Yep. I was driving through a construction area yesterday, that had two zipper merges in close proximity. The merges went well because the traffic wasn’t too bad, but just after that, I saw several people who decided that driving on the normal two traffic lanes was too slow for them, so they went zipping past everyone else in the bus-only lane.
Jerks will always be with us, no matter what signs you put up.
I feel like they need to add a new sign. “Cooperate, motherfuckers!”
I’ve seen similar in the US, though not so much in my state. I’ve seen signs that say “USE BOTH LANES TO MERGE POINT” and then another sign “MERGE HERE TAKE TURNS” with an unambiguous spot to merge. That’s what I find somewhat helpful. It’s just better when you have a single agreed-upon mergepoint rather than dozens of merge point based on how far you think you can use the empty lane before pissing people off.
Honestly, I just don’t give a damn. I use the merging lane to the very end most of the time (there are times when I spot something a little early and there’s nobody behind me that I’ll sneak in.) If people get pissed off, I can’t control how they feel. I’ve yet to have an issue or even notice anyone feeling pissed off. I feel zero guilt about this. As I said above, it does irk me when an off-ramp/exit has a queue fifty or more cars deep and some jackass decides to just skip it and use the travel lanes to get up to the front and merge in exactly at the last second. Folks seem to let them in there for some reason, even though that is unambiguous antisocial behavior, whereas a zipper merge is proper traffic behavior for tight traffic.
I don’t think signage will help. Flashing lights “LEFT LANE CLOSED” signs, arrows more flashing lights and some idiot comes to the barriers and comes to a complete stope cause, hey, he had no idea the lane would be closed. Then they have to merge into moving traffic of the people that are actually paying attention.
Someone slows down to let them in, which of course slows everyone else down.
This is a great thread to support the “work from home” movement.
The best answer is to have absolutely the fewest merges on highways possible. Heavy traffic combined with merges often lead to miles-long backups. The worst sort of merges IMO are the lanes that service an onramp and an offramp at the same time.
Evidence of signage not working:
They’ve tried everything from fixed signage to lights to a light board and even lowering the road. They keep going obliviously.
I thought of this thread yesterday when a friend on Facebook posted about how she knows a truck driver who straddles both lanes when approaching a merge, to stop “those cheating bastards who speed to the end of the empty lane and then bully their way in,” instead of merging as soon as possible like you’re supposed to.
Got a lot of enthusiastic likes and supportive comments.
Doesn’t matter how many times you explain the engineering efficiency of using both lanes until the merge point. That’s never going to trump the “that guy’s cheating!” feeling, and thinking otherwise is just spitting into the wind.
I like those UK signs.
While better signage won’t solve the problem, at least it will reduce it, and that’s probably the best we can hope for.
More signage = better IMHO
Some years ago on my way home I took the onramp from US 1 to Interstate 295 in NJ, as I have done thousands of times. This time was special: they were doing repairs in the left lane and had shut it down, with a great big flashing sign saying “LEFT LANE CLOSED. USE RIGHT LANE AND SHOULDER”
So I happily popped over to the shoulder where there was lighter traffic.
A mile down the road I noticed nobody at all was using the shoulder and kept flying on by the stopped traffic.
A half mile later some guy in a SUV saw me and started edging out. Eventually he was half-way onto the shoulder and our mirrors ticked as I squeezed past, undoubtedly followed by a stream of his profanity.
What had happened? They hadn’t put out enough signs. That guy had entered the freeway a mile after Route 1, so he had no idea that I was allowed to drive on the shoulder.
And there was no way I was going to convince him. Had I rolled down my window, it would have been a shouting match, so I let him be as I went on my merry way.
Think about it… if you went on the highway and encountered an endless traffic jam, then noticed some entitled you-know-what coming up the shoulder, you would at least be angry at them, if not actively trying to block them. And you would be in the wrong because of a construction sign a mile back that you never saw.
Completely depends on how congested it is. If it’s not congested, merge early so as to not slow the line of traffic down when you have no choice but to merge and have to do it from a position where you are completely stopped.
