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Old 08-25-2016, 05:09 PM
 
Location: Raleigh, North Carolina
3,631 posts, read 4,464,057 times
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An interesting pattern I've noticed on 40 and 440, which seems to be unique to the Triangle, is that if traffic is going to come to a complete stop, the left most lane will almost always be the first to do so. Then the 2nd lane. 3rd lane will be crawling and the 4th lane will be moving. My evening commute begins at rush hour and I usually am on the 40 ramp at Miami by 5:00. I've learned to stick to the right two lanes because of this bizarre pattern. Just today, around exit 283 (540 interchange) the left two lanes were stopped or moving at 5mph-ish and I was in the 4th lane, moving about 45. Then the 5th lane opened up before Airport Blvd and people got into thay lane and we're probably moving around 50mph before they got back over when that 5th lane ends. I saw the same exact thing when my commute was going from exit 279-273 and the same thing on 440. Morning or evening, it pretty much never fails.

I say it's unique to the Triangle only because I've never seen that sort of thing happen before. I was in Little Rock 2 weeks ago aND had to drive to UAMS on US67 and I30, that did not happen. All lanes came to a stop pretty much at the same time. Left lanes would begin to move first. Same in Memphis morning rush hour on my way back, and Knoxville rush hour on my way there. I've driven through Nashville during its rush hour before and same thing. Not sure about Charlotte. In Richmond, NoVa and Atlanta it was all lanes stop and go randomly.

Anyone know what's up with this?
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Old 08-25-2016, 05:36 PM
 
2,584 posts, read 1,860,257 times
Reputation: 2212
Quote:
Originally Posted by Emitchell View Post
I'm not prepared to blames selfish driving on just the transplants. It's steadily gotten worse as traffic increases -- doesn't matter where they are from.
Right. It would be folly to blame transplants for poor driving skills for a number of reasons:
- there is no way to know where a person is from while they are driving
- not all transplants are poor and/or aggressive drivers
- not all non-transplants are good or non-aggressive drivers

Plus the problem is also due to there being more people on the roads than before, so the demographic has changed in terms of density and driver's familiarity of the roads, which change.

Ok now I will put this out there - drivers from other cities, while potentially aggressive, are arguably better drivers. Better because they drive in even more challenging traffic and weather conditions and are seasoned for it.

There are idiot drivers everywhere. As someone who has driven in some of these cities I can honestly say they are better drivers than the ones I've encountered on 440, 540 and 40.

In fact I have to honestly say that an unfortunately high proportion of the drivers I've seen here are downright reckless. Like I have not seen anywhere else.

Ironic how just this morning I posted about poor drivers, and on my way to work I got dangerously tailgated on 40 (again) by yet another moron*. And that was not the only dangerous situation on that trip. And on the way home, more of the same.

*this made me want to start a separate thread
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Old 08-25-2016, 07:47 PM
 
Location: Raleigh, NC
6,650 posts, read 5,552,171 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by LordHelmit View Post
An interesting pattern I've noticed on 40 and 440, which seems to be unique to the Triangle, is that if traffic is going to come to a complete stop, the left most lane will almost always be the first to do so. Then the 2nd lane. 3rd lane will be crawling and the 4th lane will be moving. My evening commute begins at rush hour and I usually am on the 40 ramp at Miami by 5:00. I've learned to stick to the right two lanes because of this bizarre pattern. Just today, around exit 283 (540 interchange) the left two lanes were stopped or moving at 5mph-ish and I was in the 4th lane, moving about 45. Then the 5th lane opened up before Airport Blvd and people got into thay lane and we're probably moving around 50mph before they got back over when that 5th lane ends. I saw the same exact thing when my commute was going from exit 279-273 and the same thing on 440. Morning or evening, it pretty much never fails.

I say it's unique to the Triangle only because I've never seen that sort of thing happen before. I was in Little Rock 2 weeks ago aND had to drive to UAMS on US67 and I30, that did not happen. All lanes came to a stop pretty much at the same time. Left lanes would begin to move first. Same in Memphis morning rush hour on my way back, and Knoxville rush hour on my way there. I've driven through Nashville during its rush hour before and same thing. Not sure about Charlotte. In Richmond, NoVa and Atlanta it was all lanes stop and go randomly.

