Left Lane ENDS - 2 Miles Ahead - MERGE RIGHT

The BBQ Pit
1

I suspect this wont be a popular POV, but here we go…

I am under the belief that when construction freeway signs indicate that a lane will end in 2 miles - I HAVE 1.999 MILES BEFORE I HAVE TO MERGE . Why in the hell would I want to merge immediatly when I still have 2 miles of open road to travel ???

Some people seem to be under the false impression that they must merge immediatley. They also beleive that I must merge immediatley. THis is not correct. I will merge as the sign indicates. Dont get pissed off at me because you cant follow instructions.

I also dont appreciate the “merge police” or what-have-you who insist on trying to block me from my forward progress by swerving in my lane or driving in the merging lane at the speed of the slowest lane. Furthermore, if you dont block the whole lane, I’m going to drive half-way on the shoulder to get past you. I’ll f*cking merge when the lane ends, not a foot before !

When I do get to the end of the lane, I will merge appropriately. But NO, you are the self-designated no-merge police again. What do you know Mr. Helper, you are the very reason why there is a f*cking traffic jam in the first place !

Its one-for-one, that is how it works and that is what allows the free flow of traffic.

But lets just give you the enjoyment of blocking my attempt to merge. In fact, I don’t care if the next 100 cars do not allow me to merge. You know why ? I just passed 500 cars, so unless 500 cars do not allow me to merge, your little merge-police tactic didnt work. You want to know what else ? People dont know how to drive so I will find a gap to merge very shortly so dont get your undies in a knot. Dont honk at me, dont give me dirty looks - you’re the stupid@ss who cant follow instructions.

Fine, lets discuss this issue in further detail. If you are not supposed to merge at the end of the lane, when do you merge ? At the first warning sign ? At the second warning sign ? 1 Mile ahead, 500 yards ahead ? When is it ? Sounds pretty subjective to me !

Fact is, people dont know how to drive or merge. I am going to exploit that by waiting until the last second. I wont feel sorry about it either. So go ahead, grit your teeth, honk at me and tailgate the car in front of you so that I cant merge in front of you. It wont stop me from doing the same thing tomorrow, next week, or next year. My suggestion - follow my lead !

2

AHHHH…

That rant is music to my ears.

As long as you are in a valid lane of travel, you have every right to be there and to continue there until that lane ends.

I see no problem with that, and NO, it’s not “cheating” to continue on in a valid open lane while everyone else is clogged into the other lane because of ididots who can’t merge or allow others to merge properly.

3

Have you ever wondered exactly WHY they warn you a whole 2 miles ahead of time??

…that’s right, dumbass, it’s so you have plenty of time to get in the right lane! If everyone chose to drive like you, there would be a major bottleneck where everyone is trying to merge at once! You complain that others don’t know how to merge… well, merging doesn’t happen in a snap of the fingers- you claim to know all about merging, but you obviously don’t know very much. When most cars merge in a leisurely (and not to mention, courteous) fashion well AHEAD OF TIME, you get a nice, even line of cars in one lane when the other lane ends instead of a row of idiots like yourself, in the wrong lane, trying to gain a precious 5 minutes on their travel time.

I bet you drive an SUV… am I right? Do you talk on your cell phone when you drive? Also, you’re the kind of person who follows a row of cars through a red light so that you don’t have to wait for the light to change again, aren’t you? Color me impressed at your prowess at operating a motor vehicle…

:rolleyes:

4

Just because they give you a 2-mile warning doesn’t mean you’ll need it.

When traffic conditions warrant an earlier merge, I’m happy to do it. Just don’t EXPECT me to do merge 2 miles early when traffic is light.

I claim others don’t know how to merge because they DON’T know how to fucking merge. First look. Then, adjust speed to match the flow of the traffic into which you are merging. Then, glide right in. All too many people slam on the brakes unnessecarily, causing nothing but havoc.

Do I drive an SUV? Nope. Sorry, “dumbass”.

Do I talk on the cell phone while driving? You bet!.. “HELLO? IT’S ME. OUTTA MY WAY, YOU DUMBASS!” There’s nothing inherently unsafe about that. The problem with cell phones (pardon the hijack) is that people who are incapable of properly multitasking are trying to multitask while driving. Know yer limits. I know mine. When it’s unsafe for me, and I know when it’s unsafe for me, I don’t do it.

