I certainly never said that. I am smart enough to know that no one walks away happy when a crash occurs. (They're not accidents.)

However, the law is clear -- thru traffic has the right of way. It is common sense for thru traffic to move over if possible.

In some cases, merging traffic has absolutely no blind spot. The on-ramp in the situation I described is a long straight one. The ramp plus the merge lane must be at least 1/4 mile in length. The guy had plenty of time to get onto the highway.

My other "rude driving" pet peeve is when alpha-drivers insist on making right turns on red in front of the courthouse (where I work) even though the traffic sign reads "no turn on red". Why? Because the Metro stop is across the street and we get these people called *pedestrians* that actually like to cross the street to go home after work WITHOUT BEING RUN OVER!

:: anger ::

Yesterday,some ghetto thug with pitch-black tinted windows and rap "music" blaring at 120 db almost ran me down while I was trying to cross the street with the right-of-way. He had to slam on his brakes to not hit me. But that wasn't enough. He rolled down his window and hurling a string of curses and terrible oaths at me (exposing his three gold-plated teeth). Of course, he had only been speeding by about 20 mph, and he was wearing dark sunglasses (even though his car windows were already nearly opaque!)

I wish this had been an isolated incident, but drivers like this make up a big part of Baltimore "culture".

He has some things in common with the Escalade SUT driver with the "MF 4" licence plates...

61.5mpg lifetime - 82mpg in recent months

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"fanatic" is what the lazy call the dedicated

I don’t depend on other people's driving behavior and would never assume that "they can see everything." I can only control my own driving by driving defensively and trying to time and space my car correctly when I merge.

I see lots of drivers who assume “oh they must see me—I’ve got my turn signal on, so it must be OBVIOUS I need to get in.” And when they get hit because they suddenly cut in front of someone, I guess they can sleep comfortably that they were right because some made up law says “the victim of a rear-end collision is not at fault”

Sometimes, the rude driving is *heard*, not *seen*...

I work in the 5th floor of a courthouse (as an investigator) and a really odd thing happened today. At 3:22 PM all the windows in the office started vibrating, and a low, stacatto beat played through the air. But wait! This is Maryland, not California! It wasn't an earthquake.

It was somebody's car stereo system running at full blast.

What I have to ask is this: how loudly did this dude have to play his stereo in order to make the windows in a 5th floor office start vibrating? Moreover, how did the sympathetic vibrations *not* tear this guy's car apart?! And if it was loud a block away, five flights up, and indoors, what would it be like to be a passenger in this guy's car?

So... My idea is this: people who go deaf by age 30 because they blast their stereos to 175 decibels should *not* get any subsidies from Medicare for hearing aids! Foooools!!!

I've had the fleeting fantasy of a 200db stereo with directed PA speakers that would play whatever genre of music is most likely to offend the one blasting their stereo....don't wan't to run down my IMA battery pack.

61.5mpg lifetime - 82mpg in recent months

Best Run >
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"fanatic" is what the lazy call the dedicated

Amen to that. My buddy used to install stereos and he would always get repeat customers looking to increase the power, add more amplification. Why? Because they were all going deaf and needed more dB's to hear...(true). Kind of like cooking a frog. Start with a pot of cold water (normal dB levels) and gradually increase the heat (more dB's), then the frog doesn't know what hit him until its too late. Also, I believe that this phenom is a "male" thing, possibly territorial, because I don't think I've ever seen a female driver with this type of sound system??? Or it could be that they all still live at home and parents don't allow big sound so they use the only space available, their cars......

However, I do get a kick out of seeing my rearview mirror vibrate when one of these noise polluters is within 5000 feet of me at a stop light....

At the gym, I'll sometimes stomp on the treadmills conspiciously when the beat from the aerobics class sounds like carpet bombing.

I would like to do a video and when the thud gets overwhelming, show people and things bombed into the Stone Age - in rhythm of course.

61.5mpg lifetime - 82mpg in recent months

Best Run >
www.cleanmpg.com

"fanatic" is what the lazy call the dedicated

Do you or do you not agree that the person in the slow lane has a clearer view of what is about to happen?

If the answer is yes, then what collision are you refering to? If you are silly enough to stay in a lane and collide with the merging car with a blinker on and is oblivious to where you are just so that you can prove a point. Well who is the silly one now?

If your answer is no, then I can't help you.

Btw... If you rear-end somebody. You are always at fault. Period.