Yesterday, on the Post Road in CT going north, I came upon a driving school car in front of me in the right hand lane. They were stopped behind a vehicle that wasn’t moving.
I signaled, checked no one was coming up the lane to my left, and commenced switching to the left lane to go around the stopped vehicle.
A split second after I had started over into the left lane, the driving school car also signalled and started to move into the left lane. This necessetated my having to brake more suddenly than usual.
The driving school car continued in the left lane, while I signalled to merge into the right, ahead of the stopped vehicle. We both met at the next red light.
My question is - Who had the right of way, given the sequence of how my self and the drivers ed car moved left?
Doesn’t matter. What matters is there was no accident
The driver’s ed driver was in front and reacted slightly slower than you did to pull left (correctly with signal I might add) and had presence of mind not to just stop and block the road.
Give the kid the benefit of the doubt and your greater driving experience and forget about it.
I had a sort of similar incident the other day. A lawn-care worker with a leaf blower was creating huge clouds of dust, blowing debris from under his parked truck, parked on the road. To avoid breathing all that dust I moved well to the left as I passed his truck, halfway into the empty oncoming lane. The car tailgating behind me — a Tesla 3 – kept going straight, and speeded up, drove between me and the truck, passing me on the right. If I hadn’t noticed this bizarre driving behavior we might have had a crash when I moved back into the lane after passing the truck. Instead I had to brake to allow him to move through, then I moved back.
Actually, I had words with the instructor - he being in the passenger seat - and he said they were in the right because I was behind them, even if I began my lane change before his student did.
This led to a discussion of side view mirror settings, and they both acknowledged they could see their own rear fenders in the side view mirrors. I told them that if those mirrors were panned out just so that no part of their own car were visible, they would have seen me changing lane behind them. The instructor said “Thank you for that information” as our traffic lights turned green.
Can always tell the new drivers, wont pull ahead to make a left turn at an intersection with stop and go lights, Went through 3 cycles of lights until the driver finally went. I see police cars pull into the intersection all the time to make a left turn, so I figure it can’t be wrong.
I don’t have words with anyone on the road. My job is not to educate bad drivers and I don’t want a gun pointed at me for my trouble. My goal is to arrive at my destination safely and getting into incidents that may provoke road rage does not align with my goal.
FWIW, the car in front always has the right of way. The trailing car must move at a reasonable speed to anticipate the actions of the car(s) in front of them. Ask a cop after you have hit someone while coming up to them from behind. It’s the law.
Defensive driving techniques dictate that you should always anticipate that the driver in front of you might do the dumbest and/or most aggressive thing. That’s common sense.
A couple times I have seen someone so irate that they jump on the hood of a car. One was a poor girl that the kids in front of her thought her headlights were too bright. Stopped in the middle of th3 highway and jumped on the hood and tried to open the door. Totally bazaar behavior. Before cell phones but I did report it to the sheriff when I got home. Another was in an entrance ramp and no idea what caused that. There are people out there totally nuts, on drugs, or whatever. I don’t go to bars and I don’t initiate conversations with other drivers. I see no point and I’m not armed. I’ve seen people that one word can fly them into a rage. Wanna find out who they are on the road?
A few days ago, near Lake Tahoe mountains, a man was going for a jog and ended up being chased by a bear. Somehow during the run he got between the mother bear and her cub. He had to jump on top of a SUV to escape the bear’s nipping. The bear then jumped onto the hood of the SUV to nip him some more , but the SUV owner got mad b/c the bear was scratching the paint and scolded the bear away.
Even if they began their lane merge after my car was already two-thirds into my target lane? About two seconds after me? We both by the way did indicate (turn signal) our intentions.
I agree with the mirror thing, but I try to set mine where you can just barley see the rear door handle(s) in the bottom inner corner of the mirror and I can see far behind me as well as beside me for the most part, I will still lean a little forward just to make sure a motor cycle or very small car is not there… On a 2 door, because the doors are much longer (mostly) I do the same with the door handle(s) in the bottom inner corner of the mirror…
Yes the vehicle in front of you has the right away when changing lanes, but in cases like yours, even though the lead vehicle has the right a way, it is more of a curtesy for them to let you pass and then they follow, now if your front bumper is already in front of their rear bumper, then you have the right away (I think)…
But remember that not all mirrors are created equally and no matter how you set them, you will have blind spots due to the design of the vehicle and the mirror…
We’ll just have to disagree on that point. I was nearly all in the left lane, when the drivers ed car signaled and began to move over. It is their duty to check their mirrors for oncomers in the lane they intend to merge into.
