And literally how not to!
by Mauve Maude
November 8, 2020
This is meant in the most literal possible sense, but feel free to take it figuratively as well.
In many, many, many hours spent on the road, on urban expressways, state highways, rural roads, city streets, and even suburban, residential drives, I have observed something. And anyone who’s spent any time in this country, just this year alone, will most likely agree. Americans have a cooperation problem.
People who know me know this is a nagging pet peeve, especially in the context of propelling ourselves down our country’s thoroughfares in motorized vehicles. We have the potential to cause each other much stress at best and, at worst, serious damage to life or property. And unfortunately, we take on that potential while closed off in little isolated pods, where we suffer under the delusion that we, and maybe some passengers from our personal lives, are the only people who exist. And if anybody should cross our path with evidence to the contrary, we have the potential to become so enraged, we find ourselves doing some absolutely crazy things. This exhibits over and over, and as the stress and outrage outside of our vehicles becomes more and more intense, so does the stress and outrage inside those little pods, which don’t protect a fragile ego as much as we’d like to think. I am not immune to this. I’m a generally passive, reserved person who’s had to make a concentrated effort not to let other drivers make me furiously angry, for years. Most of the curse words my kids have learned have been from me at the wheel.
Now, obviously I can’t tell what other drivers are thinking; I can only wonder, or make up stories. But it also seems to me that some people are simply oblivious to their lack of cooperation, much less how to remedy it. So as part of my ongoing need mission for transportational therapeutics, I am putting this out into the universe today. Buckle up, because it will get technical.
How to Cooperate with Other Drivers and Make Things Easier for Everybody
First of all, we already have rules and procedures in place to tell us how things are supposed to work on the road. Much of the time, it’s just a matter of respecting them and following them–remembering that we have them for a reason. They’re not punitive; they’re functional. Often we’re punished when we decide to go around them, and find ourselves illustrating for everyone why the rules are in place. Perhaps something we didn’t think about (but somebody else did, and that’s why the sign’s there) can have us blocking rush hour traffic, not getting where we were going, waiting for police officers and tow trucks, or worse, fire trucks and ambulances. But sometimes, I suspect, it’s a matter of not knowing the rules.
Let it flow.
So here’s the biggest thing!
It’s flow. This is where the most cooperation is needed, and this is our biggest problem. But we have a way to keep things flowing, if we can just get together and do it.
Lane usage is huge–being in the correct lane at the correct time. Here’s where everybody who knows me rolls their eyes and says, “Are you doing this?” Yes, I am! Our roads are designed to work this way: slower traffic to the right, passing to the left. City, country, or suburban residential. It doesn’t matter.
To illustrate, if you’re in a passing zone on a two-lane highway, and you want to pass the slower vehicle in front of you, where do you do it? On the shoulder? No. As long as traffic’s clear, you go left and enter the oncoming lane. If you’re not in a passing zone, you have to suck it up. But do slower vehicles sometimes move over on the shoulder and let you pass as a courtesy? Yes, if it’s safe, and if they want to. That’s how it’s supposed to work.
So if you have two lanes of traffic going in the same direction, vehicles should travel in the right lane unless they’re passing slower ones, or turning left ahead, at which point they move to the left. After you pass, you get back over to the right. People think of these as the fast lane and the slow lane, but really, the left lane is the passing lane. While I’d definitely say anyone traveling below the speed limit should stay to the right, going the speed limit or even above it doesn’t qualify you to be in the left lane. Passing (or turning left) does.
Why you shouldn’t be in the left lane
The problem of your being there is this. People are supposed to pass on the left. If you’re hovering over there, not passing, they can’t pass. The driver behind you can’t get past you to get back over to the right. A driver on your right waiting for you to pass so they can get in the left lane can’t get over. You block the flow. And sometimes this causes people to pull drastic, risky moves so they don’t miss their turn or their exit because they’ve spent too much time waiting for you to get out of the way. For example: gunning it and passing you on the right, where the slower traffic is supposed to be, or on the shoulder, where no one is supposed to be. So if you’re not passing or turning left in the near future (like, you can point it out, not just some time today, like fifty miles down the highway from where you are), you just shouldn’t be there. Move over.
