Automotive Social → Highway merging

quote:

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Human nature - people love to travel in packs, whether they realize it or not. You'll have 50 cars in a 25 mile stretch of remote & far between cities open road, and there goes a clump of 6 or 8 or 10 of them doing 70 all 12 feet apart.

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One of the reasons I like doing 5 mph over - I stay out of large packs and I generally maximize the time between packs.

Well, I've come to the realization that the "problem" is me -

There's nothing I can do about 6 or 8 out of ten people who merge at 20 to 40 MPH less than the speed limit in this region, or who choose to pass me then place themselves 20 or 30 feet ahead of me at my speed (63 MPH maximum governed speed) or slower, so I might as well accept it, act accordingly, and move on. That same 63 MPH maximum often keeps me in the slow lane, in harm's way.

I was off the road commercially for some years and did little interstate driving. Now I do around 2,000 to 3,000 miles per week throughout the traffic congested northeastern US. It just seemed as if it used to be 2 or 3 out of ten couldn't merge well with others. Now it seems like 6 or 8 out of ten.

I suppose it's more traffic on the road these days and my advancing years' perception at work.

Apparently with so much more traffic on the road these days the chances of encountering clueless drivers has greatly increased. Cases in point - Since December of 2012, I have had 4 drivers cut directly in front of my 80,000 pound vehicle and stand on their brakes to get to exit ramps. All were near miss potential fatalities. Had I been fiddling with radio knobs or even looking at a side mirror when they chose to do their suicide moves...

Reminds me - I need to get that dash video camera I've been longing for. Might save me some jail time, for it's usually the truck / trucker perceived to be at fault regardless of who did what.

Apparently I still have not adjusted to merging, 2013 style.

The other day I slowed from 63 to 45 in a posted 65 to let some cars merge. Moving left was not an option for me. 4 of them made it, one did not. As I had a car carrier 15' off my rear trailer, I maintained 45 and the last one had to stop on the ramp.

Mr. stopontheramp followed me for a while during my lengthy 45 MPH back to 63 MPH recovery portion of my trip, (a mile or two?) so that he could call my company's 800 number in Kansas to tell the safety department that I ran him off the road. I guess he figured he'd teach me a lesson in how merging at 40 in a 65 is the proper method after all.

Newest addition to my gear bag - a dash board video camera. If another idiot calls on me, it wouldn't surprise me if I got fired.

Damn - I miss driving a truck in the 70s. The % of clueless anyone and almost everyone is allowed to drive a car (or have a baby) factor was still there, but so many less of them on the road.