Real Life Man of Genius - Emergency Lane Blocker Guy

[TMTTR]

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fwiw, I happen to agree with you that it's a douchebag move. While I can assume that 99% of emergency lane drivers are asshats, maybe someone has an actual emergency.

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The problem is that that is not really what the emergency lane (or shoulder) is for. The emergency lane is to allow a car that is experiencing problems to get out of traffic AND for first-responders to get to the scene of an emergency that is stopping traffic. It is not for you to bypass traffic to address your own personal emergency.

[otnemem]

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fwiw, I happen to agree with you that it's a douchebag move. While I can assume that 99% of emergency lane drivers are asshats, maybe someone has an actual emergency.

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The problem is that that is not really what the emergency lane (or shoulder) is for. The emergency lane is to allow a car that is experiencing problems to get out of traffic AND for first-responders to get to the scene of an emergency that is stopping traffic. It is not for you to bypass traffic to address your own personal emergency.

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This is true, but the person blocking the shoulder is doing nothing to alleviate that problem. If there was an ambulance trying to ride the shoulder, it's going to get to the accident a lot faster without someone trying to self-police the roads. And it's not like blocking the shoulder is going to cause the douchebag driving in it to think twice the next time he decides to do the same thing.

[kidcolin]

I know what it's for. But if there's something I consider really important that I need to get to, I'm not waiting it out due to the definition of the lane. I'll take the risk of an expensive ticket and trying to reason with the cops should I get pulled over. If I try to tell them a round of golf is really important, I'm a few hundred dollars poorer. If I'm on my way to a funeral, maybe they'll be reasonable with me.

Even being nitty and going by the book on it, it's still a dick move because you could be slowing down a first responder.

Put it this way: if I saw this event occur, I'd probably get a good laugh out of it. It wouldn't bother me at all. I hate those asshats as much as th next guy. However, it's just not something I would ever do or think should be done.

[tuq]

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This is true, but the person blocking the shoulder is doing nothing to alleviate that problem. If there was an ambulance trying to ride the shoulder, it's going to get to the accident a lot faster without someone trying to self-police the roads.

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You just can't let this go, can you? If an ambulance comes up on these people on the shoulder, THEY WILL GET OUT OF THE WAY. WTF.

kidcolin, your points aren't without merit (pregnant wife, other emergency, etc.), but in the OP's example neither of those things are likely to be in play in the middle of the desert in the middle of nowhere.

[TMTTR]

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This is true, but the person blocking the shoulder is doing nothing to alleviate that problem. If there was an ambulance trying to ride the shoulder, it's going to get to the accident a lot faster without someone trying to self-police the roads.

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You just can't let this go, can you? If an ambulance comes up on these people on the shoulder, THEY WILL GET OUT OF THE WAY. WTF.

kidcolin, your points aren't without merit (pregnant wife, other emergency, etc.), but in the OP's example neither of those things are likely to be in play in the middle of the desert in the middle of nowhere.

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QFT (with respect to both issues).

[kidcolin]

tuq,

dying old person from the heat in your beat up '87 oldsmobile with no AC. Whatever. Like I said, it wouldn't bother me at all, I'd probably laugh, maybe even give the guy a thumbs up. I'd just never do it because it doesn't really get me that worked up, I could still get a ticket for it, and I might be screwing something big up doing something I really didn't have any business doing in the first place.

[TMTTR]

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tuq,

dying old person from the heat in your beat up '87 oldsmobile with no AC. Whatever. Like I said, it wouldn't bother me at all, I'd probably laugh, maybe even give the guy a thumbs up. I'd just never do it because it doesn't really get me that worked up, I could still get a ticket for it, and I might be screwing something big up doing something I really didn't have any business doing in the first place.

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The question was not whether you would do it -- it was whether the guy who did it was a d-bag or a hero. I lean towards hero (with some d-bag qualities) -- if only for the fact that he is pissing off the d-bags who are just going to slow everyone else down when they are forced to merge back in.

[otnemem]

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This is true, but the person blocking the shoulder is doing nothing to alleviate that problem. If there was an ambulance trying to ride the shoulder, it's going to get to the accident a lot faster without someone trying to self-police the roads.

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You just can't let this go, can you? If an ambulance comes up on these people on the shoulder, THEY WILL GET OUT OF THE WAY. WTF.

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I was only addressing the quoted text in my post, which said that people driving in the shoulder block first responders. People blocking people driving in the shoulder delay first responders more. That doesn't make sense to you? I'm done with trying to explain my side, I was just addressing that one point, which IMO didn't make much sense.

[kidcolin]

TMT,

yeah, in the heat of the moment, I'd say 'hero' cuz I'd get a good laugh out of it and I'd probably be a little grumpy stranded in the desert. But later I'd think about it and realize that the guy was a bit of a dick himself, but think, "whatever, that [censored] was pretty funny."

We're all in agreement that otnemem cares a little too much on this one.

[otnemem]

OK, that's fine. I just thought it was an interesting thread, which is why I've posted in it so much. Seeing as I don't even drive, this kind of stuff doesn't really affect me any more. I just think that you could apply the same sort of policing qualities to a lot of other situations and realize how out of line they are.