Merging For Dummies-a reference for folks who should haven't gotten a license

The BBQ Pit
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If I didn’t see this same scenario play out day after day, perhaps it wouldn’t be so damned annoying.

Today-a wolfpack (group of 6-12 cars who travel together at a uniform speed without any regard for stopping distance) is on the main highway, approaching an onramp, and a tractor trailer followed by 5 other cars approaches the roadway.

Options are: A-high speed lane wolfpack members thin out and allow low speed wolfpack members to make room for the new highway folks, or B-low speed lane wolfpack members slow down and give the bigger slow-moving vehicle(s) and others a break.

Option chosen? Neither of the above. Stay together, match the speed of the entering traffic and force a massive brake slam-on when the lanes decrease from three to two. Thankfully, I was far enough behind this cluster to avoid direct involvement.

To the people on a roadway-when you see another vehicle attempting to enter, would it kill you to get the hell out if their way? Brake, speed up, or change lanes, but give the other party a break!

To the people entering a roadway-look for an opening, but don’t assume it will be created for you via magic. Speed up, slow down, or stop imagine that until you can enter the roadway in a safe manner. If I can get out of your way, I will, but I’m not George Jetson and cannot make my vehicle fold up into a briefcase.

It is well to remember that the entire universe, with one trifling exception, is composed of others. -John Andrew Holmes

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And also for those of us who hope for the quick edit option, having paid the $5-I’m a doofus. What good English I am spoke. :rolleyes:

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A-fucking-men!

And to the people in the vehicles attempting to enter: PAY ATTENTION. If I feel the best (i.e. safest) option is for me to slow down and let you enter, then for fuck’s sake, speed up and MERGE. Don’t slow down yourself which then forces me to gun the car at the last moment to pass you because my only other option at that point would be to slow down too much and impede the flow of traffic, which only endangers everyone.
Oh and more tips for those attempting to merge onto the freeway: you know that long stretch of road before you actually have to merge into traffic? It’s called an on-ramp. Unless you’re driving a golf cart (or a Ford Aspire) that ramp is generally long enough for you to obtain a speed that is consistant with the actual speed of traffic on the highway that you’ll be joining in mere seconds. Do Not make me (by nature of being stuck behind you) attempt to merge with cars that are going in excess of 55mph when I’m going barely 20mph. You may take all the risks you want with yourself, but do not make me take those same risks. Thank you.

:mad: Gah!

4

Preach it sister (brother?)!

I was used to how things were in L.A. I am not pretending that drivers in L.A. are perfect—not by any means. But we’ve got a system that sort of works most of the time. The people merging onto the freeway know that it’s a “kill or be killed” mentality—they’ve gotta get in, and they can’t count on anyone making way for them.

But, fortunately, I was taught (and presumably, others were taught) to notice when someone is trying to merge. So many drivers will try to make room for them. I was taught to either slow down a little, speed up so I’m past them by the time they get to the freeway, or change lanes. I usually didn’t change lanes, but I did gauge what I should do (speed up, slow down) in order to let the car onto the freeway. And I found that most of the time, people did the same for me when I was merging. I was accustomed to the concept that most of the time, (at least with merging) the drivers are aware of each other. That’s the key.

But here in Hooterville, apparently that’s not how things work. The people merging onto the freeway are completely oblivious to the traffic already on the freeway. They feel no need to look around them to see what’s on the freeway. So many times I see them, barrelling on the freeway, not looking around them once to see if there is any room for them. They just drive into the freeway, assuming that everything will be hunky-dory.

When I first got here I almost hit some of these people because I did my thing (slowing down or speeding up for them) but they didn’t do their thing. They didn’t see me. They didn’t know I was there. They didn’t look around and slip into the spot that I’d left for them. They just barrelled on in. I honked at many an oblivious driver who was doing this.

I talked to some of the people who grew up here, and some of them truly, truly believe that freeway traffic should get out of the way for them. Like, change lanes for them. (One girl insisted that it was part of state law—that merging traffic had the right-of-way.) When I ask these people what happens when the freeway traffic is bumper to bumper or a car simply cannot get over to make way for merging traffic, they really have no answer, other than, “Well, yeah, I guess that the merging traffic would have to be paying attention.” But since no one pays attention, what the hell is the point of saying that they should pay attention? They don’t. And most of them don’t think they need to.

