When merging off an on-ramp
It’s best to
a: Match your speed with traffic
b: Look and see where cars are
c: Try to find an open spot in the traffic flow, and speed up or slow down to get into it.
Do NOT run down the ramp and match your speed to a car and just change lanes while talking on the phone, forcing the person you are changing lanes into to slam on the brakes to avoid being hit.
Or I will kill you.
Understand?
14 comments Og | Uncategorized
Twice this week I’ve watched my own classic pet peeve. I approach the intersection to make a left turn, and so does an oncoming car. We both stop. Oncoming straightaway traffic passes, so I begin to make my move. Simultaneously, the idiot has a sudden change of heart and floors it to go straight, just clearing my front end.
One was on a U.S. highway with a dedicated left turn lane, and one was on a State highway without one.
One day I will get broadsided, and how will I prove in court that I didn’t carelessly make a left in front of a car that wasn’t turning, since their front end will be all smashed, and they can lie that the turn signal wasn’t on, and that they did not stop to turn? That’s my dilemma.
Can I help??
Can I watch?
Oo! Remind me next time you’re in town, if there’s time (like we can go to Buckhead Mountain Grill for dinner or something), to show you the merge from Columbia Parkway/Fifth Street westbound onto I-471 Southbound.
The ramp comes down on the LEFT.
Right after a blind curve.
Where people are usually doing 70MPH (in defiance of the 55MPH limit).
Where immediately after the ramp, there’s ANOTHER merge on the right of TWO lanes of traffic coming out of a chute down from ANOTHER blind turn and where people not only are going faster than is sane given the conditions, but are trying to jockey over TO the left lane in order to go FASTER, whilst WE are trying to…
Where if you want to get off at Route 8 (we would be), you have to cross four lanes of traffic in about 6/10 of a mile.
And did I mention all of this takes place on a bridge?
And this is the SAFER expressway. The OTHER one has the nickname Death Hill where it (I-75) comes down to the bridge.
Should be a fun ride. I do it twice a day.
M
I wonder when Og is coming to town again. We should go to Buckhead’s for dinner. A great change from our “regular” restaurant but #1 daughter won’t be working. Sorry.
swmbo
I want video.
My favorite is when they actually SLOW DOWN, so you are left trying to merge with highway traffic going 70MPH while the asswipe in the Toyota Prius in front of you is slowing from 30 MPH to 20 MPH…
At least in those cases, when I blow by them in the Ram the shockwave typically knocks them off the road…
Og – do not come to Massachusetts and drive. Don’t do it. Honestly I want to mount a .50 cal on my car and blow away these idiots out here. They make midwest drivers look brilliant by comparison. I mean – the worst midwest driver looks like Einstein compared to 90% of the drivers out here.
You see Jay’s comment about the 30mph… happens all the time. I’ve had people come to a dead stop on highway on ramps… nearly ended up in their back seat with ’em. There are no such thing as “merging lanes” on these highways… I don’t know what the hell they were thinking when they built these roads! I could go on – but it makes my BP head up way too high.
I have to say that what annoys me more than anything else is a bastard who sits right there on my left side as I come up the ramp, accellerating to match speeds so I can merge properly, and said bastard won’t either speed up or slow down so I can merge before the FUCKING RAMP ENDS.
The 30th Street on-ramp for I-65 South and the (current) on-ramp from the Airport Expressway to I-465 North both come to mind in this vein. The latter is worse because it’s a cloverleaf, and if you don’t merge pretty quick, you find yourself on the off-ramp back into the airport.
In both of these cases the fucking interstate is three lanes wide. Get the FUCK out of my way.
I subscribe to the .50-cal mounts on my car idea. I’ve wanted twin .50’s since I was a teenager. And a grenade launcher out the back for tailgaters.
Jay G has it right, I’ve used that particular technique as well when necessary, plus the 4700# unloaded curb weight of the Ram makes it somewhat immune to being pushed aside. Even if some sheet metal gets bent, Sir Isaac N. is usually on my side.
Teresa, I don’t recall where I’ve seen it — might be NJ — but there are places where there are stop signs placed at the end of the merge lane, and the remaining distance is way too short to attain anything near a reasonable merge speed short of having two JATO bottles strapped on your tail (I’m not referring to the highway access metering lights out in California, heck my old 2.2L Omni could still merge at 55mph even when confronted with those things.). Talk about dumb design…
They put stop signs at the end of merge lanes in PA, too.
Idiots.
Grumpy Old Ham… wouldn’t surprise me a bit. I didn’t know how nice it was in the midwest – the drivers there used to tick me off… but I don’t know if I’ll ever get used to these idiots out here before one of them kills me with a supreme act of stupidity!
Was that you? Sorry, I didn’t know.
Og,
You have hit on my pet peeve, too. I don’t mind it when I’m in my car, but with the truck pulling the travel trailer, it’s a different story. IF I can move over to make room, the bastards will come down the ramp and match my speed. (I’m usually going about 62, slower than most traffic) They screw around for a little bit, THEN speed up. By this time, people behind have caught up and are starting to cuss at me. The impatient ones in the RH lane will not slow down so I can get back over and out of the way, no, they have to pass on the right. Which, of course, prevents me from moving over. All because some dipstick can’t press down on his friggin’ accelerator.