If you have three or four lanes going in the same direction, that’s beautiful! Slow drivers, right turns, mergers, and exits to the right. Through cruisers in the middle. Passers or left turns on the left. Flow.
Lane changes and merges
So how do you change lanes when you need to? Same principle applies. Slower traffic to the right. If somebody is trying to change or merge to the right in front of you, theoretically you should always let them, because you are in the slower lane. Tailgating is a no-no anywhere, but it’s especially ridiculous in the right lane, where slow drivers are supposed to be. It’s basically terrorism. If you want to go around them, or go faster, you should be moving to their left, not blocking them or tailgating them. Let them in. If you want to change or merge to the left, keep in mind you’re changing into the faster lane, or lanes. So if you can’t match the speed, you should always yield to advancing oncoming traffic and change behind them, and give yourself plenty of time to do so. This includes people coming out of any passing lane left of the lane you want, who may be executing a pass and should have the right of way to move to their right. (Jumping in front of a faster moving car is cutting them off, and it’s a grand way to cause a collision. If you do this to someone, they have good reason to be mad at you.) If you see that somebody beside you on your right is trying to change or merge to the left, you should quickly pass them so they can fall in behind you. But: in heavier traffic, if somebody is clearly trying to change or merge left behind the car in front of you, which is what they’re supposed to do, let them. Flow.
Seriously, don’t block people from merging. It’s just petty and childish, and you’re actually doing more to clog traffic than to speed your trip up. And on that note, when a lane is ending, due to the regular traffic pattern, an accident ahead, or road work, traffic should use all available lanes until it’s time to merge. Then all drivers perform a zipper merge, with what? Cooperation! Apply the lane change rules above. Think of it like a grocery checkout. Is one open lane enough? Or are two open lanes better? When you have two lanes of traffic with one ending, and then everybody tries at once to pile up in one lane (because they don’t want to worry about merging), it just creates a line that’s twice as long as it needs to be, full of frustrated people who inevitably start blocking each other from merging because they were there first and that person waited too long and doesn’t deserve to come in and you’re going to teach them today! Why did they wait so long? You don’t really know. Maybe because nobody’s let them over? Maybe because this line extends past where they got onto the highway in the first place, and merging is their only option? (This used to be a daily commuting ordeal for me.) Grace and cooperation are called for here. Everybody’s trying to get somewhere. Flow gets everybody there faster, not pushing and fighting like impatient children.
Bonus tip: when your lane is marked with a solid or double line, that means don’t merge, pass, or change lanes just yet. By waiting, you’re allowing other people to see you and cooperate with you. The highway planners have already spent the time figuring out how much room is needed. When the line breaks, that’s your cue to merge and their cue to let you. Obviously if there’s no other barrier there to stop you, it’s just up to you to cooperate. Think flow. Remember you’re not the only person there.
Honestly, that’s pretty much it on the subject of cooperation. You know you’re supposed to stop at red lights. You know you’re supposed to abide by the speed limit. You should know what side of the road you’re supposed to be on, and who has the right of way. On second thought, maybe I could write another article about that. But at least know how traffic flows, how things work, and cooperate. Let’s help each other out.
And P.S.
Actually all of these rules also work fantastically with shopping carts in grocery aisles too. Try it! And remember, you’d never leap in front of a car, go the wrong way, or abandon your car in the middle of the highway. Would you? Happy driving!
What do you think? I would like to hear from you, but you won’t find the typical Comments section here. If you have given the issue some thought or have an experience to share, please enter it here, or send your response to Maude@mauvereport.com. I would like to share viewpoints from all lanes.
Read more of the author’s firsthand stories under Who’s Maude?