Houston driver issues rock-paper-scissors challenge for merging traffic lanes

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Trying to squeeze into a lane of merging traffic is nobody's idea of a good time — but Marco Sanchez managed to inject a little bit of fun into an otherwise frustrating situation for himself and a fellow driver.

Sanchez's video of the encounter in Houston, Texas, has been viewed on Facebook more than three million times.

The League City, Texas, man talked to As it Happens host Carol Off about the situation.

Here's some of their conversation.

Marco, how bad was the traffic?

Oh, man. It was just bumper-to-bumper, door-to-door.

People weren't letting anybody cut in front of them, because they were trying to get to the other side of the highway.

And people were just having these very grumpy faces. Houston tends to be very negative most of the time when there's traffic.

And they're very aggressive, the drivers in Houston, aren't they?

Yes, ma'am. You tend to hear a lot of bad news about road rage, and people doing violent stuff to each other.

Let's talk about what happened. So you see a guy who's trying to get in your lane. What caught your attention about him?

He'd been trying for 30 minutes or an hour trying to cut in. And he ended up getting next to me. And that was my chance.

So I decided to give him a challenge, just like the other drivers, but with paper-rock-scissors.

I was hoping that he wasn't thinking that I was flicking him off — because I was having two fingers out the window. But he was awesome. He was a good guy, good sport.- Marco Sanchez

How did you tell him that you were challenging him to a game of rock-paper-scissors?

I really don't know.

Man, I was hoping that he wasn't thinking that I was flicking him off — because I was having two fingers out the window.

But he was awesome. He was a good guy, good sport.

At what point did he clue in?

Well, he rolled his window down, because he knew I was trying to tell him something.

And then his buddy next to him was understanding what I was doing, because he was doing the paper-rock-scissors signs — or the rock-paper-scissors, whatever the proper way is to say it.

Then he realized what I was trying to do and he just went along with it.

How many rounds did you play?

It was just two, because the first one we tied, and then he beat me on the second one.

And I was hoping he was going to win. I wasn't sure how I was going to react if I won. I was glad he won. I wanted something positive to come out of this situation.

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Have you heard from the driver of the other car?

Actually, yes, ma'am. I had posted [the video] on Facebook, and his wife commented, "That's my husband!" 

I asked him for a revenge of a paper-rock-scissors game.

Next time I want to win, because he made me look bad in the video (laughs).

Written by Kevin Ball. Interview produced by Katie Geleff. Q&A edited for length and clarity.