Changing lanes is the leading cause of traffic tie-ups

"Just wear your damn mask..." (jimal)
07/11/2014 at 19:48 • Filed to: Traffic problems

I just want to get a weekend discussion started early. After spending way too much time sitting in traffic lately, I've come to the conclusion that changing lanes - often out of want but more often out of need - is the leading cause of traffic jams. And I'm not talking about road construction where simple zippering to merge would solve the problem.

Discuss.

DISCUSSION (6)

phenotyp > Just wear your damn mask...
07/11/2014 at 19:58

Jaysus. Try living in Austin. No one here can figure out how to merge, even if they're given two miles' warning on freeways. Nor if they drive the same road every day at the same time and know that the freeway goes down one lane. The traffic problems here are almost completely due to people being selfish assholes. Some blame can go to roads that stupidly require people to cross multiple lanes to get to where they intend to go, but even then, it's down to asking people to be aware of their surroundings and behave appropriately, which is, most of the time, too much to ask.

Just wear your damn mask... > phenotyp
07/11/2014 at 20:30

Here in Connecticut it isn't that simple... or it is too much to assume that drivers are paying attention to things like signs and not just doing what they always do everywhere else.

Everyday on my commute I have to deal I-84 from the New York border. When the highway crosses over into Connecticut, it is two lanes. The entrance of Exit combines with the exit of a rest area/weigh station and formed a third lane on the highway... for about a mile and a half before it exits to the right for Rout 7 South while 84 takes a sharp curve to the left with a bad sight line. The vast majority of traffic continues on 84, so the trucks that exit that weigh station have to merge in. The large volume of out of state traffic traveling on that section of the highway, seeing the right lane with almost no traffic, dives for it, only to have to force their way back into line before the lane ends at the exit. After going through the sharp curve as two lanes, entrance ramp from 7 North merges with 84 and forms a third lane. Trucks that merged over to the right/middle lane within a mile and a half of exiting the weigh station, now compete with Route 7 traffic merging as well as traffic trying to get to Exit 4, which exits from the entrance ramp.

The opposite - but in my opinion worse - thing happens about three miles later. The highway is three lanes, so every idiot insists on getting into the left lane, because people are assholes. This is exacerbated by the fact that there one exit to service the entire downtown Danbury area, so the traffic volume on it is more than the short ramp can handle. But what really screws thing up is that at that three mile later point, Route 7 continues north. The problem is, instead of building a flyover so you exit to the right to get on 7 North, the left lane exits. This means that all the people who are heading north on Route 7 have to get into the left lane even if they aren't passing anyone, and the idiot left lane riders have to merge into the middle lane.

And then things get complicated.

Just as 7 North exits from 84 East in the left lane, the entrance ramp from 7 South to 84 East dumps into the left lane, exactly a third of a mile before Exit 8, a high volume exchange. So all the people that want to go from 7 South to Exit 8 have to cross three lanes, backing up the traffic on 84 just as the left lane idiots are trying to merge.

I'd like to say that this situation is unique to the Danbury area, but these same traffic flow fuckups litter the State of Connecticut. There is no highway in Connecticut where you can get into a lane and travel in it from one border to the next. There is always going to be a lane change required somewhere, even if you aren't exiting. It is ludicrous.

gmporschenut also a fan of hondas > Just wear your damn mask...
07/12/2014 at 01:06

Left exits suck. As well as the genius left lane on ramps. "Lets take slow moving traffic and merger into the fastest lane."

84 from Danbury through Hartford sucks.

NotUnlessRoundIsFunny > Just wear your damn mask...
07/12/2014 at 01:55

1. I'm surprised this post didn't get more comments.

2. I'm often amazed by the stupid lane changing and related behavior I see on the highway, especially where people are willing to take any risk (to themselves and others) to make exactly this exit, cutting across three lanes and a shoulder to get to it. You haven't been paying attention for the last five miles of signs? Really? You couldn't just take the exit a half mile down the road, and not put yourself, your passengers, and your fellow drivers at risk while you whip your car across multiple lanes without looking?

#GetOffMyLawn

Just wear your damn mask... > NotUnlessRoundIsFunny
07/12/2014 at 07:52

1. It is early.

2. Yours is another example of the problem.

Just wear your damn mask... > gmporschenut also a fan of hondas
07/12/2014 at 07:57

It sure as hell does. And 95 pretty much anywhere is worse. Which is a hard thing to accomplish.