This drives me nuts and has been the topic of a few rants in the past. It’s also messed up my driving skills. Whenever I return to L.A. for a visit, it takes me a few days to adjust to the drivers out there. I am so used to dealing with oblivious drivers that it’s a shock to deal with drivers who see that I am making a place for them to merge. I am so not used to that. It’s messing me up. I am so sick of oblivious drivers.

5

Ahh, merging. You know, in Atlanta, letting someone get in front of you means they have a larger penis than you. So no one here will let anyone merge. In fact, one of the on-ramps I use regularly backs up the right lane of the highway, because no one will change lanes to let people merge. So all the cars shove into the right lane, then everyone in the right lane has to slow down. Then all the mergers have to wedge into whatever free space appears. And since no one’ll change lanes, this lane just backs up further and further, while the other 3 lanes sail on, traffic free.

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I’ve never been to Atlanta. Is it really the driving hell that everyone makes out?

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The thing I hate the most about merging and freeways is when two freeways merge or two lanes suddenly merge into one.

I live just outside of Detroit and work downtown. I-75 (the main N/S freeway I take) does a big loop around downtown but when it starts the loop I-375 starts so it looks like the freeway continues straight. On the way out of Detroit I-75 and I-375 both merge and a lane from each suddenly become one lane. So, there are two lanes of traffic moving at about 70 mph and one is coming from slightly above the other and no one seems to know who has the right of way. Sounds like a recipe for disaster to me. My wife was almost hit as she drove along that stretch and I saw an accident there last week (I’m amazed there aren’t more).

Who the hell designs crap like this. How do they expect two busy roads to merge if they cut out lanes at the merge point?

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I know you weren’t talking to me, but YES. It’s awful. Especially 285. Do not get on 285 unless you enjoy having 18-wheelers bearing down on you at 90 miles an hour.

Downtown traffic is horrible. Awful.

That being said, I think DC is worse. But Atlanta’s a terrible place to drive. It’s also incredibly confusing, at least to me. Every time I’ve driven there and not been going to the airport, I’ve gotten lost at some point.

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Merging laws vary from state to state. In Texas, the people on the freeway are SUPPOSED to hold their speed (i.e., ignore entering traffic) and the people coming on to the freeway have the task of adjusting their speed to get on. (In practice, it often doesn’t work that way.) But in other states (so I’ve read), the person on the freeway is supposed to adjust speed to allow someone entering to get on.

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It’s worse.

Lemme explain some and share some. My grandparents are Car People. They’ll drive everywhere. Consequently, they didn’t understand why I take the bus/train, rather than driving downtown. So they’re roadtripping and come up to Atlanta. Rather than taking 285 around the city (madness in itself), they took 75-85 through downtown. 75-85, at one point, is about 8 hillion jillion lanes going each way. Your average Atlanta driver goes about 90MPH–and I’m not exaggerating, I get passed constantly when I’m doing 80 in the slow lane–and brakes for no one. My grandparents were so traumatized by their Atlanta Driving Experience that they understood why I take the train. They’ve been/driven all across the U.S. and overseas (including France and Italy) and this is the worst place they’ve ever been to.

Fun Atlanta Facts:

  1. Atlanta’s the only place I’ve ever seen repeated traffic jams at 2 in the afternoon.

  2. Our average commute is 35 minutes. But that’s 35 minutes on the road with the maniacs I’m talking about.

  3. Behold Spaghetti Junction

  4. 285 Sucks

  5. Atlanta’s also the only place I’ve seen a traffic jam at midnight. MIDNIGHT! Morelin and I were coming back from the last ATL Dopefest and traffic on the other side of 285 was horribly snarled.

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I have never driven in Atlanta, but I have visted a few times and my host was a long-time resident. His driving was appalling. And he didn’t see it. I feared for my life most of the time. He’d swerve in and out of traffic, no turn signals, no nothing (and he’s a cop, who personally gives out traffic tickets to Atlanta drivers), and he didn’t see what was the problem. I made a few hints about how maybe, maybe that insane turn he’d made or that horrifyingly death-defying lane change he’d made was just a little too much, and he’d look blankly at me and say, “What? What?” He truly didn’t know what he’d done that was so out of the norm.

