I Was Inspired To Write This As I Sat In Traffic On South Broadway For 40 Minutes Yesterday Just Trying To Get The Villages At Cumberland Plaza In Tyler.

We all know that with progress comes growing pains including increased traffic as more folks are discovering what a great place East Texas is but there's still a bunch of yall who don't understand how YOU can do your part to make driving easier for us all by utilizing a section of roadway that seems troublesome for yall.

The merge lane.

If you're still not understanding what I mean, let me explain so we can be unequivocally clear.

We've been there before, especially in Tyler coming off Old Jacksonville Road as you try to merge onto Loop 323 next to the Brookshire's Warehouse. Every damn day, some one will STOP at the white lines where the merge lane starts and instead of keeping themselves moving and merging into traffic, they WAIT to see if they can dart into one of the far lanes from 0 to 40 into oncoming traffic.

The purpose of this lane is for you to SAFELY MERGE into traffic without slowing everyone else down. In the photo above you see two drivers that understand this concept. You stay MOVING in the MERGE LANE until you can find a point to safely merge into traffic.

Another Terrible Intersection In Tyler Where Nobody Knows How To Merge...

The merge lane at the intersection of Sunnybrook/Earl Campbell and Frankston Highway is another location where A LOT of drama takes place because of the same crap: I'm not looking at the lane ahead of me where I can merge, how can I force my way into oncoming traffic. Clearly some of yall continue to not understand its purpose.

Folks, its already bad enough our area has a MASSIVE DUI problem, let's not make it worst by not being observant of the rules of the road. Learn to love and use the merge lanes in East Texas. Its there for a reason and would be a really big help. Thank you.