Posted on 05/21/2017 10:58:14 PM PDT by Tolerance Sucks Rocks
Please stop, I silently beg the three drivers heading down the on ramp to Interstate 70 from Washington Avenue. I’m driving parallel to them at 55 mph with a line of traffic behind me. I have my turn signal on signifying that I’m getting off at the exit just west of that on ramp. I cannot slam on my brakes and stop on the highway to allow these drivers to merge into my lane.
Yet they keep coming down the ramp toward me. Fear has crept into my throat and I cannot scream if I wanted to. Don’t they understand what it means to yield when there is traffic in their path? I do the only thing I can. I lay on my horn, gun the engine and try to outrun them before I get hit. It worked, this time.
By the time I have exited the interstate my knees have turned to jelly. I vow never to take that route again, but why should I have to avoid it when it’s a matter of others obeying the traffic signs?
Some states have done away with the triangular yield signs. My guess it’s because no one obeys them anyway. I see plenty of public service announcements about impaired driving, texting and distracted driving. I see nothing to remind the driving public of those laws they were supposed to have learned when taking their drivers’ tests.
Many drivers do not move over when they see a police cruiser with flashing lights on the side of the road. If it’s not possible to move over, you can certainly lift your foot from the accelerator just a bit. I wouldn’t want to be a police officer walking up to a vehicle on the side of the road with traffic whizzing by at 70 miles per hour. That’s only one danger. That officer has to worry about who is in the vehicle and whether they are armed. Give them a break and let them focus on that and not have to worry about whether you are going to run them down because you aren’t paying attention.
I still see people driving with their cellphones perched on their steering wheels. I was behind a young woman whose vehicle was weaving into the other lane on W.Va. 88 in Oglebay because she was texting while driving. Only several horn blows made her pull into the correct lane again. Nothing is so important that it can’t wait until you can safely pull to the side of the road to text.
And for all the out-of-town drivers, let me give you a little hint about driving in downtown Wheeling. We have several one-way streets including portions of Main and Market streets. If you want to turn left onto either portion of those streets that are one-way, guess what? You can turn left on red as long as the coast is clear. That means paying attention to pedestrians and bicycle riders who might be using the same streets.
Right now it’s not easy driving anywhere around the valley because of all the utility and construction projects going on. That just means we all need to be even more vigilant when we get behind the wheel. All that inconvenience now will lead to progress down the road in the form of better sewer and power lines. Stay safe.
I grew up near Detroit where we actually learn how to DRIVE.
Turn signals are a sign of weakness
It’s only tailgating if your bumpers are touching
Speed limits are only a strongly worded suggestion.
I now live in Maryland where while most residents are horrible drivers, at least they drive fast.
Whatever snowflake wrote this article needs to take some assertiveness training.
Remember this snowflake, every other driver is an idiot and is out to hit you. Drive that way and you’ll be fine.
Roundabouts are great. I like them with one exception. There’s one in Maryland where the roundabout starts and immediately the ramp to a northbound highway is there. when you are there the first time and are concentrating on the ramp to the right, you may not realize that you’re getting onto a roundabout and might just cut off a member of the local constabulary that you didn’t see, who turns on all kinds of pretty red and blue lights to ask you kindly to stop so he can let you know of your malfeasance.
Don’t ask how I know, but it ended with some laughs and a handshake and no citation.
I was at the exit from a service station behind another car this morning. We both wanted to turn right onto the 35 mph four lane road. She sat there and waited for a car several hundred yards to our left. I gave her a pass and waited because the next car was also several hundred yards back and knew she would go after the first one passed. She didn’t. I went around her.
I suspect she is the woman who wrote this article.
If it were possible, I’d like to see two levels of drivers license - one for all roads except limited access roads (e.g. freeways, tollways, etc.) and one for all roads. People with the attitude of this author could get the former.
Where I live it is common to see both police and school buses doing 70 in a 55. People don’t realize that what matters is keeping up with the flow. And if a cop ever pulls you over for doing less than ten over - even in a 25 mph zone, it’s for some other reason than your speed. That is just the excuse.
There used to be a nasty traffic circle right in downtown Trenton, NJ. I believe it’s gone now. It was a very small, tight circle with high steep walls around it.
Every time I went through there, I felt like I was swirling around a toilet bowl.
Now, I stay away from Trenton at all costs.
One problem I have seen many times is that, as soon as the first sign appears announcing a exit (around here its typically 2 miles ahead), drivers merge into the right lane and slow down to well below the prevailing speed and often well below the speed limit. This is dangerous and unnecessary and it causes a traffic jam in the right lane that can lead to the problem you describe.
