Another driving thread

[bob in texas]

Ok, we have talked about the fast lane, the slow go at the light, but we have yet to address the SLOW MERGE TO HIGHWAY TRAFFIC.

Where I live we have interstate hi-ways that are only 2 lanes each side, the fast (left) lane and the slower right lane. I can't tell you how many times the driver coming on the hi-way wants to merge only doing 40 or 45 mph (posted speed limit is 75), I try to move left and the fast lane is running 80 to 85.

I was taught if you going to merge get up to speed matching or exceeding the speed to where you are merging. I watch ahead and move left if possible to avoid the slow merging driver.

Nothing like trying to avoid the merging vehicle while making sure you don't cause a wreck doing so.

Bob

 

[Sevens]

Here in central Ohio (and likely other parts of Ohio) we have a system that I named “the cross of death” whereby those entering the expressway and those exiting the expressway get to cross paths.

It’s very much like the Figure-8 school bus races they used to air on ESPN-2.

 

[LVSteve]

Coming from the UK I've identified many reasons for this.

1) Many Americans seem to have been raised with the idea that more than 2k rpm will destroy an engine in short order. Ergo, fear prevents them from accelerating at the required rate

2) Many Americans also seem to believe that if they can hear any induction or exhaust sound, they will get a ticket for "a demonstration of speed" or whatever it is called in your state.

3) Too many American are "Stop Sign" indoctrinated, and cannot understand yields, roundabouts and, of course, merging. These things involve driving the car with anticipation of what is going on. Anticipation involves continually looking around and being situational aware of other things happening on the road. The Stop Sign drivers want things to happen sequentially, doing stuff in parallel is beyond them.

4) Too many drivers all over the world believe that a turn signal showing buys them rights. They are members of GABB, the God Almighty Blinker Brigade. I hear phrases like "respect the blinker". That's fine if the lead up to the blinker also shows respect and awareness, otherwise, bite me.

5) Depending on your state, folk may be required to move out of the right lane to let the slow mergers on. I've had to explain to visitors from other states (especially the Midwest) that all on ramps here are yields, and you are expected to get on it. Unhappiness follows.

6) The design of many US freeways is appalling. The "cross of death" is far too prevalent, and many freeway exits are too close together because the locals scream "access". Also, the designers put maddening kinks in on ramps so you have to be looking ahead when you really need to be looking in your mirrors or over your shoulder.

There is no excuse for the 45 mph merge. We in America have access to cars, trucks and SUVs with performance unimagined 25 years ago. Sadly, our driver training is still 40 years behind.

 

[NYlakesider]

Ok, we have talked about the fast lane, the slow go at the light, but we have yet to address the SLOW MERGE TO HIGHWAY TRAFFIC.

Where I live we have interstate hi-ways that are only 2 lanes each side, the fast (left) lane and the slower right lane. I can't tell you how many times the driver coming on the hi-way wants to merge only doing 40 or 45 mph (posted speed limit is 75), I try to move left and the fast lane is running 80 to 85.

I was taught if you going to merge get up to speed matching or exceeding the speed to where you are merging. I watch ahead and move left if possible to avoid the slow merging driver.

Nothing like trying to avoid the merging vehicle while making sure you don't cause a wreck doing so.

Bob

Been in a few interesting situations due to that (bolded)
May not be legal but I have found that is better to be much faster if you are the one merging if the traffic is heavy. You have your speed up you can control the situation.

I have followed a few cretins that go half hearted up the ramp get almost to the highway and slam on their brakes. That means normally you have to wait till they get the perfect situation to slowly move into traffic and of course puts you and anyone behind you in the same predicament.

Have been caught behind the breaking vechicle and the easiest but not exactly legal method of getting out of that is to stand on the gas and go around the "sleeper" on the right get your speed up and do a quick merge.

Years of street racing and doing a little stock car driving sometimes kicks in, hey you do what you got to do.+ having a big engine under the hood is a bonus.

 

[Beemerguy53]

We have very lax standards for licensing drivers in this country, compared to many others. Couple that with the folklore and misinformation that people hear and spread (usually in order to justify their own bad driving behavior) and the result is the state of anarchy we see on our highways today.

 

[bob in texas]

Did someone say ROUNDABOUT ???? I have no problem with roundabouts, but a lot of drivers do.

My only question about them is why is one in the middle of no where in eastern Kansas ?? On hi-way 59 or 169 I don't remember which but it was a surprise to come upon it there, I guess the 4 way stop or yield sign was to much of a wait.

