The merge
An on-ramp is an acceleration lane, and its job is to let you arrive at the highway moving as fast as the cars already on it. Traffic on the highway has the right of way, so finding the gap is your responsibility.
- Accelerate firmly down the ramp and switch on your signal early.
- Glance at the traffic in the right lane through your mirror and pick a gap while you still have ramp left.
- Adjust your speed to arrive beside that gap, not beside a car.
- Check the blind spot with a quick look over your shoulder, then move over smoothly. Do not stop at the end of a ramp unless traffic is stopped too, because starting from zero beside 65-mile-an-hour traffic is far worse than any gap you were nervous about.
Lanes and spacing
Drive in the right or center lane and use the left lane to pass, which most states require by law in some form. Pick a fixed object, watch the car ahead pass it and count three seconds before you reach it. Add a second or two in rain or behind anything that blocks your view. Set your side mirrors outward until your own car just disappears from them, which shrinks the blind spot, and still look over your shoulder before every lane change.
Around trucks
A loaded tractor-trailer needs far more road to stop than you do, and its driver cannot see directly behind the trailer, close in front of the cab or along much of the right side. If you cannot see the driver's face in the truck's mirror, assume you are invisible. Pass on the left, do not linger alongside, and pull back in only when you can see the whole front of the truck in your inside mirror.
Exits and trouble
Move to the right lane a mile before your exit. Hold your speed until you are in the exit lane, then brake there, not on the highway. If you miss an exit, take the next one. Never back up on a shoulder or cut across the painted wedge. Every state has a move-over law requiring you to change lanes or slow down for stopped emergency vehicles and tow trucks with lights flashing.
Tip On long drives, stop every two hours or hundred miles even if you feel fine. If you catch yourself drifting or missing signs, pull off and sleep twenty minutes, since open windows and loud music do not work.
