Pay attention at a yield please

[Steve Meliza]

I think metering usually helps and often spreads out the incoming cars enough to where the merging has a better chance of happening. But sometimes those meters are pointless or make it worse.

On my way to work I enter at a meter so close to the highway that it is impossible to get up to speed in most vehicles before being forced to either try merging into traffic with a large speed disparity or be forced to stay in the lane and take the next exit so you can try again. What's stupid is the area behind the meter light has enough room for about 40 cars yet I've never sen more than 10 at the height of the rush. Most of the time it is 2 or 3 cars.
On the way home the on ramp is so popular that traffic does back up and plug up the right lane of the other road which ripples back through all of the other secondary roads and makes a real mess of things. However, the meter is far enough from the highway to allow getting up to speed in all but the slowest of vehicles despite it being an uphill climb to the highway. Unfortunately trucks use the ramp too and they can't climb the hill very quickly so what you get are a truck and 3 or 4 slow moving cars reaching the highway in a tight knot.
Both metering lights fail to be effective when traffic on the highway slows because the bottleneck becomes the merge point and not the metering light.

For anyone driving in Oregon here is ORS 811.285(1):
A person commits the offense of failure of a merging driver to yield the right of way if the person is operating a vehicle that is entering a freeway or other arterial highway where an acceleration or merging lane is provided for the operators use and the operator does not look out for and give right of way to vehicles on the freeway or other arterial highway.

Emphasis on "look out for" is my own. Obviously in bumper to bumper traffic the polite thing to do is merge with every other car even though the vehicle on the highway could legally block the merging cars from entering.

Similarly there is a law for what to do at yield signs and one that says you can't operate "in a manner that impedes or blocks the normal and reasonable movement of traffic". So I'd say if traffic is flowing smoothly at 55+MPH and you jam on your brakes to let a car merge in then you've broken Oregon law. Not that they'd enforce it unless a wreck resulted.

[Mike Cozad]

I thought everyone knew what a yield was, but based on what Kevin posted maybe there is a fair amount of the population that doesn't know.

My experience has been that most folks today think a yield sign means "let them sort it out behind me"....

I travel weekly for work between Toledo and SE Kentucky. I can tell you I have seen my share of strange and dangerous maneuvers by careless folks. Its amazing how many will pull out in front of a fast moving vehicle from that yield or stop sign, causing that person to have to slow to avoid a rear end collision and there was no one in the lane behind making merging/turning safe. Its baffling every time I see it or it happens to me....

[curtis rosche]

Should I mention that I was driving through Queens NY on a side road of 495. My route the last two days was on Long Island

[Curt Fuller]

People seem to lose their manners when they sit behind the wheel of a vehicle or straddle a bike (engine or pedal). Put them in a similar situation when buying groceries, gathering in a crowd or sitting down at a restaurant and they have to account for their rude behavior. They are not likely to rush over and sit down in some other patron's empty seat at the table like they would otherwise do in a parking lot.

That is so true. Put people behind the wheel of a car, tint their windows, and they do things they would never do in any other public situation. Something about the anonymity of hiding inside a car that really brings out the worst characteristics in people.

[Tom Fischer]

Yes, more of a problem than just yield signs.
Many drivers just have a disregard for safety.
Maybe it's the cell phones.
Maybe it's a general "dumbing-down".
I know that in NJ motorcycle crashes (and fatalities) are way up.
In nearby PA, drivers are totally crazy.
I go there a lot.
Most local roads are 40 mph.
I stay in the limit.
At least one car will pass me on a double yellow line, often up a hill or on a curve (no visibility)
It's like playing russian roulette, just to get there a little faster.
Definitely something has changed in the past few decades.

[Jim Koepke]

Bad driving habits are amazing.

I have changed mine over the years. Now if someone is too close behind, my right blinker goes on, I slow down and make them pass if possible and safe.

I used to stay back at least two seconds. Then I noticed that people behind me by two seconds appear close in the rear view mirror, so now I follow by three seconds. I find it strange that three seconds in front of me there will be a few cars together in a tight group. Some folks just can not seem to get away from tail gating. I have even been in the right lane on a multi-lane road with some idiot who insists on riding my bumper. Often changing lanes will get them to pass and go hug the bumper of the next car up.

I would love to see a nation wide police action against tail gating drivers.

Another action I would like to see is against people who get in the left lane and then force everyone to go around them on the right, especially if they are yacking away on a cell phone.

jtk

[Jim Matthews]

Another action I would like to see is against people who get in the left lane and then force everyone to go around them on the right, especially if they are yacking away on a cell phone.jtk

I would like to see NASCAR rules apply to this; if you won't allow the overtaking vehicles to pass we should be allowed to get up under their bumper and put them into the guard rail.
It's my belief that municipalities could be entirely funded by prosecuting the "no cell-phones while driving" laws on the books.

http://www.ghsa.org/html/stateinfo/l...hone_laws.html

[Brian Elfert]

Folks who drive in the left lane at the speed limit will argue to their dying day they have every right to use that lane. They will argue that anyone wishing to go faster than them is breaking the law by speeding. Some of them will travel in the left lane to prove a point and slow down traffic. Others do it because they don't want to deal with merging traffic.

[Pat Barry]

Many drivers I see are rude and beligerent. In northern MN for example there is a US Hwy 2 that is two lanes, one in each direction, and the speed limit is 60. It is a difficult / dangerous road to pass on and consequently there are some designated passing zones with a middle lane added expressly for that purpose. I can't tell you how often, but it is most of the time, that drivers will actually speed up when they get to the passing zone, just in order to keep from being passed. Its frankly amazing. This happens with virtually all types of drivers, then, as soon as the passing lane is over, they slow back down. I seriously would like to be able to use Jim's Nascar bumper method on these folks.