Construction Zone Romance

Driving north on Aurora the right lane merges left at a construction zone. A black Audi sedan with all windows tinted nearly completely dark was following me close behind, side-by-side with a minivan.

I always leave at least three car-lengths of space ahead of me and let other vehicles merge in front, but clearly the Audi driver didn't think the minivan driver deserved the privilege of merging. Instead, the Audi moved closer to my rear bumper and the minivan stopped, the minivan driver leaned on the horn.

They deserve each other. One driver for not allowing a car to merge, the other for waiting until the last second to try and merge. One for hostile driving, the other for not paying attention to signage.

Hazardous driving behavior

I drive Interstate 72 to work in Jacksonville and back. I notice that every time I pass an exit ramp, either before the New Berlin exit, Ashland exit, or Jacksonville exit, someone will always accelerate and pass me right as we both approach the on-ramp that follows after those exit ramps, as if they are trying to create a dangerous situation that will cause an accident if someone is trying to merge onto the interstate from those on-ramps.

This kind of behavior happens even when taking I72 across Springfield to the east. It never fails. There is always someone in the left lane that forces someone in the right lane to slam on their brakes to slow down for merging traffic because they can't merge into the right lane.

Those people who choose to pass cars between the off-ramp and on-ramp on the Interstate need to be fined until they learn how dangerous their behavior is.

Any state police officers can post themselves on the overpass and get a good view of this hazardous behavior. State or federal legislators should find a way to designate the zone between off-ramp and on-ramp as a no-passing zone, and the areas should be well-marked, or the public made aware of this hazard.

Finally, the repeating serial ramp-zone passers who relish and exploit endangering others on the interstate should be treated as violent offenders and charged with attempted vehicular homicide. I see the same people repeating this behavior every time I go to work and come home. Is it really that difficult to hang-back and wait until after passing the on-ramp?