The Merge

A huge pet peeve of mine is while driving and someone is going to merge into traffic, but they insist that traffic slow down and make room for them to merge.

The very definition according to Merriam-Webster is “to blend or come together without abrupt change”, (source) yet you insist on merging into traffic that is going 50 mph and you are only going 35 mph. Why should the rest of us slow down to accommodate you? Are you too good to speed up? Are you incapable of speeding up? As a society, if we could all just get alone and try to have as little impact on everyone and everything around us, life would be great for all involved.

But, no, you are a special snowflake and you are going to jam your way into traffic as you lumber at the breakneck speed of a sloth around a herd of gazelles.

Directly from State Farm’s website, “Adjust your speed to match the flow of traffic before entering the roadway.” (source). From Cape Coral Police Department’s website (source) “According to the handbook, when merging onto the expressway or highway, the drivers entering the flow of traffic must yield the right-of-way. Those vehicles in the through lane have the right-of-way but should be cognizant and considerate that other vehicles are trying to merge. A driver CANNOT just move from the merge lane into the through the lane without looking or expecting the other traffic to slow.” The Valley Driving School from Canada, states “Use the full acceleration lane to match the speed of the traffic already on the roadway you are about to join” (source). So why do you insist on the exact opposite and try to force traffic to slow down for you? It doesn’t matter if the speed limit is 45 and traffic is doing 55, you are still merging into their flow, so you need to match their speed to merge.

Oh, and for the love of all things, use your damn turn signal.