Ten Drivers I Hate In Ten Days: Day Three - Jammers
Jammers: Jammers are those lovely people who go the very, very end of any merge area then jam their way into traffic rather than using the merge lanes to find a safe spot to pull in before the lane ends. These people are most active in construction areas, laughing as they drive by the backed up traffic until they get the end of the lane then trying to force themselves in whether there is space or not. They always seem surprised when someone blocks them…
July 31st, 2006 at 9:37 am
Yup, these were my most hated when I commuted to Virginia every day. I was at the point of designing an under car mounted, side firing caltrop dispenser. I contented myself with smiling pleasantly at them on those occasions when I had the chance to cut them off. I once had the satifaction of watching the guy I cut off (who was so busy gesturing at me that he wasn’t watching where he was going) run over several cones which became lodged under his car. I’m not sure about your name however. I would call the little old ladies doing 50 in the left lane “Jammers”. The people that you describe here, I would call “Cutters” or just “Pricks”.
July 31st, 2006 at 10:08 am
I have found myself in the “jamming” position occasionally. One is when the backup to exit catches me by surprise, and I’m by the tail end of the line before I realize that’s what it is, and no one will let me in. This also used to happens to me occasionally at where 50 splits between the GW Parkway and the TR Bridge. My entrance onto 50 is past where the backup generally forms during rush hour.
What I do in that situation is to find a spot out of the traffic pattern (if I can), turn on my turn signal and make eye contact until someone lets me in. It’s making the best of a bad situation.
July 31st, 2006 at 10:21 am
I think most people have sympathy for the car that is actively trying to signal and merge, it is the one up at the end trying to force their way in that really gets my goat. They are avoiding eye contact and just pushing out in a game of chicken, nobody likes to lose a game of chicken to some pushy jerk. If they look like they are trying to merge honestly but just kept getting pushed on, I will let them in with no gripes.
July 31st, 2006 at 1:31 pm
Agreed completely. Also, I was never nasty about it in an unexpected and/or unmarked situation. The thing that got me was the ones who would pull over into a clearly marked “EXIT ONLY” lane (big signs, arrows painted on the pavement), zoom to the end and then push back in. Don’t know if they are included in this category or if they have their own coming up.
August 1st, 2006 at 8:02 am
I don’t know about some drivers having sympathy for those who signal and try to merge. I’ve seen some drivers take that as maybe daring to try and be in front of them, which they cannot allow. So they speed up/close any gap.
August 1st, 2006 at 8:12 am
I think you are right Byrd, and I have missed them in my top ten. They really should be there. Hmmmm Blockers? Landlords? I may add them as an eleventh.
August 3rd, 2006 at 8:46 am
Well, I sometimes think that such drivers believe that they would ‘lose face’ or take it as an affront to their very being if someone comes into their lane in front of them. So some title that involves excessive pride or dignity maybe.
Maybe I see them more because I try to use the left/right signal when ever I’m going to change lanes and some other drivers take this as a “warning” of planned encroachment on their “turf”.