Fred has a point. Cars that are merging do not have the right of way. They have to yield the right of way to the cars already in their lanes. Is slowing and letting someone in considerate?? Sure it is. Is gunning it to keep your space, making it harder for the guy trying to merge self centered and ***-hatted. Most times it is. However, how many times have you let someone into the space in front of you just to find out they are going to go 10 under the limit while they put on their makeup, drink their coffee, read their paper, or yap on their goddammed cell phone?? I hate letting people in; although, I do it.Sorry, you need to go back and learn the rules (and courtesies) of the road.Well, that's a valid hypothesis, however it's also equally valid that a cager can display a hostile act by "playing chicken" with a smaller MC. I've experienced that just the other day when merging onto a the freeway from a cloverleaf curve when some ******* in the slow lane rather than adjusting his speed to allow me to ingress, "stepped on the gas" to close the gap as I was attempting to merge. I was clearly in his view in that situation since I was actually ahead of him as I started my transition onto the freeway. He didn't even attempt exit as he squeezed me onto the emergency lane. Who's to say that could not also be a possibility here when Cruz and Lien bumped heads?
You, as the entering driver/rider have the obligation to yield to traffic already on that roadway, regardless of what they are doing. The driver already in the road has no obligation whatsoever to yield or adjust to accommodate you or your entry. Their job is to maintain steady course and speed (as much as practical) so that you can then adjust yours to perform the merge. When people do such silly crap as slow down for entering traffic it is what causes huge traffic delays and tie ups at every exit ramp of limited access highways, all because people do not understand what they are supposed to do.
Inability to merge with other traffic is why our interstates are in a continuous state of total chaos. Nobody, including slower traffic or tractor trailer trucks, who should be driving in the slow lane, will drive in the rightmost lane because of this fear of having to deal with "merging". This makes them ride in the 2nd lane, even if the right lane is open, and even while traveling at a speeds far less than the average traffic.
Naturally, since the right lane is mostly open that entices the people who want to pass the middle lane turtles to do so on their right, and this causes faster(est) traffic to be present in the right lane where people are attempting to merge.
I don't mean to come down hard on you, but you have tripped over one of my biggest traffic pet peeves.
Har-de-har-har, Papa Chuy and Bob (and Doug and Dave)Can't be. She is touching the ground flat-footed.Hudson, didn't our MaryEllen - MEM star in this movie? jes' sayin' and nuff said!
My prior response to your merging example was not saying that the guy speeding up was in the right to cut you off. He was not, and I even said so in that same response. He should have maintained his speed and allowed you to do what you need to do to merge. What I was responding to specifically was what I had bolded in your post: "rather than adjusting his speed to allow me to ingress, "My personal experience the other day wasn't to compare or contrast anything about merging but about reasonable behavior and personal responsability on the road. It's reckless for anyone to speed up to a point where you're not only racing to cut off merging traffic as said ******* did to the point of now tailgating the car in front of both of us just to cut me off. The "3-second" rule be damned, I guess. We ALL must excercise rational behavior in sharing the road. Fred, you weren't there to call it and simply stating the rules to me isn't the complete picture. Thankfully, that lead foot only hurt my feelings,hehe.
The only evidence we have so far that the guy who was injured was actually trying to help a downed rider is the word of some of his fellow miscreants. He was in a coma in the hospital when this was first reported. If you watch the video carefully, it is not clear that the first bike to be hit was actually knocked down. There may not have been any downed cyclist to help at that point. It will be interesting to see how this pans out as more actual information becomes available. My worst fear is that car drivers will learn that it is OK to bump a motorcycle when the cyclist does something that annoys the driver.If i was riding with a group of guys, and a member of that group was hit and went down in the roadway...regarless of who caused it... i would, as many of you would, stop and try to help my fellow rider, or try to help control traffic so that the downed rider did not get hit again.
