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.
They probably need the stop signal on that ramp to create gaps in the traffic.
I have never understood why so many people dislike rotaries (some call them roundabouts or circles)
It isn’t hard: Cars entering the rotary yield to cars in the rotary. That’s it. They can be efficient, and even fun.
In a rotary navigated by people who know how to do it, traffic can usually flow well. Big, double lane rotaries can be quite difficult under heavy traffic loads, because in addition to knowing to yield to vehicles in the rotary, you also have to recognize how to approach your exit out of the rotary. If you are on the inside and don’t properly plan your transition to the outside (to exit the rotary) it can become a hot mess.
A lot of drivers are in an “entertainment bubble” - they are messing with the radio, or texting, etc. Some drivers tailgate even when there is plenty of room for the cars to be spread out. A lot of drivers don’t seem to look very far ahead at all. All they are aware of is the car immediately ahead of them that they are tailgating. Even if you drive fast (above the speed limit but still something safe) people will tailgate. Add to that oblivious people who drive slow in the left lane.
At least three times in the last ten years I have seen an elderly driver go the wrong way in a rotary.
Try driving in Rome, Italy. You’ll appreciate American roads/divers real quick.
I wonder how many of those drivers are immigrants. Legal or illegal.
I drive in areas with very high immigrant populations and they have a much, much higher percentage of incompetent drivers. The “rule” in one area seems to be “if there is space for your car, go for it”. This is regardless of whether that space is in an oncoming lane, the sidewalk, the median, the shoulder, the lawn, or whatever.
Yes, plenty of bad American drivers, too, but in these areas it is mind-bogglingly bad. Pedestrians are bad there, too. It’s as if they are *trying* to get hit.
All this “speed up, slow down” stuff is great until my truck weighs 80,000# or 105,000# and the exit ramp speed is 25 mph with a stop in a few hundred feet. I do really appreciate folks who figure out what I have to do, but I have left many snowflakes stopped at the end of their on ramp wondering how they escaped death again. Politeness is sometimes limited by physics, there is only so much I can do. I really thank those who make life easier by being aware.
The worst ramps are the short ones that are both on and off at the same place, I think that’s what she is talking about in the OP. They do make it a little more thrilling.
And while I’m ranting... those cars that are the same color as the road, or darker, are hard to see on a nice day, add fog or rain and wet mirrors... you become invisible. Please drive with your lights on. It makes for a much more harmonious outcome.
Just one more thing. Fog/driving lights, in most states, are like high beams, to be off when approaching another car. They are painful after hours of night driving especially between one and five AM when most drivers are too dazed to dim the high beams. If you NEED fog lights on a beautiful moonlit night what are you going to need when it’s actually foggy?
Thanks, please share with your friends.
Same for Memphis, which is why I stay OFF I-40/240. Kamikaze drivers. They ride your bumper, speed past you and nose in with no room for them especially just before a turn off. Lane hoppers too. Afraid you might turn ahead of them. No 1 uses turn signals, and you Might get Shot to boot. NO one looks for back up lights. I always try to pull into a parking slot so I can see who is coming near me as I pull out. Not easy to find a Handicap slot that lets you do that, they want to stick in those not needed concrete things your tires bump into if you roll up to far that you can’t see.
Even on the Navy base where you DON’T even park the wrong way with out a ticket from Base Police they speed every where but the 2 places they have HUGE speed bumps and 5 mph speeds, Exchange and Commissary.
They are in NC now as well. I will blast their ass on the right side at 90 as they are trying to figure out getting on the interstate at 25. Invariably they all have NY plates.
Liberal asshats from the NE. Get on a Donkey and out of my way.
The author has no business being on the road.
The worst drivers are the ones doing exactly the limit, with their hands planted firmly at 10 and 2.
Yes cars must allow for the kinetic energy physics realities of trucks, as I’m sure you do as well, which means unlike many idiots in cars, you’re leaving a large following distance from the car in front of you, which as I mentoned, if everyone did that as theg any should (1 car length for every 10mph, more for trucks) then entrance ramp merging would not be such an issue.
Here in NYC, as in too many areas these days, there’s the added component of type A drivers who always seem to be racing to be one car ahead of anyone changing lanes for any reason, making the decault decision to be speed up and pass whenever possible, even when slow down and yield would more sensible.
Entry to the interstate must be made at or above the speed limit
Here in the DC area there are two problems.
The first is what you described above. More times than not, I will match my speed to the traffic as I merge and find a safe opening. The vehicles in the travel lane will speed up and close off the opening where I was merging because they take offense at my merging in front of them.
The second is many merging vehicles will shoot all the way to the end of the ramp because they have to get ahead of as many cars as possible.
People around here all seem to have that Type A personality that makes them too competitive and makes them think their time and lives are more important than others so they refuse to merge properly. Yes, I spent my entire life planning to make that one merge that put me in front of them by one stinking car length. At least that is what they think.
FWIW, every state law that I’m familiar with on hazard lights has exceptions for slowing vehicles and/or to warn other drivers of an immediate danger.
LOL! Lanes, what are those, eh? Modern day Roman chariot races.
The combined exit ramp and merge is the most diabolical invention of man ever.
LOL, probably a Bahamian driver!
I live in New England, and we have a lot of them up here...I have only seen that once, but that made my hair stand on end just watching it!
I had to jack on my brakes one morning for someone doing just that in one of the busiest and most dangerous parts of my commute.
I try to recognize that some people who drive at Rush Hour aren’t used to it (going to a doctor appt or something) and adjust my expectations accordingly, but...it is still dangerous!
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