Anyone know what's up with this?
The same thing happens on 440 in the morning driving from North Hills to Wade Avenue. The left most lane is the one to stop if anyone stops. I think what happens is that people know the right/middle lane is going to deal with backups from Wade Avenue around Lake Boone Trail so they get in the far left lane - but everyone then thinks the same way so it puts that lane over capacity and then it's actually slower than if you had just stayed in your original lanes.
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Old 08-26-2016, 07:04 AM
 
Location: Raleigh, North Carolina
3,631 posts, read 4,464,057 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by pierretong1991 View Post
The same thing happens on 440 in the morning driving from North Hills to Wade Avenue. The left most lane is the one to stop if anyone stops. I think what happens is that people know the right/middle lane is going to deal with backups from Wade Avenue around Lake Boone Trail so they get in the far left lane - but everyone then thinks the same way so it puts that lane over capacity and then it's actually slower than if you had just stayed in your original lanes.
Yeah that was my gueas, that everyone thinks the same way about getting over to not have to deal with cars merging from the on ramp, but it's just strange that this seems to be the only place where I've seen it happen like that. Often the last lane will be moving relatively smoothly even with vehicles merging. I've seen it where it looks all good in all lanes were all poking along at 50mph no sign of stopping, then out of nowhere that left lane halts meanwhile 20 cars have merged into the last lane with hardly any braking required. Makes me lol. Happened again this morning on 40 right after Wade. Only spot it seems to be the opposite (right lanes stop first) is that confusing section of 40WB around exits 281-283, where one lane is exit only the next lane has a sign that says this lane ends, then another lane opens up and another lane closes...that's always a clusterfk of people trying to move over 3 lanes to merge on, and others trying to move right 3 lanes to exit. Messy.
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Old 08-26-2016, 08:51 PM
 
9,265 posts, read 8,218,722 times
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Just saw on the news, another big wreck on 40 tonight.
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Old 08-26-2016, 09:14 PM
 
56 posts, read 55,768 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by LordHelmit View Post
An interesting pattern I've noticed on 40 and 440, which seems to be unique to the Triangle, is that if traffic is going to come to a complete stop, the left most lane will almost always be the first to do so. Then the 2nd lane. 3rd lane will be crawling and the 4th lane will be moving. My evening commute begins at rush hour and I usually am on the 40 ramp at Miami by 5:00. I've learned to stick to the right two lanes because of this bizarre pattern. Just today, around exit 283 (540 interchange) the left two lanes were stopped or moving at 5mph-ish and I was in the 4th lane, moving about 45. Then the 5th lane opened up before Airport Blvd and people got into thay lane and we're probably moving around 50mph before they got back over when that 5th lane ends. I saw the same exact thing when my commute was going from exit 279-273 and the same thing on 440. Morning or evening, it pretty much never fails.

I say it's unique to the Triangle only because I've never seen that sort of thing happen before. I was in Little Rock 2 weeks ago aND had to drive to UAMS on US67 and I30, that did not happen. All lanes came to a stop pretty much at the same time. Left lanes would begin to move first. Same in Memphis morning rush hour on my way back, and Knoxville rush hour on my way there. I've driven through Nashville during its rush hour before and same thing. Not sure about Charlotte. In Richmond, NoVa and Atlanta it was all lanes stop and go randomly.

Anyone know what's up with this?

shhh don't tell anyone
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Old 08-27-2016, 05:15 AM
DPK
 
4,594 posts, read 5,700,153 times
Reputation: 6220
Quote:
Originally Posted by LordHelmit View Post
An interesting pattern I've noticed on 40 and 440, which seems to be unique to the Triangle, is that if traffic is going to come to a complete stop, the left most lane will almost always be the first to do so. Then the 2nd lane. 3rd lane will be crawling and the 4th lane will be moving. My evening commute begins at rush hour and I usually am on the 40 ramp at Miami by 5:00. I've learned to stick to the right two lanes because of this bizarre pattern. Just today, around exit 283 (540 interchange) the left two lanes were stopped or moving at 5mph-ish and I was in the 4th lane, moving about 45. Then the 5th lane opened up before Airport Blvd and people got into thay lane and we're probably moving around 50mph before they got back over when that 5th lane ends. I saw the same exact thing when my commute was going from exit 279-273 and the same thing on 440. Morning or evening, it pretty much never fails.