If I’m exiting the highway, I don’t slow down until I am off the highway.
On another note - the driver is disappointed that more drivers don’t merge left when passing an emergency vehicle in the right shoulder. Two things I’ve noticed in my driving in 43 of our 50 states:
1. It is a legal requirement in some states, but not others.
2. People doing it often create a dangerous situation, whether they pull over or slow down. Both create changes in the traffic flow that can cause accidents, especially with people texting and other distractions. The safe thing to do is not change what you are doing but just be more aware while you pass them, regardless of what the short sighted laws say.
I've seen skool buses run red lights. That's not cool.
Recently, I was in a backup on an interstate. Turns out the problem was a cop doing 60 in a 70 zone, and nobody would dare to pass him!
Like the time I was accelerating to get on the freeway, looking for a gap between two cars to insert myself into, and I looked back ahead just in time to see the idiot van driver ahead of me had stopped.
My pet peeve is, what is an entrance ramp to a highway for? TO COME UP TO THE SPEED OF TRAFFIC AND MOVE IN”!!!
No, I do not tailgate everyone - that would be following too closely and would be a bad idea. Tailgating and going the prevailing speed are two totally different things.
The thing is, I have been present three times (in three different states) where people have been ticketed for obstructing traffic even though they were under the legal limit and above the minimum speed limit. So, yes, if you are obstructing the flow of traffic, you need to speed up or get out of the way.
I don’t know if you are aware that in several states, the highway speed limit is set considerably below the optimal speed for safety and traffic flow for revenue and other non-safety reasons. In fact, the 55mph National Maximum Speed Law was an utter failure at its stated purpose and many states have quiet little end runs around it. In some states, if you challenge a speeding ticket, you can have it thrown out if you were at or below the surveyed 85th percentile speed for that road - even if that speed is higher than the posted limit.
Metered on-ramps are great if you have a powerful vehicle - instant, legally sanctioned full power quasi-drag-race!
Hah! We Boston drivers eat NJ drivers for breakfast.
It seems like it has really become worse in the last 5-10 years. If a problem driver is young I think cell phone distraction or booze and drugs, if they are old I think they are completely gakked out on their rx medication.
Freegards
Two things:
1. Your post covers why all of the cars I buy new are white, and most of the ones I buy used.
2. I’m one of those guys that truckers cuss out but actually am their friend. I pass them on the right, I zip around them on the left. I draft them sometimes. Heck, I even merge from the left lane in front of them quite close to their front bumper. However, I never, EVER pull in front of them when there is very little space between them and the car in front of them.
I wanted to be a long haul trucker when I was a kid. Then I worked for a guy that had a bunch of peterbuilts that brought produce from southern California to Seattle. I unloaded the entire trailer onto palate boards, drove the drivers home, did brake jobs, washed the trucks, etc. The horror stories I heard were fascinating. It taught me that I didn’t want to be a long haul truck driver.
But I know what ticks them off, and I know what not only ticks them off but is also dangerous. I always avoid the latter.
Prior to 1960 in Cuba, Right of Way was determined by, “who blows his horn first”!
Not a joke.
Early anti Castro immigrants had to be “schooled”.
Most states have a specific exception for disabled or slow moving vehicles in their laws, as those classify as traffic hazards.
I bicycle commuted in the Seattle area for almost 20 years. I stopped because of cell phone use and texting. It’s always 2:00 Saturday morning out there. That is not a good time to be riding a bike on the roads.
I consider texting to be more dangerous than drunk driving.
Spktyr’s not a nutcase, he’s correct.
As an example, on the south side of Chicago (South end of the loop if I remember correctly) the posted speed limit is 45 mph. Average traffic flow speed is 65 MPH. If you are going 45 you are a traffic hazard and need to be removed.
Another good example is I-65 between Indy and Chicago. Posted speed limit was 65 (Might be 70 now) and traffic flows about 10 mph faster. Including the police and State troopers. Keep up with traffic and you have no problem. Go the speed limit and you impede traffic behind you for miles.
Slow drivers on the interstate cause more accidents than fast drivers.
You have to keep up with the flow of traffic.
In the last 5 years, I’ve seen five drivers drive their cars off the road right in front of me. Two of them significantly damaged the car. One of those ended up rolling several times before coming to a stop on the shoulder upside down.
Texting is more dangerous than drunk driving, unless we’re talking about a “barely functioning” drunk driver.
I have been in a car with a friend doing 10 over the limit on a highway - which was slower than the prevailing flow of traffic - who had a cop roll up in the passing lane, cut in behind him and tell him over the PA system to “SPEED UP, YOU ARE BLOCKING TRAFFIC.”
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