what is up dudes, back again with another update about driving because every time i go out for a drive, something happens that i can yap about.

this post is actually written on the 27th and is (hopefully) posted today, so that'll be fun. so much new content.

(note: it is now the 28th and i did not post it when i said i would, had to get a haircut and anxiously pack but i have extra to add so enjoy)

anyways, in a previous post (i got a job), i talked about how as i was trying to merge into an exit lane, the guy behind me decided to speed up as i was merging and things nearly got bad.

yesterday, on that same exit (which i drove past this time), i saw 6 cars all parked on the shoulder next to the exit lane, all with their hazards blinking.

clearly that exit is a high risk spot, because my word, 6 cars??

then i got off on my exit, continued with my drive around bwi's airport loop, and everything was chilling.

i pulled up to a red light behind a few cars and as soon as it turns green and people start moving, the car directly in front of me turns on their turn signal to go onto the shoulder to the right the moment they get out of the intersection.

the car in front of them also pulls off to the side of the road, turning onto a side road, so i'm pretty sure the car in front of me rear-ended that car. L.

i don't believe much else happened then, but oh boy, driving on the 27th was an entire thing.

on my way home from work, as i said before, i like to take 97 home for as much of the drive as possible since it's a lot faster and keeps my mpgs up, but sometimes i take other roads either before getting on it.

today as in yesterday as in the 27th, i had to go get my haircut in edgewater, and google maps told me to go on 170 for a portion of my drive and get onto 32. cool. can do that.

so i start off on 195, as i drive by 1b, the exit where previously i had seen 6 cars parked on the shoulder with their hazards on, i saw 2 new cars parked with hazards on. clearly, a lotta shit happens there.

but i continued on, taking the exit and i needed to. everything was going great until i got into odenton on 170, where some guy decided to be a complete fucking moron.

my dear reader, ponder this for me.

if you are waiting to go onto a road that has a speed limit of 50 miles an hour, and in this scenario, it doesn't matter if you're turning left or right, you're turning into one lane, not across two lanes, and you can see the approaching traffic extremely well.

if you are waiting, when should you go?

a) when no cars are driving towards you, there is a sizable gap between cars, or after a car has just passed you and no more are approaching

b) right before a car approaching you gets close, with an increasingly shorter distance

now, before you answer, reader, consider this too: this road is mostly clear at this time, and any cars that are on it (actively moving, with right of way) are going between 45-55 miles an hour. it is a two lane road, quickly becoming one lane.

if you answered a, you'd be correct! that is when you SHOULD go!

if you answered b, then you'd be exactly like the idea that cut me off yesterday (the 27th)!

i was going 55 mph, there were no cars in front of me, and there was a guy behind me about 2 semi trucks back (i'm using semi trucks as my unit of distance, i do not know how much a foot or meter is and i'm bad at estimating boat lengths/car lengths, but i can guess at semi truck length).
he had a good amount of room, so if i started breaking, everything would be fine.

as i'm driving, i see a white honda indicating to turn into the lane i'm in. this person definitely saw me, because if they didn't see me, i don't know where they'd've been looking, since they only had to look at oncoming traffic from one way.

but i'm approaching this guy, he's not moving, and i'm thinking, alright, i don't need to slow down since this guy will get into the lane after i pass.

wrong.

this fool, this buffoon, this utter moron, decides the perfect time to turn onto this road is when i am less than 3 semi trucks away from him. mind you, i was going 55 miles an hour, and this honda was accelerating from 0 miles an hour. stationary. at rest.

now, sometimes i will pull onto a fast road in front of someone and feel like there's a little bit too little distance, so i'll floor it 'til i'm up to speed and then cruise, so the guy behind me doesn't have to break much (if at all).

this guy pulls out (he did what???) in front of me, from nothing, and barely accelerates. then, as i'm quickly approaching, he pressed on his pedal, lurches forward, then slows down immediately, then starts to SLOWLY speed up.

at this point, as soon as he pulled out into the road, i realized he was gonna be too close and i was gonna have to break.

i had to break a lot.

i didn't want to slam my break completely, since the guy behind me may have hit me then, but i pressed down a lot, and my bag nearly slid off my passenger seat from me slowing down so quickly. honestly, it would've done nothing, but i should've honked disapprovingly at this guy. he pissed me off so much.

and i'll say it again- i hate people who don't pay attention while merging!!!

we live in a merge or be merged world, and i don't want to be merged, so i try to merge.

