Dude, what are you doing? DUDE WHAT ARE YOU DOING!?

[Geek King]

The only time merging traffic is judged a priority over non-merging traffic is when the lane in question ends, in which case the through traffic must provide a place for the merging traffic to merge into. This is most prevalent with freeway onramps. If someone doesn't let you onto the freeway, you would get off better by merging into someone who won't make space as opposed to either driving off the road, crashing into a barrier, or stopping. Of course, if you could change speed to take another position to merge, then it's all back on you.

^-.-^

As always, check local listings. For instance, in Ohio, the merging driver always has an implied yeild. Though drivers are encouraged to use courtesy and adjust slightly to let merging drivers in.

Ohio Traffic Laws --Page 63 (p.69 in Adobe), Freeway Driving

[Chromatix]

Many cars have capacitor-charged turn signals. So they blink each time the RC circuit charges enough. They start charging when you put on the signal. So the first click or two you see/hear on the dash? doesn't light up the turn light.

If so, then that would almost certainly be an illegal design in Europe. Let me explain...

When cars began to be fitted with indicators as standard, rather than requiring the driver to make hand signals, the electric equipment required to do this (among other things) was made by a couple of big manufacturers.

They settled on a very simple design called a "timing relay", where essentially an SPST normally-closed relay, a capacitor and a resistor were packaged together in a plug-in box. Power was applied to one end of that box, and the indicator lights to the other, and the switches for the indicators (left, right, both) would ground the other end of the lights as appropriate.

When the circuit was completed by grounding one of the lights, the light would turn on *immediately*. The RC circuit would then charge up until it had enough power to open the relay, which turned out the light and disconnected the charging resistor. The capacitor then discharged through the relay coil that it was holding on, until eventually the relay would fall back into the closed position, turning the light back on. (The relay opening and closing is what made the original ticking sounds.)

This is about as simple and cheap a design as was possible in the pre-transistor era. It was even partially fail-safe, since if the relay circuit didn't power up for some reason, there was a good chance the lamp would still be lit. Also, if a lamp failed, there would be too much power going into the charging circuit, so the relay would oscillate more quickly, alerting the driver to the problem.

My maternal grandmother drove one of these old cars which, I suspect, still had an anaemic 6-volt power system - you've heard of these cars which are in excellent condition for their age because they were driven only by a little old lady twice a week, and yes, it was one of those. With the engine idling at a stop, the indicator would always slowly slow down, until after a few minutes it would be permanently on. As soon as there was more power, it would get going again. But it always showed the lamp as soon as she turned it on.

Any design which failed to live up to the above operational standards would be illegal anywhere in Europe. I'd say that designing such a poor device would actually be quite a challenge.

[EricKei]

and sometimes those insurance companies can be downright nasty.

Aye. Keep in mind that insurance companies (the companies themselves, not their workers ) are in the business of NOT paying claims