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With semis, if possible I like to hang back until it's clear enough for me to get all the way past. Minimizes my time next to it and in the driver's blind spot.
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Mar 10, 2014 06:44
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Goddamnit, forgot to pull video of it - this happened a few days ago. Was behind a smaller semi (Sysco). Side door swung open as he took a left turn, then slammed back shut. Then swung open a few times while going down the road. Smacked the roof of the Suburban that was passing him on the right.  At least the driver realized "ohshit" pretty quickly, he got less than a mile down the road before pulling over. Didn't wait around long enough to see what happened with the Suburban, though I did laugh my rear end off when the Suburban tried to pass him (on the right, while the truck had their right signal on and was trying to move into the right lane, with the side trailer door visibly trying to open) and got smacked. randomidiot fucked around with this message at 06:58 on Mar 10, 2014 |
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Mar 10, 2014 06:56
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Bugdrvr posted:I wouldn't even consider that bad riding. If you want to pass and there is an open lane and the others are being parked in, screw it. Yeah gently caress it, I don't give a poo poo if I hurt people's feelings by passing on the right or in the middle. Don't like it? Well move the gently caress out of the left lane you gigantic moron, it isn't a clubhouse for people doing .5mph over the limit and the law in 40+ states is "keep right except to pass". Sometimes blowing by people fumblefucking around in the left lane actually wakes them up enough that they get the hell out of it for a few minutes, too - though it usually takes two or three people following me past them on the right. After shooting us all an ugly look of course, because you see it is totally our fault they are an oblivious idiot who didn't realize they had 15 cars backed up behind them.
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Mar 10, 2014 11:40
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stevewm posted:Welp thanks to some idiot drivers I am now sitting in a nursing home/rehab place with a double compound fracture of my tibia and fibula. Jeez, glad you're relatively okay. I hope your lawyer is able to make you whole again. Your post actually reminded me of an accident I was in, in 2008. I had a Wrangler at the time and was headed home from the gym. Two lane road, I was doing about 50. Coming up to a 4-way signaled intersection with a green light. There was a car in the oncoming lane waiting to turn left across my lane. I don't know if she just didn't see me (perfectly clear visibility, sun was still out) or what but she turned just as I made my way through the intersection. It was the most perfect T-bone you could lay your eyes on. Completely 90 degree impact. The car she was driving was a late 90's four-door Chevy Cavalier which, as you may know, are not the sturdiest cars on the road (if they're not all in a junkyard by now). I hit that car's B-pillar so hard it creased the entire side of the car inward and spun it about 140 degrees. Unfortunately it was full of passengers. They had to use the jaws of life to cut the side of the car away to extricate the passengers, one of whom was an infant in a car seat (luckily on the opposite side of where I impacted it). It absolutely demolished this tiny little car, and one of the weird things is that I hit it so dead-on that my air bag didn't even go off. I still remember to this day that exact moment when I realized that the car was turning in front of me that split-second thought that ran through my head - "You've got to be kidding me." I reflexively death-gripped the steering wheel to brace for the impact and aside from my shins scraping the part of the dash just above the footwell, I was completely unharmed. The weirdest part of the story is the (luckily) one and only injured person, who was sitting in the front passenger seat. After the authorities were notified and on their way to the scene, I could see her kind of slowly writhing back and forth in her seat. She raised her leg high in the air in front of her and I didn't really understand what she was doing. The fire truck shows up and cuts the side of the car off and puts her on a stretcher. Come to find out, she had no arms. Obviously born that way, what she was doing raising her leg in the air was unbuckling her seat belt with her foot. It's pretty interesting in retrospect and while she had some blood running down the side of her face, she wasn't critical or anything. After the scene was cleaned up, the cops said I was free to go as there was surprisingly little visible damage to my Jeep. I took a closer look and noticed oil dripping from the bottom, I told them I didn't feel safe driving it so they called a flatbed to remove it. My girlfriend at the time was sitting in her car waiting, so I went over to get in her car to go home. In the hour or so it took for the scene to be cleaned up, her battery had died. Luckily the Gomer left to wrap everything up and brush the broken glass out of the road was kind enough to jumpstart her car. What a weird experience that was. Jeep ended up totaled, thanks to a bunch of internal damage. I guess smashing into another solid object at 50 miles per hour will do that.
