we were on a 4 lane 70mph highway today and a little white car and a motorcycle fly by us going about 100. they get side by side in front of us and slow down to about 55 because there were three cops up ahead plotting on how to give more tickets and bragging how many they gave. and they stay like that for the next 3 miles!

 

I hope I don't forget anything I was going to say; there's been a lot covered since I left work this afternoon.

People here also come to a complete stop on the highway to let traffic in. Screw 'em! The yield sign is on the on ramp, not the highway. If I can barely adjust my speed or move over a lane to help them without causing myself undue stress I will, but it is not my responsibility to make sure they get on the highway. In most of the states surrounding us the highway is supposed to yield to the ramp, which seems really dumb.

Here it is very common for the right lane to end about 1/4 mile after an intersection. Most people know and accept this, so they get in the left lane at the light. There are always a few people who are too good to wait in the line and pull up the right lane to cut somebody off. Not me! I'll drive along right beside them at whatever speed they choose to go until they have to completely stop or run off the road. Some goody two shoes always lets them in and spoils the fun.

For those who don't know, the state slogan of Oklahoma is "Road Construction Ahead". We can work on a road for years and never have a worker set foot near it. But I digress. The intersection up the street from work has been under construction for 3 weeks (at least they are actually working on it). The left lane is closed and this is posted several times starting 1/2 mile before the intersection. People still drive all the way up the left lane and expect someone to let them in. And someone always does. Hang these jerks out to dry!

I'm going to defend left lane drivers a little bit now. There is a time to drive in the left lane, and that time is almost any time you are driving in Tulsa. Every exit and on ramp to a highway in Tulsa is on the right side of the highway except for a few on I-244. As it is now, the people who want to get on the highway are driving pitifully slow in the right lane, the other people in the right lane are slamming on their brakes to let them in, the people who want off the highway are in the left lane and are slamming on their brakes so they don't miss their exit, and the people in the middle lane are slamming on their brakes because "what the hell, this seems popular". A quick check of the math shows that this causes all three lanes to be going nowhere. If everyone would use the left lane to drive in at the speed limit or slightly above, use the right lane to enter and exit the highway (needed because most acceleration lanes are way too short), and use the middle lane to transition between the two others and for all the people who are deathly afraid of actually approaching the speed limit we could actually get somewhere.

Is it really that difficult to operate a 4 way stop? Come on people. I realize that the concept of "whoever gets there first gets to go first" is dreadfully difficult to grasp, but come on! I'm not even going to try and write about all the nuances of successfully negotiating what is apparently the most difficult obstacle ever devised for use on a public road. I wish I could mount surface to surface missiles in the bed of my truck.

People who are TOO nice. You know what I mean. They let in EVERYBODY who is waiting to enter traffic from a parking lot or whatever. They think they are being so nice to those 5 people, but have no grasp of the reality that they are being very inconsiderate of the 30 people behind them. Especially the last 2 people in line that have been waiting for 15 minutes to get through the light, and miss it yet again because some moron let everybody in the Wal Mart parking lot cut in front of them. Please pardon my French, but (for lack of a better term) these people are about the biggest *******s ever to be seen on the road.

Another thing that makes me want to open fire in traffic is the people who you see sitting at a stop sign when you are approaching them from 1/2 mile away. They just sit there. Then, when you are about 100 feet from them, they pull out in front of you and drive at a speed that would rival a dessert tortoise in Alaska battling a head wind. Or the people who run that same stop sign so they can be in front of you, then the stop to turn left across heavy oncoming traffic one block up the road.

I'm from a very small town (less than 400 people). My idea of a bad traffic proplem was getting stuck behind a slow moving farm implement on the highway. When road rage became popular about 10 years ago, I could not fathom what would cause someone to open fire in traffic. Now I know. This world is full of complete and total imbeciles and we should all make it our personal goal to rid the world of these people most expeditiously before they have the opportunity to further contaminate the gene pool.

 

I too live in Florida and I have more stress driving here than I did in NYC. My fiance does not understand why I get annoyed at people who want to make a left turn and sit behind the stop line at a green light. They refuse to enter the intersection. Not only that, all the people who want to drive slow refuse to yield. Oh, better yet, the way most people make turns in the state of Florida is frightening for instance: somebody is making a right turn onto a 3 lane road and instead of being in the extreme right lane when they complete their turn, they may be in the middle or the extreme left lane which obstructs people coming from the opposite direction from making a left turn or if in another state would cause an accident. I could go on, but I won't. I just needed to vent a bit.

 

people up here in alberta dont seem to get it anymore. new generation.i was taught slow trafic to right.but now days people ddont care about that.are highways are getting pretty scary to

 

Yea! know what ya mean!, like tonite I was almost in a accident, I was going down highway and got to a part where another lane merges into my lane via an yeild sign, well this guy speeds up goes through the yeild and came close to broad siding me.

I blew my horn at hime and all he did was wave at mean. Talk about pissed

 

Once again in Dec. 04 I spent quite a bit of time on the dreaded I4 in Florida.The absolute craziest road I have ever driven on.It is even worse than DC area.Anyway, I think I would leave a polite note under his windshield blade.Good Luck!

 

I know someone who got ticketed for that; it's illegal in FL. although rarely enforced.
I have to deal with a trouble spot everday on my commute. The road goes from 4 lane to 2 lane, with all sorts of warnings and signage, yet people constantly drag race up the right lane and then cut into line, even if they are turning LEFT at the next intersection (1/4 mile). 1) I don't let them in unless they are from out-of-state or look confused. 2) If they then make that left turn, I flip them off as I go by. I'm not a bad guy, really, but among the vehicles I've seen do this include a school bus, county trucks, a lawn service w/ trailer, and a huge Winnebago (who then turned left at the next intersection!)

 

I'm not going to get into all the things that people do on the road that annoy me, or this post will take me all day to type! But pertaining to the original topic, (sort of) my morning commute is about five miles, mostly over two-lane roads. As I come into Lakeport, it widens out to 4-lane and becomes actual freeway, and the speed limit jumps from 55 to 65. (There is only this one 5-mile section of actual freeway in the entire county, almost all the rest of the roads are two-lane) Well, about a half mile after the freeway starts is my exit, so I just stay in the right lane. But there is ALWAYS some idiot who has to pull into the left lane as soon as the freeway starts, speed up to 65 or more, pass as many cars as they can, only to cut in front of me at the last second to make the same exit I'm taking. Of course, I have to dive for the shoulder while standing on the brakes to keep from getting clipped in the front. I'm thinking of building a fake Howitzer to mount on my hood, possibly with a motorized tracking adjustment. He might think twice when he pulls up to the stop sign at the top of the offramp and looks in his mirror to see me lining him up in my sights! (except that he's already demonstrated that he doesn't know how to use his mirrors!) -TD

 

Nasty story here. I'll do my best to keep it short:
Brother-in-law has season tickets to Eagles at the Lincoln Center (used to be Veterans Stadium) in Philly. I would go with him to a game or two and he would drive. When leaving the stadium parking lot, the traffic to get onto the interstate is backed up almost a mile in the left lane. He will go down the right lane, 2 lanes over to the right actually, and then wave his way into the left lane at the bottleneck. It always makes me cringe to be with him when he does this, but we get out of there 45 minutes before those at the end of the line in the left lane. Lately, I have been slumping way down in the seat when he does this because I am afraid of being shot at by a P.O.ed driver!!!
Personally, I am the type to patiently await my turn in the left lane even if it takes me an hour to get to the highway.