Yesterday I was cruising along the highway at 60-odd miles per hour when another car came speeding down a ramp and almost was on top of me. I thought about changing lanes but there was a car coming up in the left lane.
I watched the situation develop, waiting to see if Captain Clueless on the ramp was going to slow down — or speed up enough to “beat” me — but there was no adjustment. With a car length or two between us I hit the breaks and the horn hoping to avert catastrophe. No one hurt, thank God. But I’m tired of people merging into traffic expecting me to change lanes to suit them.
One of the worst things about this experience is that there was half a mile of empty lane behind me. Why do people think merging means the other car changing lanes or changing speed so they can pull up ahead of traffic? It’s not a contest, and it is certainly not a game of chicken. Save that for the high school drag scene down on Garfield Avenue after 10 on warm summer nights.
It’s rampant, 10 minutes later I stopped at 27th Avenue West to try to capture the phenomenon, which took me about one minute. This was my second picture. (above)
People all around the world manage to merge in and out of traffic with skill, attention to reality and appropriate courtesy. Only here in Duluth, MN do we have a rampant expectation that flowing traffic on an interstate freeway should somehow change lanes or yield to whatever bozo wants to share the road with us! It’s like Minnesota nice run amok. This false courtesy has softened people’s brains. Unfortunately, this time it almost softened my brain, on the frozen pavement outside, that is.
