Merging onto a Highway - "Rules of the Road"

[Bustanut joker]

Highly unlikely. I haven't did that **** since bag phones..

Nowadays I would carry enough armaments to lay waste to any phool dumb enough to be so self absorbed they needed a cellphone while piloting a vehicle of mass destruction.

 

[HotRodZilla]

Snicker.....

NOW this thread is getting somewhere. So long as neither driver is on either end of the extreme, it's not that hard...However, drivers these days seem to love to push the extremes.

 

[C&C]

I'm pretty much 100% with Fred on this one; the vehicle entering the highway has the obligation to adjust speed (to enter the highway). If it presents that the slow lane driver/rider (right lane for most of us) can move over to allow an easier merge (then that is an option) but maintaining highway speed is paramount so the merger can adjust (to merge). The problem arises (sometimes) when the merger just expects to just (come on into) the lane without any 'thought' to the thru-traffic (already there) with the thought that they are entitled to merge (without concern with the existing traffic).

 

[yamafitter]

All you people need to come and drive in Montreal where everyone is a Jacques Villeneuve and where the speed limit is merely a suggestion. If by some quirk of fate you make it out the other side of Montreal, only then can you be considered an awesome rider / driver and have the right to preach to others.

Canadian Driving Lesson #1 - The right hand is for holding your Tim Horton's coffee cup.

 

[Fred W]

@ airboss - The Illinois Rules of the Road that you quoted from is correct. If you come to a "Merge" sign in the road (which applies to your lane) you have the responsibility of adjusting your speed. Never seen a merge sign for the right lane when coming up to a cloverleaf. I've seen yield signs (for the the on ramp traffic) and I've seen the "Right Lane ends, Merge Left" deal, both of which puts the responsibility of merging / yielding on the entering lane.

Montreal. Why do they have no right turns on red in Montreal? Do they think that somehow makes the traffic move better? Hard to understand those Frenchies in more ways than one.

As for "professional drivers" being much better at these merging situations, I would say that maybe that used to be true. But nowadays they are as much or more of the traffic problem as/than anyone else. I constantly see tractor trailer rigs running up and down the middle lane of the three lane Maine Turnpike with absolutely nobody in the right lane for miles ahead.

For those not familiar with the Turnpike it is a very limited access interstate highway (mostly I-95) and the exit ramps are relatively far apart. Traffic is generally fairly light except right in the Portland area and around the toll booths on summer weekends, but it picks up a good amount of commuter traffic during the normal rush hours. So the number of times one has to deal with merging traffic is minimal.

There are even signs on the turnpike saying "Stay right except to pass" but these "kings of the road" opt to ignore that suggestion with impunity. The overall impression I get from truckers these days is that, either because they use the roads the most, or because they are making their living using these highways, or maybe it's because they pay the most road use taxes (which they should since they chew the crap out of the roadways) they think that they "own the road." That they are more privileged than other users and there is no need for them to be courteous to everyone else on the road.

 

[wfooshee]

My issue is with dummies who are "careful" and approach the merge point slowly, then wonder why they can't get in.

You can't frickin' merge if you aren't going as fast as the traffic!

That merge lane is a quarter mile long so that even semis have enough room to get to highway speed. DO NOT APPROACH THE MERGE POINT AT 35 MPH!!!!

As for roundabouts, they're wonderful! They're being put in all over the place here to replace stop signs at T intersections. The side road with the stop would stay backed up for 20 or 30 cars, but with the roundabout that simply doesn't happen. But once IN the roundabout, you have to keep going. Timid folks keep stopping "just in case" and the whole flow instantly fails.

 

[BobbyBlue]

While i appreciate the professional nature of this discussion, and it may well apply to the other 49.5 states, there is no spanish word for merge as applies to moving vehicles in texas, especially south texas....here, non-tourist stop on entrance ramps to observe the baby jesus image on their breakfast taco tortilla......and we have 1 wrong way fatality per weekend in most big cities...plus due to the unknown feat of nature called "tire wear", we lead the nation in suv rollovers AND occupant ejections....i'm still amazed and saddened to see how far a body can be thrown from inside a vehicle....equipped with seat belts.....i've ridden motorbikes in taipei, hong kong, new york, bangkok, manila, mexico city and tokyo.. and its still far more dangerous here because you think you're still in the usa and thus relax your senses...stay aware here folks....that tri colored oldsmo-buick approaching fastly doesn't see you....