And I hasten to add, I cut my teeth on Los Angeles freeways. Los Angeles, which has a reputation for harrowing freeways, traffic jams, and so forth. But I never saw anyone drive the way that I saw my friend from Atlanta drive.

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So did I, and it wasn’t as bad as Atlanta. The last time I was there I didn’t have a car, and let me tell you, it was a relief. We caught a train from the airport to downtown and that was it. No horrific drive, no getting turned around in all the one-way streets, none of that at all. Ahhhhhhhh.

New Orleans drivers are generally the most inattentive I’ve ever seen. Some go fast, some go slow, but none of them seem to give a shit if you’re around. They go wherever they damn well feel like, and it’s up to other people to get out of their way. Yet this isn’t aggressive like Atlanta, it’s mellower…it’s weird.

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My husband got stopped by a cop a few weeks ago for trying to merge onto the freeway by speeding up to match the speed of traffic. Why? Because apparently the speed limit on the on ramp was 40 mph (highway speed limit was 65 mph). We’ve both always operated on the assumption that the person on the on ramp was supposed to merge in at the appropriate speed, but this cop apparently thought otherwise. Truth be told, it seemed he just didn’t like the idea of someone actually getting in front of him.

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It’s official then: Atlanta is much worse than L.A.

I must hasten to add that my policeman friend from Atlanta is a very skilled driver, I am sure. It’s just that he took risks that I’d never take, that I’d never seen anyone else take, and yet it was “normal” for him, and I presume, many other drivers in Atlanta. Perhaps it’s a matter of "When in Rome . . . " :eek:

I am now more glad than ever that I’ve never driven in Atlanta (it’s been plane, train or bus for me). I doubt I ever will!

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Once, on my way to New Orleans, I saw no fewer than thirteen cars pass on the shoulder. And it’s not like I was driving from Idaho. This was from Biloxi, which is at most an hour and change from Nawlins.

I lived in Georgia for a brief while. I saw no fewer than three people driving around with the gas flap open and the plug hanging out. And is it really necessary to have No Parking signs every twenty feet on every highway?

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Ah, speaking of the stupidity of our roadways, on one stretch of 400, the speed limit is 55 going one way and 65 going the other way.

I learned to drive in New Orleans. Last year, when I went to visit, I noticed that nobody cares about lane. And I kept getting behind these packs of cars, all travelling 5 miles under the limit. Everybody just kinda farts along.

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I’ve never lived anywhere where people, en masse, go below the speed limits on freeways. I constantly get stuck behind people going 5-10 or more below, on three different freeways, thought the Westbank expressway is by far the worst. The limit is 50 ON THE BRIDGE, people, once you are OFF the bridge it goes to 60…hello? You there?

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Two words. San Antonio. Anyone who’s tried to go from Kelly AFB to Lackland AFB(roughly 50 miles on a 70mph interstate) will tell you that to drive in San Anton, 1: It is illegal to have functioning brakes. 2: It is illegal to have signal lights. 3: Emergency vehicles do not have right of way. 4: You must be bilingual to understand both English and Spanish profanities from your fellow drivers. 5: Hi Opal! and 6: Military personnel are subject to random stops at any time to see if the individual who is driving is not an Airforce trainee (especially bad for the Army folks at Ft. Sam Houston).

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Entering the expressway there is an implied yield or even stop sign. It is your responsibility to get on/enter traffic safely. Slowing down, speeding up or changing lanes by expressway drivers is a courtesy.

And, of course, with the big tractor-trailers, well, a vehicle that large always has the right-of-way.

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Somehow I doubt they catch too many of those – my brother went through basic earlier this year (he’s graduating from tech school this week, good for him!) and one of the rules was “no cell phone usage.” They had him so terrorized that he wouldn’t even get on one for thirty seconds, in a car going 70 MPH, or in the privacy of a hotel room, to say hi to Grandma. The rule was no cell phones, you see…it still is, actually, he almost slipped up and used mine a couple of weeks ago, while I was driving him to dinner. (Yay for his tech school being an hour and a half down the road!)

He would never ever in a million years be caught driving when he’s not supposed to even if he had a license. The Air Force knows what it’s doing when it comes to those kids. Oh my yes.