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Mar 10, 2014 18:30
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Geirskogul posted:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hRmAi4_ip-A&t=145s Well there's your problem, you took 202W further than the 143. I avoid that bit of freeway like the plague (I think the only ones I drive less often are the 51 and I17, and I actually like 51) because even though it hasn't changed in years, everyone gets monumentally stupid on those exits approaching I10. It's bizarre, because US60 has as many / more lane-ends between the 101 and I10, yet you never seem to get this poo poo.
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Mar 10, 2014 18:51
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FogHelmut posted:Most of these anti-cellphone driving laws have exemptions for cops literally written as part of the law. Apparently they have some kind of advanced hyper driving abilities. Or when the Chief of Police plows through a red because he's busy on his laptop, and the insurance will not pay out because he was on official business, which he technically always is when driving. Cause he's a cop.
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Mar 10, 2014 19:23
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IOwnCalculus posted:Well there's your problem, you took 202W further than the 143. I avoid that bit of freeway like the plague (I think the only ones I drive less often are the 51 and I17, and I actually like 51) because even though it hasn't changed in years, everyone gets monumentally stupid on those exits approaching I10. But I live on 14th st and Osborn, and the 51 -> 202 -> 87/Beeline is the most direct way I can take the highway to Fountain Hills, right? I mean, because gently caress Shea blvd. Maybe I should just get off at 44th street and take surface streets (like Thomas) over to 16th. I am not used to big cities at all.
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Mar 10, 2014 19:55
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CannonFodder posted:And when they go 90 through a red light and plow through a car that was making a left on green in the intersection before the PO crested the hill, it's the fault of the dead granny and her dead grandkids, not the cop chasing a car that was never confirmed to exist. 
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Mar 10, 2014 22:03
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Saw a peculiar accident today, somehow A new Hyundai Santa fe managed to flip upside down laying across 2 lanes on a 3 lane one way road. Should've stopped to grab a picture but I was already late as a fire truck was blocking off the road and attending to the accident. It's a nice warm day today, clear conditions, no ice because it's all melted. I just want to know how, because that's impressive 
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Mar 10, 2014 22:12
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The other day I was stopped at a red light and saw a car with probationary plates with one of those phone-holders that suction cups onto the window set up square above the steering wheel and the driver had her phone in the holder and was texting I can't imagine how much that would gently caress up your ability to see the road properly while you're driving and I just hope she gets pulled over and told to knock it off before it becomes an ingrained habit.
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Mar 10, 2014 22:15
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The Midniter posted:The weirdest part of the story is the (luckily) one and only injured person, who was sitting in the front passenger seat. After the authorities were notified and on their way to the scene, I could see her kind of slowly writhing back and forth in her seat. She raised her leg high in the air in front of her and I didn't really understand what she was doing. The fire truck shows up and cuts the side of the car off and puts her on a stretcher. Come to find out, she had no arms. Obviously born that way, what she was doing raising her leg in the air was unbuckling her seat belt with her foot. It's pretty interesting in retrospect and while she had some blood running down the side of her face, she wasn't critical or anything. If y'all had been of sounder mind, this could've been a once in a lifetime chance to prank the paramedics
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Mar 10, 2014 22:36
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stevewm posted:I don't care if they where old. I am 30 with no debt but my mortgage and I intend to keep it that way. I am not going to be saddled with $100k in medical debt. The insurance company is going to pay; it is what they are there to do. Good luck with this. Get a lawyer.
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Mar 11, 2014 21:04
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Cage posted:My brother was T-boned and his car flipped multiple times after a cop ran a red light, permanent nerve damage. That was about 4-5 years ago, the city keeps pushing the court date back because they can. The justice system and the people that protect us. We had this happen in Houston a few years ago. http://blogs.houstonpress.com/hairballs/2009/03/montrose_fire_truck_crash.php http://www.chron.com/news/houston-texas/article/Charges-possible-after-bicyclist-hurt-in-HFD-1639045.php Short version: two fire trucks collide at speed and crush a woman on a bicycle.
