Usually a calm driver, I began to feel the apeshit level being approached today. The scenario: a two lane road approaches a split and interchange with a 6 lane highway. The right lane usually carries more travelers, so minor slowdowns are not unique. This afternoon, the backup was close to a mile, but the signs indicated the lane of choice well in advance, and I was in the appropriate one.
Begin the invasion of filthy slack-jawed nibblers of scrotal boils who seem to feel it is appropriate to run down the left lane and hop in at the last second. Sorry, but I don’t give a goddamn how important you think you are. Your time is no more precious than mine, or that of anyone else in this taillight convention. Don’t glare at me when I refuse to let you in. Were I a police officer, you’d be forced to sit on the median for an hour, as a traffic time-out. I’d put a dunce cap on your pointed selfish head, and make you march back and forth wearing signboards proclaiming your disgustingly selfish ways, to the amusement of other motorists.
You were taught in grade school to get in line for recess, lunch, and other activities where the facilities are shared. The rules haven’t changed, sphincter-breath.
Before someone says it-if you discover you’re in the wrong lane at that point, that’s your own fault. It has happened to me, and I won’t penalize prepared operators for my error. These new things called maps are available for those not familiar with an area, and judging from the types of vehicles butting in line, I’m sure some of them were equipped with GPS guidance-the operator chose to push the ‘Self-Absorbed Fucker’ button.
This is a tough one for me, there are many issuse and is more complex then the simple 2 lanes merge into one. Here we have a lane splitting off in one direction and the other continuing straight.
Technically you (in the ‘proper’ lane) should not be tailgating, and technically this should allow someone in the other lane enought space to merge in. But, unlike the 2 into 1 merge, driving in the other lane and merging last minute causes delays (and a possiable traffic shockwave) in the lane that is moving. This serves no one.
I have noticed a trend however that allows ‘cheaters’ to enter the lane at the last moment (by driving on crossed hatched area) then merge into the traffic exiting, so I assume some person decided that allowing people to merge in is to the greater good. But this might be a short term solution.
For such a heavy merge I personally would like to see a solid barrior further ‘upstream’ that would normally containt he backup seperate from the normal flow of traffic, and have seen this is some places, but it is impractical in many.
I am sort of stumped on this one, perhaps I’ll get back to this later.
Not so, kanicbird. Left lane goes to east route x, and right lane goes to west route x. The mongoose-asshole-munchers to which I referred were pretending to head east, and then cutting in, rather than waiting. Sorry if I didn’t properly explain this in my OP. Seriously-I watched several vehicles pull out of the right lane 1/2 mile behind me, run up and try the squeeze play.
There really wasn’t any tailgaiting going on-imagine a mile of traffic either stopped or moving forward at a speed easily beaten by a toddler on a big wheel.
People like these make me wish I still had my old '68 LTD. Beat to shit and heavy as hell. Go ahead, pull in front of me. See how your quarter panels like a little scrape…
So courteous, safe drivers cause aggressive ones? Oh please. Some people will always be aggressive, dangerous assholes. I remember my father, ordinarily the calmest and most responsible of men, telling about a reckless driver during the late 30s who nearly ran him and a few other cars off the road. He came across him a few miles on, crashed in a field. Dad just said “I hope the damned fool killed himself” and drove on. Completely atypical, and boggled my mind.
The simple act of driving shouldn’t be reduced to the lowest common denominator of ego-blown road rage. There madness lies, not to mention smashed cars and bodies. Frankly I don’t care to approach guiding a ton or so metal as a test of whose balls swing heaviest or whose dick is biggest. That’s stupid, not to mention completely futile.
I’ve discovered I’m more like my old man than I thought. My job is to drive smart, and get myself, my car and my passengers where we’re going undamaged. If aggressive road hogs want to steer their cars with their balls and press the gas pedal with their dicks, that’s their stupidity. The instant I allow them their aggression to rule my driving, I’ve allowed their stupidity to rule my actions. Ain’t gonna happen. I don’t worry whether they’ll crash. They’re courting it. Oh well. My responsibility as a driver is to make sure me and mine aren’t contributors to the stupidity.
I don’t belive that is what he is saying. I believe is that these assholes will do what they think they can get away with. And if we continue to let them get away with it…
This happens often on the 210/134 interchange in California every day. The line is backed up for a half mile, so no one can claim they didn’t see it coming. Assholes try to force their way in at the last possible second, cutting of the 20 or so cars that id the right thing. I relish the opportunity to prevent one from jumping in ahead of me. I don’t get it very often, sadly.
Looks like I’m in the minority here, but I think the most efficient way to handle most lane closures is for traffic to use all lanes until the merge point. I’ve even seen signs directing drivers to do this in West Virginia.
