# If you miss the exit, don't back up **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [September 15, 2004, 6:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-you-miss-the-exit-dont-back-up/264574 "2004-09-15T18:25:46Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Czarcasm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/czarcasm/32/4050_2.png) [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)\ **Post date:** [September 16, 2004, 12:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-you-miss-the-exit-dont-back-up/264574/21 "2004-09-16T00:45:04Z")
Don’tcha just hate it when people make a turn onto the wrong forum without using their turn signals, then continue on without asking for directions? What you want to do is make a u-turn back to the beginning of the post, make a sharp left onto The BBQ Pit, and you’ll be on your way. No, I said a sharp left-if you go _that_ way, you’ll end up in General Questions. _I said sharp left!_ The hell with it. Scoot over-I’ll drive you over there. ---
**Author:** ![Lillith\_Fair](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/bb73d2/32.png) [@Lillith\_Fair](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lillith_Fair)\ **Post date:** [September 16, 2004, 12:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-you-miss-the-exit-dont-back-up/264574/22 "2004-09-16T00:55:06Z")
I just remembered something dumb that happened to me several years ago. This was before cell phones, are at least before they were common. I had a flat tire on a highway (I-480). I was in the left lane so I pulled onto the left shoulder. After sitting there for quite awhile, not sure what to do, I got out and crossed the highway and started walking to the exit, which didn’t seem far until I started walking it. Of course, the stupid part was crossing the highway, but I waited a long time until there was a big enough break. Still, I shouldn’t have done it. Then, before I went up the exit, an Ohio State Trooper picked me up. Here is the second dumb part–not my fault! HE BACKED UP on the right shoulder until he was way past where my car was, then pulled onto the highway. He had time to get all the way over to the left. I guess he called AAA for me. I sat in the police car until the AAA guy finished changing my tire. Well, at least I lived to tell the tale. When I was in driver’s ed, way back in the olden days (1975?) in Maryland, all those scary bloody accident movies were made by the Ohio State Police, weren’t they? Hmmmm… :wally ---
**Author:** ![Tikki](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/5daacb/32.png) [@Tikki](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tikki)\ **Post date:** [September 16, 2004, 1:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-you-miss-the-exit-dont-back-up/264574/23 "2004-09-16T01:05:38Z")
Czar, 😃 > [@JerH](#): > > As a corollary to this rule: If you’re in the far left lane and realize too late that you need to take an exit, **do not** cut straight across 4 lanes of traffic so you can make it. A young guy who worked with my Dad did this. Gotta wonder how hard it is to remember which exit you use to get to work every single day. 😕 Fortunately, a cop saw him and pulled him over. Then the cop ran him for priors and found he hadn’t paid a $600 _boating_ ticket. So instead of spending the day at work making money, he spent it in jail needlessly spending it. ---
**Author:** ![lisacurl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/41988e/32.png) [@lisacurl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lisacurl)\ **Post date:** [September 16, 2004, 2:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-you-miss-the-exit-dont-back-up/264574/24 "2004-09-16T02:26:37Z")
> [@JerH](#): > > As a corollary to this rule: If you’re in the far left lane and realize too late that you need to take an exit, **do not** cut straight across 4 lanes of traffic so you can make it. Furthermore, if you’re only one lane away from the exit, do not come to a sudden and complete stop until someone lets you in to the exit lane. ---
