Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If your son’s lane was ending and he had to merge, it was his job and responsibility to yield and stop if necessary.

There is no legal obligation to allow someone to merge into your lane (though aggressively blocking may be another issue). If you choose not to, you are a douchebag. But not a law breaker. Even if it is costomary for locals to “take turns” (which is nice and proper) it isn’t legally required.

So what you taught your son was not how to safely operate a vehicle in a lawful manner. What you taught him was that regardless of the law, he should do what seems fair.

You obviously didn't read my description. I specifically said that both lanes ended into one lane. So the other guy's lane was also ending as well. Unfortunately, nobody broke the law in this situation, including my son. He was in front of the guy who tried to cut us off and he has the right of way to merge next. He tried to speed up and cut him off the road.

You are probably one of those jerks who cuts people off on a regular basis.

And your description is vague and poorly written

You say people “generally take turns” and the guy on the left “wouldn’t let him in”. This suggests the right lane ended by merging into the left lane. Right? And given that there is apparently a good deal of traffic, I think you are omitting what the traffic signs say. Maybe you’re simply accustomed to what people “generally” do and don’t pay attention. Understandable.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If your son’s lane was ending and he had to merge, it was his job and responsibility to yield and stop if necessary.

There is no legal obligation to allow someone to merge into your lane (though aggressively blocking may be another issue). If you choose not to, you are a douchebag. But not a law breaker. Even if it is costomary for locals to “take turns” (which is nice and proper) it isn’t legally required.

So what you taught your son was not how to safely operate a vehicle in a lawful manner. What you taught him was that regardless of the law, he should do what seems fair.

You obviously didn't read my description. I specifically said that both lanes ended into one lane. So the other guy's lane was also ending as well. Unfortunately, nobody broke the law in this situation, including my son. He was in front of the guy who tried to cut us off and he has the right of way to merge next. He tried to speed up and cut him off the road.

You are probably one of those jerks who cuts people off on a regular basis.

No. Actually I am not. Nor am I aggressive. Nor do I weave in and out of traffic.

What two lane road is it that collapses into one that does not have a sign that says “Left lane ends. Merge right” (or vice versa). If it isn’t there, it’s a failure of your locality.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If a merging car appears timid at all, I don't want them in front of me. Who wants a timid driver in front of them on a single lane road?

I'd rather have a timid driver in front of me than an aggressive driver behind me, tailgating and passing uphill on a double line. I wish I were making this up, but I'm not. It's a regular occurrence.

Same.

Pro Tip: when being tailgated, hit the wiper fluid. They'll back off every time.

Anonymous wrote:If a merging car appears timid at all, I don't want them in front of me. Who wants a timid driver in front of them on a single lane road?

I'd rather have a timid driver in front of me than an aggressive driver behind me, tailgating and passing uphill on a double line. I wish I were making this up, but I'm not. It's a regular occurrence.

Anonymous wrote:If your son’s lane was ending and he had to merge, it was his job and responsibility to yield and stop if necessary.

There is no legal obligation to allow someone to merge into your lane (though aggressively blocking may be another issue). If you choose not to, you are a douchebag. But not a law breaker. Even if it is costomary for locals to “take turns” (which is nice and proper) it isn’t legally required.

So what you taught your son was not how to safely operate a vehicle in a lawful manner. What you taught him was that regardless of the law, he should do what seems fair.

You obviously didn't read my description. I specifically said that both lanes ended into one lane. So the other guy's lane was also ending as well. Unfortunately, nobody broke the law in this situation, including my son. He was in front of the guy who tried to cut us off and he has the right of way to merge next. He tried to speed up and cut him off the road.

You are probably one of those jerks who cuts people off on a regular basis.

he sign probably didn't even register with this crazy driver, OP. If they want to plough through, a sign won't stop them.

If your son’s lane was ending and he had to merge, it was his job and responsibility to yield and stop if necessary.

There is no legal obligation to allow someone to merge into your lane (though aggressively blocking may be another issue). If you choose not to, you are a douchebag. But not a law breaker. Even if it is costomary for locals to “take turns” (which is nice and proper) it isn’t legally required.

So what you taught your son was not how to safely operate a vehicle in a lawful manner. What you taught him was that regardless of the law, he should do what seems fair.

Anonymous wrote:If a merging car appears timid at all, I don't want them in front of me. Who wants a timid driver in front of them on a single lane road?

OP here. I feel I need to clarify the circumstances of the "merge." We were not merging into traffic. We were in one of two lanes that merged together into a single lane. Every other car would take turns, and we were supposed to be next. Unfortunately, for the person in the right lane (us), there is no way to yield to someone because of the flow of the traffic and the fact that my DS would have had to come to a full stop due to the fact his lane literally came to an end, which is why he almost hit the curb. He was being neither aggressive nor passive. He did the right thing by not slamming on his breaks and not panicking and I commend him for that.

What infuriates me is the the driver persisted after my son got in front with the tailgating antics. The level of anger on the road is horrifying....even toward young innocent new drivers. It is baffling.

If a merging car appears timid at all, I don't want them in front of me. Who wants a timid driver in front of them on a single lane road?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Yesterday my 16 year old student driver was merging from a double lane into a signal lane, where generally every other car takes turns merging in. He was doing exactly as he should and it was his turn to merge but the jerk on his left would not let him in and almost drove him off the road. The position this driver put my son in was extremely dangerous because there was no shoulder and he almost hit a curb. Then he proceeded to tailgate us!! I am so shocked that jerk drivers don't even give a break to learning drivers!!

He may have been doing just the right thing, but you needed to teach him to yield to assholes and let them go ahead. No good being dead right...

Exactly. I remember when my oldest was learning and one of the things we worked on was how to deal with assholes. If your son is ready for more than residential street driving, you really need to work on this. The behavior you describe is unnerving but unfortunately it will happen again.

+1. My mom is very big on "winning" in traffic so in situations like OP describes, she would push me to make sure I don't let the jerk driver cut me off. I would have been much better off being taught to let the jerk go so I don't have to deal with them harassing me for the next umpteen miles.

As this board demonstrates, yes, there are many sad, angry little men in this world with small penises.

Sad and gross OP!

Tell him he better get used to it. I leaned to drive in this area and it was terrifying.

On a related note, when there is a merge lane, you're more than welcome to use that merge lane all the way until where you have to merge. It's designed to work that way. I hate the people who come to a complete stop at the beginning of the merge instead of slowly making their way in the merge lane with their blinker on, and merging as traffic allows. And for those who won't allow cars to merge in...you suck. That's what an f-ing merge lane is for. Now if you zoom up the shoulder than try to cut over, yeah, that's a jerk move. But merging from a merge lane. Um, that's what you're supposed to do.