Road Rules

I was getting on I-35 yesterday just north of Ben White. There's a stop light right before the on-ramp with a left-turn-only lane, and two lanes that go straight. There's some construction you have to get through to reach that point, but it's clear from some ways off that the left turn lane does not give you the option to go straight.

A white pickup truck came up past me in the left lane, while I was waiting in the correct lane to go through the intersection and then get on I-35. You can literally see when the guy realizes he needs to get over because he's not turning left - he suddenly slows down a hundred yards before the light. This is a common sight, and in fact I did it once myself at this very light. Nobody's perfect, and he could expect to be let in if he put his right turn signal on and waited. But no.

This guy speeds up again, puts his signal on, and continues to drive all the way up to the light. This struck me as total asshole behavior. He expected to be let in at the front of the line, and as anybody who's been through elementary school knows, cutting in at the front of the line is worse than cutting into the middle. Those people at the front have probably been waiting at this particular light longer than the ones in the middle, since not everybody gets through in one light change, and they could be forgiven for having less tolerance for cutters. I can imagine a road rage incident coming out of this kind of thing, when the white pickup then guns it once the light turns green to get ahead of the lane to his right.

Traffic in general feels more dangerous here in Texas than anywhere else I've lived, partly due to the poor road design, but jeez. Show some common courtesy. People do appreciate it, and it doesn't cost you anything.