Do I follow cars through red lights? Wrong again. Red is red. I stop.

Are you impressed? Who cares?.. dumbass.

BEEP BEEP! Adios, slow-poke! :cool:

5

Actually, I echo the OP. I’ve seen it work also where at the end of the two miles, the DOT puts a nice sign that says “Please take your turn and merge here” For some reason or another, this seems to make people happy and traffic flows faster. After a couple of days of this, people have figured it out and it doesn’t really matter what lane you are in when you come to the merge point.

A simple sign. I think it goes to the basic need of the average person out there to be told what to do. Give them structure, they are happy. I never merge until I have to, however if there isn’t a “take your turn” sign, folks tend to get irate. But their anger is misplaced! Scream at your local DOT, not the guy who cut 45 minutes from his commute because he chose to use a legal lane to the merge point.

Max

6

So help me out here. What is the reason for remaining in the lane which must merge until the last possible moment? Just because you can? Why not merge as soon as possible? What does it hurt? Whom does it inconvenience? Why on earth do you wait until the last minute? I really want to know, because it just doesn’t make any sense to me. I see three people saying variations on “I never merge until I have to”, and I really have to wonder why? What’s wrong with merging early?

I’m sorry; I’ve gotta go with NightRabbit on this one. Minus the unwarranted assumptions about people’s other driving habits (sorry, dude/dudess).

7

If I merge early, then I might end up behind NightRabbit instead of in front for the next 50 miles.

If there are 10 cars between me and the merge, one of them is bound to be slow like NightRabbit, but I don’t know which one. The more I can pass before the merge, the better my odds of ending up in front of NightRabbit, whose name, oddly enough, conjures up images of speed.

(Welcome to the Pit NR :wink: )

8

If everybody waited til the last possible minute to merge, there will be a huge bottleneck.

If everybody merged at the first warning sign, that would also cause a huge bottleneck.

If traffic is heavy, doesn’t matter whatcha do, HUGE bottleneck. It’s not caused by people merging at the last minute. (I will admit that merging before you have to making a complete stop would help slightly.)

Sometimes Lockfist’s strategy works, but if traffic’s really heavy I avoid both left lanes and head for the right or center lane.

I reserve my hatred for the people who drive on the shoulder. Grrr…

9

Um…boo-frickin-hoo. What’s your hurry? Seriously. You’re gonna give yourself an aneurysm. IMNSHO, life is too short to worry about spending a few extra minutes getting wherever you’re going. It’s not a race; there are no prizes for getting to your destination first. No meaningful prizes, anyway. :slight_smile:

And, as far as I could tell, nothing about NightRabbit’s post indicated that he/she drives slowly…:wink:

10

Merge lane - fine. I’ll grant your point. Mostly, I’m with NightRabbit, but whatever. Where I become the MERGE POLICE, however, is when I’m in a line of traffic, indicated well before to be for exiting a particular freeway - and for being the ONLY means to exit said freeway at that particular point. I get in the proper lane at the earliest opportunity, and I WAIT MY TURN. You want to linejump ahead of me? Good luck, pal. You wouldn’t be the first one I forced to continue on to the next exit.

And, frankly, I have my own personal prejudice, too. You drive a foreign car? NO WAY are you sneaking in front of me.

11

OK, I was with you until this point. What in blazing blue fuck does this have to do with anything? I drive a 1994 Nissan Sentra with a dent in the driver’s side door. It’s really dirty, and could use an oil change. I’m worse than someone driving a brand-new, sparkling clean Lincoln Navigator (my sister’s car)? :rolleyes:

12

Why wait to tha last possible second to merge??? What the fuck do you gain?

Just don’t expect me to slow down and let you into my lane when your lane ends. And if you cut me off, I have no reservation whatsoever about following you to your destination and discussing it with you. Your procrastination does not obligate me, in any way, to make it easier for you to merge. As far as I’m concerned, you can stop and wait for a break in the traffic.

13

Absolutely nothing. Like I said, it was my own personal prejudice. Having been raised by a General Motors lifer (43 years!) and ingrained with “Buy American” my entire life, I’m entitled to ONE, doncha think?

:smiley:

14

Sorry about the uncalled-for insults- one of the only things that works me up faster than religious zealots are people who are pridefully oblivious on the roadways… and that includes those who cut me off 6 feet before a merge sign because they wanted to jump a measley 15 cars.

