I am still shaking. And to have what could have happened keep flashing before my eyes, and to keep tearing up, and then tears flowing blurry my vision, is NOT safe while driving.
I keep saying that there should be mandatory minimal requirements for on-ramps - a long straight stretch parallel to the freeway/road you're merging onto where you can CLEARLY see the traffic on the road AND they can CLEARLY see you, with a shoulder wide enough to safely pull off if for some reason you can't merge on. Today I'd like to add that people should NOT be allowed to stand on the on-ramp shoulder, ESPECIALLY when that on-ramp in too short, curves too hard, and the sun is blinding the drivers looking back over their left shoulder as they attempt to build speed and find an opening in the traffic they can not see, which is barrelling toward them (those cars are also on a curve but speeding faster than the speed limit and not interested in moving over to make room for anyone coming on the on-ramp), and the on-ramp drivers are not looking just off to the right where a nice everyday citizen is standing (just the other side of the white line!) waving a sign reminding people to vote.
All of a sudden, there was an edge of a white sign out the right side of my eye - SO CLOSE. I would have just thought, "WHY would they post a sign so CLOSE to the road where it's going to get hit," I only saw the edge of the sign, not even really the person holding it. But I'd seen nice friendly people back at the begining of the on-ramp, standing way back off the road, waving flags and signs. I didn't really catch what the signs said other than "vote" and I think one said no on something, and just as I saw the edge of the white sign (farther up and around the on-ramp) as I was trying to speed up and squeeze between the rushing cars, I realized that a person must have been holding the sign, that if I had kept over more on the shoulder (until I could get in between cars - which we OFTEN have to do) that I'd have run right into him/her. So then, with this sickening, terrible, awful, horrible, scary, sad, panicked sudden thought in my head, I had to, in that same second, look back to my left and safely complete the merge on to the highway! And THEN continue driving away with the flow of traffic (or cause an accident there) while I'm screaming and throwing up inside and madly furiously asking my passengers (2 teenage sons - near-future drivers) if that person is okay, how close were they, and repeatedly muttering, "I hate on-ramps!" For them to look back to check, and for me looking in the rear view, the sun was still blinding until the highway turned again and we couldn't see the on-ramp anymore anyway.
So PLEASE! be a good citizen, go vote, politely and cheerfully remind others to vote, just DON'T do it by standing on the on-ramp and scarying me to death!
(Nathan insists that the sign holder was a few feet, not a few inches from us and that he/she "is fine." Michael didn't even see that last sign holder at all and kept insisting that there were only the ones farther back at the begining of the on-ramp. They both think I'm silly.)
