Traffic - how does everyone deal with it?! (Allen, Cedar Park: apartment, houses)

[EmergencyOps]

Originally Posted by austin-steve

This would eliminate the huge backup of the "rule followers" in a long left line, which the "cheaters" continue to stream by on the right, causing the left lane to keep backing up and eventually creating road rage opportunities and "merge police" who tailgate and try to box others out.

Traffic engineers, although somewhat divided, say that merging early (the "rule followers"?) is a waste of lane travel space and results in more congestion. They say the lane should be used right up until the merge point, which is followed by a zipper merge. A field study on I-30 in Dallas found that "the Late Merge scenario delayed the onset of congestion at the merge point by approximately 14 minutes" (UNDERSTANDING ROAD RAGE: IMPLEMENTATION PLAN FOR PROMISING MITIGATION MEASURES, Texas Transportation Institute, 2001).

And studies have been done involving changing the language of signage, to include "MERGE HERE - TAKE YOUR TURN" ... trying to mitigate both the merge police and those who try and ram their way into the queue.

[G Grasshopper]

Originally Posted by tstwahine

Grew up in southern California and lived in Orange County and Los Angeles... basically used to it. I must admit I was surprised by how poorly Austin roads were planned out.

I agree. Some of the freeways look like the older freeways in CA. But everyplace has better and worse freeways. But it does seem generally that Austin's freeway structure suffers from a lack of foresight and planning. The thing that gets to me is the signage. There are many signs that are placed such that you can't see the whole sign while driving - usually they are too low. And there are many places where there should be information given, but there is no sign. This increases last minute lane changes, which are bad on traffic flow. Those types of things can be corrected more easily than changing freeway layouts, and it irritates me that such simple errors persist.

[Moonlady]

Originally Posted by EmergencyOps

Traffic engineers, although somewhat divided, say that merging early (the "rule followers"?) is a waste of lane travel space and results in more congestion. They say the lane should be used right up until the merge point, which is followed by a zipper merge. A field study on I-30 in Dallas found that "the Late Merge scenario delayed the onset of congestion at the merge point by approximately 14 minutes" (UNDERSTANDING ROAD RAGE: IMPLEMENTATION PLAN FOR PROMISING MITIGATION MEASURES, Texas Transportation Institute, 2001).

And studies have been done involving changing the language of signage, to include "MERGE HERE - TAKE YOUR TURN" ... trying to mitigate both the merge police and those who try and ram their way into the queue.

Interesting. I have a project right now that requires me to work near Rutland and Burnet. I have tried all of the "back roads" and they are just as time consuming and obnoxious as just getting on 183 and dealing with the congestion. In particular, since I get on right at Burnet and have to go past the reduction in lanes before Duval, I've noticed that it does work better if the traffic goes up to the head of the queue where the lane ends rather than people trying to squeeze in wherever. I just have a hard time doing that myself. Also suprising is the courtesy most of the drivers seem to have in allowing enough space for merging traffic. The other interesting aspect is that one would think the right lane would be the slowest with merging traffic from the Burnet and Mopac ramps, as well as Braker, Duval and McNeil, but somehow the right lane tends to move faster even with all the people entering the highway.

I hate traffic. We gave up our custom home of 18 years to buy an older home closer to work. Had I known I was going to be stuck in 183 hell, I may have done some things differently, but hopefully this is very short term. I have learned that patience and courtesy go a long way towards making the commute more tolerable. Still got in a wreck last week though.

If it weren't for the fact that we are 3 years to retirement and we have kids and grandkids in the area, I'd be looking for a place to move out of Austin. It's just gotten entirely too congested, even on the weekends!

[DCtoTejas]

Originally Posted by EmergencyOps

Traffic engineers, although somewhat divided, say that merging early (the "rule followers"?) is a waste of lane travel space and results in more congestion. They say the lane should be used right up until the merge point, which is followed by a zipper merge. A field study on I-30 in Dallas found that "the Late Merge scenario delayed the onset of congestion at the merge point by approximately 14 minutes" (UNDERSTANDING ROAD RAGE: IMPLEMENTATION PLAN FOR PROMISING MITIGATION MEASURES, Texas Transportation Institute, 2001).

And studies have been done involving changing the language of signage, to include "MERGE HERE - TAKE YOUR TURN" ... trying to mitigate both the merge police and those who try and ram their way into the queue.