I say it's unique to the Triangle only because I've never seen that sort of thing happen before. I was in Little Rock 2 weeks ago aND had to drive to UAMS on US67 and I30, that did not happen. All lanes came to a stop pretty much at the same time. Left lanes would begin to move first. Same in Memphis morning rush hour on my way back, and Knoxville rush hour on my way there. I've driven through Nashville during its rush hour before and same thing. Not sure about Charlotte. In Richmond, NoVa and Atlanta it was all lanes stop and go randomly.

Anyone know what's up with this?
I think it's a combination of people trying to move over to get out of the way of all the merging traffic in that zone (Davis/Miami through Airport/Aviation) and the traffic itself merging in from those on-ramps. Some of the merging traffic wants to move over into the faster lanes, so it starts to get slower, and slower, and then boom it's a grinding halt in those far left lanes when they max out.
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Old 08-27-2016, 05:29 AM
DPK
 
4,594 posts, read 5,700,153 times
Reputation: 6220
Part of me wishes they'd remove the on-ramp from Page Road to 40 East. It causes a huge problem in the evening commute because all the traffic effectively dumps onto the the on-ramp to 540. It creates backups as Page Road people try to merge onto 40 and people on 40 try to get onto 540 to go to North Raleigh or Morrisville/NC-540 Toll.

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Old 08-27-2016, 07:06 AM
DPK
 
4,594 posts, read 5,700,153 times
Reputation: 6220
Also if everyone could watch this video, the roads would be a saner place in regard to passing:


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4oqfodY2Lz0
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Old 08-27-2016, 07:11 AM
 
Location: Raleigh NC
25,119 posts, read 16,118,757 times
Reputation: 14408
Quote:
Originally Posted by pierretong1991 View Post
There's a certain capacity of every road in the number of cars it can handle - once it reaches that point, there will be congestion issues whether there's an accident or not just because of the sheer number of cars packed into a road. Sometimes there are bottlenecks where lanes end or where cars are merging from on ramps or shifting lanes in large numbers etc....

A couple other examples from my commute along 440 from North Hills to Jones Franklin of congestion issues beyond the overcapacity issues:

1. In the AM, 440 West backs up because 440 goes from 3 lanes to 2 lanes south of Wade Avenue causing 3 lanes of traffic to pack into 2 lanes. In addition, the backups from Wade Avenue extend back into 440 sometimes causing issues. Then you have people trying to get onto the highway at Lake Boone Trail (and if they're continuing on 440, have to shift 2 lanes in a short period of time) creating further chaos there.

2. In the PM, 440 East comes to a crawl around Western Blvd - there is frequent traffic trying to get on/off Western Blvd and with the large number of vehicles already on 440, traffic has to slow to allow vehicles to merge onto 440 and it just gets slower and slower as there are more and more cars on 440. Once you get past Western, you're usually moving a little better assuming the next item isn't a problem......

3. In the PM, 440 East at Wade slows down - first you have the weave with oncoming traffic merging in from Hillsborough and traffic getting off 440 onto Wade Avenue that is crazy. Also, traffic merging onto 440 East from eastbound Wade Avenue is a problem at times despite the free flow lane - I can't tell you how many times people think they have to merge onto 440 right away once they reach the top of that loop (same at Crabtree Valley Mall with that loop from southbound Glenwood Ave)
Excellent observation.

It does seem to always be a factor of incoming merge traffic/exiting traffic. If only people understood whether they needed to merge or not - Wade ave to 440E, glenwood ave to 440E, etc. and then if the drivers on the road weren't into protecting "their spot" - and the merging traffic neither waiting till the last instant nor immediately near-stopping to merge - and just ZIPPER IN ....

The outer beltline at Wade avenue has these bad factors:

1. Dropping the lane at Wade exit
2. The quantity of traffic taking the Wade exit
3. Quantity of traffic trying to merge in from LB Trail
4. Cars merging into outer loop from Wade ave outbound
5. Cars merging from Wade inbound onto the outer beltline towards Cary
6. Then those few cars trying to exit Hillsborough.
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