Since nobody's blogging these last few days, I'll take a turn for now.
Everyday I drive 35 miles to work, most of that on northbound I-15. Pretty much everyday I see things that make me want to carry a firearm in the car, so I can murder those that don't drive the way I want them to. This seems reasonable to me, and it would cut down on traffic for everyone.
Luckily I resist the urge to mount high powered rifles to my car, and instead I fume internally, and think of the scathing blog I should write about these people. "That would teach them!" But what am I going to write about that hasn't been covered by nearly every stand-up comedian in existence? Failure to use turn signals has been overdone. Reckless merging has been overdone. And the idiot going too slow in the leftmost lane has been overdone.
So I'm going to talk about the idiot going too slow in the leftmost lane.
How do you know if you are going too slow in one of the left lanes? You can tell because other cars are consistently passing you on your right side. In this case you should change lanes to the right, until you notice that people are now passing you on the left. This is part of a more basic rule of driving that most people ignore: stay to the right, unless passing slower cars. Part of what makes the German Autobahns a success is that German drivers "drive right". This doesn't merely mean that they drive on the right side, they stay in the rightmost lane unless they have a need to use one of the left lanes. When they no longer need the left lane, they move back to the rightmost lane available.
Utah just installed carpool lanes on I-15, and it's a great relief to traffic during congested times. However, some people think that the carpool lane serves some other purpose. Some seem to think that the lane is like a big comfy couch, just for them to stretch out on, at whatever lazy speed they want to go. Others treat it like a "party lane", where all the cool cars hang out. What it actually is, is a lane that can be used by carpoolers, when the regular lanes are crowded. Sure you can use it anytime you want to, but if there's no real traffic in the normal lanes, there's really no reason to use the carpool lane. If you are in the carpool lane when the lanes to your right are not really crowded, then you are being a dork. You are also being somewhat unsafe. This goes back to the rule I mentioned earlier: stay right, unless passing slower cars.
Now I know everyone that reads this in now going to do their best to stay in the rightmost available lane when appropriate. Thank you for your time.
8 comments:
on reckless merging:
There is something that fully offends and enfuriates me. When 2 lanes of traffic must merge into one, we are warned usually blocks in advance. We start putting on our blinkers while moving slowly with the flow of the existing traffic. In time, someone will eventually let us in if we wait long enough.
Every time I get let in, I cringe because, as I inch into the little growing gap that some kind driver has created for me on my left, I can feel The Utah Driver hovering impatiently at my bumper, trying to expedite my moving over so that he/she may zip past all the obedient mergers and up to the front of the line until there is absolutely no room left for him to move forward and he forces himself into the proper lane, saving himself the minute or two that he would have otherwise waited -- if the rules applied to him. Which they don't. In his world, the merge rules are for everyone else, not him. In fact they were created so as to clear the right lane so he can careen recklessly through it. He gets special priveleges to cut to the front of the crawling line, because he is him. Sometimes when I'm in the left lane that everyone's trying to merge into, and I see The Utah Driver sailing toward me with his sense of merge-entitlement, I refuse to let him in. And I'm the friendliest driver you'll ever meet. He jerks his car toward mine in a threatening motion, like "if you don't let me in then I'll crash into you if I have to" and then I jerk forward an inch from the person in front of me, as if to say "I don't care. You cheated and you won't be rewarded by me. I can be a jerk too."
I'm mad thinking about it.
Wow. Both great comments. I was at Traffic school once and the instructor was doing a pretty open Q&A and some Utah Driver had the nerve to ask "I don't understand why everyone slows down and tries to merge so far before they need to. Wouldn't it be better if people just waited til the very end and merged together like a zipper?" The instructor at least set him straight by pointing out that that actually would make things much worse and the idea is for people to merge in early before its down to the last second.
I must admit though that there are places in my daily drive where I will use the right lane at spots where the right lane must eventually merge, but not on the freeway. Just on the road. I hope thats different.
I do that too Kir, in those cases I stay in the leftmost lane, moving at the same speed as the lane to my right. Soon there's about 500 feet of open road in front of me before the forced merge, and 3 cars behind me waiting for me to merge in early so they can cut in line. I take gleefull joy in ruining their self-important day. I just wish I could hear how they gripe about that to their co-workers. Oh man I wish I could hear that.
Not only do I merge as soon as possible, I make a stink by hoarding both lanes so only the jerkiest of jerks dare to squeeze past.
Bad drivers are bred not born. I was driving to Boise with my close friend (the one with ridiculously long blond hair) and her nut job of a father when he instructed her to get in the far left lane , set the cruise control at sixty eight and don't move. AARRGH!!!
All I have to say is: try coming to the Southwest U.S. It makes me miss Utah drivers...
Perhaps you can just print out this post and, as you are being forced to pass slow cars on the right, wad it up and throw it in their windows. Hopefully it's the summer and their windows are down, or they have a Jeep. Otherwise you'll be facing a steep fine from those gallant UT Highway patrolmen.
Thanks for standing up to the atrocity!
are you serious? there are actually worse drivers than utahns??? when i first moved here i could not believe how bad they drove on the freeway. it still drives me batty every time i'm on the 1-15
(the public service announcements on proper driving have not done any good)
There were PSA on good driving? I must have totally missed them.
I'd like to add to my list of complaints people who drive slow on icy hills. This past week I was headed up one of our numerous steep roads and it happened to be kind of icy. An old lady in front of me, who already happened to be driving at a full 10 mph under the limit began slowing even more as we began to climb the icy hill. Apparently she was not aware of the fact that if we all slow down a bunch, we're never going to make it up the hill.
As she slowed down, she (and I and probably other people behind us) began to slide a bit, which only served to make grandma hit the brakes even more. I honked at her to no avail, only barely making it to the crest of the hill without collapsing into useless tire spinning. Luckily there was a turn lane there that grandma wasn't using, so I was able to get out from behind her rolling death trap.
Oh, and the way she ended up in front of me was by running a red light and making a left turn right in front of me (on icy roads, mind you). It seems that people who make bad driving decisions never make just one. You see someone do something stupid and if you are stuck driving near them long enough you'll see many more.
I am not a Utah driver. Get that out of the way first. There is a difference between being an agressive, yet defensive driver and an reckless and oblivious one. I am proudly part of the first. I have no problem driving in the right lane that I know is turning into an exit only lane as long as possible. Do I wait until the very end to merge? Sometimes, when I have noticed there is a large gap up ahead. If I don't notice one, then I merge early. If the gap I saw ahead disappears by the time I get there then I exit and take the back roads home. Small price you gotta pay to play lanes roulette.
Another example: in my lovely neighborhood, the main road goes from 1 to 2 lanes for about 3 blocks and then returns to single lanes in each direction. Nothing drives me nuts more than getting stuck at the light to this section because someone wouldn't get into the right lane (I assume because they didn't want to appear as though they were trying to cheat the system). The people who designed the roads intentionally added the extra lane in this stretch of road for a reason...they wanted people to use it. It actually cuts down on congestion and gets more people through the earlier, bottlenecked section of the road.
Happy motoring!
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