My dad - I love him dearly, but he has this pontificating tone of voice that makes me want to smack him sometimes, especially when he's totally wrong about something yet making it loudly known that he's the only one who's right. "I always come to a complete stop at a yield sign!" he barked some time ago in that unmistakable basso profundo that implicitly insists that you do the same. A decent argument ensued between dad and the rest of us about how it's not safe to stop if there's no reason to because the guy behind you, having no logical reason to expect you to stop if there's nothing coming, might plow into the caboose end of your car. But, there's no convincing dad.
That's one wrong action to take around a yield sign - to stop completely when there is no traffic impeding one's entrance onto a road. But there's another practice that drives me even more batty - folks moving from the driving lane into the passing lane to "be nice" and allow the guy coming up to the yield sign free reign.
Now I'm not against being nice while driving. I like it when somebody cuts me a break at a long traffic light and motions for me to turn left while he holds up the oncoming traffic piled up behind him. Likewise, I often do the same for others and am often presented with the opportunity to do so when entering my own street which abuts such a busy intersection.
What I am opposed to is having some dimwit cut in front of me as I'm zipping along in the passing lane to allow somebody to enter from the on ramp while slowing me down in the process. I had that happen to me a number of times in my travels this past weekend which is why I'm bellyaching about it here and now. Sure, the guy who's moving over is being nice to the person coming onto the highway, but it's at my expense! And, it's gotten to the point where folks almost seem to expect everybody to move over for them without their having to observe the spirit of the yield in the first place.
How about from now on we all do what we're supposed to do at a yield? Stop only if the steady flow of traffic on the main road warrants a stop, and go when it's safe to go without expecting everybody already on the road to move over for you. Or would that make too much sense?
1 comment:
My first car accident happened when some "old guy" suddenly stopped entering a parkway for no apparent reason. No yield sign, just an acceleration lane in front of him. I stopped in time-barely-but the three people behind me were looking over their shoulders at oncoming traffic and piled into the back of each other, and me. The person who started this disaster drove off untouched.
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