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Some of the short merges on 440 are awful and slow down traffic during rush hour (Western Blvd going eastbound, Wade Ave/Hillsborough St going eastbound and westbound). You can't get up to highway speed on loops and with the short merge at the top of the loop to get onto the highway, in addition to traffic that may be trying to exit, it causes people to slow down to allow people to merge in at slower speeds and as a reaction with more cars during rush hour, it just slows everyone down.
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 ....
Thought about this yesterday whilst in the 2nd-to-right hand lane and there was a constant flux of incoming from the right who were gaming the lane to get ahead of everyone already there (vs. more fairly 'zippering') as well as I tried to maintain a safe distance from the car in front of me.
As long as there are opportunists then this is going to continue. I spent as much effort keeping that safe distance, allowing select mergers in, and keeping an eye on the lady behind me in a pickup truck with her head buried into her phone paying more attention to texting than driving, concerned that she would rear-end me.
Random... I think... but when there's an impending lane drop, people will continue to ride up all the way to the end of that lane. There's no enforcement that will stop that because people are just... ... people
...but what other drivers in the lane directly adjacent to the lane drop can do is to lag, and allow the pushy drivers riding the lane drop to the end to get over. If many drivers lagged, and allowed the gradual merger, the traffic pattern would be much smoother.
Or you can continue to box those drivers out, flip them off (which I'm sure many folks on here do) and watch the fukkery and backed up traffic ensue.
Some of the short merges on 440 are awful and slow down traffic during rush hour (Western Blvd going eastbound, Wade Ave/Hillsborough St going eastbound and westbound). You can't get up to highway speed on loops and with the short merge at the top of the loop to get onto the highway, in addition to traffic that may be trying to exit, it causes people to slow down to allow people to merge in at slower speeds and as a reaction with more cars during rush hour, it just slows everyone down.
That stretch of I-440 doesn't even meet current interstate standards. I think NCDOT plans to rebuild those interchanges whenever they get around to rebuilding that old piece of I-440. They should've started the Fortify project there to begin with, IMO.
Random... I think... but when there's an impending lane drop, people will continue to ride up all the way to the end of that lane. There's no enforcement that will stop that because people are just... ... people
...but what other drivers in the lane directly adjacent to the lane drop can do is to lag, and allow the pushy drivers riding the lane drop to the end to get over. If many drivers lagged, and allowed the gradual merger, the traffic pattern would be much smoother.
Or you can continue to box those drivers out, flip them off (which I'm sure many folks on here do) and watch the fukkery and backed up traffic ensue.
Actually more and more states are encouraging drivers to ride until the end of the lane drop and zipper merge - from a capacity standpoint it makes sense because you have all that wasted capacity if you merge in too early. I saw a sign in Durham on 85 I believe that encourages people to zipper merge (can't recall where it was)
That stretch of I-440 doesn't even meet current interstate standards. I think NCDOT plans to rebuild those interchanges whenever they get around to rebuilding that old piece of I-440. They should've started the Fortify project there to begin with, IMO.
I can't wait till they fix the Jones Franklin and Western Blvd intersections - they're a mess.
Actually more and more states are encouraging drivers to ride until the end of the lane drop and zipper merge - from a capacity standpoint it makes sense because you have all that wasted capacity if you merge in too early. I saw a sign in Durham on 85 I believe that encourages people to zipper merge (can't recall where it was)
This. Its actually more efficient if people can manage to not act like kindergartners throwing tantrums because one car may wait less than them.
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