[voltaires_zit]

It's not about being rude, though I think there may be two seperate situations under discussion.

The first is: a lane is blocked a little ways ahead or a lane is disappearing. Some people (for reasons known only to God and the little green men speaking to them from their glove compartments) form a "line" a good distance back from the obstruction where traffic essentially stops. There's still plenty of good road surface in the blocked travel lane.

Not to be too blunt about it, but this is STUPID and does nothing but slow the flow of traffic even more than it needs to be.

[ScubieNuc]

I think there may be two seperate situations under discussion.

After I posted, I realized that there are probably many different types of "lane cutting" that people are talking about.

I live in a fairly rural area, so traffic jams are not a constant nuisance. Whenever I see a Merge sign, I do it as soon as possible, even if that means I'm going to be delayed a little bit. I usually leave for my destinations with a half hour to 45 minute cushion, so I can afford a few distractions.

Now in big cities, you probably have a whole different ball game. However, the few times that I travel to and through big city traffic area's, I still get over as soon as possible. You and I both know that there are alot of people who take advantage of those of us rapidly obeying the warning, so that they can zip up to the front and save 3 minutes. That's rude.

I have gotten caught unawares and was unable to merge right away so I had to go all the way forward until someone let me in. I also understand the wave principles of road jams, but I really have a hard time buying that the "cutters" are the smart ones keeping the traffic flowing. What if 90% of the people ignored the signs until they were right up there? Logjam.

The part of this that I do think is idiotic is trying to make a law to regulate this. (((Phooey))) That's a liberal knee jerk response. Cops can ticket you for various inoculous laws like "hazardous driving." We don't need more stinkin' traffic laws. IMO.

Sincerely