Thanks for such a useful contribution.
I think the problem for many, is that they feel a panicky need to be able to merge all the way to the left immediately, so in order to accomplish that they have to stop and wait for all parallel lanes to be clear before continuing on their way. It’s a wrong way to merge, but I’m pretty sure that’s what goes through a lot of people’s minds. “oh, but if I just keep driving I might not be able to merge left 400 yards down the road!”
Gorsnak,
Hmm…I found a relative of hers here. She doesn’t move before the photo car is out of range. There are no MERGE or YIELD signs anywhere on the ramp or roadway.
Now this is a very busy road, and her lane starts at the off-ramp and exits at the first lights.
My primary frustration is that it is VERY DIFFICULT TO MERGE WHEN YOU AREN’T MOVING. If you match the flow of traffic, then it becomes much easier to change lanes if necessary.
I am further frequently frustrated by the fact that these wingnuts decide to wait for a clearing in traffic (in the other 3 lanes) and then proceed down their own lane and take the exit at the end of the lane!
The other times that people sit in their dedicated lane without moving is to wait for a clearing to turn left at the first lights across 3 lanes of traffic. I am dumbfounded by this…not that they need to turn left to get where they are going, but by the fact that by going straight off the highway you miss traffic and can get to the same place easier (zero traffic, easier turns).
Ludovic! Keep going! That’s what merging is all about!
ThePylon, those Yield…to pedestrian signs are terrible. You’d think that standard Pedestrian Crossing signs would be sufficient.
Eonwe, I agree that is probably a frequent mindset. It’s too bad a lot of people aren’t willing to miss their turn and have to backtrack a little or take an alternate route.
Tell that to everyone else on the road.
There’s an intersection near where I live kind of like this. It is a road that T’s into another road, where it’s 1 lane in each direction if you turn left, or 2 in each direction if you turn right. Obviously, the right turn has it’s own lane. The thing s, there’s a Stop sign at the intersection, but for anyone who’s taken Driver’s Ed, it was clear that it only applied to the people turning left because there was a stop line in that lane, but not for the right lane. So, inevitably lots of people stopped, but not a big deal since it wasn’t as clear as it could be, just annoying.
Anyway, there must have been lots of complaints about the design of the intersection, because they tried to fix it. First, they tried putting the stop sign between the two lanes, but that lasted all of about a day or two before someone hit it. So now it’s back on the right side, but immediately underneath the Stop sign is a sign that says “Except Right Turns”, and yet people STILL stop because they apparently can read “STOP” but can’t read the rest.
But worse yet, no one actually stops behind the stop sign, they pull up halfway into the lane, where anyone that would be changing lanes would hit them anyway, so it’s actually MORE dangerous to stop than to keep going like they’re supposed to.
Here’s a picture of someone stopped where people normally stop. Granted, this picture is a little old since the “Except Right Turns” isn’t on the stop sign, but still. You can clearly see that it’s defeating the purpose when they’re already halfway in the lane.
So, yeah, when I see this kind of stupidity, I will honk at them because, as I said, it’s unsafe. Seriously, can’t people read?
Portland, OR checking in with the intersection of SE Woodstock and Foster (technically it’s another itty bitty piece of road called Couplet because this is a couple blocks where Foster is split into two one way streets, but close enough for government work) and there’s a protected lane, no stop sign, and every fucking asshat in the world stops at that corner. What makes it even worse is that there’s a little spur road that cuts to the protected lane that had to be left there to allow parking at the business on the corner and some smart fuck always pulls straight ahead trying to anticipate and cut off the wanker sitting at the nonexistent stop sign and that asshole (who DOES have a stop sign) quite often gets nearly clocked if some smart person proceeds through the turn as they’re expected to–because the fool who cuts in doesn’t stop at the valid stop sign in order to cut ahead of the idiot who stops at the nonexistent stop sign in their head. My horn usually gets a workout here, it’s one of my pet peeves of the road.
Sort of the opposite problem:
Where I live there’s an intersection where the right turn lane used to be shielded by a concrete island and thus was dedicated to people turning right.
Then they got rid of the barrier and made it a through lane. The right turn lane now had a huge “Yield – no merge area” sign, because the right turn lane entered directly into a through lane.
For months, people would ignore the sign and just freakin’ roll out into the highway without even looking, because it used to be a dedicated lane. I stopped short a number of times, once making the antilocks chatter and winding up a foot from the terrified driver’s door. Her response to discovering she’d stuck the first two-thirds of her car out into a highway was to just stop cold, athwart the highway, and people behind me almost hit me.
