Merging in traffic

Quick! What is the most important thing to remember when merging onto a highway?

The most important thing to remember, of course, is that you should only merge when you have an opening. In other words, look in your mirror and over your shoulder for a gap into which you can merge.

The next most important thing to bear in mind, however, is that you must match the speed of the highway traffic. In other words, you should accelerate until you match the highway speed and then merge. Sadly, so many people don’t seem to understand the importance of this.

I remember being stuck behind this woman on a highway in California once. We were both on the on ramp, but she apparently decided to come to a complete halt before merging into the traffic stream. In the meantime, I was freaking out. I was yelling, “Don’t come to a complete stop before you merge, lady!” Why? Because that just makes merging more difficult. It’s also plenty dangerous, since it greatly increases the risk that someone will ram into your rear.

Made things difficult for me too, since I was stuck behind her. In other words, I had to come to a complete halt as well, even though I knew better.

Just last night, I had to keep tapping my horn at this one motorist. He was trying to merge into my traffic lane, but instead of accelerating, he slowed down practically to a crawl. In the meantime, I felt like yelling, “Go ahead and merge, already!” He apprently didn’t understand that if vehicles like mine slowed down because he was moving at a snail’s pace, then we risked being rear-ended as well.

Conversel, there was this one other fella who was trying to get off the highway. Instead of driving firmly onto the off-ramp though, he slowed down and changed lanes slowly, almost painstakingly. The result? He occuped both lanes for an obscene amount of time, so my car, as well as the ones behind me, had to slow down to dangerous speeds as well. Ugh.