**Author:** ![Eonwe](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eonwe/32/240_2.png) [@Eonwe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eonwe)\ **Post date:** [September 16, 2004, 2:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-you-miss-the-exit-dont-back-up/264574/25 "2004-09-16T02:37:19Z")
> [@Elenia28](#): > > I’m waiting for someone to come in here and back this up. I see this all the time on the Northway, which is a stretch of highway which goes from Albany north. The thing is, the exits for quite a long way are less than five miles apart mostly, and all the towns are linked by backroads too. PLUS when you get off the Northway in any of these exits there’s immediately a way to get right back onto the Northway going the opposite direction, so you can just shoot back down and hit your exit anyway. There is no reaosn to back up! > > South of Albany the exits become 15 miles apart. As far as I’m concerned, this is even more reason to PAY ATTENTION, get off the cell phone, and take the correct exit or take the next one! Since the exits are so far apart, everyone’s going at least 70 miles an hour and more like 75-80. AND it is still painfully easy to get back onto the highway to come back. > > So come on all you people who do this. Come in and defend this, if you can. Heh. I drive this stretch of road relatively frequently and I have seen more highway stupidity between Saratoga and Fishkill than on any other road. ---
**Author:** ![LilyoftheValley](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/54ee81/32.png) [@LilyoftheValley](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LilyoftheValley)\ **Post date:** [September 16, 2004, 2:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-you-miss-the-exit-dont-back-up/264574/26 "2004-09-16T02:49:39Z")
Ooh! Ooh! My turn! **If you miss your exit, don’t get off the on-ramp instead!** When we arrived in Frankfurt, we were picked up at the airport by my inlaws. The first thing we did was get on the Autobahn. Well, tried to, anyway. We were hit head-on by an East German who wasn’t familiar with Frankfurt and had freaked out at missing the airport exit. He thought that getting off the on-ramp from the airport was the solution, apparently. Luckily, we were in a good Swedish Volvo, and he was in something like an old Trabant. On the plus side, **MrValley** and I had a nice conversation with a German tow truck driver. (“You live in America? I have a cousin in Miami!”) ---
**Author:** ![Gamaliel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/b487fb/32.png) [@Gamaliel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gamaliel)\ **Post date:** [September 16, 2004, 2:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-you-miss-the-exit-dont-back-up/264574/27 "2004-09-16T02:56:41Z")
> [@Tikki](#): > > A young guy who worked with my Dad did this. Gotta wonder how hard it is to remember which exit you use to get to work every single day. 😕 Fortunately, a cop saw him and pulled him over. Then the cop ran him for priors and found he hadn’t paid a $600 _boating_ ticket. So instead of spending the day at work making money, he spent it in jail needlessly spending it. A $600 boating ticket? ---
**Author:** ![Miller](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/miller/32/481_2.png) [@Miller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Miller)\ **Post date:** [September 16, 2004, 3:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-you-miss-the-exit-dont-back-up/264574/28 "2004-09-16T03:02:46Z")
> [@Voyager](#): > > Amazing. Backing up on the highway is one thing too stupid for even Bay Area drivers to do. I’ve never seen anyone pull this in seven years. Hang around on the bus pad at the Golden Gate Bridge; they do it all the time there. Miss the exit, pull over into the bus lane, then start trying to back their way down the on-ramp. I used to take GGT from school back home to Marin, and I’d see some bonehead do this at least once a month. And in six years, I only ever once saw someone get busted for it. And, of course, there was [this asshole,](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=259709) who makes people who back up on freeways look like Mario Andretti. In related news, my friend’s wife was in a car driven by a woman who was thinking about giving her a job. They missed their exit, so she decided to pull a u-turn in the middle of the highway. Got clipped by an SUV and nearly got themselves killed. In the woman’s defence, she’s in her late seventies and has alzheimers, and was interviewing people for a job as her nurse because she can’t take care of herself anymore. So her I cut a little slack. ---
**Author:** ![Gangster\_Octopus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/a8b319/32.png) [@Gangster\_Octopus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gangster_Octopus)\ **Post date:** [September 16, 2004, 3:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-you-miss-the-exit-dont-back-up/264574/29 "2004-09-16T03:03:19Z")
Second corollary: If you are inan exit only lane and you suddenly realize you don’t actually want to exit, the best thing to do is to take the exit and simply get back on the freeway. Do not hit the brakes and swerve quickly back onto the freeway (and do not back up, although I have never seen this)…moron. ---
