grafmiata wrote:
It amazes me every night on my way home from work on I-75, which has been a cluster-berkeley for awhile now.
There are signs saying that the left lane ends, for roughly one mile, yet most people don't believe them.
As soon as the signs appear, many douche-bags head to the left lane, hoping to get ahead of those of us who know what's going on and just rolling with E36 M3.
Thank you for making E36 M3 so much better, I hope you got home 30-seconds earlier.
Ugh, every morning. Also what part of slower traffic on the LEFT signs don't people understand. I know that's not how they do it on GTA or whatever but really the signs are posted and the semis are already over there, I'm cruising along and suddenly some guy is Flyin along passing semis and whips in behind me and acts like I'm the weirdo.
It's going to be nice in 2016 though....
SyntheticBlinkerFluid wrote:
Spoolpigeon wrote:
I'm the a-hole that won't let last second mergers in. You had a mile to get in the other lane, berk off.
I will admit that I have done this numerous times. One time I wouldn't let a guy in who decided to pass the entire line of cars going into the Construction Zone. So, he decided to accelerate and cut off the car two cars in front of me just feet before the barrels ended the lane.
It happened to be an unmarked county trooper.
Whoops 
I'm the guy that doesn't understand why everyone gets in this long line, when a alternate merge at the cones blocks up a lot less road and usually flows faster and smoother.
Why screw up traffic on a mile of road, when 1/2 a mile will get the same job done.
Toyman01 wrote: I'm the guy that doesn't understand why everyone gets in this long line, when a alternate merge at the cones blocks up a lot less road and usually flows faster and smoother.
The zipper merge method is generally considered the best way today (I know in Minnesota the DOT encourages people to use it now), but the problem is you'll never get everyone to use the same method.
stuart in mn wrote:
Toyman01 wrote: I'm the guy that doesn't understand why everyone gets in this long line, when a alternate merge at the cones blocks up a lot less road and usually flows faster and smoother.
The zipper merge method is generally considered the best way today (I know in Minnesota the DOT encourages people to use it now), but the problem is you'll never get everyone to use the same method.
I know, but it's on my prayer list along with, slow traffic keep right. 
mad_machine wrote:
I always slow -way- down for construction zones.. can't tell you how many fingers I have gotten from people once the road opens up again and they can pass me at a high rate of speed just to prove how much I slowed them down
Not me. I'll cruise at 75-85 but in a construction zone I'm down at exactly slightly under the speed limit. People tailgating because they're too incompetent to pull around and pass or something. Then it's back up to speed the very moment I'm out of the zone, to the point that I'm brake-torquing in the last few dozen yards so the trans is already downshifted and the turbo is spooled up. The people who were previously all bothered about going so slow never actually speed up again.
I figure it's people who like to turn off their brains and turn on the cruise control, and they get bothered that they have to readjust it. Then when the zone is over, they keep the cruise on 50 because gosh, it's such a pain to readjust it.
Unrelated, I noticed the other day that my brake rotors are purple.
Spoolpigeon wrote:
I'm the a-hole that won't let last second mergers in. You had a mile to get in the other lane, berk off.
Me too. Actually, I am far from the only one. I've been part of a group of four or five people who "close ranks" on those kind of drivers.
Fortunately, there aren't that many around here. People tend to be pretty durn accomodating if you ( gasp ) hit your turn signal and try to merge in as soon as a merge is posted. We're all going the same direction, and we'll get there FASTER if we just merge smoothly to begin with.
stuart in mn wrote:
Toyman01 wrote: I'm the guy that doesn't understand why everyone gets in this long line, when a alternate merge at the cones blocks up a lot less road and usually flows faster and smoother.
The zipper merge method is generally considered the best way today (I know in Minnesota the DOT encourages people to use it now), but the problem is you'll never get everyone to use the same method.