Bob

 

[bigwheelzip]

Did someone say ROUNDABOUT ????

Hey, as long as we're picking on oddball highway designs used in the middle of nowhere, I nominate the road dips into stream beds seen on some Texas roads.
Cruising along an arrow straight rural road at highway speed, when all of a sudden the road drops several feet into and out of a stream bed. Little to no clear signage to warn the driver this is about to happen, and sometimes water, rocks, and gravel in the road.





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[bob in texas]

I have never encountered that on any roads here in Texas, but I imagine some of the county roads probably have that. Some are only dirt / mud depending on rain fall.

 

[bigwheelzip]

I have never encountered that on any roads here in Texas, but I imagine some of the county roads probably have that. Some are only dirt / mud depending on rain fall.

Good riddance if they are gone now. First one we encountered was 1983 on the way to Big Bend National Park from the north via a good asphalt road. Only signage was a tall water depth gauge, next to the road at the lower level, nothing on the approach.
Only luck kept that encounter from turning bad.


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[old bear]

It appears that the driving ability and common courtesy of many drivers has decreased over the years. This may be do to the number of "new drivers' as well as ageing of many drivers, this is to include myself. But I find it very Frustrating, and at times downright dangerous.

 

[jeffrefrig]

I noticed here around Pittsburgh that people use the brake pedal more than the gas pedal when merging. Personally I like to gun it then make sure I'm going faster than the truck coming up so I don't become an obituary recipient. Ya need to work them cylinders once in a while! You don't need all that horsepower in a real car all the time, but it's nice to know you got it when you want it.

 

[Rustyt1953]

 

[30-30remchester]

Said it before but needs repeating. With nearly 2 million miles under my belt and possessing every driving license available I have some experience and opinions. First and foremost, for the sake of all that is good and kind. If you see someone trying to merge let them in. Most people haven't taken a driving test since they were 16 years old. Lots of changes and extra traffic since then. There are 2 things you can never tell anyone as they know EVERYTHING. Those are how to handle a gun and the other is how to drive. Been doing it for decades and ain't anyone going to give me advise. Sound familiar? For those that are slow mergers, they are causing problems and danger for others. When they started driving most likely there weren't nearly as many people on the road and it wasn't as big of a deal then. Learned that way and never did any further education. All drivers could benefit from regular public service announcement on the radio
on proper road etiquette and refresher tips on driving in the new world.

 

[ImprovedModel56Fan]

Never had a problem merging at any speed over the speed limit. Just have to remind myself that it is just as good to merge behind the other vehicle as in front - whichever is easiest. MA has a lot of aggressive driving and a lot of following too closely, but I have never experienced a problem with a high-speed merge.

 

[Tom S.]

Here in central Ohio (and likely other parts of Ohio) we have a system that I named “the cross of death” whereby those entering the expressway and those exiting the expressway get to cross paths.

It’s very much like the Figure-8 school bus races they used to air on ESPN-2.

I believe you are referring to "diverging diamonds":

I also believe they were designed by a collision shop owner.

 

[Old Arkansawyer]

Here in Arkansas and Oklahoma many of the on ramps are just to short.
This is especially true for loaded trucks they either have to crowd their
way onto the right lane or drive on the shoulder to reach the posted
speed. It seems a lot of drivers take some perverted joy in not letting
a truck merge.
Don't get me started on some of the rural round abouts, first of all most
are to small in diameter to accommodate 53 ft trailers or even bob
trucks with a long wheelbase. And out in the boonies the size of the
round shouldn't be a problem.

 

[arjay]

I believe you are referring to "diverging diamonds":

I also believe they were designed by a collision shop owner.

They built one in my old hood a few years ago. It works quite well at keeping traffic moving.No left turns in the same plane as through traffic.ingenious!

 

[bob in texas]

I believe you are referring to "diverging diamonds":

I also believe they were designed by a collision shop owner.

I have encountered only one of these, it was in the town I grew up in, a couple years ago when I was there for my sister's funeral. I was so confused by it I almost caused an accident, IMO worst road design I have ever seen in my 50+ years of driving.
I made sure to never drove that hi-way again.

Bob

 

[ladder13]

I’d love to follow some around with a video recorder.

 

[arjay]

I have encountered only one of these, it was in the town I grew up in, a couple years ago when I was there for my sister's funeral. I was so confused by it I almost caused an accident, IMO worst road design I have ever seen in my 50+ years of driving.
I made sure to never drove that hi-way again.