**Author:** ![Some\_User\_Name](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ce7236/32.png) [@Some\_User\_Name](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Some_User_Name)\ **Post date:** [September 16, 2004, 3:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-you-miss-the-exit-dont-back-up/264574/30 "2004-09-16T03:38:00Z")
A couple of weeks ago, I was driving to my Grandfather’s house along I-80 in North East Ohio. Some Idiot Driver (SID, for short) decided that it would be a good idea to pass me. On the right. In a deceleration lane. (Yes, I _was_ in the “slow” lane. And I was easily doing the speed limit, if you know what I mean. I was being passed by someone doing about 15 over in the fast lane, at the time.) So, I kind of mentally swear at SID, but continue on, glad that she’s well in front of me now. A couple of miles down the road, I go around a semi-blind turn, with my parents about 6 seconds behind me, and some guy in a truck to my right, whom I am passing. Oh, and a Semi-truck about 20 seconds behind me. SID (same one from earlier) has missed her exit. Her LEFT exit. (I believe it was North 11). So, SID, being a complete idiot, decided to pull over, back into the weaving lane, and go from there. Except, SID forgot the “Pull Over” part. SID was in reverse IN A TRAVEL LANE, ON THE INTERSTATE, ARROUND A SHARP CORNER, BLOCKING BOTH LANES. (SID couldn’t hold a lane in reverse, let alone a median strip.) I slammed on my brakes, held on the horn (remember- I have lots of other cars around me, plus that semi), and pray that everyone stops in time. Well, at least, I remember that I said “God” in there somewhere… Thankfully, everyone did stop short. We all sat there, cursing, with blinkers blinking and horns blaring, (lest someone else come around that corner too fast…) while the SID completed her bone-headed maneuver. After which, She returned my salute and drove out of the night. Did I mention that there was an exit less than a quarter mile ahead, which was well signed? :smack: ---
**Author:** ![Guinastasia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guinastasia/32/5751_2.png) [@Guinastasia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Guinastasia)\ **Post date:** [September 16, 2004, 3:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-you-miss-the-exit-dont-back-up/264574/31 "2004-09-16T03:46:07Z")
> [@Miller](#): > > In related news, my friend’s wife was in a car driven by a woman who was thinking about giving her a job. They missed their exit, so she decided to pull a u-turn in the middle of the highway. Got clipped by an SUV and nearly got themselves killed. In the woman’s defence, she’s in her late seventies and has alzheimers, and was interviewing people for a job as her nurse because she can’t take care of herself anymore. So her I cut a little slack. No offense intended, more like curiosity-what the fuck was she doing driving then, if she’s older and suffers from Alzheimers? Damn. Just…damn. ---
**Author:** ![Jadis](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/87869e/32.png) [@Jadis](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jadis)\ **Post date:** [September 16, 2004, 12:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-you-miss-the-exit-dont-back-up/264574/32 "2004-09-16T12:30:09Z")
> [@LilyoftheValley](#): > > On the plus side, **MrValley** and I had a nice conversation with a German tow truck driver. (“You live in America? I have a cousin in Miami!”) Don’t you listen to Jimmy Buffett?? **Everybody** ’s got a cousin in Miami. 😉 ---
**Author:** ![matt\_mcl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/7ab992/32.png) [@matt\_mcl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/matt_mcl)\ **Post date:** [September 16, 2004, 1:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-you-miss-the-exit-dont-back-up/264574/33 "2004-09-16T13:51:29Z")
**Eonwe** , **Hamish** , and **andygirl** can back me up on this, but as we were coming back from Ottawa this summer, we got stuck in the Traffic Jam of the Century on the Autoroute Metropolitain. Apparently construction coupled with some prodigious accident. Anyway, we had the wit to get off it and take the 13 down to the Ville-Marie, whence it was smooth sailing. But as we took the exit, we saw a procession of cars that had missed the exit but that _had hefted themselves up onto the grass divider and were driving across it to reach the offramp._ As in _more than one_. Quite startling. ---
**Author:** ![JerH](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/bb73d2/32.png) [@JerH](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JerH)\ **Post date:** [September 16, 2004, 3:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-you-miss-the-exit-dont-back-up/264574/34 "2004-09-16T15:02:10Z")
I think many people have trouble differentiating between “I am able to do this” and “I am able to do this without endangering myself and others.” ---