The on-ramp where my morning drive to work meets I-71 is a zipper merge. Believe it or not, it is generally fairly well organized. Two lanes turn left from W.152nd (which intersects W.150th at a right angle) which merges from two to one lane in the middle of a uphill righthander. The zipper tends to be a pretty well organized left/right/left/right merge. Occasionally you'll get some doofus who doesn't accelerate much, but then the guy in the alternate lane just zips up in front and the zipper still works fine.
Deep braking, bouncing the inside curb on the left turn in, and accelerating at max effort up the hill, I've never been able to get more than 70-mph at the merge point. The on-ramp is silly slow. Nowhere near as bad as some I've seen in PA though!
I try to give the construction guys lots of respect and room. I admit to entering the zone with some resistance to those that chose to ride up to the barrels before merging. I can understand the zipper is faster but it doesn't seem to work out well with human nature. In my younger, dumber, years I would fight for every last inch. But after working and having to travel long distances a lot for work I backed down to the chill mode. I will leave one space, maybe two depending on the construction zone.
On the other hand I have gotten pissed off at some construction workers when they weren't following proper safety rules. Once a rubber tyred crane was hauling along in the construction side of the barriers and bounding over the rough ground and came too close to the barriers and it's hook actually whipped off a side mirror from an SUV and shattered the passenger glass. Then another time one of the guys jumped the Jbarrier into traffic without any notice and we were going 45MPH and his helmet came off and got punted over to oncoming traffic and glanced off some car. I want them to be safe. I know you get brain fade and accidents happen but jeeze.
The best story I can ever tell is when they were resurfacing I80? many years ago somewhere in the midwest, they were using a massive machine to put down the road surface with a platform on top for the workers to control and guide it. Well they were all dressed up as pirates and had a flagpole with the skull and crossbones a fake mini sail and everything. It was super cool. I didn't mind the backup of people watching, this was before digital cameras so no images.
Why is it that when the construction zone speed limit is 45 mph the actual speed tends to be zero to 20 ?
Seems that if every one would just drive 45 mph all would be good.
Not gonna happen.
Datsun1500 wrote:
And you guys are part of the issue. Everyone getting in line is not the most efficient way to do it. Every study shows merging like a zipper at the point where the lanes end is the best way.
This isn't "zipper at the end". This is "passing the people who zippered in and coming to a stop at the very end because they might get five more cars ahead at the expense of everyone having to stop."
That kind of attitude shouldn't get positive reinforcement.
Datsun1500 wrote:
Knurled wrote:
Spoolpigeon wrote:
I'm the a-hole that won't let last second mergers in. You had a mile to get in the other lane, berk off.
Me too. Actually, I am far from the only one. I've been part of a group of four or five people who "close ranks" on those kind of drivers.
Fortunately, there aren't that many around here. People tend to be pretty durn accomodating if you ( *gasp* ) hit your turn signal and try to merge in as soon as a merge is posted. We're all going the same direction, and we'll get there FASTER if we just merge smoothly to begin with.
And you guys are part of the issue. Everyone getting in line is not the most efficient way to do it. Every study shows merging like a zipper at the point where the lanes end is the best way.
I agree. Forty years of driving has shown me that even though something might be the 'most efficient' that does NOT mean the average driver has the intelligence to handle it. Which explains why you see the ten or so piled up at the merge point. Therefore based on my experience I've learned to move over and get in line as soon as I can.
I'm somewhat of an shiny happy person … but when I know how long the back up is ( coming home from a-x it Eastern TN .. the back up is between 1 and 2 (sometimes more) miles which takes as much as 30 min of stop and go to get through … I'll usually slow way down, and ease my way towards the barrels … somewhere in the last quarter mile I'll pick a spot where someone is leaving a large enough gap, or a tractor trailer is just easing along and I'll signal and gently merge … usually saving most of that 30 - 40 min … I've never had any problems with anyone … but I have seen some tractor drivers pull over to block the lane when there are some speeders running up the barrel lane
wbjones wrote:
I'm somewhat of an shiny happy person
No! Say it ain't so!