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Mar 12, 2014 03:26
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Sir Tonk posted:We had this happen in Houston a few years ago. I imagine it like the mythbusters episode, but with a bicyclist instead of a Fiat: 
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Mar 12, 2014 03:44
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I have been watching this Youtube channel pretty much non-stop for the past two days or so and I have to say that if there is anything that's more  than Russian dashcam videos, it's StopHam videos. They're also from Russia, unsurprisingly. In short, a bunch of kids go around Moscow (and occasionally St. Petersburg) and harass drivers who drive on pedestrian paths or sidewalks, doublepark or block sidewalks and pedestrian crossings. If the drivers don't comply, they stick a large, hard to remove sticker on the windshield of the offending car, often in the presence of the driver. As you can imagine, tensions fly high, people get pushed around a bit or take a ride on someones hood for a hundred meters or so, and it's extremely surprising nobody has got seriously hurt yet. Unfortunately, not all of the videos are subtitled in English, but those that are are a good watch.
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Mar 12, 2014 08:08
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Tonton Macoute posted:I have been watching this Youtube channel pretty much non-stop for the past two days or so and I have to say that if there is anything that's more I hate you so much for linking that. I need to go to bed but theres 120 more videos to watch!
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Mar 12, 2014 09:24
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EbolaIvory posted:I hate you so much for linking that. I need to go to bed but theres 120 more videos to watch! I watched the first one, and so far my conclusion is that people in Russia just don't give a poo poo about other people. For instance, the driver of the Range Rover stopped in the middle of the street because he had to get out and chat with someone he knew. Sure, just throw your car right in the middle of the street with the flashers on and get out to have a chat. And then he gets all incredulous when they ask him to move his car because he's blocking traffic.
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Mar 12, 2014 11:04
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KozmoNaut posted:And then he gets all incredulous when they ask him to move his car because he's blocking traffic. Sounds like something someone here in America would do.
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Mar 12, 2014 13:00
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In a perfect world, every time three lanes has to merge down to two, or two to one, there would be three warning signs. At the first one would be a giant flailing arm inflatable tube man, to draw attention. At the second one would be a thirty foot tall grim reaper, holding the "Right Lane Closes, Merge left" sign in his bony hands, out over the lanes. At the final, scrolling-lamp erectable traffic sign would be a tractor trailer full of RPGs, and a single man standing in the back. Any car that he witnesses diving right, because the line is shorter, gets a godamned RPG through the windshield.
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Mar 12, 2014 13:16
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In a perfect world, the NJ turnpike would not inexplicably split into literal two highways - one for trucks, one for cars. Three lanes into two three-lane roads, for a few miles, which then merge back into a single three lane road.
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Mar 12, 2014 14:08
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MrYenko posted:In a perfect world, every time three lanes has to merge down to two, or two to one, there would be three warning signs. At the first one would be a giant flailing arm inflatable tube man, to draw attention. At the second one would be a thirty foot tall grim reaper, holding the "Right Lane Closes, Merge left" sign in his bony hands, out over the lanes. RPGs are expensive, and bad for emissions. I much prefer that the license plate be recorded and a pack full of wild dogs is waiting in their home for them when they return. Natural. Personal. Everyone likes dogs. Seat Safety Switch fucked around with this message at 14:26 on Mar 12, 2014 |
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Mar 12, 2014 14:22
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MrYenko posted:In a perfect world, every time three lanes has to merge down to two, or two to one, there would be three warning signs. At the first one would be a giant flailing arm inflatable tube man, to draw attention. At the second one would be a thirty foot tall grim reaper, holding the "Right Lane Closes, Merge left" sign in his bony hands, out over the lanes. Isn't zipper merging more efficient because you don't end up with a huge backup?
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Mar 12, 2014 15:57
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MrYenko posted:In a perfect world, every time three lanes has to merge down to two, or two to one, there would be three warning signs. At the first one would be a giant flailing arm inflatable tube man, to draw attention. At the second one would be a thirty foot tall grim reaper, holding the "Right Lane Closes, Merge left" sign in his bony hands, out over the lanes. I'm forwarding this to my Senator.
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Mar 12, 2014 16:00
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Sir Tonk posted:We had this happen in Houston a few years ago. I only post this because in this instance, no one was hurt: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0uA5Cn8Um4w MrYenko posted:In a perfect world, every time three lanes has to merge down to two, or two to one, there would be three warning signs. At the first one would be a giant flailing arm inflatable tube man, to draw attention. At the second one would be a thirty foot tall grim reaper, holding the "Right Lane Closes, Merge left" sign in his bony hands, out over the lanes. Do you realize that it's most efficient for everyone who's already in that lane to use basically all of the lane that is closing and people in the lane next to it behave properly and zipper merge? Yeah, getting two lanes of traffic to behave seems like an impossibility, but it's the most effective use of road space for everyone.