[quote=“MrAtoz, post:69, topic:987005”]That’s never going to trump the “that guy’s cheating!” feeling, and thinking otherwise is just spitting into the wind.
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This especially true when the lane that naturally has more traffic is also the lane that will continue after the merge. People who LEAVE the destination lane, only to merge back into it at the last instant will always be perceived as jerks who needlessly slowed down traffic and risked a fender-bender so they, personally, could get ahead at the expense of everyone else.
I think the only way to solve this is to take the human factor into account, and shape the lanes accordingly.
Theory : If the two lanes briefly funneled into a “center lane”, and then the center lane shifted into the destination lane, there would be a lot less anger. Neither lane would be perceived as the natural lane to stay in, and neither lane would have an ‘advantage’.
Maybe there’s a problem with that theory I haven’t thought of, but the point is, a new pattern is needed, not new signage for the old broken one.
Have they considered a sacrificial non-load bearing structure before the bridge? That’s what I’d try. Could be something like a stoplight without lights. Could be a bar suspended from chains. Make it so the truckers will whack that before they sardine can the top off their truck and risk structural damage to the bridge to boot.
Obviously it would have to be carefully designed so as not to risk injury to the truck driver or others. Obviously.
I suppose part of the matter is that it’s so close to the crossing that someone coming at any sort of regular driving speed in an oblivious state of mind would be still thinking “what was that noise” when they got to the real hit. So it would have to be on the other side before the intersection.
What the trucks are hitting is in fact a stout defensive steel beam shield added a few feet (a compact car length?) away from the track-carrying members, so as to stop or destroy anything going through before it does hit something vital (in its older, lower form it often would “grab” a truck with a sturdier box, and just slam it to a stop so sudden the cab would kick up into the air).
Like a tell-tale? They were common on railroads just before entering tunnels, serving as a warning to brakemen who may be walking on tops of cars that they had better duck. I wonder if they’re used on railroads anymore.
From watching the 11Foot8 videos, some times it seems like the truck driver wasn’t even aware that he just scraped off the top of the truck. It looks like even with plenty of signs and flashing lights, some people are just stupid.
One year we went to the local Renaissance Festival, which had big traffic backups. They had the “Use right lane and shoulder” sign about a mile before the two lanes turned right, into the parking area. The normal right lane was backed up like crazy, but no one was using the shoulder. So I felt guilty driving on the shoulder, passing dozens and dozens of cars. When I finally got to the turn, the state trooper who was directing traffic gave me a big “thumbs-up”. I could then see other cars copying me in my rear view mirror.
Yeah!
That’s probably part of it - but it might not be whole story. I see bars suspended on chains all the time before entrances to garages and parking lots , (which do have the advantage of vehicles moving fairly slowly) but I never see them on roads. Not even one near my house that’s a particular problem - it has low overpasses and no trucks or other commercial vehicles are allowed on it , but every few weeks a truck gets the top taken off. No reason they couldn’t hang a bar before the entrances to the highway. I’ve been told the reason it happens so often is that commercial GPS that will warn about this is expensive and truck drivers don’t spend money on it and just follow Waze or Google maps or whatever.
It’s been showing up in Michigan, works pretty well. I feel it takes the pressure off to jet past the long line to scoot in at the merge. Two lanes merging we’re all gonna get there to the end about the same time. Signage helps in messaging to the masses what’s happening.
I am very polite about letting anyone merge behind me.
That’s what the big, yellow I-beam is. The original one was replaced – and braced a lot better – when the tracks were raised 8-inches. And no, rather than protecting a dumb-ass driver, it was in place to keep him from wrecking the bridge. Back when it was truly 11-8, some of the crashes did stop abruptly.
Nowadays when a sensor up the block detects a too-tall truck, it throws the traffic light to red and lights an electric sign,
OVERHEIGHT
MUST TURN
along with yellow flashers. This gives drivers a chance to pause and consider their life choices. Some of them think the sign doesn’t really mean them. Still others play the I can beat that yellow game.