could have made your own opening.  Works for me every time.  Those little Honda drivers smugly ignore my turn signal, sometimes even speeding up to try and physically stop me from changing lanes, until they see that my Suburban will crush them and I apparently don't give a damn (which I don't).  Then they back off and honor the turn signal.

    BTW, Yield does not mean Stop.  If you are stopping then you did something wrong and need to work on your driving skills before getting on the highway again.

     

     


     

     



  • @AlpineR said:

     

    A year ago I was in one of those merge lanes turning right from one busy road onto another.  I was looking for an opening in traffic, so I slowed down.  Some butthole in a huge SUV was riding my tail, trying to intimidate me into continuing even though I couldn't without cutting somebody off.  I tapped my brakes and, being way too close, he had to slam on his (probably spilling soup all over his floor).  Once I merged he pulled along side and screamed at me out his window, stalking me for two miles until I pulled up to a security booth.

    Sometimes when people drive too fast and/or recklessly, I say to myself, "I hope there's pussy at the end of that guy's trip."  I know they could be a girl, but if they can't be bothered to respect other people on the road, I can't be bothered to care about their gender.  What else could prompt such reckless driving to gain 15 seconds on a trip that will be cancelled out the first time they get to a stop light? 



  • @clively said:

    BTW, Yield does not mean Stop.  If you are stopping then you did something wrong and need to work on your driving skills before getting on the highway again.

    QFT



  • @clively said:

    BTW, Yield does not mean Stop.  If you are stopping then you did something wrong and need to work on your driving skills before getting on the highway again.

    Yield means stop if you can't enter.  It's a way of saying "You shouldn't have to stop, but if it gets to a point where someone has to stop, the merging vehicle should stop rather than the car that's already on the highway."

    @clively said:

    Then they back off and honor the turn signal.

    There's no need to "honor" any turn signal.  It's merely a signal of intent.  If I'm forced to "honor" it then you're doing something wrong.  If you have your right turn signal on but are not in a right turn lane, for instance.  If you're signaling you want to change lanes when the next lane is clearly full, then it would be courteous of me to let you in, but not required.



  • @belgariontheking said:

    Yield means stop if you can't enter

    Not here.  In some cases Stop only means "look both ways as you speed through."  Hmm, kind of like driving in another North American country I know of... 

    @belgariontheking said:

    There's no need to "honor" any turn signal

    If I turn on my signal, and you purposely speed up to physically block me, I will run you over.  Period.  There's your need.

    BTW, I am not talking about when a car was *already* in that area, I am talking about people who suddenly speed up when they see a turn signal.



  • @clively said:

    If you had been in an SUV this wouldn't have been a problem as you could have made your own opening.  Works for me every time.  Those little Honda drivers smugly ignore my turn signal, sometimes even speeding up to try and physically stop me from changing lanes, until they see that my Suburban will crush them and I apparently don't give a damn (which I don't).  Then they back off and honor the turn signal.

    I have the opposite problem. I see people in the merge lane, and slow down a bit, expecting them to find the gas pedal and move in front of me, only to have them slowing down further to move in behind.



  • @clively said:

    If I turn on my signal, and you purposely speed up to physically block me, I will run you over.  Period.  There's your need.

    ...because deliberately causing collisions is good driving? <confused>



  • @clively said:

     

    BTW, I am not talking about when a car was *already* in that area, I am talking about people who suddenly speed up when they see a turn signal.

    Point taken.  Those people are assholes.  Sometimes I am that asshole.  

    @clively said:

    If I turn on my signal, and you purposely speed up to physically block me, I will run you over.  Period.  There's your need.

    I was trying to come at it from a legal standpoint. In my state, there are only a few situations where your turn signal is legally binding.  For example, if you have your right turn signal on in a "straight or right turn lane" but go straight and hit someone who turned right on red, it's their fault because you still had the "option" of going straight.  They should have waited for you to actually turn.  

    @clively said:

    Not here.  In some cases Stop only means "look both ways as you speed through."

    I am glad I don't drive in Texas, then.   



  • @clively said:

    If I turn on my signal, and you purposely speed up to physically block me, I will run you over.  Period.  There's your need.
     

    I'm going to guess Massachusetts, with a close second being a three-way tie of New Jersey, Texas, and Florida.

