It was a while ago, but if I remember right they said that it basically creates the merge point farther back. That causes traffic to begin to slow down farther back, creating a longer traffic jam.
You might be an ass if...
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Chazwozel
YES!
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Chazwozel
Man, I couldn't disagree more. Zooming up to the merge point slows down everybody because it's a single funnel point.[/QUOTE]
There was a deal on the news recently where they were talking to a DOT spokesperson and they basically said they made it a merge point for a reason. You should go up to it and then merge in. Merging in before slows both lanes down and causes a longer line of traffic.[/QUOTE]
I'd want to test that. Imagine a funnel full of marbles versus a funnel with a straw in the chute filled with marble sized holes.[/QUOTE]
Yeah but traffic doesn't move three dimensionally, it moves in a single line to begin with. Two single lines to a merge point = a short single line which becomes two single lines again after the single lane is over. If you merge before that point you essentially create a longer single line.
Man, I couldn't disagree more. Zooming up to the merge point slows down everybody because it's a single funnel point.[/QUOTE]
Yep, it's terribly sensible to use the merge point.
There was a deal on the news recently where they were talking to a DOT spokesperson and they basically said they made it a merge point for a reason. You should go up to it and then merge in. Merging in before slows both lanes down and causes a longer line of traffic.[/QUOTE]
Yup, it's terribly sensible to use the merge point.
fade
Staff member
Man, I couldn't disagree more. Zooming up to the merge point slows down everybody because it's a single funnel point.[/QUOTE]
There was a deal on the news recently where they were talking to a DOT spokesperson and they basically said they made it a merge point for a reason. You should go up to it and then merge in. Merging in before slows both lanes down and causes a longer line of traffic.[/QUOTE]
I'd want to test that. Imagine a funnel full of marbles versus a funnel with a straw in the chute filled with marble sized holes.[/QUOTE]
Yeah but traffic doesn't move three dimensionally, it moves in a single line to begin with. Two single lines to a merge point = a short single line which becomes two single lines again after the single lane is over. If you merge before that point you essentially create a longer single line.[/QUOTE]
Well, without the chaos and psych, the average speed should technically be identical in both cases, the more I think about it. The problem is that as you get closer people are more likely to let you in. I prefer AME's zipper because the drivers coolheadedness is proportional to distance from the merge.
---------- Post added at 08:37 PM ---------- Previous post was at 08:37 PM ----------
Ooops, I meant to tie this back to what you said by saying the chaos introduced by the marbles and the third dimension simulates driver unpredictability.
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Chazwozel
Which traffic flow will move smoother? A because the bottleneck is shorter. Cars get out of it faster and allow the backlog (cars behind the merge point) to enter faster and congest tighter (pack more cars at the bottleneck and prevent traffic from backing up a far distance behind). All you do by merging early is extend the length of the single lane and prevent cars from getting into the freed up point faster thus backing up traffic further and further back.
I am also looking at it through the lens of Interstate Highway travel. Where you drive in the right and pass on the left. If there are a string of cars that form in the right lane that is doing close to the speed limit: then some one hops out of that lane that is doing 60-ish and hammers to the merge point... he is being an ass. Because he causes a chain reaction of hard breaking. 15 people have to panic stop because he wanted to pass 3 cars before the merge.
When it is stop and go traffic, yes going to near the choke point is acceptable.
When it is stop and go traffic, yes going to near the choke point is acceptable.
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Chazwozel
There is NOTHING in any drivers manual about slow and fast/passing lanes and right lane cars having to yield to left lane cars. BOTH lanes are acceptable to drive in at whatever the speed limit says. Now don't get me wrong, I consider the left lane the passing lane, but you don't have to just pass in that lane. If you want to drive at speed limit, it's perfectly legal.
People who stop in the middle of a damn highway because they are idiotic drivers and missed their turnoff... so they stop and wait for traffic to go by so they can make their turn.
I almost wiped out a family yesterday due to this... DON'T STOP ON A FAST MOVING ROAD ESPECIALLY BEHIND A HILL!! Assholes!
I almost wiped out a family yesterday due to this... DON'T STOP ON A FAST MOVING ROAD ESPECIALLY BEHIND A HILL!! Assholes!
State "keep right" laws
Texas slower 545.051(b) DOT may post "left lane for passing only", 544.011. Passing on right prohibited except on one-way roadways, 545.057.
The Uniform Vehicle Code states:
Upon all roadways any vehicle proceeding at less than the normal speed of traffic at the time and place and under the conditions then existing shall be driven in the right-hand lane then available for traffic ...
Note that this law refers to the "normal" speed of traffic, not the "legal" speed of traffic. The 60 MPH driver in a 55 MPH zone where everybody else is going 65 MPH must move right. Contrast Alaska's rule, 13 AAC 002.50, allowing vehicles driving at the speed limit to use the left lane, and Colorado rev. stat. 42-4-1103, prohibiting blocking the "normal and reasonable" movement of traffic.
(Enforcement for failing to keep right while at or above the speed limit is variable. Toledo police have ticketed truck drivers for driving at the 60 MPH speed limit in the left lane. Police looking for criminal activity are aware of the "keep right" law and will use it as an excuse to stop a suspicious car. On the other hand, a New York judge announced that he would not convict drivers for blocking speeding traffic, People v. Ilieveski, 175 Misc. 2d 943; 670 N.Y.S.2d 1004 (Monroe County N.Y. 1998), and most police find speeding easier and more profitable to enforce.)
Texas slower 545.051(b) DOT may post "left lane for passing only", 544.011. Passing on right prohibited except on one-way roadways, 545.057.
The Uniform Vehicle Code states:
Upon all roadways any vehicle proceeding at less than the normal speed of traffic at the time and place and under the conditions then existing shall be driven in the right-hand lane then available for traffic ...