Frankly if she’d been driving faster it wouldn’t have been so bad, as I’d have had more room to slow before overtaking her, but some people come from the “Swing out and start cranking the steering wheel around to the right” school of turning, like it was 1937 and they’re towing a hayride trailer.
I think that’s a sign of not having had proper training - a good driving instructor is not likely to let people continue doing that stupid maneuver.
An update: just today, I noticed that the “KEEP MOVING” sign at this intersection had been replaced by a “YIELD (TO PEDESTRIANS)” sign. Apparently the powers that be follow a descriptive rather than prescriptive philosophy of traffic control. The parenthetical is a bit odd especially, as this intersection is a good half mile from any sort of business or residence and I’ve never once seen a single pedestrian anywhere near it.
SmartAleq, that is ridiculous. There should only be a single, larger island between Woodstock and Couplet and get rid of that separate spur. The intersection to the north is configured the way that one should be. If they make the small pedestrian island bigger and take out the large island on the south side, then traffic will be able to move through the merge straighter and faster. I’d extend the curb of the island between the merge lanes down to SE91st and stop turns at that intersection though.
I’m frustrated and I’ve never been there!
I think it’s so the business can get a truck in to drop off orders, that’s the only explanation I’ve been able to come up with–and yeah, it’s about as annoying as it gets without actually causing hemorrhoids!
I’ve driven that Portland one a few time. I try to avoid at all costs…
For SmartAleq, here is a Beaverton one. There is no stop for right turns into a “protected lane”:
Every time I’ve been there, I’ve seen a lineup to turn right, or a single car just waiting…
HERE’S WHY many people are probably hesitant. Silver Ford Explorer drives straight from his lane to the right most lane. Has the Honda Pilot taken his right hand turn into “his” lane, he’d have gotten creamed.
Cyberhwk, while I agree that those situations can be dangerous, it’s a little different to the situations described above. While there is a new lane created, the cross traffic has a traffic signal that they must obey (which you do see in the images). I would not complain about the traffic stopping at the corner as yielding at a red seems to make sense to me, although I might complain about the silver Ford changing lanes in the middle of the intersection.
Iggins, I can’t read the sign under the Stop sign.
It says
“Right Turn
Proceeds?
Without?
Stopping?”
Maybe it’s too much reading when you are driving.
The intersection in the OP, and most of those linked since, differ from yours in that through-traffic cannot change lanes in the intersection on account of there being a curb or other barrier in the way. So, no chance of getting creamed from behind. Some slight chance of someone merging right into your lane after the barrier ends, though I’ll point out that in the specific case in the OP there is no right turn available for over a mile - so, not a lot of through-traffic desperate to move right.
In a case of turning right on red (as opposed to being in a right-turn ramp with no light, as in the OP) I’m perfectly sympathetic with people who refuse to move out if only the right-most lane is open and there’s heavy traffic in the next one. That’s a bit apples and oranges though.
Yeah, except those are pretty common in Portland, once you’ve done it the first couple times you recognize those signs pretty easily. I’m originally from California and the first time I ever saw one of those I was all “Whoa, whut?” but I whip right through ‘em now. Nope, that’s just pure-dee stoopid in operation–but that’s in a mall, stoopid is really thick on the ground there. I’d never set foot in Washington Square at all except there’s actually a pretty decent Indian food stand in the food court that is cheap and if I happen to be on that end of town I just gotta feed the habit. I always regret it because if there’s anything worse than a mall it’s a mall full of friggin’ Beavertron soccer moms in giant tuna boats.
I was 99% sure that you were going to talk about this intersection.
I think it irritates me the most because of the clear Added Lane sign, and you’re just getting off Circle Drive, so you don’t want to stop.
Until I saw that Gorsnak lived in Saskatoon I was starting to wonder if he/she was describing somewhere in Halifax. The Haligonians are wonderful folk but they are the worst drivers I’ve seen in Canada and I’ve lived in Victoria (okay drivers), Ottawa (okay drivers), Barrie (okay drivers), Montreal (fabulous drivers - I love driving there) and Halifax. Haligonians, if they signal, only signal immediately before or at the start of a turn so it’s more of a confirmatory thing than anything. They mysteriously slow down for no apparent reason. They’re courteous to the point of being dangerous and unpredictable. If they have the right of way and are making a right turn on a green light and no other traffic is present, they slow down to a speed most people would use entering their driveway. On a four lane (two lanes each direction) a lot of people just sort of drift so that come close to straddling the lane marking. I believe that they don’t actually drive the car but that the car drives them and that they, as drivers, will only take positive control if necessary to avoid a collision.
And ThePylon, I know that intersection well - it’s a bit of a dog’s breakfast but I think the area around the Carling/Woodroffe intersection is a thing of beauty as well.