Before I tell this story I will give a caveat. I can get cranky when drivers around me drive stupid. Tailgaters and those who think the turning lane is their personal entrance to traffic can make me crazy. It is after behavior like that from others that I may be rude in my driving. Not dangerous or threatening, but certainly discourteous.

Outside of situations like that, I like to think I am a courteous driver. (Try not to laugh at my hypocrisy.)  If someone ahead of me turns on their blinker, trying to merge into my lane, I will slow down and give them room to get into the lane. But there is a fine line between courteous and stupid. Have you ever seen someone stop in a street to let someone turn left into or out of a parking lot? That's stupid.

Today I ran home for lunch. On my way back I drove through the mild construction on the southbound Racetrack (I-229) between Western Avenue and Louise Avenue in the far right exit-only lane. A semi-truck was a little ahead of me in the middle lane with his right turn signal on. Now, I knew he could still exit from the middle lane but maybe he needed to take an immediate right on 59th Street after getting off the exit. Maybe he was from out of town and was clueless. I didn't know, I didn't care. Traffic a little packed so I backed off a little to give him room. He still wasn't merging.

Suddenly I remembered something I saw dozens of times on the dozens of trips I took across South Dakota from Beresford to Spearfish. Out in the middle of nowhere late at night I would see semis that would flash their high-beams while they were close. After a while I figured out that they were signalling to the passing truck that they are clear and it's safe to merge.

Having remembered that I flashed my high-beams. Immediately he moved over in front of me to exit. He then turned on his hazard flashers for about four or five blinks. My guess is that was an acknowledgement of thanks for giving him the heads up to merge.

How many times have you seen someone floor it to make sure someone doesn't merge into the lane ahead of them? Probably more than you can count. So if someone is trying to merge into the lane next to you, just let them in. It won't make you more than 15 seconds later than you already were.

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