Bob

It’s like a roundabout. A few times through it and it’s old hat ;-)

 

[LVSteve]

I believe you are referring to "diverging diamonds":

I also believe they were designed by a collision shop owner.

Nope, Sevens is referring to bad cloverleaf junctions without the parallel merge sections. I-70 has quite a few of them, like this one.

Google Maps

Note in the attached picture how similarly short the on/off ramps are on the road running up and down the picture. This example is in another country.

 

[Walkin Horse]

Here most entrances are marked YIELD not MERGE. And the slow ones shoot across to become the left lane mayors.

 

[Sevens]

Nope, Sevens is referring to bad cloverleaf junctions without the parallel merge sections. I-70 has quite a few of them, like this one.

Yep, you nailed it. So when folks are getting on the expressway and we can all agree they should be increasing their speed — folks are also exiting the highway, crossing in front of or in between those folks and about to hit an exit curve, as they lower their vehicle from highway speed.

It’s not a total death trap, but it dances around in the same room.

 

[Kiwi cop]

Here in NZ our on-ramps merge directly into the slow lane. We have a process called “merge like a zip”. It is supposed to be incumbent on both the entering driver and the straight through driver to position themselves correctly so this happens. In reality those already on the “motorway” are too close to the car in front and not paying attention to merge properly. Drivers simply hate to let anyone in unless they must.

We also do not have the “no crossing” solid white lines that you have in the U.S. (not that it appeared to me to be complied with by most drivers).

My first day driving in Houston it took me 10 minutes and four exit/entries to realise the “slow” far right lane starts at the on-ramp and ends at the off-ramp, and that the real slow lane is the next one in.

The second day I experienced getting on the freeway on the right only to be told by my maps app I needed to cross four lanes of peak hour traffic to exit to the right in 400 yards.

Needless to say I very quickly became a more aggressive driver in the U.S. than I am at home. I became adept at accelerating up on-ramps, finding the gap, moving across multiple lanes.
As for roundabouts, we use them everywhere here, but where I encountered them in America (only in Arizona and one other place I can’t recall on the highways) I had to remind myself to go counter clockwise and not to the left.

Hopefully I will quickly readapt to American drivers when we return.

 

[Kiwi cop]

Hey, as long as we're picking on oddball highway designs used in the middle of nowhere, I nominate the road dips into stream beds seen on some Texas roads.
Cruising along an arrow straight rural road at highway speed, when all of a sudden the road drops several feet into and out of a stream bed. Little to no clear signage to warn the driver this is about to happen, and sometimes water, rocks, and gravel in the road.





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I remember encountering these on the road between Sisterdale and Luckinbach north of San Antonio.

There were two about a mile or so apart and I remember thinking I would not like to be caught between them when the watercourse was in flood

 

[COFFEEMUG]

if any of you have driven I 93 north in boston and have tried to merge onto I 95/128 north or south you know first hand what Russian roulette is.

 

[zeke]

Truly annoying to me is the drivers merging into traffic that just can't be bothered to look, come up (or down) to adequate speed to merge, or signal and assume everyone will move over for them.

Will move over when i can, but there are lot's of times when that's not feasible, or safe.

 

[dave1918a2]

The most annoying thing for Me is when a driver in the right lane slows down or brakes to allow a car to merge. The whole right lane then must slow down. Then there are the drivers who merge without looking or caring and stay in the merge lane until it runs out and then get over wether there is room or not. Kind of like playing chicken, just in the same direction. When I was in Colorado there were so many w/o licenses and insurance that You had to give way. And They knew it.

 

[Chubbo]

Foreign support

Drivers.
I don’t want to be too critical, but would like answers.

It’s come to my attention, that drivers from foreign lands, seem eager to try our unique style of driving in the USA. After trying it, some of them feel duty bound, to convert us to the style of driving that they weren’t satisfied with, and left behind in their homeland.

I’ve read the many comments, and suggestions, by foreign drivers that have emigrated to the USA, about how we USA drivers, could, and should improve our driving skills. It seems to me that it would have been easier, and made more sense, for those folks to have remained in their homeland and modified their own, unsatisfactory rules.

Chubbo

 

[Imissedagain]

IIRC, long ago in a far away land heading East from Coney Island, there was an entrance to the Belt Parkway that might have been safer with a Naval Carrier launch system.
Not VW or Corvair approved but on the Ducati my gal held on tight.
Always gave the Yellow shirt a dozen Nathan's dogs prior to launch.