    Let us know what the judge thinks of your need, btw. 



  • @belgariontheking said:

    For example, if you have your right turn signal on in a "straight or right turn lane" but go straight and hit someone who turned right on red, it's their fault because you still had the "option" of going straight. 
     

    AKA "right-of-way", which any driver who isn't an obnoxious prick will at least pay lip service to.

    The SO once had a defect in her rear windshield wiper that caused the washer fluid to hit a stray piece of plastic on its way out of the nozzle, directing it to, say, the front windshield of the car behind her rather than her read windshield. "Fun with tailgaters" commenced shortly after we realized this. Cue the Benny Hill music and banana peels...



  • @clively said:

    If I turn on my signal, and you purposely speed up to physically block me, I will run you over.  Period.  There's your need.

    You'd be in about 5 accidents a day around here if you did that.  The trick is to not signal at all until the last possible minute.  Just wait until you see a short break in the cars in the adjacent lane and then take it.  If you sit around waiting with your blinker on, everyone will try to speed up and block you.



  • @shadowman said:

    @clively said:

    If I turn on my signal, and you purposely speed up to physically block me, I will run you over.  Period.  There's your need.

    You'd be in about 5 accidents a day around here if you did that.  The trick is to not signal at all until the last possible minute.  Just wait until you see a short break in the cars in the adjacent lane and then take it.  If you sit around waiting with your blinker on, everyone will try to speed up and block you.

    You're from Maryland, too, I see. 



  • For certain the shoulder is not for passing nor is it a merge lane. Try that stunt with me I'll run you off the road ... just go ahead and speed up you can make it!

    But never fear I read the newspaper on my way to work and you're completely safe ... I take [url=http://bart.gov]BART[/url] :-)

     

     



  • @clively said:

    Those little Honda drivers smugly ignore my turn signal, sometimes even speeding up to try and physically stop me from changing lanes, until they see that my Suburban will crush them and I apparently don't give a damn (which I don't).

    Gee, you're not a stereotypical self-important obnoxious jackass Texan at all, are you?



  • @PJH said:

    @sootzoo said:

    TRWTF is that you apparently think it's a good idea to eat soup while driving.  Can reading the paper be far behind?

    Or putting make-up on/shaving.

    Or like the gal I saw a few weeks ago who was drinking coffee with one hand, flailing at her kids in the back seat with the other, while driving 80 on a surface street...  apparently steering her Land Yacht with her third hand?



  • Real drivers know how to steer with their knees. Wasn't that on your driving test? It should have been right after changing a CD at 70 mph.



  • @PJH said:

    @sootzoo said:

    TRWTF is that you apparently think it's a good idea to eat soup while driving.  Can reading the paper be far behind?

    Or putting make-up on/shaving.
     

     

    I prefer reading the internets on my iPhone while driving. 



  • @shadowman said:

    @clively said:

    If I turn on my signal, and you purposely speed up to physically block me, I will run you over.  Period.  There's your need.

    You'd be in about 5 accidents a day around here if you did that.  The trick is to not signal at all until the last possible minute.  Just wait until you see a short break in the cars in the adjacent lane and then take it.  If you sit around waiting with your blinker on, everyone will try to speed up and block you.

     

    In Charlotte, NC, turning on your signal is honored by other motorists, by them commencing to pass you on the indicated side as quickly as they can.  Normal use of turn signals is to signal right so everyone can speed up to pass you on the right and change lanes to the now clear left lane on a three lane higway.



  • What I don't understand is people that are merging from a right-side exit into the right lane of the highway, and put on their left turn signal.  Isn't that redundant?  Where else can they possibly go but left into the rightmost lane?



  • @AMerrickanGirl said:

    What I don't understand is people that are merging from a right-side exit into the right lane of the highway, and put on their left turn signal.  Isn't that redundant?  Where else can they possibly go but left into the rightmost lane?

     

    It's a lane change. By law you should signal. And I wish more people would always use their signals. People can't get it through their cell-phone infected brains that pedestrians use these visual cues too. If I know you're turning I don't need to wait for you to putter past me to cross the street. If I don't know you're turning and step into the cross walk don't blow you're f* horn at me I have the right of way and you never indicated your intent to turn. 

