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’ve always wondered what they say when you tell them that the guy next to you would not let you in.
More like drivers with their heads up their rears. Good grief ... most of that was avoidable.
I once ate a New Jersey driver, but it gave me diarrhea for a week.
I liked Gallagher's idea. Everybody has one of those guns that shoots a "Stupid" sign that sticks to a car that has their driver do something stupid. Then after they get about 5 of them, the cop pulls them over.
Sounds like Precious needs a safe space.
The 15 between LA and Vegas ( especially between Barstow and Baker) sometimes resembles a Mad Max movie.
snowflake don’t ever come to nj and try to drive. no wimps allowed.
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I always heard about the self proclaimed toughness of people from New Jersey, but once I encountered them in the real world, I found they were pretty much just tough talk. No tougher than average people from other parts of the country.
“... drivers merge into the right lane and slow down to well below the prevailing speed and often well below the speed limit.”
It’s not these folks I worry about. At least they’re thinking ahead and being respectful of other drivers.
It’s the idiots in the next lane to the left of the exiting lane that are trying to zip to the head of the line and perform a dangerous, suicidal lane change into the exiting lane at the last possible moment. That causes an already tightly packed exit lane to become a real ground zero of taillights and tailgating.
Don’t even get me started on dual-lane exit ramps.
And yes, I’m usually in the slowed down, far right lane well in advance ..although I’m very good at the “last minute” thingee too.
:*)
I think he was talking about the traffic, not the people ...
It’s been some years since I left Wheeling (’75) but I know exactly where she’s talking about. That on ramp from Washington Ave is virtually the same as the off ramp which puts you on National Road. I used to run that route. As in “run” in sneakers when I was in my early 20s.
I live about half way between Seattle and the Canadian border.
Canadian drivers are down right dangerous. On I-5 their speeding is reckless and what really irritates me is I never see one pulled over by the WHP. Well I did once, and a lot of the Americans driving by saw the Canadian plates and flash there lights and honked there horns in approval. Doesn’t happen often enough. A goodness help you if you get in the way and their late and lost running to make a ferry.
I think he was talking about the traffic, not the people ...
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Yes, that could be. But traffic is just people ... driving in cars. Just as guns do not fire themselves, cars do not drive themselves. Poor driving is nothing more than stupidity, since all you are doing is putting other people’s lives and property, as well as your own, at risk. I do not think it fair to call the people of New Jersey stupid by making a blanket assessment of their driving.
But then, of course, I have experienced incredibly bad traffic further north in Boston.
You are correct.
Been there... passed him.
(the road was covered with ice, I was below the speed limit but they were way below)
I’ve done it on dry roads too
It looks like the link is dead or the article was removed.
Perhaps the author or editor realized that is was embarrassingly wrong.
Amen
Gallagher is funny.
My city has a number of well-known, obvious one-way streets. At least once a year I will see someone driving the wrong way. And people run stop signs all the time.
I didn’t have the chance to ask. I did have the actual law pulled up on my phone in case he did cite me.
I enjoyed your comment about the twisties. I love those kind of roads. I had a little interaction with an officer once who clocked me slightly exceeding the suggested curve speed. 57 around a 20mph curve. I pulled over before he even turned around. Got the old “do you know why I pulled you over?”
“Yea, I’ve got a real good idea.”
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