 

[kenporider]

C'mon Fred, everybody knows Massholes don't merge onto the highway, we drag race traffic that has the right of way and play chicken until somebody gives way. Hell, we don't even bother to check if somebody's coming, we're just too important to have to do that. Turn signals? What are those? Oh yeah, they're the things I turn on that allow me to change lanes without looking or have any regard to what might already be in that space. Anybody who hasn't experienced Massachusetts, southern New Hampshire and southern Maine highways needs to come experience the treat.

 

[Fred W]

You're right on that. Might be part of why it gets my dander up so much. It's wicked retahded I tell ya.

When I was a kid growing up in the Boston 'burbs, the drivers ed instructors used to all get a kick out of bringing all the 16 y/o trainees down to Cambridge to attempt to navigate the infamous Freshpond Circle during rush hour. Sadly, it is no longer there anymore, replaced with mundane traffic lights.

It was a two lane rotary at the bottom of Rte 2, which is a two limited access highway, where the highway ended and intersects with the also 2 lane Freshpond Parkway. That thing had traffic backed up for miles in every direction every morning and every afternoon.

Their big advice to prepare you for the hair raising event was: "Under no circumstances should you engage in eye contact with another driver. They will see that as weakness on your part and immediately cut you off meanwhile gleefully smiling the whole time." Somehow, I think it had a little something to do with those yellow "student driver: sign on the cars too.

There were some kids that decided they really didn't want a license all that much after one of these adventures.

A year or two later it was on my morning commute to a summer job (at my father's business) over on Third Street. I mastered that thing I tell ya. I'm sure there were more than a few other commuters that I was the pet peeve of that summer.

 

[Geosci]

My issue is with dummies who are "careful" and approach the merge point slowly, then wonder why they can't get in.
You can't frickin' merge if you aren't going as fast as the traffic!

The absolute pinnacle of this idiocy is in Winnipeg.

Locals there treat the yield signs on ramps as if they were stop signs. Had way too many close calls when I would be checking the flow of traffic coming up behind me, only to find someone stopped at the yield sign waiting for an opening large enough for them to feel comfortable moving into.

I hate to think what would happen if they started putting roundabouts out there.

 

[supertankerm60a3]

I drove big trucks for 10 years. Now I'm back in the Army.

During my time driving, I totaled over 1 million miles with 4 companies.

I have been in the situation were the merging car is slower than me and it looks like I will be there or past when the lanes 'pinch', I speed up and they speed up. PINCH! They flip me off. OOPS

I have been in the situation were the merging car seems to be accelerating well and will be ahead, I back off, maybe even slightly braking, Then they change their mind or panic and brake... PINCH! They flip me off. OOPS

After a while, I just stopped doing anything. I had the ROW, YOU adjust yourself, I don't care. Merge on the gas, merge on the brake, hell, merge under the damn trailer if your car is short enough. I have the ROW when on the freeway.

I really hated running the far right lane because of the entry and exit ramps and did not if there were 3 or more lanes I would drive one lane out from the far right. Pass on the right, pass on the left, I don't care, trucks are allowed in the second lane out from the right when there are 3 or more lanes in urban areas.

Rural areas with few ramps are very different.

 

[TomInPA]

Pittsburgh has been a real adjustment after driving in CA. Half the people here actually stop on merging freeway ramps and wait for a traffic opening. This has the result of creating 5-10 MPH merges where ramp traffic merges with the traffic on the freeway, causing miles of backups as number 2 lane merges with #1 to avoid the merging ramp traffic. I see people stop, even when the main road is relatively clear and all they need to do is match speed.

This part of the country has some of the most outdated freeway design I'm aware of. Ramps with inadequate visibility and merge length and even stop signs at the end of some ramps. In most cities, the traffic volume being carried here on two lanes is given 4 lanes plus HOV. I've gone back in time.