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.
That is a very dangerous move. It's called the acceleration lane, and you should be matching or exceeding the speed of the traffic with which you intend to merge. I almost got into a multi-car accident because the bimbo in front of me, in a minivan no less (I hate minivans), decided to stop on the entrance ramp. I mean, if you can't handle the freeway, then stay off the freeway.
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.
I have to admit, though, that I keep my hands at around 10 and 2, but my car is actually not that far from a race car and it is necessary on the twisties I drive every day at high speed.
It’s kinda funny. One of my friends drives Porsches on the race track. It’s expensive and not something he does every day. I have a heck of a lot more fun driving my FR-S to work every day on the KY twisties. 121k so far. The only thing I have to watch out for is deer. :)
During rush hour, on my i-65 stretch, if I am in the right lane, I always give room for people to merge in front of me. If I’m in the passing lane, I keep the spacing minimal. I don’t let people in if I can help it.
I feel so strongly about the latter that if people are finding their way in front of me, I’ll get out of that lane because I’m not paying enough attention to my speed.
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.
Whatever snowflake wrote this article needs to take some assertiveness training.
*exception: during rush hour in the passing lane, I try to keep the distance between me and the car in front of me less than 20 feet regardless of speed, unless it is a large vehicle that I can’t see around.
I was just in the Burbank area and was happy to see a roundabout, until I noticed that every person entering it was facing a stop sign. It misses the whole point.
Yup.
Here’s a personal case in point, taken from my helmet camera a few years ago. This was on the President George Bush Tollway in North Texas. It was posted for 70mph. I was doing 80mph. Everyone and their brother was passing me.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MLGPrWw-0ds
I’ve seen school buses, cop cars not responding to a call, fire engines not responding to a call, code enforcement vehicles, city garbage trucks, you name it, all going 20+ over, constantly.
The only place I’ve ever been in the US where the flow of traffic wasn’t 10+ over on the highway?
http://i.imgur.com/Wy1yENh.jpg
Out in West Texas where the legal limit is 80mph, and down around Austin on SH130 where it’s 85mph. Very few people doing 90+ there.
On I-65 in Louisville it is common to see people pass cops at 65 or more. And the speed limit is 55. The cops do have a mustang and a pickup that I see pull over cars on occasion though. But you really have to be hauling for them to do it.
Metered on-ramps are great if you have a powerful vehicle - instant, legally sanctioned full power quasi-drag-race!
When I still lived in Seattle, I’d just ignore them. Never got ticketed and never saw a cop patrolling them. That said, a friend DID get ticketed doing it, but the way she did it was kinda lame...
No matter how good a driver YOU are, always remember there are a lot of Heathers out there, sharing the road with you. Be afraid, be very afraid...
No matter how good a driver YOU are, always remember there are a lot of Heathers out there, sharing the road with you. Be afraid, be very afraid...
The most important thing you can do while driving is watch for others to make stupid moves. This saved my life twice in the same day on my motorcycle about a decade ago. I had an escape route both times and nobody touched or wrecked.
At least you've identified the problem driver. Since your slow, 55 mile an hour driving had, in your own admission backed up a line of traffic behind you, the courteous thing to do would have been to let the driver in in front of you instead of 'gunning your engine' to deliberately cut them off.
And, if you are only going to drive 55, stay off the expressways. Jimmy Carter isn't president any more.
In fairness to the author, that section of I-70 in WV is one of the worst designed portions of any of the interstates that I have driven. No to mention the deteriorated road surface that seems to be endemic to that region.
Try driving in Orlando ... tourists crossing 3 or 4 lanes at a time when they panic over missing an exit,,, and old people that wouldn’t see a truck directly in their path even if they could stay awake after 2pm.....
Maybe it's been discussed and I missed it, but in my neck of the woods most of the folks who have a problem using on ramps are elderly drivers.
Yea, your advice on passing emergency vehicles is great until you are passing a Maryland state trooper on a road with a 50 mph speed limit, have a car next to you and are slowing for a red light and driving about 20 mph.
Apparently he thinks that you didn’t respect him enough and he pulls you over.
Had that not been just a warning, I would have enjoyed taking that thug to court
A friend just told me about a roundabout in Boston that has a traffic light.
People unclear on the concept
Yep. Live in a high Mexican area here. Have you ever driven in Mexico? wow! Scared me. And now they’re here. I see it every single day. Worst drivers ever. I almost got hit twice in a parking lot yesterday. They didn’t look. Just full speed ahead. They expect everyone else to get out of their way.
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