In DC there was a merge area on 295 in the city that had an "Alternate Merge" sign instead of a yield or lane ending or nothing sign...it worked fantastically well, people would actually take turns and it made it clear that moving over early was not the correct action.

[petro]

Traffic - how does everyone deal with it?!

Coming back to this original question...

I avoid the bulk of morning traffic by leaving for the office after 9am. If I have an early meeting, I'll call in from home or the car. I think more employers should encourage flexibility in schedule so we don't have everyone heading to and from work at the same time. What if everyone telecommuted (worked from home) one day per week? That alone would have a huge impact on traffic.

In today's global world, it seems unnecessary for everyone to share the same working hours and office space. I can only speak for myself, but most of my meetings are virtual, and with people in other timezones/countries. For example, I take my Asia-Pacific meetings at night from my house, due to the time difference.

Maybe I'm being overly optimistic about employers willingness to be flexible, but I think it's just a matter of time, as the benefits shift more to the employer. The traditional idea of "office" and "working hours" are definitely blurring.

[austin-steve]

Originally Posted by EmergencyOps

Traffic engineers, although somewhat divided, say that merging early (the "rule followers"?) is a waste of lane travel space and results in more congestion. They say the lane should be used right up until the merge point, which is followed by a zipper merge. A field study on I-30 in Dallas found that "the Late Merge scenario delayed the onset of congestion at the merge point by approximately 14 minutes" (UNDERSTANDING ROAD RAGE: IMPLEMENTATION PLAN FOR PROMISING MITIGATION MEASURES, Texas Transportation Institute, 2001).

And studies have been done involving changing the language of signage, to include "MERGE HERE - TAKE YOUR TURN" ... trying to mitigate both the merge police and those who try and ram their way into the queue.

Originally Posted by DCtoTejas

In DC there was a merge area on 295 in the city that had an "Alternate Merge" sign instead of a yield or lane ending or nothing sign...it worked fantastically well, people would actually take turns and it made it clear that moving over early was not the correct action.

Interesting, that it's been tried elsewhere and works. I didn't know that. I'm just a casual observer/driver and no expert, but it just seems logical.

Which supports my point, which is, I believe a LOT of traffic relief could be captured by making some simple tweaks. Will it "solve" the problem? Of course not. But it's stupid not to do whatever can be done, and Austin doesn't seem to be capable of being forward thinking, creative, or "progressive" in addressing the congestion issues.

I think we need a Traffic Czar. Someone with high authority who can see the obvious, implement a decision, and see it executed immediately without a sh*tload of study, especially for something as basic as an "alternate merge", or "zipper merge", or, as I think of it, the "blend" merge.

Steve

[10scoachrick]

I'd like to see some of the idiots around here complete a zipper merge...NOT BLOODY LIKELY

[ATX Wahine]

I think the vast majority of people have jobs that require their physical presence in an office/store/shop, unfortunately. Clerical, office management, retail, tradesmen etc. don't have that kind of flexibility. Sadly, there's an awful lot of employers in fields that DO support telecommuting (call centers, billing/coding, technical support, etc) but are simply too rigid and inflexible about thinking outside the box. My last employer was queried about it on a regular basis but held a firm "if we can't see you, we simply can't believe you're working" mentality rather than actually testing it and using metrics to determine the outcome.

I guess many middle managers wouldn't have anyone to lord over if we all worked from home.

[TexasHorseLady]

I think the problem with people using the zipper merge occurs when there's an empty lane (think 45 coming to I35 north where 45 east and 45 west exits to I35 join and there's a long line of traffic - usually from the west - and someone comes from the east and rushes down the empty lane to try to shove in at the front of the line ahead of 30 or more cars already there. Or when someone pulls out of the line of traffic and drives past everyone else and tries to push their way in at the front of the line. Neither of those is going to fly with most drivers who are going to be delayed even further.

I've never seen it be an issue where two lanes are full and are merging at the front. Only where there's an opportunity for someone to "jump the line" and further delay everyone who is already in line. That's where the "I'm so special I get to go ahead of everyone else" perception comes into play, most likely accurately.

[hillcountryheart]

Just parking downtown has become rare and expensive. The shift to have more people working "in the urban core" has just exacerbated traffic. Yes, let's have everyone head for the same area and compete for parking at the same time.