    Tune in next time when my pet peeve will focus on people who drive downtown during morning rush hour and actually expect to go anywhere, whilst paying $20 to park for the day while the transit system is about $1.50 and you'd be there already... 


  • Discourse touched me in a no-no place

    @AMerrickanGirl said:

    Isn't that redundant?
    Redundant or not, it's not a bad thing. It's doing its job which is indicating (or in this case confirming) the drivers intention.

    @AMerrickanGirl said:

    Where else can they possibly go but left into the rightmost lane?
    The hard shoulder?




  • @Zylon said:

    Gee, you're not a stereotypical self-important obnoxious jackass Texan at all, are you?

    At some point, living in an uncivilized world takes it's toll.



  • @medialint said:

    Tune in next time when my pet peeve will focus on people who drive downtown during morning rush hour and actually expect to go anywhere, whilst paying $20 to park for the day while the transit system is about $1.50 and you'd be there already... 

    Riding the bus FTW! 



  • @AMerrickanGirl said:

    What I don't understand is people that are merging from a right-side exit into the right lane of the highway, and put on their left turn signal.  Isn't that redundant?  Where else can they possibly go but left into the rightmost lane?

     <hints id="hah_hints"></hints>
    There may only be one place you can go from the merge lane, but that doesn't say anything about [B]when[/B] you're going to do it.  Someone driving a V6 or V8 is probably going to accelerate and merge right away, whereas some schmucks in old beaters and idiots in SUVs will coast to the very end of the merge lane and try to make a lane change going 20 below the speed limit.  It's that second group that would benefit other drivers the most by signalling, and ironically the group that usually doesn't bother to signal.

    It's the same thing if you're in a left-turn lane - you're still supposed to signal the turn, even though there's "nowhere else to go".  I've seen people in the left turn lane cut off drivers to the right, presumably after realizing that they didn't know where the hell they were going.  I've also seen people sail straight through the intersection and into the oncoming left turn lane.  The lack of a turn signal here is a cue to oncoming drivers that they might be about to do something incredibly stupid and dangerous.  And as mentioned by others, signals are also a cue to pedestrians.

    Of course this illustrates very well the nearly black-and-white divide between good drivers and bad drivers.  Forgetting to signal might seem like an innocent mistake or a trivial breach of courtesy, but more often than not, it indicates a total lack of awareness of other drivers and road conditions.  It's the same people who don't signal that tend to attempt merges at completely the wrong speed, without checking their blind spot, probably while talking on a cell phone.

    And to the guy who mentioned changing CDs at 70 mph - come on man, have a heart, I'm on a 3-hour trip, I don't want to listen to the same music over and over again! ;)



  • Yield means stop if you can't enter. It's a way of saying "You shouldn't have to stop, but if it gets to a point where someone has to stop, the merging vehicle should stop rather than the car that's already on the highway."
    Well... close - it means _do not proceed_ when there is another car coming the other way. You are in no way obligated to come to a complete stop at any point; you just can't cross the line. It's like a red light.


  • @Aaron said:

    I'm on a 3-hour trip, I don't want to listen to the same music over and over again! ;)
     

    Real cars have 6 disc changers with MP3 support and steering wheel controls, so this is not an issue.



  • @MasterPlanSoftware said:

    @Aaron said:

    I'm on a 3-hour trip, I don't want to listen to the same music over and over again! ;)
     

    Real cars have 6 disc changers with MP3 support and steering wheel controls, so this is not an issue.

     

    Mine doesn't and I can't equip a third party stereo in it (see: Ford Focus Dash) but I have a (*legally* full) 40GB mp3 player and a little FM transmitter that works great whenever I'm away from major metro areas. 



  • @MasterPlanSoftware said:

    Real cars

    @medialint said:

    Ford Focus

    Exactly.



  • @medialint said:

    And I wish more people would always use their signals. People can't get it through their cell-phone infected brains that pedestrians use these visual cues too. If I know you're turning I don't need to wait for you to putter past me to cross the street. If I don't know you're turning and step into the cross walk don't blow you're f* horn at me I have the right of way and you never indicated your intent to turn. 

