Western PA natives - who taught these people how to drive?

[Bazzwell]

Originally Posted by firefightermom

The stop sign might have taken him by surprise, but believe me, Ohioans DO know what a stop sign is...hopefully you weren't really as happy about his injuries as it seems. I bet the accident had nothing to do with attitude, just a stupid mistake on his part. Glad you were ok, though!

Happy about his injuries? Let's say I'm glad they weren't worse than they were. But to this day I find it hard to have much sympathy when the first thing he says is "I didn't even look ahead to see if there was a stop sign instead of a yield sign". This was no teenager, this was an adult who wrongly assumed that entrance ramp means floor it.

[The_Outsider]

Originally Posted by Billustrator

I agree that someone stopping at a high speed merge can be dangerous, but...YIELD means you must give right of way to other traffic, even if it means you must stop. That's the law, in the '50's, the '70's, and now. That's not just PA; most states have the same law. Who's the bad driver, the person who follows the law correctly, or the uptight person in a hurry behind him who has no respect for the law or those who follow it? You must pay attention to traffic ahead of you as well as that which is oncoming in the travel lanes; that takes a skilled driver.

Well looks like I should have been more descriptive when I first posted, I meant people who stop before merging when there is no one on the interstate, no stop sign, no yield sign.

I wouldn't consider anyone uptight or in a hurry if they ran up on a stopped car on an empty interstate.

[Ohiogirl81]

Originally Posted by North Beach Person

Yeah but they live in Ohio and VA.

Au contraire. I didn't learn the proper way to merge onto a freeway until I moved to Cleveland and saw how the natives did it there.

In Pennsylvania, most people believe "yield" means "stop" and act accordingly. Nor will Pennsylvania drivers move into the left lane whenever safely possible when approaching a merge. They just continue happily in the right lane, figuring that the guy at the ramp will stop.

[seeingtheforest]

Originally Posted by The_Outsider

Ok, maybe central PA? not sure what category Jefferson County would fall under. But anyway, I'm pretty sure the DMV or a driving instructor would never teach a person to:

A. Stop at the end of an interstate on ramp before merging in with the flow of traffic.

B. Stop at the end of an interstate off ramp before merging in with the flow of traffic.

Yet I see this on a daily basis since I've moved to PA. Why do PA natives do this? It is dangerous for everyone involved

Yup, never came across this issue in NJ, GA, CA, NY, until I moved to central PA. In Jersey sometimes you only have a space the size of two car lengths to merge into but people make it happen all the time.

My father in-law complains about this issue too and he lived here in PA all his life and drives truck for a living. It does get old after a while. Most people driving just want everything to flow while some gum up the pipes and make everyone else wait for them. I think driving is a microcosm of life, lol.

Jimmyrocks has a good method to this issue that I have used and seen others use around here. For all those non-merging citizens, just think Zipper (like a jacket zipper). We love you guys but lets get it going.

Tech side:
There are people that cannot judge distance and speed of other vehicles (not just some seniors either). And if they cant do that guess what? They are going to stop regardless if there is traffic or not. So be prepared to stop if there is a driver in front of you in a merge lane in central PA.

[CHIP72]

There's a difference between yielding to traffic because there legitimately is no opening (though you should still avoid stopping on the ramp if at all possible - go slow on the ramp until you see an opening, then speed up to merge into that opening) and yielding to traffic because you automatically treat a "yield" sign like it says "stop". When I lived in the Harrisburg area, the fact so many people did the latter irritated me to no end. (For the record, I grew up and learned to drive in the Lehigh Valley in eastern PA.)

On a related note, if an off-ramp lane turns into an additional through lane on the intersecting road and you have a yield sign, what that means for the person on the off-ramp is you can go without stopping, but you should slow down to allow the traffic on the intersecting road to merge into the new through lane, if they are roughly even with you. It does NOT mean you just sit there and wait for all the traffic on the intersecting road to pass and automatically give that traffic the right-of-way to the new through lane, nor does it mean you are permitted to sit there until there's an opening to cut across 2 lanes of traffic because you want to make a left turn a short distance down the road. (For the curious, I'm specifically referring to I-83 Exit 48/Union Deposit Road, particularly for people who go from I-83 northbound to Union Deposit Road eastbound.)

[JerseyZuh]

Originally Posted by Billustrator

I agree that someone stopping at a high speed merge can be dangerous, but...YIELD means you must give right of way to other traffic, even if it means you must stop. That's the law, in the '50's, the '70's, and now. That's not just PA; most states have the same law. Who's the bad driver, the person who follows the law correctly, or the uptight person in a hurry behind him who has no respect for the law or those who follow it? You must pay attention to traffic ahead of you as well as that which is oncoming in the travel lanes; that takes a skilled driver.

The problem is people here in PA do NOT know how to MERGE! They have no skills in merging. I see people all the time "yeilding" when they should be merging. PA drivers seriously are unskilled highway drivers. It should be a law for each PA driver to have to go to the Lincoln or Holland Tunnels in between the hours of 3:30pm-6:30pm on weekdays and go back and forth threw the tunnels for a week. Maybe then they will learn what MERGING is!

[aveojohn]

[quote=PeterRabbit;7268667]Many Pittsburgh entrance and exit ramps have stop signs instead of yield signs.
Driving in Pittsburgh - Tips for Finding Your Way Around Pittsburgh - Maps, Beltways, Wayfinder System

Pittsburgh is the only place where the bottom of the parkway entrance acceleration ramp can have a stop sign
Driving in the 'Burgh

the most infamous ramp on the Parkway East descends from Beechwood Blvd. The steep ramp carries all entering eastbound traffic from the surrounding area. From a stop sign at the base of the ramp
Parkway East Int - Squirrel Hill / Homestead - Bridges and Tunnels of Allegheny County and Pittsburgh, PA

The ramp terraces down the side of a hill, and traffic has to come to a stop before merging onto the highway. As if that wasn't bad enough, the lane that traffic merges into is marked "EXIT ONLY," and ends in 500 feet. In order not to exit the highway immediately after entering it, traffic has to accelerate to highway speeds from a dead stop AND do a double-lane change in a matter of 500 feet.
Yes,I am familiar with this ramp.This is the only entrance ramp that runs into a exit ramp that are commonly shared. this is pi$$ poor design.