There’s an intersection I deal with on the way to work every day that drives me nuts. And for the longest time, I was just unleashing the impotent road-rage and the offenders who cut in. But then I realized I should be pissed at whoever was responsible for the signage.
Here’s the deal … there are two traffic lights within about 50 yards of each other. One is there to let a one-way street on the left get in. The next one is a four-way. At the first one there is a big “No Left Turn” sign which is intended to keep people from turning into the one-way, but it’s so close to the four-way intersection that it looks like it prevents people from turning left at the four-way. The problem is, the four-way intersection has two lanes – one for turning left only, and one for going straight.
The end result is that it looks like there’s a big “No Left Turn” sign right over the lane that says “Left Turn Only.”
So, we get scores of people confused by the signs trying to not break the traffic laws and pissing me off.
Why is somebody an asshole for driving in a lane that is open until it isn’t open anymore? If they’re zipping down the shoulder, that’d be different, but if there are two lanes open and legally available for driving until they merge into one, it makes no sense not to use them both for as long as possible.
The assholes are the drivers who prevent other drivers from merging safely.
I once had a guy try to merge into my truck. As in, he ran up near the merge point, and just started coming over, knowing that my vehicle was there and expecting that I’d brake and let him in.
Fuck aggressive assholes like that. I had to go over a little onto the shoulder to avoid collision, but I’m not going to be bullied in traffic by some entitled dick. He saw I wasn’t giving in to his bullshit and got in behind me instead.
There’s a zipper merge on my way in to work (14th St Bridge for the locals). It only screws up when idiots (Maryland plates normally) block the right lane half a mile before the merge with their blinker on, waiting to get into the already crowded others lanes.
There has been one golden rule in civilised countries since the dawn of time.
Don’t jump queues.
Queue jumpers are assholes, and so all rationalisation about zipper lanes and efficient lane use will fall on deaf ears, because as you sit there politely in your car, waiting your turn, some knobgobbler in a penis extension will zoom down past you, cutting in ahead of all the good hard working people who were prepared to wait. That makes him a fucknugget.
In a way, they are right. Its said that “its the thought that counts”. Well, very few of those todgers skipping the queue are thinking to themselves,
“This is the most efficient way everybody, SCIENCE!!!”
No, they are thinking,
“Haha, jerks, Im getting home to my bitches quicker than you are”.
But, but, I’ve waited so long I deserve to have a good long look at whatever the hold up is!
I’m one of the people who drives up the empty lane and expects to be able to merge when the lane ends. I make the bet every day in two different places that someone will let me in at the last moment and I haven’t lost that bet more than a few times in 20 years. I see those do-gooders letting people in right and left and I sure as hell am not going wait patiently in line while they screw over everyone behind them for the reward of a hand-wave. So, to answer the OP - the do-gooders are the problem. Fix them and the problem is gone.
If there are two lanes why shouldn’t we use them? Who is to say where the proper merge place is so why not use the one designated by the highway department? Of course, this assumes stop and go traffic. When things are moving along we are supposed to merge in plenty of time, to keep things moving.
To be fair, they think that they’re being instructed by the state authorities to all move to the right lane, and that it is the lawbreakers who are driving in the left lane up to the merge point and then forcing their way over. We need a sign for these people to say, “Merge driving behavior required ahead - take turns you morons” or something to that effect.
I have evacuated from hurricanes in contraflow traffic backed up for miles and miles where people tried to cruise the shoulder and big trucks would pull over to block the shoulder lane. They were my heroes.
[quote=“teletype, post:12, topic:558622”]
This wouldn’t be nearly as problematic if everyone just let one car go in front of them./QUOTE]
Thing is, I’m not even talking about steadily moving traffic. It is usually at almost a standstill because, on top of other things, there is a traffic light RIGHT after the merge point. So letting people merge in isn’t really as much about letting them take an empty space in front of you as it is actually stopping traffic flow even further to accommodate them.
I did the same thing, except I didn’t pull left. If he hit me, his fault. He pulled the brake literally inches away from hitting my car when he realized it wasn’t happening.
I don’t think I could have said it better myself.
And like I said, you are merely an opportunist, the ones who let you in however are going to rot in hell.
And really the problem in the situation I described is that things are not really moving along. There is a traffic light right after the intersection and more often than not movement is at a standstill for minutes at a time. When people finally do start moving (and I sincerely wish they would floor it like someone else said) movement is still slow because you have the cautious drivers who don’t want to pull out of an intersection too fast. So every time the light changes, the line could potentially maybe move ten cars. If 5 people cut in front, the line will move only 5 cars. That is what pisses me off.
