From: lowry@watson.ibm.com (Andy Lowry)
Subject: Re: Tailgaters abound (merging lanes)
Date: Mon, 28 Sep 1992 19:29:28 GMT
Disclaimer: This posting represents the poster's views, not necessarily those of IBM
	<26039@castle.ed.ac.uk> <1992Sep21.180406.9119@linus.mitre.org>
	<1992Sep22.144005.24929@pictel.com>
	<1992Sep23.233120.19392@lmpsbbs.comm.mot.com>
	<1992Sep24.100402.10909@hemlock.cray.com>
	<1992Sep24.220009.4852@lmpsbbs.comm.mot.com>
	<Bv589G.H3@news.cso.uiuc.edu>
Organization: IBM T.J. Watson Research Center

In article <Bv589G.H3@news.cso.uiuc.edu> tmkk@uiuc.edu (Khan) writes:
 > Although I perdonally have never passed someone on the shoulder of
 > the road, I did pass some old geezer in a pickup truck by using the
 > on-ramp from a closed down weigh station to get around him on the
 > right (the left lane was closed for construction).  I knew that the
 > weigh station was closed, and double checked to be absolutely sure
 > there was no traffic of any kind on the ramp, then blipped over and
 > got around as fast as possible.

The main problem I would have with what you did is that your driving
behavior went utterly beyond what any driver (including the geezer)
could reasonably have expected you to do.  You buzz by this guy at a
point in the road where it seems inconceivable (after all, there's
only one open lane, and most people wouldn't consider the possibility
that somebody would come roaring by on the closed down weigh-station
ramp!).  Taken completely by surprise, the geezer panics, jams on his
brakes, and gets rear-ended by the guy who was following you (very
likely tailgating you becuase they couldn't deal with the geezer's
speed) before he can even figure out what just happened.

This is one of the problems with right-side passing in general (the
other, of course, being that you're less visible to the driver you're
passing than if you pass on the left).  It's not what people expect
you to do.  

I'm not saying the geezer was in the right, but despite all your
precautions, I still say you were very much in the wrong.

 > Not at all. The weaver doesn't make anyone else slow down, as the late
 > merger usually does. If the weaver cuts it too close and causes someone
 > else to have to hit the brakes, then he is being inconsiderate, but
 > usually this doesn't happen when someone is passing a left lane snail on
 > the right.

When I think of weavers, I picture the idiots who never stay in one
lane more than three seconds at a time, frequently switching multiple
lanes in a single hop and often alternating between lanes without
making any real progress.  More often than not, these drivers also
tailgate, from the same impatience that makes them weave.  And most
don't signal their lane changes.

From the point of view of other drivers, this driver is doing
completely unexpected things.  You should reasonably expect the
drivers around you to be very aware of what's happening in their own
lanes and adjacent lanes (especially adjacent lane to the left), but
you should not count on them having more than a vague notion of what's
happening two lanes over.  When you hop over from one of them, you
surprise the daylights out of them.  You also might have picked a very
inopportune time... the other driver might just be starting to move
left, thereby throwing your timing way off.

The point is that you don't have to "cut it too close" to cause
disruption to other drivers.  Just catch them off guard by doing
something unexpected.  And when you disrupt the other drivers, you
increase the likelihood that they'll end up in a collision.
--
Andy Lowry, lowry@watson.ibm.com, (914) 784-7925
IBM Research, P.O. Box 704, Yorktown Heights, NY  10598
Newsgroups: rec.autos.driving