Regularly upsetting other drivers, but I don't think I'm wrong.

In My Humble Opinion
1

Bear with me, here. On my commute, I have a portion where the three lane highway that I’m traveling on (we will call them lanes A, B and C from left to right) merges with another two lane road (D and E). Within a half mile of this merge is my exit. Lane E is an exit only lane and I need to get into it rather quickly. So, I always approach this merge from lane C, which is as close as I can get and try to as quickly as possible, if safe, get into lane E.

However, at least three times a week this is not possible. Lane E is a popular exit, and is often backed up in bumper to bumper unmoving traffic all the way back to where I merge. I can get into lane D without too much effort, but from there I have two options:

Option 1: Creep along lane D with my blinker on hoping that someone will be nice and let me in. This has the problem that I’m now causing lane D to move slower than necessary, and even if someone does motion to let me in (unusual) often will require stopping completely in lane D while lane E opens up enough for me to fit in. Plus, it is about a 25% chance that anyone will let me in.

Option 2: At the exit point, lane E opens up into three lane very quickly, and therefore, it speeds up enough at the last minute that I can slip in without too much issue.

I suppose there is an option 3 which is to take the next exit which is a few miles away, but is often backed up, would dump me way out of the way, and would probably end up adding 30 minutes to my commute.

The issue with option 2 is that the people in lane E, who have been lined up for the exit for awhile now, are often irate, middle finger wagging, honking and trying to box me out. I acknowledge that they have a small point, and I hate when people wait till the last minute to merge in and cut the line, and when traffic isn’t backed up, I get into lane E as soon as possible. But, I feel like the safest option is to be the ass who cuts the line.

I’ve been studying this for the past year, and the people who take option 1 seem to be screwing things up a lot more than the people who take option 2 and slip right in. I try to make up for it by letting people in on those days where I do manage to get into the exit lane ahead of time.

Am I the ass?

2

There doesn’t seem, from your description, to be much that you can do that would be better than option 2. It’s just poor highway design.

Yes, the other drivers may think that you’re being a dick, but you can’t control what other people think. As long as the things they do aren’t dangerous (to you or to other drivers) then you’ll just have to bear their ill will, and carry on.

3

Making sure I’m picturing this correctly, 3 lane highway becomes 5 lane, lane furthest to the right becomes exit only, but lane D continues on as part of a 4 lane highway?

Poorly designed, especially if E quickly becomes 3 lanes. Lane D should be an exit lane as well, IMO.

My opinion is that you’re not the ass. You are playing the hand you’re dealt .

4

Yes, that’s how it works.

5

I agree, it sounds like a poor highway design, and that option 2 is the best option. It drives me nuts when people do option 1 and slow down traffic, but the people you are pissing off with option 1 are different than the people you are pissing off with option 2. If this is truly the best route for you to take, I would do option 2 and just be careful when you slip in that there is truly enough room and you’re not cutting anyone off. And if occasionally there really isn’t enough room to slip in then do option 3.

6

What a terrible design. I suspect you are not the only one in this situation - what do others do?
I’d go moderately slowly in D with my blinker on looking for a hole - then when you cut across when E expands it is not like you zoomed up to that point.
And D should definitely be made an optional exit lane, but there is nothing you can do about that.

7

Your Option 2 sounds like the zipper method of merging. This has been gaining advocacy recently as it has been shown to be the most efficient method of blending two lanes into one. People who aren’t aware of this don’t like it because they think they’re doing what they’re supposed to do – get in line and wait your turn – and you’re breaking the rules because you’re too self-important to wait. While that may be a reasonable perspective for various situations in life, it’s not a good one for moving traffic. So while you may be the ass from their point of view, traffic engineers would say your method is the preferred one.

8

They were talking about the zipper method on NPR the other day and the NPR person whined that people ‘weren’t waiting their turn’. I always use the analogy of the grocery store. Imagine you’re at the grocery store and there are two lanes open. Everybody is getting rung up and out the door in a nice efficient manner. Now imagine one of the checkers announces that he’s going to be closing his lane in 10 minutes and all of a sudden everybody in his lane just gets out of line and joins the back of the other one while he sits there doing nothing. No one would get mad if you jumped into the empty lane while the rest of the idiots stood in a longer line for no reason.

