Commenting from the Bainbridge ferry line here. Google Maps saw that traffic was backed up and "helpfully" offered me an alternate route that would only end with me cutting into a line ahead of the 50 cars patiently waiting.
Oh wow, I wonder if that explains it: yesterday I saw some truly astonishing line-cutting right in that spot, to the point where I confronted one of the cutters about it after confirming with an attendant that what they'd done wasn't kosher. I thought the person in question was playing dumb, but maybe they were thoughtlessly following map directions.
Anyway, thank you very much for not cutting. It's extraordinarily aggravating to sit lined up down the highway for hours only to see someone sail in ahead of everyone via a sneaky right turn.
I've been riding the Washington State ferries for over 50 years, so I wasn't tricked into cutting. Tourists and recent transplants would easily fall into this trap though. The Bainbridge line is particularly problematic as the cutting mostly happens at the last intersection, which is also heavily used by local traffic. There are signs, but some of them are a little confusing. For example, the requirement to ignore the HOV lane markings when getting into the line that forms on the road approaching the terminal.
A viable approach if you're up for it is a mad frenzy of honking at the driver under question. Works wonders in the Mexico-America border crossings, where folks will try to slip in at the last minute of a 3 hour line.
The locals wont particularly care for you. But they may become incentivized to put up signs, or otherwise disincentivize the activity at an infrastructure-level.
Definitely would have gone for some honking if it wouldn't have been ambiguous who it was at - this was one thing happening on the side of a busy intersection.
> But they may become incentivized to put up signs, or otherwise disincentivize the activity at an infrastructure-level.
Yeah, addressing it at the infrastructure level is definitely the way to go. According to the attendant, the local PD usually physically blocks the lane people were using to cut, but the PD was out to lunch at that moment.
The part I found amazing was that even without the barrier, cutting would require
1) being a massive asshole by design
2) driving so obliviously to your surroundings (immediately visible giant fucking line of waiting cars) that you're being a massive asshole regardless of intent
Idk about the distribution between the two, but either way, yes please to infra-level solutions.
