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I have found that the people who won't let people merge into their lane when the traffic is moving slow are usually the ones that did the early merge, like TexasHorseLady does, and then get upset when the other drivers get past her in the merge lane and try to come over.
Think of it another way THL. Usually the traffic is moving slow because it is rush hour. That means there are lots of people trying to get on that ramp from the road you just came off of. By you slowing down early to merge you may be causing a traffic jam behind you. Maybe even an accident because the cars were lining up back there. If you had just driven to the end of the ramp and merged at the speed the traffic is moving it would be safer for everyone. If everybody would do it that way(when the trafic is slow and by that I mean 5-10 mph max) no one would get upset at anyone getting ahead of them and everyone's blood pressure could remain low. THL, you would never last driving around the Washington DC beltway. It is possible that you haven't been in traffic like I regularly drive in around here. If you are talking about early merging in 30 - 40 mph traffic then you are probably OK in doing so. What I am talking about is merging at the end when there is no possible need to get up to speed to do so.
I've travelled by car or truck throughout the east coast over the years, and it is everywhere.
It seems the ones who try to merge into 60-65mph traffic, think they are doing something safe.
Lower speed = safe to them.
As we know, to smoothly merge, they need to be going at a speed similar to the traffic flow.
You might find they are the same ones that:
1. won't turn right on a red light, where it is legal to do so.
2. slow down, or lightly apply brakes, when they approach a green light.
3. slam on brakes to avoid going safely through a yellow light, though, if the light is yellow, the cross traffic still has a red light.
4. turn their headlights on all the time.
5. are literally scared of the speed limits. The going 30, in a 45 zone, types.
Some people think they are being safe by driving this way, when in fact they are an accident waiting to happen. And such actions can actually increase the chance of an accident.
I hate people who don't use the whole merge lane to merge, especially during traffic when they sit there and wait for someone to let them one and im forced to go around them on the shoulder and merge properly..
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.
Maybe the Google Maps image is distorted, but were you on a motorcycle? I don't see there being any room to pass somebody on that ramp, much less "blow by them on the right shoulder." From the looks of it, there is no acceleration lane at all, which would warrant the placement of a stop sign. I can't imagine someone just going for it and trying to force their way onto that freeway.
Many of these roadways were designed when there were fewer cars. For whatever reason, they haven't been retrofitted since. The system probably worked in the 1950s. Now? Not so much.
When I see a number of cars (say up to four) speeding toward me on an entrance ramp, I ease up and let them on in front of me. It's a lot easier than jockeying for position in a last second attempt to merge.
But if the highway is clear, I've got the cruise set, and there's just one car speeding toward me on a long ramp, I keep the cruise on and let the gods decide how things will play out. Sometimes they gun it and race me on the shoulder rather than let up on the gas to yield.
Either way, yielding to my fellow man in heavy traffic or letting agressive drivers sweat a bit if they choose to senselessly ignore the law, I end up feeling pretty good.
Maybe the Google Maps image is distorted, but were you on a motorcycle? I don't see there being any room to pass somebody on that ramp, much less "blow by them on the right shoulder." From the looks of it, there is no acceleration lane at all, which would warrant the placement of a stop sign. I can't imagine someone just going for it and trying to force their way onto that freeway.
Many of these roadways were designed when there were fewer cars. For whatever reason, they haven't been retrofitted since. The system probably worked in the 1950s. Now? Not so much.
The ramp I took to get home from work was not the same one posted in the picture, though the way I wrote the post makes it seem like the ramp I took home from work and the one in the picture are one in the same. The reason the ramp in that image has a stop sign is because it isn't near long enough to get up to merging speed. That ramp hasn't been retrofitted primarily because the the geography and existing infrastructure around it means it would cost several hundred million bucks to do it right. Frankly that ramp ought to just be eliminated.
As you can see there's plenty of room to get up to merging speed. However, as you can also see it's a blind curve that prevents you from having a clear view of either the ramp itself or the traffic you're merging into until just before you hit the straightaway. What would happen then is people would creep around the bend and then wouldn't have enough momentum to merge at speed once they hit the straightaway, and so they'd come to a dead stop toward the bottom and wait for an invitation to merge. Whereas if they'd just build some momentum around the curve and be prepared to use escape routes if necessary, they'd have plenty of time to look for a merge gap once they get to the straightaway.
That's basically how I came to eventually approach this ramp: build up some speed around the corner while leaving myself enough reaction time should I encounter an obstacle around the bend -- such as, say, some knothead sitting there at a full stop. So after a week or two of doing this commute I was fully prepared every day to expect to have to use the right shoulder to maintain a safe merging speed, and that's often what I had to do.
Coming back from Winston Salem to Charlotte toady, I'd just passed Lexington on I85 South. Lots of construction, and in this spot it was 3 lanes, going down to two because the right lane was closing. At least half a mile of orange barrels, slowly crowding the lane, plus numerous signs. I was in the middle lane, probably a football field behind a semi. The Prius in the right lane went all the way to the end of the lane that was closing, then stopped with its nose sticking out into the lane in the path of the semi. Suddenly the semi trailer's wheels locked up, and it started to jackknife. I thought "oh ****, a Prius is about to get punted into the woods by 80,000 pounds of semi going 60 MPH." Fortunately the trucker got straightened out and swerved around the idiot Prius, but I just KNEW it was gonna be ugly.
I have found that the people who won't let people merge into their lane when the traffic is moving slow are usually the ones that did the early merge, like TexasHorseLady does, and then get upset when the other drivers get past her in the merge lane and try to come over.
Think of it another way THL. Usually the traffic is moving slow because it is rush hour. That means there are lots of people trying to get on that ramp from the road you just came off of. By you slowing down early to merge you may be causing a traffic jam behind you. Maybe even an accident because the cars were lining up back there. If you had just driven to the end of the ramp and merged at the speed the traffic is moving it would be safer for everyone. If everybody would do it that way(when the trafic is slow and by that I mean 5-10 mph max) no one would get upset at anyone getting ahead of them and everyone's blood pressure could remain low. THL, you would never last driving around the Washington DC beltway. It is possible that you haven't been in traffic like I regularly drive in around here. If you are talking about early merging in 30 - 40 mph traffic then you are probably OK in doing so. What I am talking about is merging at the end when there is no possible need to get up to speed to do so.
I just zipper merge anyways when there's heavy traffic. I understand not everyone will let me in when my lane ends but it's ok.. someone else behind them will eventually. I will ride right on the lane boundary and weasel my way in, ignoring all the frivolous honking.
Let's say I get ahead of 20 cars on average by doing this. And there's a 10% chance (very pessimistic) a driver will let me in. So on average, I get ahead of 10 cars.
The one exception is if you try to pull this in a lane that exits out instead of simply ending. Then they'll force you to take the exit instead of letting you in. So don't try to pull this on a new route..
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