9

Ooh. Are we neighbors? Are you talking about where I-695 W meets up with I-83 N?

Another vote for “not an ass, just a victim of poor design.”

There are some things about your home town that you don’t even realize you appreciate until you move away. For me it’s well designed highway entrances and exits and interchanges. (And fanfreakingtastic tap water, but that’s another story for another time.) Who knew? I assumed the whole Interstate system was set up more or less the same way. Nope. There are a few exits near where I live now about which I could write similar but separate threads, because they’re poorly designed in a variety of ways.

In the scenario you describe I’m often in lane E (sometimes wanting out but can’t get up to freeway speed). I always let in an Option 1er (Just one. Don’t get greedy) and consider it a good deed for the people behind that car. And finger wagging shouters get mad at me for that. I just assume they were already mad before they started driving, not that I’ve made an egregious driving error. I don’t shout or gesture at Option 2ers and even try to give them a little room. Traffic sucks. But we’re all in it together. No need to make a bad time worse.

10

This is pretty much exactly what I do. I cruise a bit slower than lane D is going in lane D with my blinker on and hoping to hit the double whammy of a person who is willing to let me into lane E at the same moment that lane E is moving sufficiently fast that there will be room there without blocking lane D for more than a few seconds.

Sometimes, admittedly as this is my route every single day, I just look at that lane and say, “Fuck it, no one is going to let me in,” based on previous experience and just go right to the exit.

Generally it is 50:50 mixture of people doing either option 1 or option 2. The options 1 people often block traffic sufficiently that they make it such that people in lane D then swerve back into lane C and then back over 2 lanes to get to the exit.

11

This sounds an awful lot like the northbound Dry Creek Road exit.

12

You’re not an ass if you do option 2 since that’s the most logical choice. However, you will have to live with the fact that even if you’re factually wrong, those waiting in Lane E will never know it and will continue to be angry at you.

13

Zipper merging is encouraged because it minimizes how far back the traffic jam goes. It doesn’t actually do anything about the bottleneck slowing everyone down, nor the “wait your turn just like I did” mentality.

In my opinion, the OP is doing the best he can in his situation, but in most instances, you really ought to wait your turn. If you can see there’s a big line of cars waiting, don’t zip up to the front of everyone and cut, please. Be patient.

14

My commute into work is like that too (taking 91EB and trying to exit at Lakeview, which is really too close to where 55NB merges in).

Fortunately, I do it at about 9:45 p.m. when there isn’t usually enough traffic to make it a huge problem; but when there is, yes, I do find myself proceeding to Imperial Highway.

15

Grocery lanes aren’t like traffic lanes. Traffic lanes which are closed without some other outlet serve no one. A better analogy would be the first checker kept his light on for ten more minutes, but announced he was already done doing his job. And instead of waiting in the other line, whenever people in his line felt they could get away with it, they go cut in front of the other line of people who’d been waiting patiently the whole time in the only functioning lane. As soon as you can see your checker is no longer checking people out, you ought to go to the back of the other line, not cut to the front.

16

Factually right, I mean

17

Sounds like my marriage…

18

This is all dynamic, but I would say option 2, with the merge into option 1 where appropriate with the abort option of 3, and also the ability to take the ‘grace’ lane if provided to shortcut from 3 (or 2) to 1 if your heart is right with God (without consequences) , or if not, willing to pay back the devil on his terms and we all know what a bitch Karma can be. YMMV.

19

What about Option 4 - take an earlier exit?

There’s probably an app that will analyze your optimal traffic route if you tell it to avoid the particular stretch of highway prior to Exit E. If you got off earlier and took a back road, it might work out.

20

Zipper merging works because there is a natural place to do the merge, and all the people in the lane that is going away have to go into the other lane. It doesn’t work here because not all cars in lane D are going into lane E, so someone in lane E doesn’t know if the car next to her has to merge or not. Plus if I am behind someone in a travel lane at a merge point I suspect she is going to let someone in - not true here.

There is a similar situation where I drive. There is a carpool lane - which is often slower than the non-carpool lanes because people leaving it for an exit have trouble getting into the leftmost non-carpool lane. They either slow down, blocking traffic, or zip in, causing a car in the regular lane to break. Since there is no natural merge point, zipper merges don’t work.

I think the OP is using the best possible strategy in a tough situation. Three cheers for the OP!