Is that not the most awful thing ever?

AUGH.

If only I could dowse that portmanteau with gasoline and burn it until it was just a black, greasy stretch of slag in the memory of fandom.

Yeah, I actually don't find passing on the right rude-- never thought about it really-- but the people who take advantage of the ending lane to jump the line really chap my hide. Even though, from an economics perspective, it is quicker that they do that, and they're taking on a risk that no one will let them in. Still seems rude.

That is truly dreadful, but then I'd like to eradicate the portmanteau phenomenon as a whole. Yerg.

Home. Migraine and stomach sick. Pathetic.

I get irrationally mad at drivers that will haul ass across three lanes, unblinkered, until they end up in a right turn only lane after they've exited.

And then they put on their signal.

Those motherfuckers know where the blinker control is, and apparently how to turn it on. IF YOU'RE IN A [DO THIS ONLY] LANE I'D LIKE TO ASSUME YOU'RE GOING TO [DO THIS].

It's a thing.

Yeah, the ending lane-ers are likely to get blocked by me. I will also block when people are driving up the berm to avoid a construction merge before an exit. I will also assist truck drivers if they block.

These are habits I picked up when I was driving Moby, the indestructible station wagon, though, and are not necessarily healthy for me to continue lo these many years later. Particularly when you consider that Moby was, in fact, totalled.

Everyone except a few drivers that stay in the right lane to pass everyone lined up in the big-assed long line and then cut into the lane to the left only when the right lane is finally closed. Wrong?

Wrong and evil.

That's the epitome of self-entitledness. I never, EVER let those people over. Which makes me a petty small-minded person, but I can live with that.

My [grand] Uncle Echols was the bad driver in the family. Once I asked him why he hadn't used his turn signal, and he answered, "Oh, everyone knows I turn here."

He fit the old joke: "He's never had an accident in his life. Lord only knows how many he's caused...."

That's the epitome of self-entitledness. I never, EVER let those people over. Which makes me a petty small-minded person, but I can live with that.

You are not petty and small-minded! How else will they ever learn!?!

My [grand] Uncle Echols was the bad driver in the family. Once I asked him why he hadn't used his turn signal, and he answered, "Oh, everyone knows I turn here."

HA!

In DC, people will often speed up because they don't want anyone in front of them.

That happens here in Austin, too. Drivers also believe that turn signals are a sign of weakness, the speed limit for minivans is 15 mph under the speed limit for the rest of us, merging is a game not unlike Russian Roulette, and it is perfectly acceptable to drive about a foot back from my bumper at 75 mph.

I saw Dana was talking about the miserable I-35 connect with UT stadium. Apparently, this is the result of a long-running feud between TxDOT and the City of Austin over how to address Austin's population boom over the last 10-15 years. TxDOT keeps proposing untenable plans (along the lines of "ok, we'll move the Interstate over here to go through one of Austin's oldest and most valuable downtown neighborhoods and then instead of a bridge over the lake, we'll just build a giant ramp" untenable).

In fact, just north of town on US-183, which is the direct route to Abilene and Lubbock from central TX, as well as the main direction of suburb construction for Austin's population boom, TxDOT and the city allowed two different tolling authorities to build sections of the same road. So now you have a northbound situation where everyone who doesn't have an electronic pass has to exit the road for about 1/4 mile, then they can pay a different authority $2 to travel another 1/2 mile. Southbound, you pay the $2, and then you immediately hit a sign telling you that you must exit if you don't also have an electronic pass. It's absolutely insane.

I don't block people driving on the shoulder. Often they're heading to the exit just up the way and that means LESS CARS ON THE DAMNED ROAD. Now, sometimes they're not, but you know what ? I won't take it as my responsibility to make other people not be bad drivers or jerks. Less stress that way. Still curse'em out though.