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That's one of my biggest pet peeves. It's worse when the ramp has a nice curve to it and i'm on my bike. I'm usually leaned over and accelerating, and BOOM! Car at the end of a ramp and I have to jerk it upright and come slamming to a stop to avoid killing myself. I don't get why people can't accelerate to traffic speed to merge. Don't slow down!
The other pet peeve that goes with this is people that slow down to change lanes on the interstate. A guy just yesterday slowed down in front of me to 20mph trying to get over into the left lane to hit HOV. Left lane was backed up to a standstill (from everyone jumping onto HOV), so he comes to a crawl in the middle of the interstate to get on. Irony, since there was NO traffic out in front of us and the main lanes wound up moving faster than HOV. Makes me want to get out and brain someone with a tire iron lol.
Slow merging on a freeway is an oxymoron. You either match the speed of traffic or it isn't "merging."
It's always seemed obvious to me how you're supposed to do it; rapidly accelerate to the speed of traffic, line yourself up with an opening, and move in. But for those who don't get it:
Does anyone else get this? Idiots merging onto the freeway at 20-40km/h below the freeway speed limit? Here, 95% of drivers are too retarded to match the freeway speed when merging, despite a 400-500m long on-ramp, and merge into 100km/h traffic at anywhere between 60-80km/h. A lot of morons here seem to be too mentally screwed to grasp the concept of pressing the accelerator to match freeway speeds, causing bunching up on the on-ramp and when this mass of traffic merges, it results in traffic already on the freeway having to slam on the brakes or shove over to the far lane, slowing the overall flow of traffic down.
It astounds me that every time, literally every time I am behind someone on the on-ramp, they are dawdling, like a baby scared to jump into a pool.
Has this epidemic spread elsewhere?
Unfortunately, it is alive and thriving in the US, especially here in Alaska.
When I lived in Pittsburgh was actually common practice to come to a complete stop at the bottom of the ramp and wait for an opening. I damn near shat my pants the first time I came flying around a ramp and found someone sitting there at a dead stop. In fact, on one of the entrance ramps onto the Parkway East -- what has to be the worst-engineered ramp in the entire U.S. interstate system, there is actually a stop sign at the bottom of the ramp (see link below). I had to blow by him on the right shoulder to avoid killing both of us. After a while it became a fairly common routine during my commute home: hop on the ramp to expressway, blow by someone sitting at the bottom of the ramp, and safely merge while they're still sitting back there waiting for a half-mile-wide gap to open up.
During my first year of driving, I was extremely terrified to merge onto a highway. It literally was the one thing I feared the most. Now since I drive on a major highway every day to college, I have got used to it and have also grown accustomed to some of the worst drivers out there. So currently my biggest worry is changing into the middle lane. Just two days ago, I put my blinker on to go right and into the middle lane, saw that the middle lane was clear, and proceeded to look over my shoulder and somehow saw the guy in the right lane moving into the center lane. Keep in mind his blinker was not on and he cautiously beeped at me to not change lanes. The same scenario played itself out 10 seconds later with me being once again the one aware of the other driver and once again yielding to that person. I'm not really angry at the other driver but I find this to be a very dangerous situation that could play out whenever changing into the middle lane. Thoughts? Do other people look over their shoulder as well when changing lanes or just rely on their mirrors?
During my first year of driving, I was extremely terrified to merge onto a highway. It literally was the one thing I feared the most. Now since I drive on a major highway every day to college, I have got used to it and have also grown accustomed to some of the worst drivers out there. So currently my biggest worry is changing into the middle lane. Just two days ago, I put my blinker on to go right and into the middle lane, saw that the middle lane was clear, and proceeded to look over my shoulder and somehow saw the guy in the right lane moving into the center lane. Keep in mind his blinker was not on and he cautiously beeped at me to not change lanes. The same scenario played itself out 10 seconds later with me being once again the one aware of the other driver and once again yielding to that person. I'm not really angry at the other driver but I find this to be a very dangerous situation that could play out whenever changing into the middle lane. Thoughts? Do other people look over their shoulder as well when changing lanes or just rely on their mirrors?
You have to remember, a person directly beside you, even with a lane open between you, cannot see the turn signals on the front and back of your car. Best bet is to speed up and make sure you're ahead of them or slow down and get behind them before making the lane change. In heavy traffic though, you can't always do that, so you just have to change lanes cautiously and be prepared to move back over quickly.
I'm not sure there is a definite rule as to who should give way in such a situation, but my first assumption would be the guy on the left should yield (move back over for) to the guy on the right and find another opportunity.
Location: The Circle City. Sometimes NE of Bagdad.
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Little-Acorn
Here in California, they have STOPLIGHTS ON THE FREEWAY ENTRANCE RAMPS.
No, I'm not kidding. Stoplights. The law actually REQUIRES you to come to a complete stop ON THE FREEWAY ENTRANCE RAMP.
Not all ramps have them and they normally only operate during the morning/evening rush hour when traffic is at it's heaviest and traffic is moving at sub freeway speeds.
Here in California, they have STOPLIGHTS ON THE FREEWAY ENTRANCE RAMPS.
No, I'm not kidding. Stoplights. The law actually REQUIRES you to come to a complete stop ON THE FREEWAY ENTRANCE RAMP.
What's next? Land mines under freeway entrance ramps?
These are exactly what I was talking about in the previous post - I actually love them.
They are used to trickle traffic onto the freeway, without disrupting the general flow. They also help direct HOV cars up to the front of the line. And there is plenty of time to get up to freeway speed.
Here in California, they have STOPLIGHTS ON THE FREEWAY ENTRANCE RAMPS.
No, I'm not kidding. Stoplights. The law actually REQUIRES you to come to a complete stop ON THE FREEWAY ENTRANCE RAMP.
What's next? Land mines under freeway entrance ramps?
I used to light up my rear tires on a semi-regular basis whenever those things were on and the freeway traffic was moving decently. Unfortunately, that ended when I had to replace $400 worth of tires after only 8,000 miles.
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