By the way, I seriously doubt that speeding up the merge lane is going to save you 45 minutes- it’s not like they warn you 100 miles ahead of time! Most of the time it’s a mile or two, and I consider that plenty of time to merge. There’s no reason you should be sitting in front of the end of the lane, blinker on, waiting to cut into an endless line of cars.

P.S. I can be a real speed demon in my good ole’ station wagon, ya know… just don’t expect to see me gunning it in the merge lane :wink: (thank you LindyHopper )

15

Absolutely-goddamn-right it’s not. Five minutes at the outside. As I said to Bearflag70, it’s just not worth it. Slow down. Crank some tunes. Enjoy not being at work. :smiley:

Oh, and Willowill: No worries. I’m not a big “buy American” guy myself, but I have a certain appreciation for those who were born into “the life”. :wink:

16

Actually, you are probably not even going to save five minutes. A few seconds maximum. Let’s assume you jump ahead 15 cars. At an average length of 4 meters per car, and a distance of about 5 meters between cars (I’m assuming that traffic is slow due to the merging) you have now gained an incredible 130 meters !! (Let’s make it 150 to make it easier, and for the metrically challenged, that works out to about 500 feet).

Now once things get moving again, (let’s take the point where traffic speeds up again as our reference, and let’s assume traffic slowed to about 20 km/h. This works out to 5.555 m/s) you will begin to accelerate again approximately 30 seconds ahead of the first car you jumped. This time gain will probably begin to shrink again, as soon as all cars begin accelerating.

The important thing to note is that your only gain is about 150 meters or 500 feet. At a speed of 55 mph (or about 90 km/h) that means you will arrive at your destination about 6 seconds before the first car you jumped !!!

Now, if the fisrst car you jumped is your next door neighbour, he is going to pulling into his driveway just about the time your beginning to unbuckle. (I sincerely hope you did buckle-up).

Let’s assume your making a trip of 60 km (about 37.5 miles). Let’s assume your average speed is about 60km/h. to gain 5 minutes on this trip, you’re actually going to have to gain a distance of 5 kilometers (or about 3 miles) on somebody else !!! No way are you going to be able to do that just by jumping a few cars. (the cars in the lane that needs to be merged into have to be at a complete standstill, while you whip along for three miles in your lane !!!

Considering all of this, is it actually worth all the hassle and stress involved just so you can get home a huge six seconds earlier ?

But, on another tangent, the people who really piss me off, are the ones who decide they absolutely have to get ahead of me just before the exit ramp, even though they are going about 2 mph faster than me. Then like the complete idiots they are, they have to whip across two lanes and slam on the brakes, so they don’t go careeening off into the underbrush.

17

Ya know, I had a conversation about this not too long ago, and it was brought up by Dr. Gridlock of the Washington Post. I was roundly condemned at that time, and expect to be flamed again, but here goes:

If the signs say “Merge Left - Two Miles”, and drivers merge immediately, that leaves two miles of empty road that could otherwise be used. That lack of pavement causes a bottleneck. IF drivers were capable of following the “you go, I go, you go, I go” method, traffic should, hypothetically, flow better. Like an unstuck zipper.

Only drivers are selfish, and each believes he or she MUST be at the head of the line. Which line? Doesn’t matter. As long as it’s the line THAT driver is in. This mentality causes a stuck zipper, cos there are MORE people who believe in the latter than the former, and things get jammed.

Anyhow. That’s my two bits.

18

Oh, and for the record…

I drive a 1987 Nissan 200SX.

So THERE.

19

Hey, another kaaskop!

checks Holmes’ profile

Errr… never mind. :smiley:
Welcome aboard anyway!

20

Sure, as long as you realize that a hell of a lot of foreign cars are more American than your GM. You’ve got tons of American cars, that while they benefit American corporate entities, really are built by foreigners, with foreign parts. Then you’ve got foreign companies, that while they benefit foreign corporate people (somewhat, since they also have a US headquarters), they are built entirely in the US, and have more US parts, with more US labor than any American car.

So, you have a prejudice against a person who drives a Honda, that’s built by Americans in Marysville, OH. But you have no problem with the person driving a Ford from Mexico? Don’t understand it…sorry, buddy.

Oh…and some of us choose to buy cars that will actually last a long time before any major repairs are needed.

Jman