**Author:** ![Zoff](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/6de8d8/32.png) [@Zoff](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zoff)\ **Post date:** [September 16, 2004, 3:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-you-miss-the-exit-dont-back-up/264574/35 "2004-09-16T15:05:08Z")
The first time I ever saw somebody backing up to get to an exit my Dad said, pretty forcefully, how stupid that was. It turns out that the wife of a guy who worked for my Dad was killed this way. It fell to my father to tell the guy that his wife had been killed. ---
**Author:** ![Skywatcher](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/skywatcher/32/254_2.png) [@Skywatcher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skywatcher)\ **Post date:** [September 16, 2004, 3:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-you-miss-the-exit-dont-back-up/264574/36 "2004-09-16T15:26:44Z")
> [@Gamaliel](#): > > A $600 boating ticket? Guess the guy can’t handle a wheel on land _or_ water. Let’s hope he doesn’t try for a pilot’s license. ---
**Author:** ![Homebrew](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/c89c15/32.png) [@Homebrew](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Homebrew)\ **Post date:** [September 16, 2004, 3:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-you-miss-the-exit-dont-back-up/264574/37 "2004-09-16T15:56:34Z")
> [@Jadis](#): > > Don’t you listen to Jimmy Buffett?? **Everybody** ’s got a cousin in Miami. 😉 _Sigh_ you beat me to it. It’s a good thing I read the whole thread before making the reference and ended up looking stupid. ---
**Author:** ![Elza\_B](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/6a8cbe/32.png) [@Elza\_B](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elza_B)\ **Post date:** [September 16, 2004, 4:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-you-miss-the-exit-dont-back-up/264574/38 "2004-09-16T16:59:06Z")
> [@Lillith Fair](#): > > . > > When I was in driver’s ed, way back in the olden days (1975?) in Maryland, all those scary bloody accident movies were made by the Ohio State Police, weren’t they? Hmmmm… > > :wally My husband has a big batch of these - he collects educational films - LOL. But yes, I think they were. I’m also in Ohio (Canton), and I think Ohio drivers are just a class all their own. I’m originally from Richmond, VA and lived in Brooklyn for four years, so I’m used to aggressive drivers. Ohio drivers just seem oblivious - like nothing around them can touch them. Honestly, I find the obliviousness much scarier than aggressiveness - at least I can try to protect myself with defensive driving with aggressive drivers. With oblivious drivers, I can’t figure out what they’re going to do next, and it scares the hell out of me. Ava ---
**Author:** ![MysteryFellow63427](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/a88e4f/32.png) [@MysteryFellow63427](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MysteryFellow63427)\ **Post date:** [September 17, 2004, 12:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-you-miss-the-exit-dont-back-up/264574/39 "2004-09-17T00:00:23Z")
> [@matt\_mcl](#): > > But as we took the exit, we saw a procession of cars that had missed the exit but that _had hefted themselves up onto the grass divider and were driving across it to reach the offramp._ As in _more than one_. Quite startling. I’ve seen numerous freeway congestion points here in Texas where so many people have gone off-roading to exit that there is a set tire tracks etched into the grass. Maybe it’s all the pickups and SUVs around here. ---
**Author:** ![Bippy\_the\_Beardless](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/ac8455/32.png) [@Bippy\_the\_Beardless](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bippy_the_Beardless)\ **Post date:** [September 16, 2004, 10:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-you-miss-the-exit-dont-back-up/264574/40 "2004-09-16T22:04:33Z")
> [@neuroman](#): > > I’ve seen numerous freeway congestion points here in Texas where so many people have gone off-roading to exit that there is a set tire tracks etched into the grass. Maybe it’s all the pickups and SUVs around here. If I miss an exit I just travell back in time, it is much safer than reversing on the highway. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-you-miss-the-exit-dont-back-up/264574.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-you-miss-the-exit-dont-back-up/264574.md?page=3)