i won't claim to be good at merging, but i'm definitely not as bad as some of the people i see on highways.

once again, a guy signaled to get out of an exit lane, and he was basically in the space where if i gave him room, he should've merged in front of me on this highway.

nah.

i gave him enough room to merge in and have some space safely considering the speed (under the speed limit, there was traffic afoot), and instead of taking advantage of that space, speeds up to go force his way in front of the car that was in front of me.

i really don't understand how people can start merging and then not be actively trying to merge. are they distracted? are they doing something else? are they so bad at driving that they need to lock their eyes on the road in order to not crash on a straight road?

i don't know, but it hurts my soul.

i feel bad when i merge badly, like yesterday, the lane i was in was ending but i slowed down a bit too much to merge zipper correctly and then the lane ended so i sped up a little bit and merged in front of this guy who, if i zippered right, would've been directly behind me anyways, but it felt like i was cutting him off and i felt really bad.

i am also still very unconfident with my driving if i don't routinely do it.

backing into a space? i'm great at that. merging? i'm improving!
doing a u-turn in edgewater? no way bro. my car could absolutely make a tight u-turn on a two lane road, but i hesitate. feels sketchy.

i can't remember if i wrote about this previously, i know i told tar, but forgive me if this is a repeat.

probably in my first week, i was driving home on 170, and on a one lane road, the car in front of me indicates they wanna turn left. there are cars approaching continuously from the other side, so i stop behind them and wait.

a bit before this, i noticed the car behind me looked vaguely like a cop car, but not a lot, so i kind of ignored it and moved on with my life.

then, as we were all stopped and waiting for this car to be able to turn, suddenly a truck pulls out onto the shoulder to pass me and the car turning. then the car turns left, i start moving, an suv pulls next to me (on the shoulder), following the truck.

i sped up a little bit to stop this guy from getting in front of me, since, if you're in such a rush, you should've planned better!

i was being petty, i know, and it was definitely not the safest thing to do, but it bothers me when on a one lane road, people drive onto the shoulder to pass someone.

it would be great if there were more lanes so you could keep going! i know! i wish that too! but one lane roads are one lane roads! you are not meant to pass people on them from the shoulder!

as i started moving, the car that was behind me pulls out behind the suv too, and turns on their lights to pull them over.

it was in fact a police car, which was very silly, and i appreciated the instant karma for the suv. the truck did get away, but trucks are scary so whatever. at least one of them got what they deserved, a ticket.

i was absolutely ecstatic about this though, so i (carefully) got off my map and called tar to tell them about it so that i wouldn't forget. clearly i didn't since i've got detail, but boy oh boy that was so funny.

i bring this story up since, for one, it's about driving, and two, people really love to illegally pass on the shoulder!

if you're in such a rush that you have to drive on the shoulder to get a little bit further a little bit sooner, then you should have tried to plan better. don't be an asshole.

but yesterday, on my way home from edgewater, i was driving on central and like in the situation i described, a car in front of me wanted to turn left, so i stopped (one lane road). the car behind me stops, waits, then pulls onto the shoulder to pass me and the car, but then the car went, so i immediately sped up to stop them from passing me.

i will be that bitch.

i then debated going under the speed limit just enough to bother them and drive in such a way that they wouldn't be able to pass me, but i did not. i wish i did, but i need to drive a little longer before i decide to be a dick and mess with assholes like that.

driving 600 miles over the past two weeks is nowhere near enough driving experience, you know? 18 hours in that same time frame? nuh uh.

but yeah, then i kept driving (at the speed limit), and eventually got to my turn, so i indicated and slowed down, and bro went around me, illegally, on the shoulder, and i really considered blocking the shoulder just enough to stop them while i waited to turn, but of course, i did not.

next time i absolutely will. what are they gonna do? be upset that i'm stopping them from being illegal?

a while back they put up a few of those silly pole things by the homestead garden's intersection so people couldn't ride the shoulder up to the right turn, and i think it would be nice if they put some of those next to the turn onto wayson from central so people have to stop. it's ridiculus.

if you are bothered by my opinion on this, i don't care, don't drive like a complete asshole. speed if you want, as long as you aren't endangering other people. passing on the right on a one lane road is an L though, just wait. at worst if you stop, you wait like 30 seconds to a minute longer so this person can turn, at best they go really soon after and you can proceed!

and if you don't stop, you might get pulled over by a random cop! so, you know, don't be a dick.

cheers and drive safe homies :)
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