I’m one of the ‘dickless’ people who let’s people in.
The thing is, I’m not intentionally letting people in. I’m just a horrible, horrible driver and like to keep a safe distance between me and the car in front of me. And, therefore, dicks take advantage of it all the time - though I really don’t mind when it’s one car. It’s the second car that follows them ramming themselves in and causing me to break that I dislike.
I mean, if I can hit the side of huge, immobile parking garage door because I thought I could fit by - I can hit you.
My husband though, takes great pleasure in blocking people from merging. He once worked in tandem with this semi to keep the assholes from line jumping, cackling madly all the way…
Wow, never been called a “do-gooder” before but I guess I fall into that category. I used to be an aggressive driver, not allowing anyone or anything get in front of me. I’ve aged since then and came to the realization that letting that poor angry asshole in line ahead of me costs me nothing. I chuckle at the fact that he’s going to get to the red light a millisecond before me.
The zipper merge is good, but it’s sort of like communism, where it only works if virtually everyone agrees to the rules. The problem is, even if it starts as a perfect zipper merge, someone feels like since their lane isn’t the one disappearing, somehow they have more right, and then the other lane backs up more, or someone thinks they’re being nice by letting in more than one person, and it quickly breaks down such that we just end up defaulting to a single queue and feeling bitter when people jump it by rushing to the end.
The way I tend to approach it is that I use the closed off lane, but I when I see a convenient time to get over, I take it. I think this is probably the best compromise between the single queue and the zipper merge because it makes use of the extra lane most of the time, but I’m also not forcing my way in front of one of the bumper riders. This is also how I tend to approach these sorts of lane closures, where I have no problem letting people in who are going up the closing lane, but obviously looking to get over when it’s convenient, but people who zoom to the end and try to force their way over can just sit there and wait until someone is willing to let them in.
I don’t feel the same about merge lanes, though. I was taught that it is the responsibility of the merging traffic to merge. If it’s busy and I slow down to let them in, it could create a hazardous condition if those behind me aren’t expecting it, and if it’s not busy, I don’t need to slow down since there should be plenty of room. At the same time, you’re just a huge asshole if you speed up to not let someone merge because now the merger has to either speed up to get in front of you or slow down and try to merge behind you, in either case potentially creating a hazardous condition. Thus, merging lanes shouldn’t use zipper merging because the two lanes are not intended to have equal priority and they should merge when it’s convenient. As such, when traffic is backed up, people who go to the end of merge lanes and force their way in or, worse, those who use the merge lane to pass traffic as if they’re someone who just got on, are selfish assholes.
I use all available lanes in situations like those too, so I’m an asshole.
Also, once I merge in, I let people who got farther up the lane in ahead of me because there are so many others who drive inches away from the bumper in front of them. So I’m a double asshole.
I don’t view traffic merging into a single lane as the opportunity to teach someone a lesson on proper driving protocol.
If someone swoops in front of me well, Whoopity-fucking-do. This ranks so low on my list of things to care about it doesn’t even register. But the dipshits view this as “scum of the earth” by-products.
I know board rules don’t allow me to call you an asshole but can you guess what I’m thinking?
I live in South Jersey and commute into Philadelphia, and the vast majority of intersections in the city work in this zippered pattern. I used to think drivers were terrible here, until I realized the problem is just terribly designed roads. The drivers as actually doing pretty well under the circumstances. ‘‘Cutting in’’ is not a rude anomaly, but a way of life, because otherwise nobody would get anywhere. Zippers are standard issue during rush hour, even merging onto highways. I’m not saying everyone drives like a prince, but it works.
I have to say, we have some of the worst traffic in the world here (NoVA/DC area) but I would rather drive here than South Jersey. My son lives around exit 3 (Moorestown) and I was never so glad as when he got old enough that he can travel on Amtrak on his own.
And yet, I see the theory in action and working on the roads of Chicago whenever I come across merge situations like this. (And, on preview, apparently it does work in New Jersey, after all.) So this isn’t some abstract philosophical concept that only exists in the mind of traffic theorists; it plays out on the roads every day.
The person who’s blocking people from merging at the point of lane closure is the only asshole here. Preventing people from using all lanes until the point of closure are increasing congestion, backups, and delays. Everyone would get to their destinations faster by using all lanes and then taking turns going at the merge point.
And there’s nothing impossible or clusterfuckish about this. On my former daily commute, there was a point at which, on a busy street, two lanes merged into one going onto a bridge. Every day, people used both lanes and then took turns at the point of merger. This is exactly how it should work at a construction site.