Exactly my fear about road rage. Imagine the fallout when bikers and cagers both get overly defensive and aggro. Needless.The only evidence we have so far that the guy who was injured was actually trying to help a downed rider is the word of some of his fellow miscreants. He was in a coma in the hospital when this was first reported. If you watch the video carefully, it is not clear that the first bike to be hit was actually knocked down. There may not have been any downed cyclist to help at that point. It will be interesting to see how this pans out as more actual information becomes available. My worst fear is that car drivers will learn that it is OK to bump a motorcycle when the cyclist does something that annoys the driver.If i was riding with a group of guys, and a member of that group was hit and went down in the roadway...regarless of who caused it... i would, as many of you would, stop and try to help my fellow rider, or try to help control traffic so that the downed rider did not get hit again.
And what's wrong with avoiding a precarious situation if slowing down on your part facilitates that? All I expect of other commuters is to do their part to avoid the other vehicle sharing the public roadway. No, I don't expect it, but what the hell is wrong with common courtesy to promote road safety? Why be a part of the problem? Going back to Lien's actions at the time of the brake check, Lien had AN OBLIGATION to slow down regardless of the ***** MC's mental state. Whether he could have pulled that off is another matter altogether. The bikers participating in the melee should all hang for sure. Mies put himself in a bad situation with a panicked cager even if he is alleged to simply trying to calm things down. I don't care what Mies's past record was because that irrelevant to the events leading up to him getting mowed down. Mies alleged intent to resolve the situation ultimately brought about bad decisions to park your bike in the middle of the street even if you're trying to help if that were the facts and end being part of the problem.My prior response to your merging example was not saying that the guy speeding up was in the right to cut you off. He was not, and I even said so in that same response. He should have maintained his speed and allowed you to do what you need to do to merge. What I was responding to specifically was what I had bolded in your post: "rather than adjusting his speed to allow me to ingress, "My personal experience the other day wasn't to compare or contrast anything about merging but about reasonable behavior and personal responsability on the road. It's reckless for anyone to speed up to a point where you're not only racing to cut off merging traffic as said ******* did to the point of now tailgating the car in front of both of us just to cut me off. The "3-second" rule be damned, I guess. We ALL must excercise rational behavior in sharing the road. Fred, you weren't there to call it and simply stating the rules to me isn't the complete picture. Thankfully, that lead foot only hurt my feelings,hehe.
Sure, speeding up to cut off a merging driver/rider is wrong. But so is slowing down to accommodate them. And an expectation from merging drivers that the existing traffic should "be nice" and adjust their speed to allow them to merge is what is a big part of what goes wrong with traffic in the US. Sorry that you misunderstood my intent. I should have trimmed the quote down to just that sentence.
FWIW, if you leave three seconds between cars on the highway around here in the extended metro-Boston area three other cars will fill that space in a blink of an eye. Seriously.
Maybe I'm just misreading what you posted because of your emphasis, but Lien only had an obligation to slow down if doing so would not being harm to him or his family. Someone already posted what I had been thinking about Lien jamming on his brakes to avoid Cruz. What would have the biker crowd done if two or three bikes had rear ended Lien?? I'm only assuming here, but I think the mob mentality would have been the same.Going back to Lien's actions at the time of the brake check, Lien had AN OBLIGATION to slow down regardless of the ***** MC's mental state. Whether he could have pulled that off is another matter altogether.
Going back to Lien's actions at the time of the brake check, Lien had AN OBLIGATION to slow down regardless of the ***** MC's mental state. Whether he could have pulled that off is another matter altogether. The bikers participating in the melee should all hang for sure. Mies put himself in a bad situation with a panicked cager even if he is alleged to simply trying to calm things down. I don't care what Mies's past record was because that irrelevant to the events leading up to him getting mowed down. Mies alleged intent to resolve the situation ultimately brought about bad decisions to park your bike in the middle of the street even if you're trying to help if that were the facts and end being part of the problem.
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