![]() But Illinois is like LeMons racing, where both lanes are expected to cooperate. You can look at it like this: Most states are like NASA and SCCA racing, where there are specific rules giving the right of way to one lane. Illinois is one of the few exceptions, and only with regards to freeway on-ramps, where the law of that state places a mutual responsibility on traffic in both lanes to adjust accordingly. Most states place the responsibility of merging solely on the traffic in the lane that is ending. In being disinclined to get out of the way of merging traffic, I had the law on my side. At that point I would blare the horn just to watch them experience a brief moment of full wakefulness behind the wheel, usually accompanied by a swerve towards the shoulder. When I was behind the wheel of the Discovery and enjoying the unfettered self-righteousness of my late twenties I would often lurk right behind those uncaring mergers until they drifted in my direction. My faux-Seven shared a driveway with a Land Rover Discovery. ![]() I also made it a habit to stay out of the merge lane, because the average American driver merges onto the freeway by looking dead straight ahead, accelerating to about ten miles per hour below the speed limit, and rolling down said merge lane until it ends, at which point he moves over without turning his head a millimeter in either direction. I was effectively invisible to anything taller than an MGB.Īs a consequence, I learned in a hurry to make sure I always had an escape route on the freeway in case the driver of the vehicle next to me decided to make an unannounced change into what he or she no doubt saw as an empty spot. My seating position in said vehicle put the top of my head below the beltline of a Camry or Accord. ![]() In what seems like a past life now, about fifteen years ago, I owned a sort of loose copy of the iconic Lotus Seven, a fantastically unreliable mongrel with a Ford engine and a Toyota differential built in Africa by people who could lay down glass-smooth concours-quality paint without breaking a sweat but who couldn't weld two beads without leaving a hole between them. ![]()
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