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Mar 12, 2014 16:07
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Motronic posted:Do you realize that it's most efficient for everyone who's already in that lane to use basically all of the lane that is closing and people in the lane next to it behave properly and zipper merge? I'm not talking about people trying to zipper merge. No one here knows what that is. I'm talking about the people that will dive to the right of already-zipper-merging traffic, trying to be the absolute first one through the bottleneck. They'll use the shoulder, whatever it takes to be first. I saw one last night go through the cones, inside the closed area, and get stopped by highway Patrol for being a giant flaming toolbox. It was a rare moment of justice.
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Mar 12, 2014 16:26
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Saw some stubborn old battle-axe loading groceries into her car this morning. She pulled it right up to the store so that one wheel was resting comfortably in the fire lane while the other three were up on the sidewalk where the shopping carts are... presumably to avoid the minor amount of snow we're getting at the moment. She then did a 19-point turn trying to back it out between the gates that were setup to prevent people from doing this very thing.
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Mar 12, 2014 16:43
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MrYenko posted:I'm not talking about people trying to zipper merge. No one here knows what that is. I'm talking about the people that will dive to the right of already-zipper-merging traffic, trying to be the absolute first one through the bottleneck. If there's room for them to do that, then the other people are zipper-merging too early. The real problem in all these scenarios is that the people who have already merged need to speed the gently caress up. Really everyone needs to, if you want to carry the same amount of volume of cars through a smaller pipe you all have to increase speed, but people want to rubberneck it through whatever constriction they're going through, and it just makes everything worse. It's also an argument that if the DMV needs to lower the speed limit for a construction zone or something, they need to do it some two miles before the merge, not immediately afterwards. Slow down below the speed you need to be at, speed up as part of the zipper merging process, maximize use of blacktop etc.
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Mar 12, 2014 16:54
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Solkanar512 posted:Isn't zipper merging more efficient because you don't end up with a huge backup? This is such a bullshit mythical concept. "Isn't full communism the most egalitarian distribution of resources?" Yeah sure maybe whatever but uhhhh...
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Mar 12, 2014 18:16
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I think the biggest problem is that they don't put ramps before construction zones to launch cars over them Dukes of Hazzard style.
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Mar 12, 2014 18:17
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Traffic backs up at a merge because you're trying to cram the same volume of vehicles into half the space. Even if it's a perfect merge people are going to be on the brakes and it's going to gum everything up. I'm no traffic engineer but it says to me that anyone designing a highway system that constantly splits and combines lanes is a goddamn idiot. Like, say, 290 in Chicago. 
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Mar 12, 2014 18:21
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xzzy posted:I'm no traffic engineer but it says to me that anyone designing a highway system that constantly splits and combines lanes is a goddamn idiot. Like, say, There we go. That's a little more accurate.
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Mar 12, 2014 18:27
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xzzy posted:Traffic backs up at a merge because you're trying to cram the same volume of vehicles into half the space. Even if it's a perfect merge people are going to be on the brakes and it's going to gum everything up. What loving kills me is walking lanes. In the truck avoid certain towns because of it. if i'm forced to deal with it, i drive like an rear end in a top hat and gently caress everybody but me. This is what i'm talking about. http://goo.gl/3XK6yU If you zoom in, you can see you come in in, lane 1, then lane 2 opens up on the left and lane 1 turns into a turning lane at a stop light, then lane 3 opens up on the left and lane 2 turns into a turning lane at the next stop light, then lane 4 opens up and a couple lights down lane 3 turns into a turning lane. You're forced to change lane repeatedly, which in traffic trying to take off from stop lights in a loaded truck turns into a loving war because EVERYBODY needs to be ahead of you enough to start passing you before the lane even opens up. Basically, your choices are to park in the loving turning lane with your signal light on trying to get into the go-strait lane, or be the rear end in a top hat keeping traffic to 30 in a 70 zone because the lights are all out of time as well. People do the dumbest poo poo, you're stuck in the turning lane, they want to turn, so they try zipping around you on the left and cut back in front of you, further trapping you in the lane they need and you want to get out of.
