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Move your car over just enough so that it will block the strip on the side of the road.

Done that... hate the traffic laws here (and the lack of enforcement)...

Since I only have a 50cc scooter (moped), it makes it even more dangerous >.< but I do it anyway (and have been hit 2 times in the last year...)..

The big thing for me isn't necessarily the ones who cut you off (it's practically legal her, I call the the 'instant lane chang(ers)'... they change lanes in about 2 seconds, turning on their turn signal AFTER they have started to change lanes.. and usually before totally checking their mirror.

By law in JaPain (misspell intentional), you must turn on your turn signal within 2 seconds of the turn (a VERY slight bit sarcastic... but more or less the same).. A person at a red light (can't turn any direction on red here) turning left (right to we Americans) will turn on their turn signal when their signal light turns green (same color as ours, but they call it blue).

This causes a problem for moped riders because we might be coming upon the intersection and the light turns green (blue) before we come to a complete stop... maybe up to even 10-30 feet...

Of course any safe scooter driver is going to watch for the turn signals (we actually have a scooter lane on the extreme left (about 2-4 feet wide)... (Most of the time, a**holes use it for a parking space and block us)

BUT, all of a sudden, 10-30 feet before we cross the intersection the light turns green (blue) and some twit turns on his signal and turns right in front without checking his left mirror (happens at least 20 times daily here with me... and was the reason for my first accident over a year ago.

That's why I do something that is TOTALLY dangerous in U.S.A., and TOTALLY against the law there, and TOTALLY stupid....... I drive down the CENTER... it's actually safer there (the center lane...2 lane), because of the stupid Japanese turn signal law >.<). I just have for the 'instant lane changers'...

I'm thinking if you blocked it with your scooter, you would pretty much be completely on the shoulder and then maybe people wouldn't let you back int.

BTW, for all of you blocking the shoulders -- a lot of police will give you a ticket for doing this. If someone is driving on the shoulder, they are already a lawbreaker, and unlikely to take kindly to your blocking them.

Police don't want citizens to take the law into their own hands, and see too many accidents and worse caused by shoulder-blockers. If the other driver isn't allowed to drive on the shoulder, neither are you, and they will consider you to be doing so if you are over enough to block the shoulder.

Anyway, it just takes one time when you later read that somebody with a medical emergency couldn't get to the hospital because they were stuck in traffic and somebody was blocking the shoulder and wouldn't let them by to understand that sometimes people's time IS more valuable than yours, and if they are willing to risk a traffic ticket there might be a good reason.

I noted someone else said they drove a half mile on the shoulder to reach an exit. I think most of us wouldn't mind people getting on the shoulder in a traffic jam to work their way to an exit, we only get upset if they pull back in off the shoulder. But how do you tell?

I just have for the 'instant lane changers'...

Sorry, was looking back over my post.. and I have NO idea what I was trying to say there...

BUT, since I am posting again, might as well tell you what happened in the second accident:

Midnight (almost exactly), I was driving from my nearest station,coming back from a date I had taken the train back to my nearest station and got on my bike (scooter). Not more than 2 minutes after I got on the bike and started to drive home I had a red light. I was the only driver there at the time (0012 hours if you want to get technical)..

I stopped @ the red light and waited (mt estimate was about 15-20 seconds)... then I had NO idea what happened. A TAXI driver had his eyes somewhere else and plowed into me @ about 40mph (according to police, and KPH-MPH estimates)... Right before the driver hit me, I remember the passenger said that he told the driver, 'kiyotsukete'(take care.. or in this situation, 'Watch out').

I heard all of this while I was on the ground with my head against his front left tire...

ANYWAY... to make a long story short... careful what you do on the roads/highway... it is possible that something bad could happen! (the only thing that saved my head from being crushed was the passenger telling the driver to watch out.. the driver swerved right and hit me.. but managed to only knock me about 20 feet forward, off the hood, and swerved to keep from running over me. The scooter was boosted avout 40 meters (50 yards?!?) in front. I asked the driver at the hospital if the scooter drove straight until it fell, or skidded sideways (I was a police officer before, so I know the difference)... he said it went in circles sliding sideways...).

When he told me that, I KNEW I was lucky to be alive.... I must have bounced off his hood to the left... not hit straight-on.

Sorry... a lot I have rambled about... but my point being... is that you should NEVER cut... and should NEVER have road rage!!!!!! can cost lives.... think of the kids that might be in the opposing care.