Your Worst Traffic Jam Story

"UnderSTeerEnthusiast - Triumph Fanboy" (smithtaylorm) 08/21/2018 at 12:18 • Filed to: None

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Since I’m probably perma grey on the fp. Feel free to share yours.

Late summer 2016, I was coming home on the highway in cincinnati after getting off of my college job early (or so I thought) due to an incoming storm. Torrential downpour ensues, and I’m stuck in a no mans land on I71 where there is no exit for 2 miles either way. Flash floods start occurring under the overpasses to the point where people start locking their engines. I decide to be one of the first to be smart enough to not drive through the water, so that means I am in front of a few miles of stopped traffic while the slip road/entrance to the highway is flooded (and blocked by a barrier= no go), as the water keeps coming up the first couple rows are forced to back up to avoid losing their engines. End up being stopped by the high water for 3 hours, and instead of getting home early, I get home many hours late.

CarsofFortLangley - Oppo Forever > UnderSTeerEnthusiast - Triumph Fanboy 08/21/2018 at 12:24

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Not mine, but my dads.  He was so sick one time... it came out both ends in his new Mustang and it took him like 2 hours to get home.

CalzoneGolem > UnderSTeerEnthusiast - Triumph Fanboy 08/21/2018 at 12:27

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I was working at a summer camp. My and one of the kids I worked with went to the record store. On the way back we got stuck in this huge line of traffic on a two lane rural highway. Turns out there was a major accident. Some ‘V ette crashed horrifically but we didn’t know that. About 10 minutes into it we busted out the lawn chairs and set them up by our car until traffic moved.   

RamblinRover Luxury-Yacht > UnderSTeerEnthusiast - Triumph Fanboy 08/21/2018 at 12:30

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Not sure if this would be the time I was stuck an hour in a jam *and then* some joker slammed the brakes hard in front of the guy in front of me, causing me to hit him and knocking me out... while in the left lane... in the rain... or just the time I was stuck for around four hours in the sun with no(?) A/C. Don’t remember that one well.

Highlander-Datsuns are Forever > UnderSTeerEnthusiast - Triumph Fanboy 08/21/2018 at 12:32

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I had the low gas light on in my rental mustang with a range of 45 miles. I only had to go 10 miles to the airport and it took one hour. I made it with 6 miles of range to spare. It was a close one, and I still hat e US 101 in San Jose.

TheRevanchist > UnderSTeerEnthusiast - Triumph Fanboy 08/21/2018 at 12:38

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Mine is not that bad. A 3 hour trip turned into a 6 hour trip, and we basically missed the wedding rehearsal. Kid had to pee, and apparently peeing in a bottle ai n’t easy. Most of it went in the bottle, though. Mind you, the additional 3 hours of late time was all on the 405, so nothing new.

FSI > UnderSTeerEnthusiast - Triumph Fanboy 08/21/2018 at 12:45

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Driving right into a long traffic jam near Stuttgart with a patient in the back ( I’m in non-urgent patient transport)   just 40 minutes from our desti nation. We were already in the middle of the traffic jam when I switched to a local radio station when the traffic re port came in and reported   about a massive crash with a few semis involved and an emergency helicopter landing on the site of the accident which is never a good sign . After an hour of waiting I just drove to the next exit by driving on the shoulder ( yeah I felt like a jerk but eh). At least our patient didn’t complain at all that we took backr oads.

Urambo Tauro > UnderSTeerEnthusiast - Triumph Fanboy 08/21/2018 at 12:46

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Most of the traffic jams I’ve sat through were uneventful slogs. But one that sticks out in my memory was during a horrible winter storm a few years back that took me about 3 hours to get 6 miles. The worst part was having to pee SO BADLY. I didn’t have a nice wide-mouthed Gatorade bottle handy, so I had to settle for a Coke bottle instead.

Wrong Wheel Drive (41%) > UnderSTeerEnthusiast - Triumph Fanboy 08/21/2018 at 12:53

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Surprisingly none of the worst traffic jams have been in Los Angeles, but maybe that is only because my commute is great and I have only been here for a little under a year so far. I think the worst traffic jam I have been stuck in was one time driving my honda in college where my radiator had shit the bed and it was about 90+ degrees outside. The story was that my friends and I wanted to go pick up a rock band drum set (the video game on playstation 2) and were located in North Jersey in the late afternoon. I have been in worse traffic but due to the circumstances of the car, that was the most stressful. We had to run the heat to keep the car from overheating and since it was so hot out this was very much the worst ride ever haha. The temp gauge stayed below 75% the whole way so nothing was destroyed. But shit like this makes me not surprised that the car had a leaky head gasket when I finally got rid of it.

lone_liberal > UnderSTeerEnthusiast - Triumph Fanboy 08/21/2018 at 12:53

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I don’t live where traffic jams get to the epic stage. The worst I’ve experienced is getting caught in the everyday crapfest that the Seattle area calls rush hour(s). Once trying to get to the coast and once trying to get from Portland to Seattle. 