If both lanes are used until the merge point, then nobody loses and you end up with a nice orderly one-on-one merge at the end. Furthermore, the overall backup is much smaller (since it’s evenly distributed), so it’s less likely to block off exits before the merge.
That said, I have to make an exception for the OP, since it sounds like people were abusing an exit lane in order to sleaze back into the backed up lane. That slows down the people who are legitimately using that exit, which is just plain rude!
Perhaps I’m extrapolating beyond what was implied, but who’s “we”? Other drivers? And precisely how are “we” to prevent “them”, save resorting to equally aggressive, unsafe tactics?
Call me a chicken dick, but I’m not about to court even a fender bender, much less something more serious, in the name of learnin’ them varmits some respect. I loathe dealing with insurance companies, my own not excepted (and I have insurance), much less police reports, competive repair bids, court dates, etc.
This is insane. Driving isn’t the New Untamed West, dependent on vigilante drivers to impose order.
That’s shifting individual responsibilty and common sense to something uncomfortabely close to mob rule. It’s a serious shift of the default from responsibility to “I’m badder and nastier than you, so there.”
Oh my god, that interchange makes me want to cry. I always make sure to get in the far right at least a mile or more before the back-up even starts, but i don’t know why I bother most days…I however, do stop the last minute folks from cutting in.
And going east? whimper I hate the two lane merge onto the 210. One day, a huge 18-wheeler managed to block the lanes we were merging onto. I couldn’t figure it out until I got closer and realized he was positioned in just a way so that the people merging could get into the right lane safely. I’m sure the people behind him thought he was a giant dick, but I could have kissed him.
But there is a trick. Don’t get into that lane at all. Pass up the interchange entirely and get off at Del Mar, make a left, then get back on the freeway goin the other way. (there will be lanes for 134W, 210E and 210W) Take the 210E lane and it will put you well ahead of everyone.
What are you saying here? Am I somehow wrong for not letting these rude asses cut in front of me? Are you saying I’m supposed to let them in? Is that the right thig to do?
OK slightly different then I expected but it still doesn’t change my thoughts. Note I was not saying the OP was a 2 into 1 land merge (which I did have a recent pit on - the short of it the people who are really trying to do the right thing are the ones causing the problem as they are being shortsighted and not acting for the greater good), I was saying it was NOT as simple as that.
I did think it slightly different, a 2 lane (one direction) road with an exit that backs up onto the 2 lane road, befoer the exit starts.
Anyway it is sort of the same.
The solution as I see it is to redesign the road to provide enough space to accomidate the backup totally past the split. Not always practical though.
Technically speaking, people are allowed to merge while there is still a broken line and if the people in that lane are not tailgating there should be room for the merge, but this still has the problem that you run the potental of blocking off the lane splitting off in the other direction.
We’ve got an intersecion in Houston (S Loop 610E to 45S) like that. It drives me nuts. Those drivers wait until the very last possible moment to jump from the left (or straight through) lane to the right lane to make the exit, cutting off drivers who have been inching their way to the exit for 45S for quite some time. They must cross the large painted triangle on the roadway indicating the lanes to do so, and there are way too many people doing this for it to be last minute decision. Plus, they don’t signal the change of lane- that would give them away and they might not make it in!
It’s easy to see that the intersecion is stacked up from a long way off. Complicating this particular exit is a merge onto the freeway from the right a short distance from the exit to 45 (see fabulous picture, above). This causes you to crane your head right and left to watch for incoming merging traffic and the people who are scouting out a place to cut in suddenly. Most of the people using the onramp here want to get across the exit lane and onto 610.
The exit to 45S is really about two lanes wide but is only marked as one lane. I’ve seen drivers not only cut in suddenly, barely missing the concrete barrier, but then ride the shoulder all the way and cut off people during the merge onto 45 as well.
All of this occurs on an elevated stretch of freeway.
This intersection is very poorly designed. I always assumed that the people who design roads put some thought into it such as “this read has a curve of x degress, which can be safely travelled at y miles per hour”, etc. Whoever planned this interchange was sleeping during “merge” class that day, I guess.
I wish they would plant a cop at that intersecion to give tickets to all the people who cut in there- the act of cutting in causes a chain reaction delay that reverberates for a long way back. I’ve thought about throwing on my left turn signal and wobbling around in my lane as if I can’t decide where to go when taking the 45S exit to throw off the people who cut in, but don’t think it would really work very well.
For those who live in the area, you can take the earlier “Downtown” or “45N” exit on 610 which will take you under this messy interchange where you will find two traffic lights and a right turn which will lead you back to 45S (if you recognize the back up there early enough to make the downtown exit).
