Highway etiquette question...

[gunsmith]

the guy with the finger is a pro gun control nitwit who voted for kerry.

I stay in the right untill a spot opens up but sometimes you get the guy who is an anal retentive dirtbag
who wants to go slower then the posted speed limit in what is becoming the fast lane. I will pass that guy if I can.

People who block the fastlane  should be tourtured then executed and hung from freeway overpasses
as a warning to others, besides they are mostly pro guncontrol lefty nitwits anyway

[InfidelSerf]

grampster and Art I do agree with your views and premise on polite merging.

However given the situation. I can see further down the road (since the left lane I'm in is empty) I can see a safe merge ahead of the flow of the traffic to my right WITHOUT speeding up or doing anything out of the ordinary. **
To me my decision to continue up the lane and take the merge further up the road (well within a safe distance to merge) actually HELPS the flow of traffic and maintains the entire momentum.  If I were to decide to get over the instant I see the sign I would have to slow down and actually push my way in.  
How is that being more polite and safer?

And yeah, when I see lane closing signs, I look for a safe merge.  I'm not going to worry about moving over immediatly, but I'm not going to hang around to the end either.

I concur


** one of my pet peeves is yo-yo drivers.  I use the cruise control for about 75% of my driving.  It amazes me how people will speed up and slow down all around me.

[InfidelSerf]

for the heck of it I thought I'd play with making this animated gif to illustrate the situation
The first sign says 3/4mile.
As you can see in the next to last image, there is PLENTY of lane left to make a safe merge even after the bend in the road.

[grampster]

Veloce,
Don't misunderstand me.  I'm not necessarily snotting on you for your decision.  You asked a question and you received a number of answers.   My gripe is with people who either are off in la la land and never see the multiple signs advising a merge and suddenly start pushing and shoving their way into the other lanes down the line because they suddenly became sentient, or are folks who are too impatient or self important and try and put as much distance on the rest of the pack as they can, thus causing a problem near the lane end which fouls up the lives of, well, everyone.   I just have this problem with folks who seem to think that the air that they breathe is somehow more pure than the rest of us, or are terminally stupid and unobservant.

PS:  The lane you are talking about usually is sans vehicles because 98% of the drivers out there are driving defensively and are observing a modicum of courtesy to their fellows and have moved out of it.  It's not open to gain ground, its open because it's shortly not going to be of any use and if one stays in it, one will become an a**h**** as a result.  With all due respect, sir. I do value you and your contributions.  I'm not trying to be Mike.  

[garyk/nm]

Really, if you have ignored multiple signs and are past the 500ft marker, I don't care how you try to justify it, you are a jackass. I don't care if the situation is temporary or permanent, you are a jackass. Period. And deserving of anything that happens to you.

Grampster, + 1001.

The ones I especially love are the ones who, when seeing that the closing lane is relatively clear, jump out of the through lane and attempt to leapfrog the rest of us. For them, I have no mercy at all. I have run several off of the road and, no, I don't feel the least bit bad about it. Public service, and all that. Somebody needs to teach the idiots some manners, and if the idiots happen to get hurt in the process, well, no one said stupid wasn't painful.
 The guy in the ricer Honda who tried to duck in front of me (full sized truck + car hauler loaded with 3000lb race car,momentum is a wondrous thing) and gut punted way out into the tule weeds will certainly have 2nd thoughts before trying that again!
 
Does that clearly express how I feel about folks who pull such stuff?
Tolerant? No. Borderline psycho? Maybe.

[InfidelSerf]

I couldn't agree with you more grampster.

jump out of the through lane and attempt to leapfrog the rest of us.

gary I agree with you as well.  leapfrogging everyone is rude.
Had I been behind the guy and then decided to get in that lane in order to pass him (assuming he's maintaining traffic flow speed) I would consider myself a jackarse.

As a general rule I'm a patient and curteous driver. Which is what prompted me to pose the question in the first place.
As a curteous and patient driver I didn't see anything wrong with that particular situation.  Since the 3/4 mile notice is just that.. notice to get over.  They didn't put a sign further back saying lane closes 3 miles up the road for a reason. Since I was already in that lane, and saw the safe merge opportunity up the road, I didn't see anything rude or wrong with merging at the point of my discretion.
Obviously based on the guys attitude and his attempt to sideswipe me, he is the true jackarse.

gary I do however completely disagree with you thinking it's ok to cause a wreck on grounds that it's somehow a moral lesson to the person flying off into the ditch.
While I am right there with you in spirit.  To actually push a person off the road, you've just crossed the line and placed yourself on their level.
To me that's like saying all _____should die.  While I might agree that the world would be better off if ____ were dead.  I certainly would not condone actually killing ____.

[Art Eatman]

Naw, Grampster, for me it's always been a matter of where and when I go fast.  I've made the 77 miles from the edge of Alpine to the edge of Study Butte in 44 minutes.  Never crossed the centerline.  Never went over 120 mph.

Blackburn, now you know why God invented turn signals, rear view mirrors and Mark I eyeballs.

Art

[S_O_Laban]

I tend to think the "I'm going to teach them a lesson crowd" is far more dangerous than those that zipper.  

How is using the potential lethal force of a car, to "teach someone a lesson"..... any different than brandishing a gun, to "teach someone a lesson?"

The're both wrong.