Wednesday, October 21, 2009

On people who have no right to switch lanes

That's right. This first one's going to be a doozy.

And you read it correctly. I'm going to go ahead and say that not only are these people annoying, but they should actually not have the right to switch lanes especially if it's the same that I'm in (which I'm inclined to say is "mine" since I was here first, after all). There are actually several different scenarios that this can be applied to.

The cutoff:
You're driving along in your lane when suddenly you find there is no longer open road (or a normal following distance from the previous car) in front of you but a new bumper inches away from yours. Sir, at that distance, I don't care how fast you'll be following with traffic, that's just a no-no. On the other hand, perhaps this scenario is the first driver's fault as they shouldn't give such a "wide" opening for someone else to squeeze into. Obviously, the preemptive choice is to be tailing the person in front of you to begin with.

The slowpoke:
You're driving along in your passing lane and you notice another car getting frustrated with the car in front of them. He in turn decides to enter in front of you, but does not do so at the lane's average speed, but instead just a few mph's faster than what he was previously traveling. Usually this happens when the passing lane is going 15 mph over the speed limit and the entering car only wants to go 5 mph over. You're not allowed to do this either. If you do, you better go back into the lane which you came from or there's going to be some serious right lane passing coming your way.

The wanderer:
This is probably my favorite (the one I dislike the most). You're driving along on open road. Let's say for this example, there are 4 lanes. Ahead of you a car in its own lane at its own speed, albeit significantly slower. Suddenly, they decide they don't like that lane and enter yours. Excuse me? Do I have a magnet in my car that attracted you to this lane? You're not passing anyone and I'm not in any intermediate lane for you to get to an exit. Why are you here and why are you making me change lanes also?

The last minute mind-changer:
This is actually fairly dangerous, especially if it's a left-lane exit. Their mind: Oh! I need this exit! Wait, no. Not this one. The one 6 miles down the road. Better change back into my original spot even though I'm already slowing down and 3/4 in this other lane!


I know I must be missing a few, but that's what I can think of for now. Whoo, first entry!

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