     

    I had this happen to me a few times.  I only live three miles from work in sunny Florida, so I ride a bike everywhere I go.  I have thought many times about getting a horn to mount on my bike.  Not the little clown horns either.  I'm talking about the 90 dB, aerosol powered, piss-me-off-at-a-sporting-event kind of horn.  It might help end my daily ritual of swerving around the road to avoid the jackasses who don't understand what this sign means:

    [IMG]http://i51.photobucket.com/albums/f382/KederajiTajorn/euclid-bike-signs.jpg[/IMG] 



  • @Kederaji said:

    I had this happen to me a few times.  I only live three miles from work in sunny Florida, so I ride a bike everywhere I go.  I have thought many times about getting a horn to mount on my bike.  Not the little clown horns either.  I'm talking about the 90 dB, aerosol powered, piss-me-off-at-a-sporting-event kind of horn.  It might help end my daily ritual of swerving around the road to avoid the jackasses who don't understand what this sign means:

    [snip]

     

    I just have to know... did you have that pic sitting around waiting for this moment? Or did you go and take it after seeing this post and deciding to reply?



  • @MasterPlanSoftware said:

    I just have to know... did you have that pic sitting around waiting for this moment? Or did you go and take it after seeing this post and deciding to reply?

     

    I have this amazing tool called Google Image Search... 



  • @Aaron said:

    Of course this illustrates very well the nearly black-and-white divide between good drivers and bad drivers.  Forgetting to signal might seem like an innocent mistake or a trivial breach of courtesy, but more often than not, it indicates a total lack of awareness of other drivers and road conditions.  It's the same people who don't signal that tend to attempt merges at completely the wrong speed, without checking their blind spot, probably while talking on a cell phone.

    "CONSTANT VIGILANCE!"  -Alastor Moody



  • @Kederaji said:

    I have this amazing tool called Google Image Search... 
     

    Touche... Just looked personal and the timing seemed right, so good job on that.



  • @Aaron said:

    And to the guy who mentioned changing CDs at 70 mph - come on man, have a heart, I'm on a 3-hour trip, I don't want to listen to the same music over and over again! ;)

    Of course, I do the same thing. I just have to dig the CD wallet out from under the passenger seat first.



  • @MasterPlanSoftware said:

    @Kederaji said:

    I have this amazing tool called Google Image Search... 
     

    Touche... Just looked personal and the timing seemed right, so good job on that.

     

    The timing had more to do with wading through the image search results until I found one that said "Bikes only".  Apparently my city is peculiar in that we verbosely state that cars are not permitted in the bike lane. 



  • @djork said:

    but come on!  You're a taxi driver!
     

     

    Obviously you don't live in (or haven't lived in for very long) the NYC metropolitan area. Taxi drivers are notoriously the worst and most plentiful drivers on the road. Taxis would be better off with no driver and a brick on the gas pedal. 



  • @MasterPlanSoftware said:

    @MasterPlanSoftware said:

    Real cars

    @medialint said:

    Ford Focus

    Exactly.

     

    I'm old enough now I don't need to have my manhood measured by the size of my car's engine ;-) It's a pretty reliable little thing, comfortable riding, easy to park and gets pretty good gas mileage. I put about 8,000 miles on it once a year on a road trip then less than 1,000 the rest of the year mostly. It also has more ground clearance than a typical compact which was a major selling point ... I have no problem doing a little forest roading in it :-)



  • @medialint said:

    @MasterPlanSoftware said:

    @MasterPlanSoftware said:

    Real cars

    @medialint said:

    Ford Focus

    Exactly.

     

    I'm old enough now I don't need to have my manhood measured by the size of my car's engine ;-) It's a pretty reliable little thing, comfortable riding, easy to park and gets pretty good gas mileage. I put about 8,000 miles on it once a year on a road trip then less than 1,000 the rest of the year mostly. It also has more ground clearance than a typical compact which was a major selling point ... I have no problem doing a little forest roading in it :-)

     

    I have no doubt it meets your needs...  And I wasn't referring to engine size as a measure of a car's worth.



  • @MasterPlanSoftware said:

    @MasterPlanSoftware said:

    Real cars

    @medialint said:

    Ford Focus

    Exactly.

     

    The Focus has won Ford the manufacturer's championship in the World Rallye Championship for 2006 and 200, and Mikko Hirvonen is leading the 2008 driver's championship atm. Try that in a SUV!



  • @mendel said:

    Try that in a SUV!
     

    Who is talking about SUVs?

    Also the retail focus and the rallye focus are not even close to equivalent.


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