h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

When a driver, usually in an audi or mercedes,, drives up on the outside and pushes in. And then, and this is the bit that really gets up my goat, they switch on their hazard lights and wave at you as if you had 'let them in'

Akin to that, people who persist in overtaking on a bit of dual carriageway just when it's about to revert to single lane. So I have to slow down to allow them room to get back in lane.

This one might be a bit controversial.

PH: Drivers that DON'T wait until the end of a merging lane to merge.

I know, I know!

But it's the people that see that their lane is ending (not exiting, that's completely different) and slow down to squeeze into the next lane over are the ones that slow both lanes down. The most efficient method that keeps both lanes flowing better is for those in the ending lane to keep in that lane until it actually ends and vehicles in each lane alternate to merge. It's called "zipper merging".

http://arstechnica.com/cars/2014/07/the-beauty-of-zipper-merging-or-why-you-should-drive-ruder/

Now the drivers that wait until the end of an exit lane and then try to squeeze into the thru lane, well those !

PH: People who say 'that really gets up my goat'.

Yes, I know it's originally American, but please would you use either the original 'gets my goat' or the later 'gets my goat up'.

'Gets up my goat' simply isn't acceptable to our caprine friends.

I'm American. I've never heard anyone say something "gets up my goat".

That must be a mixed wotsit.

What do people say something gets up?

Nose?

Alley?

Jumper?

Post 16981

My eyes just saw what they expected to see, I guess.

BG your post was very relevant to me just now due to M5 roadworks. The slip road between the M6 & M5 goes from two lanes to one on the right and I often wonder which is the correct way to deal with this merging.

If I stay in the right hand lane it usually crawls and I get annoyed at the people who indicate to pull over way before the actual merging. But if I stay in the left hand lane until I get to the merge point I feel like I'm somehow queue jumping by passing all that crawling traffic in the right hand lane . So I usually end up indicating right pretty soon after the "merging traffic" sign.

Deb

I like how in that link I provided, they say you should merge where they've set up the lane to merge rather than leaving so much of the lane capacity unused.

It really comes down to how much traffic there is and how much the merge is slowing down the thru lane. When there's not much traffic and the thru traffic is proceeding at a good pace, merge whenever is convenient, it's inconsequential. But as traffic increases and the thru lane slows down it's better to go to the end and alternate vehicles, utilizing more of the lane capacity.

Merging early blocks the ending lane and slows the thru lane more than zipping.


It's not intuitive and most people instinctively feel that someone is "cheating" if they merge early and others pass them by merging late. Many folks consider driving like a race and feel like every person who passes them is somehow slowing them down. I'll admit I used to feel the same way.


But again, people who do the same thing with a lane that's exiting, well they can take a flying at a rolling doughnut. They can take a flying at the moon!

And do you get those vigilante trucks who block the inside merge lane to prevent folks queue-jumping?

OH, yeah.

PH - people standing in groups across a train platform so you have to go near the edge to get by, or force your way between them.

Sometimes, well marked right and left transit lanes, plus waiting lanes, near for people waiting to board, and against the wall for people waiting to meet arrivals, plus a safety lane, crossed only while boarding or exiting, might help.

...that and an advise to keep groups within the appropriate lane...

As if that would work

It does in Japan. I have seen it work in some major stations.
The problem is on the underground & smaller stations where no-one knows where the doors will be - or they don't care.

Slow taxi-cab response.

I went out for a walk this evening (about half a mile), gambling on a taxi to get me home if the stresses probed to much for me, which they did.

I called for a taxi and waited hour, after hour, after hour, repeatedly calling the taxi company to remind them I was still waiting at approximate hourly intervals.

I finally made it home with somewhat less than half an hour to spare against the midnight bed check and in time for my evening meds.

There's a remedy, of course, for slow taxi response.

Collect taxi driver cards and tip shamelessly.

Wow... Taxi response sounds even worse in your area than mine. As much as I believe the so called "gig economy" is yet another way to separate the working class from benefits and reasonable wages, ride sharing services respond much more quickly in my rural/suburban area than licensed cab companies do.

Having spent the past three days in Lincoln, my current Petty Hate is cobblestones. I need to use a rollator to assist with mobility. Rollators and cobbled streets don't mix.