My Recent Road Rage Story

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I notice more people cut semi's and trucks w/ trailers more than any other vehicle
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You'd be surprised. I've had about 10 people almost run me off the road... This month alone. One car actually almost hit my front bumper had I not gone swirved into a empty turning lane. Its pretty bad. I need to get around to installing my train horn.
 
TJR, also being from the great state of PA, that's why they post the signs "use both lanes till merge point". So in my opinion, you are correct for doing what you did. If I see a long line of cars and not the merge point I will use the other lane till I get near or at the merge point. Now if both lanes are backed up, I will stay in the lane I'm in till I can get safely into the lane that is being merged into and then stay there. My pet peave is when people go from lane to lane just to try and keep with the moving traffic (usually a couple 100 feet then try to get back into the other lane when it starts moving). I end up going past them 6-7 times before the single lane mark. In my opinion, they are the ones slowing things up.;)
 
If you guys want to wait in one lane, while there is an open, completely legal lane, right next to it, by all means you go right ahead. Me and Tom will gladly make use of the open lane. And we do appreciate you and thank you. This isn't wrong, illegal or immoral so lighten up.
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It is rude.



How can you say that using two lanes up until the merge is faster? Faster than one lane?



How can that be.



Lets use a little logic here. I have a 2 inch pipe about 20 feet long. At the end of that pipe, I have a 2" to 1" reducer on that pipe. I have another pipe, it is a 2" to 1" reducer with a 1" pipe that is 20 feet long.



Which will flow liquid faster?



Before you answer this with a scientific formula to consider pressure, flow, or anything else, consider this.



We are a large group in a crowded theatre. We see smoke. Which is the safest and FASTEST way out of the theatre? Run over everyone to get to the door or do we get in line and run out together?



The same goes with traffic. Sure, for one person, ride right up to the merge point and cut in front of someone is faster for you...maybe. You may have been slighter faster getting through, but you made someone else be even more late.



As the saying goes, the chain is only as strong as the weakest link. The strongest chain is only as strong as the weakest part of it. 10 lanes of traffic going into a one lane road will only flow as much as that one lane road will handle.





Tom
 
Caymen, good choice, as I said early what does the Fire Marshal Preach?? if you're the 100th car in 1 line, and the 50th car in lane number 2 in a zipper in which lane 1 goes first, you still are 100back.
 
I agree stone. Doesn't matter though which state. Federal law, is to use both lanes til the merge point. Those that were cutting in front of you to block the road TJR, were doing it illegally. They were taking up 2 lanes of travel and holding up more traffic than needed b/c they didn't want people to pass. If you would have rear ended one of them, it would have been there fought. No, if ands or buts. Its just how it is. You can't block a lane of road to hold traffic from passing you.



By cutting in front of and stopping, is almost like that convoy thing the truckers got fined for. For taking all lanes and slowing traffic down, which is a safety factor.



And those who said you were incorrect of what you did TJR, need to take a refresher course of driver's ed. Sorry, he was correct in what he did. You weren't passing on the shoulder. You were using a lane that wasn't closed yet and it was still available for use. No law broken. Course, when the lane is about to end, you signal and yield.



Road rage, happens from those people that cut or block traffic and they then think they have the right to cuss, flick off, or blow the horn at, like the other person was in the wrong. If they were following the rules of the road, then they did nothing incorrect.
 
Federal law or State law, doesn't matter its part of having a drivers license. Your not doing anything illegal by using an open lane that hasn't ended yet. Those who are blocking or trying to stop traffic that is using the lane, is doing something illegal and that will start road rage and cause accidents.



I don't understand what the "zipper" is? If you mean using an open lane of travel by passing others, then I still don't understand? No law broken.



I say Federal law, only b/c my license isn't a regular license. Its a CDL, different story.
 
By law, they don't. I agree, but common curiosity in people, will.



But do have to agree, what he did with his judgement was correct and those who did what they did were incorrect.
 
The "zipper" is the strategy recommended by most (if not all) traffic/DOT/etc. experts, for use when two lanes merge down into one (be it for a construction site or just a lane elimination) during heavy (not free-flowing) traffic. The concept is to use all lanes up to the merge point, and then alternate cars/lanes at the merge point, much like the teeth of a zipper coming together. (Or like the two halves of a shuffled deck of cards.)



I've heard (don't have any references) that in some countries, when they have a situation like this (particularly by a construction site), they "force" the zipper by having the single lane not be an extension of either lane, but down the middle of the two. Would definitely be an interesting approach.
 
