Rules of the road

My gripe is people who have no clue how to enter a highway.

The ACCELERATION lane is not a cruise at 41mph, use up all the lane to the very end and force your way onto the highway.

Increase speed and merge safely. Its not that difficult.

In Peoria IL I saw a driver stopped in the right lane with cars whizzing by at 60 mph waving people onto the highway from the acceleration lane.

The ones that bug me the most are the ones that…I’ doing 65mph…and they pass…then they slow to 62mph???

why did you pass???

We have a enterence ramp that is up a pretty long hill. They added a couple hundred yards, to allow the entering vehicles to get up to the speed of the traffic. But there is always some idiot that will not stay in that acceleration lane and moves over before he even hits 50mph…slowing everybody down.

No curtisy, poor training in driving school, lack of knowing the rules of the road!!!

Sometimes I wonder how they ever got a license to begin with.

I’m not a driver that gets upset much, I keep my cool, and I try to plan ahead and anticipate what the traffic ahead might do. I’m sure that most that have accedently pulled out in front of me, or cut me off…did it because they were unaware that I was there. I don’t get out of shape about it, because I have done the same.

Yosemite

Meaneye, We always stop at 5 Guys in Peoria for a burger. Don’t yell at me though when I slow down a little for that dang bridge.

If I’m in a string of 10-15 cars entering enmass onto a busy freeway, I always try and allow a gap between cars instead of having all of the cars move onto the freeway in one big bunch. Nobody else seems to get it though.

Those multiple left turn lanes with the curve lines leading into the intersection is a major pet peeve for me. No one ever follow them. Say a car that is suppose to be in the outside lane crosses the curve to the inside lane, where is the car in the inside lane suppose to go? There’s never a cop around to witness it.

yes, road design often lacks common sense, which contributes to the problem

Yes…road design is many times unbelievable.
Sometimes I wonder if they use lego pieces to design roads. 3 engineers sitting at a table…trying to use as many pieces as they can.
For those of you that hate round a bouts…here’s four in a half mile on the same road.

Here is a road under I 94 in Wisconsin.
The only thing within a mile is a Hospital to the west

https://maps.google.com/?ll=43.061583,-88.440843&spn=0.007259,0.013797&t=h&z=16

Yosemite

@jtsanders,

I was just mentioning what I observed to be the worst. I forgot to mention that in the sport luxury euro’s it is mostly younger people. But you are right it is mostly everybody. Do you remember when the exit from the GW Parkway southbound to 395 N had no merge lane? 25mph ramp dumping right onto a 55mph highway and if you were really lucky they were only doing 55. Talk about a nightmare. And even now the merge is all of about 50 yards long.

“Here is a road under I 94 in Wisconsin.”

There is a special place in Hades reserved for whoever is responsible for that monstrosity.

Take a look at this lovely traffic circle/triangle:

To go east on Florida Ave. (left to right) you have to go around the triangle.

Yeah they are re-doing a couple round-abouts south of me too. They just put them in maybe ten years ago, then had to change them the next so semis could negotiate them, and now a complete re-do. We’ll see what they come up with. There is lots of federal money for round-abouts though and public transportation to make us just like Europe. Plus the highway engineers are a new breed and not the ones of a generation ago. These are the ones with degrees in communications, urban studies, and poli sci, and not necessarily civil engineering. The folks with 20-30 years of highway design experience have all retired.

@circuitsmith,

I love that place! As a matter of fact I just love driving through DC, NOT !!! If the almighty ever wanted to give the U.S. an enema DC is where he’d stick it.

@insightful ; That was just a quiet little road and they added all that just to make an enterance onto and off of ! 94.
The thing that fries me is…there is an on and off ramp to the west 3/4 miles and another 1 1/4 mile to the east. Why not put a ramp for each driveway while you’re at it.
This is a growing area, but at this point to me it’s tax dollars wasted. Right now it’s just rural and subdivisions.

Yosemite

@Bing
Yes, 5 guys is worth stopping at. I74 is much improved but it does get skinny at the bridge.

A lot of times, it is better to drive through DC than around it on the Beltway.

@Yosemite‌

Here is a road under I 94 in Wisconsin.

Holy crop circle Batman! What a cluster!
I grew up not all that far from there and spent a lot of time out that way. That is unbelievable. See what happens when the state turns blue… got out just in time :wink:

I like that or the guy who’s in the slow lane as you try and merge onto the highway and he’s going just the right speed where you can’t pass him and merge on and you have to hit the brakes to get behind him. All while he’s towing a lawn mower, oblivious to the rest of the world.

@Fender1325: Hey, I resemble that remark! :smiley:

I do landscape/lawncare work frequently, and when I tow with my 6-cyl F150, I can’t really accelerate. Deceleration is sub-optimal, too, and I’m not going to be gratituitously switching lanes unless it’s fairly empty on the highway. (I’ll extend a courtesy, sure, but not if I have to do something sudden or tricky while towing.)

Given that I can’t accommodate, I’d figure the safest thing to do is to drive predictably, at a set speed in one lane, and let the more-manouverable vehicle figure out the spacing/sequencing.

For you folks who commented on my merging on-ramp right-of-way post.

When I am locked in the right lane, towing a trailer, with a semi beside me and the “tool” entering the highway from the ramp doesn’t even interrupt their conversation on their cell phone to check their mirrors, it’s their insurance that’s going to pay for my damage. Take a small survey by observing people on the on-ramps. Fully 2/3rds of those I’ve seen lately never check their mirrors, turn their head to look, nor stop their cell phone conversation. These people are rejecting their responsibility and tossing it to me. They expect me to move out of the way. I do, to avoid an accident, if I can, but sometimes that is not possible. Many of those people end up in the breakdown lane mouthing obscenities and flipping me off. To those people, I wave and smile like I’m their best friend and continue my journey.

Roundabouts were unheard of in this country. They proposed one near us and I was against it. My daughter who had been to Australia on a people to people thing told me they love them down under because they rarely have to stop. So I thought ok if the Aussies like roundabouts I can give one a chance. Sure there is a learning curve, and now at left turn lanes yellow flashing arrows on turn lights are giving way to the only turn left on green, otherwise wait even though there is no oncoming traffic or risk a ticket. People are here getting used to the roundabouts, and I am fine with them. There is the occasional speed demon who thinks LeMans is for sissys, but they beat the heck out of a light or 4 way stop 4 me.

I think I neglected to post the number one rule of the road. Right of way always goes to the bigger vehicle!
Also. If 4 vehicles arrive at a 4 way stop at the exact same instant which one has the right of way? Answer: The jacked up 4 wheel drive pickup with a rifle rack and “Guns don’t kill people. I do” bumper sticker!