brink wrote:
> "Dave Head" > wrote in message
> ...
>
>>Had a big backup on I-74 south of Indianapolis once. There was an exit
>>about
>>1/4 mile up the road, and having put on a road rally in the area, and
>>knowing
>>about every back road there was around there, I knew that if I got to that
>>exit, I could parallel the interestate for about 10 miles and go around
>>whatever the delay was. I pulled into the breakdown lane to pass everyone
>>and
>>access the exit, and asshole trucker pulls into the breakdown lane just to
>>block me. WTF does he care that I get down the road? Anyway, I just
>>drove the
>>AWD Eclipse into the wide, shallow, grassy ditch and continued. Was
>>hoping to
>>see him attempt to block me there - that damn rig would probably have
>>rolled
>>over in the soft dirt... but he didn't. Pity. If it ****ed him off, then
>>my
>>strategy worked...
>
>
> Those are tough situations. I think you had every right to do what you did
> and I would never begrudge someone doing it.
>
> The problem is when people use it as a lane to try to get ahead of the queue
> and then discover up ahead that they need to merge back into traffic because
> of the construction/obstruction/accident/whatever. Then they cause the
> backup to worse for the people who are waiting their turn.

If someone in good faith goes into an open travel lane only to
"discover" (your word) that the lane closes after having passed other
traffic, it's hard to fault them. It's an open travel lane, after all,
and if everyone is merging correctly, they won't cause the backup to
worsen in any case.

Now people who use ramps to do this are another matter, and if they end
up stuck at the end of a ramp until the heat death of the universe, eh,
no skin off my nose.

>
> I wish there were a way to signal one's intentions when one is using that
> lane just to get the fudge off the roadway via the exit just ahead rather
> than just using the shoulder as an illegal passing lane.

You mean, like a directional signal?

nate

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