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Road courtesy, in the USA???

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What about "inside" and "outside" lane? Regardless of country, I think of the "inside" lane as the one closest to the median or oncoming traffic if there's no physical divider; this is the "fast" lane. The "outside" lane is where traffic enters the traffic flow, is farthest from the median, and is the "slow" lane.

No?

The inside lane is the lane nearest the hard shoulder or verge. The outside lane is nearest to the median and is for overtaking.

Other way round.

Snowbird Season has started in AZ and yep there's the big Lincolns driven by a little old lady clutching the steering wheel for dear life...

I don't get time to post here much any more but this thread deserves posting to. Bloody NJ (and NY) drivers.

I've lost count of the number of times the following situation occurs:

I'm merging onto a major road that really isn't moving (stop/go traffic), and when I get to the point of actually merging some tosser makes sure they are as close as physically possible to the car in front so as not to let me in (more than 50% of the time I get my own way though, particularly if I'm driving the car that already has a huge dent from someone reversing into it in an empty car park). This has even happened when there is a steady stream of traffic merging and everyone else seems to be happy to let one car in between them and the one that was previously in front - why do I always find the tosser who doesn't want to do what everyone else is doing? This even happened as I was merging on to the NY throughway the other week - the traffic on there was doing about 45 and there was plenty of room for me to maintain my 60 mph until the end of the merge lane and get across (there was a huge gap), but as soon as this one driver saw me coming down that lane he decided to accelerate to close me off. The worst thing was that as soon as I squeezed in front of him he dropped way back and cars from other lanes started to come in between us - I really don't understand what the point was.

I also seem to frequently get behind the person who brakes to a complete standstill at the end of a merge even though there was nothing stopping them actually merging instead!

(goes to rearrange brain)

This is counterintuitive because if you were to look at the lanes as a collection of lines, the "outside" lanes would be represented by the innermost lines of the group!

(sigh)

BTW my experiences as a tourist in England* were people didn't offer to let people enter a traffic queue in front of them (from the side)..... it's easier in Texas. On the other hand, in LA, not only will they never ever let you in, they refuse to make eye contact!

*whether I was in the city centre, the motorways, a country road....

Ignore the other side of the median. Think of the road as 2 or 3 concentric circles, you enter from the centre and (in the US) you drive around the circle clockwise, moving to the outside to go faster. In the UK it's the reverse, you enter from the centre and go counter clockwise.

I have found its the complete opposite here. People won't let you in at all. The only place that happened to me in the UK was london.

I really hate clover leaf junctions! They simply don't work as people either ignore the yield signs or jump from behind you whilst you are yealding for someone else.

The other day, I let a truck into my lane and he gave me the hazard light "thank you" blink. First time I have seen that here in the states. My first thought was " Is that Patrick or Rushman?"

Its the worst driving I've ever seen - and I put it down to selfishness.

I've been beeped at for having the audacity to actually stop at a stop sign.
I've been beeped at for not pulling out into traffic, even though there was no space to do so.

My worst experience was with a truck on the highway when I had not been here very long. I was driving along in the right lane (i.e. the slow lane - I can never get the inside/outside thing!) - leaving a safe distance between me and the car in front (2 second rule anyone?), and I was doing about 60.

In my rear-view mirror I can see a HUGE truck bearing down on me like something out of Duel. He gets to within a few inches of my bumper and then starts flashing his lights and blaring his horn. Given that I was already in the right lane, and had a car in front of me - I had nowhere to go.

He sat behind me flashing his lights and blaring his horn for a couple of minutes - and then finally overtook me.

It was terrifying - I was shaking like a leaf for the rest of the journey!

Every morning I drive on a flyover that starts as two lanes but goes down to one. The problem is that it only truly reduces to one lane at the same point that it also joins two lanes of traffic to the left and one lane to the right!

That means that people in the lane which ends must either get into the "main" lane very early, or they race down to where the four lanes of traffic join and try to find a lane to get into *there*.

This morning I was thinking of labelling the lanes:

"responsible people who have left early and/or polite people"
and the other lane, which ends:
"desperately running late and willing to look like a wanker in order to try to make up for lost time, or else just incredibly selfish"

It would just be *symbolic* you know....

LOL thats just what I was thinking this morning see post 16.

Karma for that one

I always give you boys a wide berth; I had it hammered home when I was learning to drive by my uncle (a HGV driver) and my dad (policeman) about avoiding lorries... not only will I be completely flattened if rear-ended but it takes a HGV a long time to gain speed if you have to hit the brakes.

Am I misunderstanding - there is a perfectly good lane, created for driving on I assume, that happens to merge at some point, and you're having a go at people who are using the lane?

In my opinion it is people who don't use the full length of a lane and hit their brakes earlier to pull across that cause most of the problems - not only are they slowing everything down but they're also creating the space for other people to race down the other lane causing more delays because the "sensible" driver now has to wait longer for about 5 times as many drivers going down the other lane getting in front of them.