People generally allow you room when you indicate with your turn signals, though I do see a lot of rude SUV driving in the suburbs, and of course, downtown. My biggest problem is when I'm riding my bike, people seem to think this is a challenge to try to run me off the road. Even my son and I were attacked while riding in Lorain, someone in a van threw a water bottle at us. I think the solution should be to allow bicyclists to shoot at drivers who get too close - they have a deadly weapon, shouldn't we be allowed to defend ourselves?

I make a game of driving in traffic. It can actually be fun if you "depersonalize" the experience. People pay good money for high definition video games so why not treat actual driving as a game - minus the physical contact, of course.

The best part of the game is predicting what the other driver will do. This comes with experience because you must detect the behavior that signifies a lane change, for example. When the other car starts drifting towards your lane and then moves into your lane you are not surprised, or angry, because you new it was going to happen. Score one for you.

If you can edge forward and cause the other driver to change his mind, score two for you.

Coming to an intersection and seeing a fast moving car approaching from the cross street. The light turn green for you but will the other car stop? Assume that he will run the red light. Score three for you.

Keep a pad of paper and a rubber stamp handy. That simplifies the scoring while driving, or reach out the window and stamp the area just below the window sill. Like fighter pilots do.

@Chris Wood: Yeah fighting for bike lanes is the biggest problem around here too. Drivers obviously are seen by politicians and city officials as the ones with the money (Taxes!) so they get the preference.

Most social ills are a chicken & egg problem - Nobody wants bike lanes b/c "nobody will use them, look how many bicyclists we have now!" and nobody will bike b/c "There aren't any bike lanes - too dangerous!"

As with the rude SUV drivers - I met a bike messenger around here who told me he used to use his U-lock and smash it up against their car door when cars did things especially evil around here. Nobody knows your name and you're always faster than a guy on foot ;-) Plus most car doors are some synthetic that resists scratches anyway so it's almost harmless (except to ego)

Despite the fact that it appears that "lane-brain" drivers are oblivious to the rules of the road, I believe they are not - everyone knows to stop at flashing reds, not to run red lights, observe the speed limit, etc. Why do they persist in flouting the law? Simple, because they can get away with it. The economic troubles affecting our country extend to protective services, such as state troopers and local police forces. Cops can't be everywhere, and now even less so. Compared to say, targeting drivers suspected of running drugs, enforcing the rules of the road is not as big a priortiy. But if there is one thing Americans, especially New Yorkers, understand is the purse string. Fine 'em and fine 'em hard.

Well, I drive to work over the PULASKI Skyway or on the New Jersey Turnpike every damn work day, and I know the answer to this question. YOU CAN'T. These roads do not intersect. The first paragraph of the article really doesn't make any sense.

To go from the Turnpike to the Skyway, you have to exit the Turnpke and follow another road (Routes US 1&9 North) to get onto the Skyway. The ramp from the Turnpike merges into the right lane of 1&9. I guess that this is the merge that Vanderbilt was talking about. The Skyway exit is on the left of 1&9, about a mile from where you get on from the Turnpike so you have to move over to the left lane fairly soon, but I have found that it is easy enough to do safely, even in heavy traffic. It certainly is not a "Live Free or Die" choice. The speed limit along that stretch of road is 50 MPH, and that is plenty fast for that narrow and busy highway. If some aggressive driver flying in the left lane has to slow down to only 10 MPH over the limit so I can move into the that lane to get the exit and doesn't like it, tough shit for him or her. Nobody has a right to endanger the lives of everybody else.

Regarding the turn signal business, one should ALWAYS signal before changing lanes on the highway, or on the street for that matter. Merging onto a road from a ramp or where lanes come together is another matter. Unless you intend to move into another lane, I say signalling can just add to the confusion. If it is obvious that you have nowhere else to go, don't signal.

I thought I was the only one who practiced 'zen driving." I see it as driving with the 'flow' of traffic. Anything that blocks irrationally, or that over-accelerates that flow, is dangerous or inefficient.

That said, I've been driving a lot slower - coasting to stop signs and red lights, staying in the right lane on freeways. I've never driven the speed limit so much in my life! So the speed of the flow is the present issue. And that speed is only going to slow down. I think 'slowing' down to save gasoline (and the environment) and to achieve safety (which saves money) is what our lead-pedal hotheads will have the most difficult time with. Since getting there in "time" is the only reference they have.

Wow, you really are an asshole (by your own admission). But I have to enthusiastically applaud you for owning up to it. Articulating your issues the way you did is laudable. Sometimes we have to work from the outside in - I know it's so simplistic in a "Just Say No" kind of way, but please, fake it till you make it. What I'm trying to say is to go through the motions of being a good driver despite the fact that it pains you, and eventually the good habits will be ingrained. It just may change your notions about others and yourself. I wish you the best.