Who has the right of way on streets or highways where a merge is happening? If a city street has a sign that the right lane is ending and then the side of the road comes in, doesn’t the person in the right lane have to YIELD? Or are they supposed to just drive like they’re in the correct lane and make others move to accommodate them?

I see that happen a lot! On city streets, highway entrance ramps, and especially (now that I’m taking 90% highway to work) on highways where one highway merges into another. It’s no problem when the sign shows that the merging lanes will come alongside, but when the sign shows a large arrow and a smaller arrow merging into it, doesn’t that mean that the people coming from the smaller side need to yield and that the large arrow has the right of way? Or is traffic on the main highway supposed to come to a stop just to make sure that the entering vehicles can come in as they see fit? Or at least every other car?

I think many of our highway backups happen because people entering the highway are driving like they’re entitled to go where they want and everyone else better make room.

[tags]driving, highways, merging[/tags]