Have you already done a column on the death-defying left-hand or fast-lane merges on the expressways downtown? I’ve been wondering about the logistics and safety of them since I moved here.
Stefanie
My God, I’ve lived here most my life and I absolutely hate those things. I don’t avoid using them when I have to, but they very much feel like a cross-your-fingers-and-hope-all-works-out proposition. They’re just so damned short. I, too, have always wondered how many accidents happen on those ramps and would be interested to see some numbers.
The only way to get on the Ike from my suburb is using one of these. I come from a suburb in the wide-open spaces where the ramps are winding, luxurious affairs, and that’s where I learned how to drive. The left-hand ones freak me out, and I’ve been dealing with them regularly for 10 years now. They are too short, and they seem to all have traffic lights on them to regulate how frequently the cars merge, so you have to go from a dead stop to completely merged in what seems like 100 feet. Not fun.
They spawned a good joke in my town, though: “Oak Park is so liberal, even the highway ramps go left.” 
Hate hate hate them!
I’ll drive out of my way to avoid them too. I was following a cab down one a few years ago, when he decided to STOP at the bottom of the ramp, with three of us behind him, all trying to look down, to our right and in front all at the same time, while accelerating.
For those curious (although most browsing this forum probably know what we’re talking about), here’s a satellite view of the ramps in question.
The ramp on the southbound side of traffic (left side of the image) most clearly shows the suicidal nature of this merge. Monroe Street is blocking part of the merge, but you can see you have maybe six or seven car lengths available to make the merge from the ramp to 55+ mile per hour traffic. There’s a corresponding left-entry on-ramp on the northbound side of the expressway there as well.
During heavy traffic, this merge is fine, as nobody’s moving anyway. During very light traffic, this merge is generally okay, too, as experienced drivers on the highway tend to stay away from those lanes in order to make life easier for merging traffic. It’s the moderately heavy, but still moving at a good clip, times of traffic (as in the southbound lane in this picture), where traffic is moving in all lanes at a good clip, where it gets exciting. While you can stop at the bottom of the ramp, you’ll find it very difficult to merge back onto traffic, as you have to go from zero to highway speeds in a rather short span of time (unless you’re lucky and get a big gap in traffic.) The usual approach is to accelerate to about 45, watch the guy in front of you, while looking over your right shoulder to get an idea of where the gap is (side view mirror is ineffective here, as you’re coming into traffic at an angle and the sideview doesn’t afford you a clear view of the highway lane you’re merging onto.) Then you make a split-second decision to adjust your speed up or down, depending on which gap in traffic you deem safest for your car to enter.
Really, I’m surprised people aren’t killed daily on this on ramp. Personally, I’m surprised I’ve never had a collision or near-collision on this merge. Somehow, it all just works out.
I should add, the short/fast-merge lanes that come from the right aren’t nearly as bad, as the traffic you’re merging onto is at least on the driver’s side, making the accelerate, look-ahead, look for a hole in traffic maneuver much easier. It’s looking over your right shoulder passenger side and back that makes it especially death-defying, and even moreso if you have passengers in the car. Really, these things need to be done away with.
When I first moved to Chicago, I didn’t even know these things existed. One minute I’m in the fast lane minding my own, the next I got a car practically on my hood. By the time I got through thinking “Well, that was a close call,” it was happening again! And by the time I got through thinking “Well, holy shit that was another close call, what’s wrong with this town?” it was happening again! And by this time I realized this was going to be an issue every half-mile or so, so I got the heck out of the fast lane.
Then about two years later, I was regularly driving from the Daley Center to Oak Park during the evening rush, which requires a left-hand merge onto the Kennedy, followed by the crossing of about six lanes of angry traffic in a quarter mile stretch in order to make it to the exit for 290W. I called that the suicide squeeze.
Ah, yes, the exits near Harlem Avenue on the Ike where they go from normal right lane exits to left lane exits, and half the people getting off only realize at the last second that they need to get to the complete other side of the highway to make it to where they’re going. Good times.
And the people that know the exit is coming up on the left, and don’t have to get off, but ride in that lane because it’s moving fairly quickly, and then decide to merge back to the right at the last minute screwing up BOTH lanes of traffic?
:smack:
You could have made your life much, much easier by going down Clark (or State or Wells) to Congress Parkway, which is basically turns into I-290 west of the old Post Office (Gotham Bank in “The Dark Knight”)
It’s a deliberate plot to discourage tourism. Let’s make sure the Olympics committee sees them all. That could help derail THAT train wreck…TRM
Cecil has now covered this: http://chicago.straightdope.com/sdc20090507.php … I’ve edited the title to reflect this exalted status, and moved the thread to the column-related forum.
Hey! A fellow Oak Parker!
Don’t worry - we’ll fix the ramps right after we cap the Ike