I agree the people trying to get him to steer off the road was wrong, problem is at least in MN if he were to rear end him, he is mostly at fault. (i think its at least 51% your fault by mn law if I'm not mistaken). But common curtosy, not curiosity, for most drivers will merge early, thats why only 3% of the drivers in the one study rode till the end, most got in where they fit in before the end.
 
I think yall need to take this thread into the chat room, this way you can all yell at eachother and agree to disagree with eachother. Just my 2 cents :p



But with this topic, I'm with TJR :D If there is no traffic in my lane for a mile, I will continue in that lane until there is a sign or someone telling me to move over.



Here in Texas we have a thing called a 'frontage road' which runs adjacent to most of our freeways. If I come up on road construction, accident or whatever and my lane is closing, I just drive off the shoulder onto the frontage road if there is too much traffic in the other lane and get back on at the next entrance....Is this legal....Hell No, but I don't give a Sh.. and most that do drive trucks don't either. These areas you can see many have done the same thing from the path across the grass area on the shoulder. Sometimes, the cops station themselves in these areas and write ppl up for exiting the freeway where there is no exit.



People also do this if it's just heavy bumper to bumper traffic
 
I still agree with TJR.

Now let me give one I delt with like his. I was riding the right hand lane below the speed limit. I was going to an off ramp before the merge. Same as TJR, I had to play dodge the idiot try to stop me. Eventualy a large truck took both lanes. There was no break down lane. I was stuck behind him for 20minutes. My exit was 2 minutes up the road at 20mph.:angry:

The zipper system works around here just fine, until citizens play traffic police.
 
If everyone used both lanes, then both lanes would equally fill up so it would take the same amount of time to get through the pinch point as it would if everyone lined up two miles early. So why do traffic engineers encourage you to use both lanes until the merge?



In a line of traffic, if there's an open lane, there will always be some number of people that will use the open lane. By the same token, there will also be some number of "lane enforcers" that will attempt to block the open lane users. It's just human nature. The result could be disastrous if the action resulted in a collision in an already space-restricted situation. So how do you eliminate open-lane use envy? Equally fill both lanes with vehicles, not to save time, but to keep down the opportunity for dangerous lane blocking actions.

 
PRM says:
I agree everyone should fill all available lanes until the choke point and then alternate, but if they don't cutting to the front is a great way to piss off a lot of people.
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PRM, I am not sure I understand you.



Are you saying that people should use all available lanes until the merge (which is what I was doing), but, and however, IF people are prematurely lining up you should line up with them even if there are lanes available?



Is that what you are saying? If so, that sounds like conflicting advice that can be ambiquous.



TJR
 
Daryl Chaney said:
You were wrong! You knew of the closing, so you should have got over. You didn't save any time. Around here you'd be blocked too, even by the Semi's. Stay with the flow. This is one of the reasons for road rage and wrecks. When you pass all those cars and then pull back in their lane, you have ticked everyone of them off. One of them may have a gun a decide to follow you.
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Actually, I saved myself a considerable amount of time, gas, and clutch.



If more people had used both lanes until the merge, less gas would be used, less time would be taken, and less frustration would be had, and therefore less road rage.



I submit it is the sheep that get over early and queue up for no reason that get miffed because of THEIR OWN ACTIONS when someone else continues in the clear lanes. Then, rather than try to understand why they are mad when someone legally continues to closer to the merge point, some get the rage and try to cut people off. It is the sheep action that causes the problems...I submit.



TJR
 
It is actually quite easy to merge into the one lane. People are so busy talking, eating or texting that as long as you don't wait until the last second you can merge without having very little effect on those behind you. Again, I want to thank all of you that get in line at the 2 mile mark, it leaves the other lane open for the rest of us...:)
 
Caymen asks:
How can you say that using two lanes up until the merge is faster? Faster than one lane?



How can that be?
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That's why I said conventional wisdom isn't always wise.



The studies have shown that for heavy congestion, the LATE MERGE with zipper has higher throughput, as much as close to 40% higher on some highways.



A long line of traffic has a memory. Once it turns to stop and go, it is slower, and the longer it is the slower it is due to the memory. Ever see a light change to green 10 cars ahead of you, and it seems you have to wait forever for the car just in front of you to go? That is caused by the delay everyone in between, in succession starting to go. That's the memory/delay. The longer the line, the longer the memory delay.



One thing that using both lines does is cut that line length in half. You still can only get one car through the pinch point at a time, at a slow speed. That speed isn't that much faster once congested and feeding from two different lanes in a zipper fashion. When feeding the zipper becomes less of a bottle neck then the memory delay of each line feeding the zipper, which happens at a certain point, then the overall delay is a function of the individual line bottleneck. When that happens, the shorter the lines, the less overall time, and the lines will be shorter if feed from two or more line sources.



TJR
 

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