xkcd

You can be nice, just make sure you think about what you're actually doing before doing it.

Letting a car go in front in the situation above: you're probably causing an accident.

Letting a car go in heavy traffic when there's one lane each way and everyone's stopped already anyway: won't cost you much time and you've allowed that person to move on with their life instead of being permanently stuck at an intersection he's never going to be able to get out of unless someone yields.

I live close to a few intersections where if no one is nice and yields, it's impossible to join unless you barge your way in and hope people stop. But to be fair, these aren't designed like death traps like the one above.

I especially hate when you're waiting to cross and people slow down to a stop and then wave you across, but there was no-one behind them.

You could have just carried on at the same speed and we'd both have got on with our day sooner.

fucking hate getting stuck behind some slow driver when trying to get on a highway. like fucker we are supposed to be reaching highway speed on this ramp not when we reach the highway🤬

I try to never use "the finger" when another driver is being an ass. In that case I always just give them a thumbs down and a sad face.

I save the middle finger for people who are being "nice", especially when it is making things dangerous. I find it is the quickest way get them to just go.

I try to be coniderate while driving. Being predictable is safe. Deviating from the rules is dangerous. I think being safe more considerate than being "nice".

yesterday a guy tried to wave me to cross then started angrily raising his hands like "FUCKING GO!" completely oblivious to the car that flew past his left side in the opposite direction

Feels like at least part of the issue is multi-lane pedestrian crossings. Most of the time that should either be single-lane, a traffic light or a tunnel/bridge.

Ugh, I hate this. I don't care about waiting. As a cyclist, all I want is for it to be really clear what people are doing. Anything that messes with the right of way is sketchy.

Rules of the road:

1. Be predictable
2. Nobody else is predictable
3. Everyone is indifferent to your existence; you are merely a car to them
4. Your phone wants to kill you - leave it alone
5. The faster you go, the less of a difference 5mph makes - be safe, not fast
6. FFS maintain your damn car

Which is the delusion that the US's traffic engineers based all of their decisions on 60 years ago.

"This'll be fine hardly anybody lives out here"

Except the ones with two lanes that can both exit or continue

Nothing like getting to a 4-way stop and the cycle is going smoothly then some dipshit starts waving cars and throws everything out of whack and next thing you know everyone is inching forward at the same time.

Equally bad, the entry drives into shopping centers are often made to not stop when entering the lot, this way during busy shopping times traffic won't back up out into the street. This is a normal, common thing, usually plastered with signs "INCOMING TRAFFIC DOES NOT STOP" and you still get people stopping and waving cars through, thinking they're doing anyone a favor, when instead it's confusing everyone as to what the rules are at the intersection. Then cars start driving around each other and you get to hear that sickening "scrrrunch-POP" as the other lane started moving without noticing the rules had changed.

I have a feeling these are the same people who push a full cart into the self-checkout having never used a self-checkout in their lives.

I've got several years of experience riding motorcycles. It's taught me to read traffic. I see a gap in a line of traffic like that, it's either a driver who's smart enough not to block an intersection (rare), or someone letting another someone out.

A grocery store near my house has an entrance exactly like this, except the roads are 3 lanes each. It's genuinely a nightmare to navigate if it's even remotely busy.