This morning Les MacPherson had a hilarious article in The Star Phoenix about merging and the apparent inability of drivers in Saskatoon to complete said driving manouver.  Here’s a bit of the article:

“…let’s review the definition. To merge means to combine, to join or to blend gradually.  It does not mean, as many Saskatoon drivers seem to think, to impede, to obstruct or to thwart.  Those are the opposite of merging.
    The road sign confirms the meaning. Where drivers are expected to merge there is often a big sign saying ‘Merge.’  What you won’t see is a sign saying ‘Impede,’  ‘Obstruct’ or ‘Thwart’.  This is no oversight. This is the result of careful planning by professional traffic engineers.  They must ask themselves, ‘Why do we bother?’
    Often, there’s a special merge lane.  Here is where the definition of merging becomes so important.  If you’re in the merge lane and, instead of combining, joining or blending, you’re impeding, obstructing and thwarting, you’re not with the program.
    We might as well not even have merge lanes in Saskatoon.  They’re often as not blocked by drivers who, instead of accelerating to merge with higher-speed traffic, have slowed to a standstill.  Wrong, wrong, wrong.  Slowing down is what we’re supposed to do at an amber light.  Speeding up is what we’re supposed to do in the merge lane.  Among Saskatoon drivers there seems to be some confusion between the two….We often see this guy, stopped dead at the end of the merge lane with his signal light on, peering backward over his shoulder for a gap in traffic sufficiently huge to safely accelerate from zero to 90 km/h.  Of course, such gaps are rarely to be found even in moderate traffic.  And so he waits and waits, while, stuck behind him in a long line of vehicles the drivers gnash their teeth and rend their garments. If you’re seeing this a lot in your rear-view mirror, you’re not with the program…”

YES. Yes. Yes. Yes. And, might I add:  Just because you are too lazy to merge onto the freeway and then take the exit off the freeway, rather than just driving along the shoulder to your exit, don’t expect other drivers to yield to you. Also? The left lane is called THE FAST LANE for a reason, jackass.  Fast indicates rapid movement.  Slow would be the opposite of this definition. If you aren’t able to drive fast then you may be misguided about the intended purpose of a highway.