Road Rage

All of that horse puckey is not even relevant to the OP's question, no intersection involved, just a entrance ramp. Your trying to over complicate the discussion.

 

No there are on Ramps that do have yield signs unless he specifically asking about on ramp with no yield signs but again even common sense dictates that flow of traffic 70 mph, incoming traffic much slower would dictate that the must look, spot an opening and proceed to match speed of flowing traffic. Not the other way around

 

I have had this situation happen twice once in LA rush hour traffic and once in Atlanta during heavey traffic. In both instances I had cars on my six and beside me. I left off the gas to let them speed by and they slowed down. So I picked up speed to let them behind me to have them try and gun it past me at the last second of the ramp and almost had them under my trailer and they drove on to the shoulder. Slammed on their brakes at that point, once they did get on they weaved through traffic just to get to my side to honk and flip me off.. I smiled and kept driving and ignored them. To many times four wheelers try to bully a semi cause we don't want to hurt anyone. With that being said a truck can not change lanes as fast as cars. So allow the truck to go by and merge correctly to avoid a catastrophe unless you have room to get on in front of them. Law says to yelid and merge with caution, I always leave distance in front of me as I am traveling slower in heavy traffic. But if I'm almost past the final entry point don't try to push 80,000 pounds to the left cause it would be terrifying to run someone over because they can't wait a few seconds!!! I've only been on the road two months and have been on my own since graduating from school. But, I follow my teachers advice. This is my bubble and let others pass me as I'm not in a competition on the road.

 

I have better luck being steady and predictable, let the merging traffic work around me. But then, like ctss2726's experience, there are times when they seem like they are far enough along that I ought to slow to allow them to merge, only to have them slow even more. That's a tricky pickle.

The OP didn't mention (or maybe I haven't reread this thread carefully enough) what kind of entrance ramp it was. Normal entrance ramps have a fair amount of room to allow merging vehicles to observe approaching traffic and get up to merging speed. However, in LA or in parts of the east there are entrance ramps that are so short, with no chance to observe traffic, that the design of the on ramps are a hazard themselves. It's like playing a video game at level 10, cars popping up with seconds to make a decision.

 

At 75-90 ft long lane changes can be iffy at times. Most folks could care less about you or anyone else. This may sound unprofessional but I don't adjust for cars. They adjust to me. I follow the rules they need to as well.

 

I was taught growing up that "You were there first" when traveling on the highway. If you can get over fine, but don't change lanes just to let someone on.

Now, this is from a car driver's point of view. I haven't started CDL school yet, so maybe things will change once that happens.

 

my rule of thumb in that situation is move over if safe to do so if not if it looks like the vechicle on ramp is going to hit the tractor i'll slow down if it looks like they will strike the trailer i wont budge.don't worry they will get the hint very fast.in the 40 plus years i've had 3 strike the trailer and was never found at fault.for cheap money invest in a dash cam,best thing since sliced bread.