Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP
Posting-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site hou5d.UUCP
Path: utzoo!linus!security!genrad!grkermit!masscomp!clyde!floyd!vax135!ariel!hou5f!hou5g!hou5h!hou5a!hou5d!mat
From: mat@hou5d.UUCP
Newsgroups: net.flame
Subject: Re: "Please move over, you are blocking me"
Message-ID: <802@hou5d.UUCP>
Date: Tue, 31-Jan-84 21:09:27 EST
Article-I.D.: hou5d.802
Posted: Tue Jan 31 21:09:27 1984
Date-Received: Thu, 2-Feb-84 01:27:59 EST
References: <274@hou2h.UUCP>, <207@pyuxnn.UUCP>, <527@pyuxa.UUCP>
Organization: AT&T Information Systems Laboratories, Holmdel, NJ
Lines: 67

>	If <...> thinks that I am going to get out of his way when he
>	flashes his headlights at me, he has got another think coming.  If
>	I am moving with the flow of traffic, be it 55, 65, or 70, and you
>	expect me to dash out of your way, your nuts.  In the first place,
>	you have no business doing 75 where there is other traffic.  In the
>	second, dashing up behind someone and blinking your lights is just
>	plain stupid and reckless.  If you do it in Jersey, and the Staties
>	see you, it will get you a fine and points.
>
>	Every time some jerk pulls this one on me, I manuver into a situation
>	where I can then just begin to slow down and let the a**hole stew.
>	I don't give a damn how good a driver you think you are, tailgating
>	at 70 mph is sign that you have absolutly no regard for anyone else
>	on the road.  Thinking only of yourself when you are on a highway
>	will probably get you killed or you will kill someone else.
>
>	Your attitude about driving is the kind that causes accidents.  If it
>	were up to me, I would have your license revoked and your car smashed
>	in a crusher.  Just who in the HELL do you think you are that you
>	should receive special treatment?  


With all do respect to those who like to live within the law, I
believe that you are at least as likely to cause an accident, and
more likely to worsen one, than the fellow moving faster.

***WHY***??

Because tactics like yours (called, in past days, road-hogging) cause
cars to bunch together.  With less room between cars, accidents are more
likely, and when they occur, following drivers cannot get out of the way.
An accident that occurs between two cars with 5 mph difference between them
turns into a seven or ten car pile-up with the last cars smashing into
wrecks that are almost stopped.  And smashing into the driver's or passenger's
door.

Enforcing the law is NOT your job.

With cars packed close together, people can't manuever for exits.  I
grimace at the thought of the number of times that I have been stuck between
and to the left of these inconsiderate idiots.  Often, the only way to make
an exit is to speed to 70 or so and go around the FRONT of the pack.

Let courtesy be your guide.  I expect courtesy;  I expect to be able to
merge onto a highway.  I expect to be able to keep some space around me if the
road isn't chock full.  When the right lane is packed so that I can't merge
and the middle and left lanes are empty, I get very upset indeed.  By the
same token, I move out of a lane to let someone pass, or to let someone
on or off a highway.  And on highways with shopping centers and small
stores, and no shoulder, I GET OUT OF THE RRIGHT LANE AND STAY OUT until
it is time to get off the highway.

By the way, merging from the Garden State Parkway north onto the NJ Turnpike
north at exit 129/exit 11  I usually encounter a line of tractor-trailer
rigs in the right lane.  Only once has a driver NOT moved left to let me on.
When an automobile driver does that for me, I feel like I want to stand him/her
a (non-alchoholic) drink.

And did you know that the New Jersey driver's manual states that driving too
slow and/or blocking traffic is an offense?  I hope you pull your stunt some
night on a tired state trooper.  They are not monsters, but if they are treated
with discourtesy they can play it by the book right to the last chapter.
You do have the proper yellow lamps in your parking lights, don't you?


						Mark Terribile
						hou5d!mat