Smallbear wants a modern Syclone, local Maple Leafs spammer > UnderSTeerEnthusiast - Triumph Fanboy 08/21/2018 at 13:00

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Got to be this one. Similar to yours but less “Traffic Jam” and more “All Alternate Routes Blocked”. Toronto’s 2013 flood. Trying to get home from work, there’s a rail line directly across my path... and almost all the roads that cross it go underneath. With predictable consequences. End result, a lot of wigg ling around, nearly doubling the distance travelled (15km to 28km—big whoop—but still), and a 20 minute trip that took 3 hours.

Just Jeepin' > Urambo Tauro 08/21/2018 at 13:12

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I have a distinct memory, but one that I can’t guarantee is accurate, of a guy in Chicago taking a leak off an elevated highway during a particularly obnoxious jam. I rather suspect that’s a fake memory.

Just Jeepin' > CarsofFortLangley - Oppo Forever 08/21/2018 at 13:14

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Oh dear heavens, I can’t imagine.

That raises an interesting point: one of the worst things you can do with someone who is in danger, such as potentially having a heart attack, is trying to drive them to the hospital yourself (unless there’s truly no other option).

If the person gets worse and needs CPR along the way, if you get stuck in a traffic jam, if you have an accident because you’re paying more attention to the sick person instead of the road...all things that an ambulance can deal with better than you.

Nom De Plume > UnderSTeerEnthusiast - Triumph Fanboy 08/21/2018 at 13:20

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On the way back to Seattle to drop someone off on the ferry from this little faux German resort town. Four  guys above 6' in a Ford Ranger with the bed completely packed full of gear (there was ice cold beer back there!) .

We needed to go over a pass a massive avalanche (for the area) just closed. 3.5 hours of sitting in the vehicle due to an avoidable circumstance. Mainly a driver trying to get 3 cars further in line from the left forced us up against the driver on the right effectively pinning both doors from opening. Everyone else was out ambling around having snowball fights and making the best of it. Much thought was given to given to climbing out the windows which both people in the front vetoed.  

TheRealBicycleBuck > UnderSTeerEnthusiast - Triumph Fanboy 08/21/2018 at 13:45

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Eastbound I-10 going into B aton Rouge, every Friday afternoon .

Because politics were allowed to influence highway design, the lanes on eastbound I-10 going over the Mississippi River are a mess. The right two lanes on the bridge are for I-10, the leftmost lane turns northbound on I-110. Immediately after this split, the rightmost lane becomes exit-only, leaving only one lane for all of the eastbound traffic. Right at the exit, southbound I-110 traffic merges with I-10, creating yet another delay. It isn’t unusual for traffic to back up to LA-77. That’s a critical decision point. If the traffic is looking bad, there’s an option to head north on LA-77 and work your way over to the old river bridge. It adds quite a few miles, but sometimes it’s faster.

A few miles west is another really bad spot. Well, 18 miles of a bad spot. It’s the Atchafalaya Basin Bridge. It has two lanes in both directions with a small shoulder. Unfortunately, the shoulders disappear at the ends. This, along with the transition to the bridge and the change in speed, creates spots where accidents are common.

Once the bridge shuts down for an accident, it can take hours to clear with no way to get off the bridge. I’ve been caught there a couple of times. 

functionoverfashion > UnderSTeerEnthusiast - Triumph Fanboy 08/21/2018 at 14:02

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https://oppositelock.kinja.com/rumble-strips-and-a-dead-cat-1788243947

fhrblig > UnderSTeerEnthusiast - Triumph Fanboy 08/21/2018 at 15:28

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Once in Denver, I got trapped on I-25 northbound between I-225 and Hampden. Evidently someone successfully committed suicide by attempting to cross. I was stuck there for almost 2 hours, no movement. I was in  between exits so there was nowhere to go.

gmporschenut also a fan of hondas > UnderSTeerEnthusiast - Triumph Fanboy 08/21/2018 at 20:28

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A friend was throwing a summer party the same saturday i had to go home for a family event. Though the event ended around 6, I originally didn’t want to drive the 90 minutes back that night and deal with the risk of hitting beach traffic, only to swelter on a 90+ day with little to no AC.

@5;30 i get a text “___ is coming and she’s bringing all her friends”

“I’m there”

I don’t even say goodbye to half the folks. just hop in my car and take off. drive about 45 min, hit beach traffic. get another text.

“hot as hell....no ac.. please grab more ice” (thinks to self maybe this if for the best)

2 mins later “all the girls in their underwear”

Show up 3 hours later.

Cause: road crew setting up for night paving on a summer holiday weekend.

DipodomysDeserti > UnderSTeerEnthusiast - Triumph Fanboy 08/21/2018 at 21:04

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On the Sunday evening ending spring break around 2007 a tanker rolled over and blew up on the southbound I10 between Phoenix and Tucson just before the town of Marana. Killed a handful of people and had traffic backed up basically from Tucson into southern Chandler (about a hundred miles). Thankfully I was headed to Phoenix. Pretty much everyone had their cars turned off and were just hanging out. This has happened a few times on this stretch of highway.

pip bip - choose Corrour > UnderSTeerEnthusiast - Triumph Fanboy 08/22/2018 at 08:01

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not som much traffic jam, as i barely have a commute (all of 2km)

years ago when i lived in Hamilton, Vic coming home one weekend to Ballarat when it w as pissing down with rain (enough to declare the long drought over) had to take a detour that added an extra hour to my journey

so a trip that took just under two hours, took almost three.