I approach my driving this way: in a hundred years who's going to give a flying berkeley? Is acting like an idiot and risking an accident really worth the few seconds or even minutes I might save? If the answer is 'no' then the hell with it.
If faced with a big backup on the Interstate I'll zoom the GPS out and look for an alternate route. I find those relaxing and quite often see something interesting along the way.
Knurled wrote:
Datsun1500 wrote:
And you guys are part of the issue. Everyone getting in line is not the most efficient way to do it. Every study shows merging like a zipper at the point where the lanes end is the best way.
This isn't "zipper at the end". This is "passing the people who zippered in and coming to a stop at the very end because they might get five more cars ahead at the expense of everyone having to stop."
That kind of attitude shouldn't get positive reinforcement.
That is my attitude too, I'm all for the zipper merge and get over as early as I see the signs and let over people that need be, but yeah screw the people that come flying up 20 mph faster in the ending lane thinking they are going to cut in front of me at the last minute
The problem with that is that last-moment merging allows no fiddle room. Merging a half-mile or so early allows plenty of time to find a place to merge and do it. If all vehicles were the same length then that would work, but if you have four or five cars next to a semi, how does that work seamlessly? And there's not one semi, there's a whole line of them because they all moved into the left lane because professional drivers are generally not clueless, and they can read, and there will be all sorts of signs telling them which lane trucks are to be in.
And I also don't quite see how an additional half mile or mile of beign merged makes any difference when the speed limit drops well before the merge point and the construction zone is maybe 10-20 miles long.
So what do you do if the person in the left lane doesn't let you in? You're stuck stopped at the end. Then the whole lane stops. Then the left lane has to stop to let you in. Then traffic takes forever to come back up to speed until the next time someone stops.
What your image shows is wht I feel is best to be done, but not at the last minute, because doing it at the last minute allows for no room for error. There always has to be a fudge factor involved to accomodate for things.
Moving over early can (and should) be a zipper merge. It's just not done at the last minute. If course, it's the outliers trying to game the system one way or the other that bollox it up.
Keep in mind that sometimes when you drive through a construction zone during the day that just because no one is around that doesn't mean it's they are not working at night. It's alot of work and wasted time to set up and take down the cones and barricades and signage. In the Chicago area, they have started to work at night on the major expressways more than ever just because there is less traffic and thus making it safer than day work. And yes, there are dumb clueless workers who don't pay attention to traffic and don't watch close enough. Isn't that true of everyone? :D
it's all a problem of people not being able to put themselves in other's shoes. As a driver, most people can only see how the construction is slowing them down.. they cannot see it from the worker's perspective about all the cars that go whizzing by a couple of feet or even inches away. It's a complete lack of empathy.
We go through this at work. At the Borgata we have the "ring road" that goes around the back of the building for deliveries and employee parking.. plus it is also access to the Casino Next door and the walking/running trail that runs around the North end of the island. The speed limit is 25mph, but aside from myself and a couple of others.. nobody does under 40.
This is a road where their fellow employees have to work along, sometimes cross (the bus stop is across the road) and while they are not supposed to, get dropped off my friends, loved ones, and even taxis.. but even though they themselves also walk along this road, they cannot see how their excessive speed puts everyone in danger
I live in Atlanta. It's borderline like Mad Max here during normal traffic patterns. Throw in construction and suddenly it is Thunderdome.
I think the first step would be to put up signs about the zipper merge at each zone that it should be performed at. Then Even go as far as to install traffic metering lights. I have found that when there is a simple sign saying, Alternate Lane Merge Here works great at the one entrance ramp around me that has it. Everyone seems to read it and go well, I guess they designed it this way.
I wonder if just the computer model says it is faster or if they ever managed to convince everyone to drive that way for a real life proof of the theory that it is faster.
Zipper merging is far too advanced a concept for most drivers, I'd be happy if folks could learn to safely merge on a highway to start.