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Mar 12, 2014 18:29
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AlternateAccount posted:This is such a bullshit mythical concept. "Isn't full communism the most egalitarian distribution of resources?" Yeah sure maybe whatever but uhhhh... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZcPby71TNC0 No need to get angry here buddy. Why don't you explain to me what's so awful about "taking turns" that is better than having a huge backup because everyone merged way too early instead?
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Mar 12, 2014 18:34
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I'm not sure a video that shows traffic moving at a crawl for both merge styles is all that useful in this debate, other than proving that merges are terrible things.
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Mar 12, 2014 18:42
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Maybe when they have vehicles merging from two lanes into one they should put speed boosters in the road surface so that more cars can go through the one lane section?
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Mar 12, 2014 18:50
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GramCracker posted:Sounds like something someone here in America would do. I have witnessed similar poo poo in the UK, there's a small rat run nearby that locals use to avoid the high street, its a narrow road, with heavy parking on each side, and it's not uncommon to have to stop to allow oncoming traffic to be able to pass you, such as if there is a big van parked or someone decided a few feet from the kerb was good enough. Driving home a few nights back, a big Mitsubishi 4x4 that's 1 car ahead of me stops, hard, leans out of the window and starts shouting to her friend walking down the street. They proceed to chat amiably, with the mitsu blocking both lanes. Took about 10 seconds for the horns to start, which she ignored, until a little old lady coming the other way gave her a mouthful. Bless you little old lady! Also, it seems I need a louder horn.
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Mar 12, 2014 19:10
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xzzy posted:I'm not sure a video that shows traffic moving at a crawl for both merge styles is all that useful in this debate, other than proving that merges are terrible things. The point isn't that it's faster but rather that it takes up a shorter length of road. This reduces the overall impact of a lane closure for everyone. Solkanar512 fucked around with this message at 19:15 on Mar 12, 2014 |
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Mar 12, 2014 19:12
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Solkanar512 posted:The point isn't that it's faster but rather that it takes up a shorter length of road. This reduces the overall impact of a lane closure for everyone. It's a disingenuous argument. There isn't a huge backup "because everyone merged way too early", there's a backup because Driver A tried to zipper merge and Driver B, behind Driver A but already in the proper lane, hit the brakes. At least one of Driver A and Driver B is a dipshit in this scenario (either A merged way too late and cut off B, B was following too close, or some combination therein) but there's your backup. The same argument for zipper merging also works in reverse: if everybody would just get in the non-closing lane as soon as possible, slowdown would be minimal and everyone could just keep trucking along. It's the one guy up at the actual lane's closure trying to force his way in/some poor schlub pitying aforementioned stopped car and stopping to let him over that causes the backup, and it'll happen regardless of what merger theory you subscribe to.
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Mar 12, 2014 19:21
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My buddy's a traffic engineer, and every time something like that comes up in conversation, he's quick to point out that people zippering in at the merge point is much more efficient than everyone merging early. It caught me by surprise, because I've been driving for awhile getting pissed off at people who merge at the very end when I merged early - I guess it's an incompetent rage because I feel that they "should have thought ahead like I did HA HA!" and they should be punished for their "stupidity" by having to wait. Turns out that I'm completely wrong: while people merging at the end of the merge lane may make my trip take a little longer (I have to wait for 2 cars instead of just one, etc), by reducing the overall length of backed up traffic (potentially across more stop lights and intersections) zippering at the end saves more time from everyone's day. That doesn't mean that I still don't feel a small pang of anger against people who are (irrationally, I know), to me, "beating the system," even if they're correct in doing so. And people who will exit their current lane to run up to the lane end point to merge back in are still causing trouble for everyone; any lane change maneuver in traffic, in or out, increases travel time for everyone in a lane ending circumstance.
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Mar 12, 2014 19:23
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oldskool posted:The same argument for zipper merging also works in reverse: if everybody would just get in the non-closing lane as soon as possible, slowdown would be minimal and everyone could just keep trucking along. Unfortunately even that doesn't work. This is sort of an illustration of why: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Suugn-p5C1M The basic idea is that anyone tapping the brakes generates a ripple effect behind them and if there's too much traffic it generates a jam. Basically merges are terrible and the only solution is to reduce the number of cars until no one has to navigate around anyone else.
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Mar 12, 2014 19:28
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