welcome back to meverett's driving struggles! continuing on from the last driving focused post, made in december!

i was originally writing this under the last post, but i got worried about line limits again, so new post!

question of the day- why are people so fucking bad at driving on highways/higher speed limit roads?

yesterday morning, when i got onto 97 to go to work, there was a truck in front of me (like a box truck), who's back door wasn't secured down, so every time they hit a slight bump it would open like 6 inches and it made me so fucking nervous to be behind.

then, this same guy was continuously swerving onto the shoulder and wobbling, which is a sign that a) bro definitely should not be driving, b) bro is either on his phone or tired to the point of not being able to drive safely, and c) this guy should not be driving!!!!

it was so uncomfortable being behind them though, so eventually i found a time to switch lanes and pass him (on the left, of course).

so then, you'd think everything would be fine and dandy, yeah?

no.

for the past like 6 miles, there has been a semi truck following me/in the lane next to me (was behind me on 50, then next to me on 97). now, trucks of all varieties make me nervous, but semi trucks especially since they're so big.

this would've been fine if the semi was following state laws, but they weren't, so it was not fine.

on 97 (and other highways), it is state law that slower traffic must stay to the right of the highway (so pass on left, move over if you ain't gonna keep going fast).

this semi truck was going the same speed as/slightly slower than the right lane, and showed absolutely no indication of wanting to switch lanes.

i didn't want to be directly next to this semi truck for miles, so i slowed down and maintained my speed being about 3 car lengths behind them.

then some braver people moved in front of me and passed the semi truck on the right, so i followed suit because i was still mad uncomfortable being behind them.

then all was fine for a bit, until the cars in front of me slowed down too much around a turn that genuinely, they didn't need to slow down for, and the semi truck got in front of me again.

but i kept going, and things were chill for a bit. then later down 97, however, this semi was being fucking irritating for no reason.

when people are trying to merge in front of me and i have the ability, i try to give them as much room as possible. i'll slow down a tad so the guy in front of me keeps going and then the merging car has a giant, 8 car length hole to merge into.

repeatedly, whenever it is a van or suv that is merging, they'll indicate, i'll give them a fuck ton of room, and then they'll keep signaling without any sign of actually merging, and then after half a mile, they'll merge in front of me.

that is so unbelievably stupid to me though, if you're merging onto a highway, why wouldn't you be paying attention to merging???don't turn your signal on to merge if you aren't going to try and find a time to merge. it is so dangerous to be that inobservant of what is happening around your car, especially on a highway.

obviously pay attention to where you're going ahead of you, but usually when you merge onto a highway, it'll be a (mostly) straight road, so you can divert a bit more attention to the lane next to you to merge.

but these people don't do that, they just wait forever and ever and it makes me wish i didn't leave them room to merge because it kills me inside when they just don't merge over.

also, yesterday afternoon, there was a kia trying to merge in front of me to get out of an exit lane, but they positioned themself in the exact spot where i could see they were there, but i couldn't see either of their indicators, so i had no fucking clue that they wanted to merge in front of me.

i actually do not understand why they did that. they went the same speed as me, stayed right next to me, which, if you want to merge, you should ideally be more in front of the person you're trying to merge in front of! does that not make sense???

and when i did finally notice that they were trying to merge over, they still made no attempt to get actually in front of me to move into my lane, so i slowed down and let them in (despite them having a considerable amount of exit lane left that they could've and should've used (in my opinion) to move slightly ahead of me so i could see they wanted in).

maybe i'm just inexperienced so i don't understand why this guy was merging like that, or if that's normal, but jeez. way to throw me off.

back to the actual topic i was addressing, the semi truck. this semi truck, for whatever reason, stayed in the left lane, going the same speed as the lane next to it. eventually, they turned on their indicator to merge right, and they left it on for a solid mile.

i saw them trying to merge, they were in front of me to the left, so i slowed down and gave them a sizable gap, which i feel like was enough for them to merge. this semi did not merge.

i understand that they want to have space in front for braking since they're so heavy and take longer/more distance to stop, but they could've moved over and slowed down a bit, increasing the gap between them and the car in front, and then moved on with driving.

eventually they gave up on merging, turned off their signal, and like 2 miles later, tried again, with actual success that time though.

i don't know how difficult it is for semi trucks to merge, but this guy was really getting on my nerves for the entire time i was on 97 yesterday morning.

but yeah, i've abandoned the slower route to work that my parents tried to make me do, because on one hand, it is nice to be chilling while driving, but it's also nice to not have to drive for 80 minutes after work finishes versus 55 minutes by highways in the afternoon.

yesterday while i was driving (i saw the notification banner, and it was slow traffic) my mom sent a map picture and the 2 eyes emoji to a group chat with me and my dad, and my first thought was that it was a comment on me being on 97 (when they don't want me driving on 97 for work, especially with heavy traffic like yesterday).

and then i got home and looked and it was just her pointing out that me and my dad were driving really close to each other (he was on 32 at the time). and i didn't hear any comment after that! so W for me.

she's been more annoying with me about driving than my dad though, all i want is to go see people i enjoy being around after work instead of doing nothing and being sad from the lack of human interaction and she pesters me about it.

i tell her i'm making plans, she goes ":|" and hesitantly "agrees" to me going (i phrase it as asking for permission, but we both know (at least i hope she knows) i'm telling her my plans and just need her to know so she doesn't bitch at me for taking the car without asking).

and then she forgets what i said about the plans and bitches about it.

like this morning, i was gonna wait for like 15 minutes before leaving cuz i don't wanna be excessively early to work, but then she made the dog bark so i just went to go sit in the car, and then she followed me outside, letting the dogs out who then decided to bark even more, and got mad because there are "niceties" that are expected of me before i leave (what????).

i didn't say bye or anything (i was running from the noise), i didn't reconfirm the details for plans i told her about on monday (i thought she understood them), i walked out of the house to go sit in the car and she got mad at me.

parents be so whack :9.

but yeah, she started complaining about my lack of the previously mentioned "niceties", which is not something i thought was expected of me since i would walk out of the house abruptly for school with an "mmm" as my goodbye response, or nothing if she wasn't nearby when i left.

i dont holler back into my house that i'm leaving, i don't text her that i'm off, she knows where i'm going and that i'll leave between 6:30 and 7 am so i dunno what her deal is, suddenly being upset over me not being in the mood to hear loud dogs in the morning or talk (i never want to talk in the mornings anyways).

and i also don't know what the "niceties" she was talking about are, for all i know she could just mean that she wants me to tell her i'm going, or she could be talking about my lack of conversation, or a million other random things.

then, since she completely threw off my plans to leave, i got in the car and pretty much immediately left (she also kept standing outside with the dogs so i wasn't gonna stick around for her to bother me more), and when i got to the end of my neighborhood, i had no service so i just had to keep driving sadly, instead of waiting like i wanted.

yeah that's that i guess.

love driving so much. it's so great. spending $45 on gas every week :,).

cheers
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