- Joined
- Feb 1, 2004
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- 34,813
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- Location
- Lower Saxony, Germany
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Warning:
< rant>
Germans are known for their love for rules and regulations. Normally we are quite some law-abiding folks.
And I think that most traffic rules are there for a reason. OK, I admit to not always staying within the given speed limits, but a red traffic light is a red traffic light, and Give Way is Give Way, isn't it so?
So there is this wide country road (much wider than the average British country road! ... the kind that could easily be called a highway in American English). Two lanes and a shoulder to the left and the right (which means there is oncoming traffic, not two lanes in each direction like on a motorway!). The two exits towards "Pool Town" (the place where there is the pool in which Sabine swims daily) are designed in a manner that long sliproads help the entering traffic to accelerate and then merge and the exiting traffic to stay fast and only brake down on the exit strip. (Do you still follow me?)
Those who come entering the fast traffic on that country road (speed limit is at 100 km/h, which is a little under 70 miles per hour) have to give way. Understandably, isn't it? And isn't this the case worldwide? I would assume it is!
On the motorways, where there is a far lane on to which traffic can move to help entering traffic to merge, it has become a silent rule that - provided you have room for that - you move over to the far lane and let the entering cars enter.
This is not possible on the country road. To move would mean to move into oncoming traffic.
What is the consequence?
Those who are on the slip road have to yield and give way. If there is very little traffic, they can accelerate soon and almost be at 100 km/h when they enter, if there is traffic, they must roll, watch, wait, then accelerate and enter. That is my interpretation of the rule "Give Way" under the circumstances.
You still follow me?
Now for some obscure reason that I simply refuse to understand, people around Pool Town have begun to brake for entering traffic. Why ever that is so I really don't know. Right of Way is Right of Way, is my opinion. It is not like that country road was sooo crowded you'd need to let them in one by one ... in situations like that I am well willing to let one car in before me, hoping that each and everyone is willing to do the same. But when I am there alone, speeding (a little over the limit, I admit) along my lane, and there is traffic coming in from the right, right next to me, accelerating like crazy to get in before me, expecting me to brake for them (!), do I have to do that?
Tonight upon taking Sabine to the pool I did not!
Blew my horn like crazy when that Mercedes driver (female) simply came up onto my lane RIGHT WHERE I WAS, forced me over to the other lane (with oncoming traffic!!! Thankfully there is, in fact, enough room for three cars next to each other, the lanes are wide AND there is the shoulder), and entered the road before me. I used foul language (yes, even though Sabine was by my side), calling her "Stupid cow" and shouting (in vain, I know, she never heard me) "WHO has to give right of way here, eh?" And flashed my lights at her.
Boy I was mad!
And I am mad with all the others who have induced this silent "rule" that those who have the right of way give way to those who haven't. Now this behaviour seems to be expected! It also happened to me that I was on that same slip road meaning to enter, saw someone in my rearview mirror, did NOT accelerate but just rolled along getting more and more slowly, and that car would simply not overtake! But brake behind me and not go! How stupid is that, I wonder!?!?!?
OK.
< rant over>.
< rant>
Germans are known for their love for rules and regulations. Normally we are quite some law-abiding folks.
And I think that most traffic rules are there for a reason. OK, I admit to not always staying within the given speed limits, but a red traffic light is a red traffic light, and Give Way is Give Way, isn't it so?
So there is this wide country road (much wider than the average British country road! ... the kind that could easily be called a highway in American English). Two lanes and a shoulder to the left and the right (which means there is oncoming traffic, not two lanes in each direction like on a motorway!). The two exits towards "Pool Town" (the place where there is the pool in which Sabine swims daily) are designed in a manner that long sliproads help the entering traffic to accelerate and then merge and the exiting traffic to stay fast and only brake down on the exit strip. (Do you still follow me?)
Those who come entering the fast traffic on that country road (speed limit is at 100 km/h, which is a little under 70 miles per hour) have to give way. Understandably, isn't it? And isn't this the case worldwide? I would assume it is!
On the motorways, where there is a far lane on to which traffic can move to help entering traffic to merge, it has become a silent rule that - provided you have room for that - you move over to the far lane and let the entering cars enter.
This is not possible on the country road. To move would mean to move into oncoming traffic.
What is the consequence?
Those who are on the slip road have to yield and give way. If there is very little traffic, they can accelerate soon and almost be at 100 km/h when they enter, if there is traffic, they must roll, watch, wait, then accelerate and enter. That is my interpretation of the rule "Give Way" under the circumstances.
You still follow me?
Now for some obscure reason that I simply refuse to understand, people around Pool Town have begun to brake for entering traffic. Why ever that is so I really don't know. Right of Way is Right of Way, is my opinion. It is not like that country road was sooo crowded you'd need to let them in one by one ... in situations like that I am well willing to let one car in before me, hoping that each and everyone is willing to do the same. But when I am there alone, speeding (a little over the limit, I admit) along my lane, and there is traffic coming in from the right, right next to me, accelerating like crazy to get in before me, expecting me to brake for them (!), do I have to do that?
Tonight upon taking Sabine to the pool I did not!
Blew my horn like crazy when that Mercedes driver (female) simply came up onto my lane RIGHT WHERE I WAS, forced me over to the other lane (with oncoming traffic!!! Thankfully there is, in fact, enough room for three cars next to each other, the lanes are wide AND there is the shoulder), and entered the road before me. I used foul language (yes, even though Sabine was by my side), calling her "Stupid cow" and shouting (in vain, I know, she never heard me) "WHO has to give right of way here, eh?" And flashed my lights at her.
Boy I was mad!
And I am mad with all the others who have induced this silent "rule" that those who have the right of way give way to those who haven't. Now this behaviour seems to be expected! It also happened to me that I was on that same slip road meaning to enter, saw someone in my rearview mirror, did NOT accelerate but just rolled along getting more and more slowly, and that car would simply not overtake! But brake behind me and not go! How stupid is that, I wonder!?!?!?
OK.
< rant over>.