Note that this law refers to the "normal" speed of traffic, not the "legal" speed of traffic. The 60 MPH driver in a 55 MPH zone where everybody else is going 65 MPH must move right. Contrast Alaska's rule, 13 AAC 002.50, allowing vehicles driving at the speed limit to use the left lane, and Colorado rev. stat. 42-4-1103, prohibiting blocking the "normal and reasonable" movement of traffic.
(Enforcement for failing to keep right while at or above the speed limit is variable. Toledo police have ticketed truck drivers for driving at the 60 MPH speed limit in the left lane. Police looking for criminal activity are aware of the "keep right" law and will use it as an excuse to stop a suspicious car. On the other hand, a New York judge announced that he would not convict drivers for blocking speeding traffic, People v. Ilieveski, 175 Misc. 2d 943; 670 N.Y.S.2d 1004 (Monroe County N.Y. 1998), and most police find speeding easier and more profitable to enforce.)
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Element 117
politics, religion, steak, merging in traffic.
Excuse me, I need to go buy a Prius now.
Excuse me, I need to go buy a Prius now.
There is NOTHING in any drivers manual about slow and fast/passing lanes and right lane cars having to yield to left lane cars. BOTH lanes are acceptable to drive in at whatever the speed limit says. Now don't get me wrong, I consider the left lane the passing lane, but you don't have to just pass in that lane. If you want to drive at speed limit, it's perfectly legal.[/QUOTE]
It's a Illinois law that cruising in the left lane is illegal, such that cops can enforce it when someone is slow and blocking traffic in that lane. There are also signs all over that say "Slower drivers keep right". Driving in the left lane when you are not either passing cars in the right lanes or in a heavy traffic area is illegal around here.
EDIT: On the interstate highways, that is.
Gotta trade that hummer in for something
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Element 117
Gotta trade that hummer in for something
[/QUOTE]oh, that kind of Hummer. Right.
Never driven/ridden one.
The SUV I mean.
UUUUUUUUUUUGH THIS.
Also, if you come up on your cell phone, point to what you want and don't listen to the options of sides and such. Hope you like chips when you could have had soup or fruit.
Also, if you have a line of nearly 30 people behind you and after waiting for nearly 5-10 minutes yourself, never bothered to find a menu or figure out what you want to eat.
If you get upset when we can't get a catering order to you at 11-noon (our prime hours) because you tried to call it in at 10:45am the day of.
If you sit in a restaurant/theater/etc kind of place and just allow your kid(s) to scream and run amok because you're too lazy a parent to stop them or to leave.
This. Barrel fulls of this. Cripes, you have no idea how often this happens in Toronto. Well, proably just as often as elsewhere, but yeah.
My gripes:
Customer Service:
-When I ask for your membership card or ID, and you promptly try to give me your phone number.
-Arguing with me that you've ALWAYS used your phone number, when trust me, you haven't. Ever.
-Getting mad when I won't serve you for not having ID or a card.
-Arguing over that you returned something on time and CLEARLY, the only explanation is that we don't check the drop box enough. We do. Trust me.
Couriering:
-When I say "Print your first name here" and you just scribble something completely illegible...on the completely wrong part.
-Signing your name on half of the page in GIANT FUCKING EGO LETTERS, leaving me little room to write my driver number so I can, you know, get paid.
-Signing your name as "Joe Blow" and then laughing that "You don't even NEED a signature!"
Others:
-No goddamn signal light, causing me to nearly collide with you on my bicycle.
-When you don't look up from your precious texting to nearly collide face-to-face with me. Seriously, look where you're fucking walking.
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Disconnected
This. Barrel fulls of this. Cripes, you have no idea how often this happens in Toronto. Well, proably just as often as elsewhere, but yeah.
[/QUOTE]
i'm a walking mack truck if i'm going and some doorknob stops dead i bowl them over. happily.
for some reason i especially hate little tarts so surprised by their own goddamn cell phone ring that they have to stop dead, and throw open their satchel sized purse and dive into the bottom less pit while turning in circles and flailing about.
Cajungal
Staff member
-Talking on a cell phone while ordering something/talking to someone at a desk/etc. Someone is going to misunderstand someone else, and it won't be the employee's fault. GAH. Gets me.
-This is extremely minor compared to other things, I guess, but it's a pet peeve of mine and I find it annoying because it doesn't speak to my sex very well... Any time I see an expensive car that has a sticker that says, "Daddy's Money" or "Spoiled Rotten"... any time I see a woman wearing a shirt that says "It's all about me" or something like that... I get so annoyed. Fuckin princess complex some girls have. I internally call her an asshole until she's out of my sight. To be fair, it's especially bothering me this week for a few reasons. I don't always bristle up like this about it.
-This is extremely minor compared to other things, I guess, but it's a pet peeve of mine and I find it annoying because it doesn't speak to my sex very well... Any time I see an expensive car that has a sticker that says, "Daddy's Money" or "Spoiled Rotten"... any time I see a woman wearing a shirt that says "It's all about me" or something like that... I get so annoyed. Fuckin princess complex some girls have. I internally call her an asshole until she's out of my sight. To be fair, it's especially bothering me this week for a few reasons. I don't always bristle up like this about it.
-Dropping a conversation, especially in the middle of a sentence you're speaking, to answer a text. Put the fucking phone down and talk to me.
Cajungal
Staff member
AUGH. I'm the only one of my friends who apologizes if I have to take my phone out at the dinner table. Sometimes I'm expecting a call and have to take it, but I cannot STAND it when my friends just idly text and play Words with Friends while I'm having dinner with them. I told one of them, "Am I boring you?" and he finally put the damn thing away. Drives me nuts.
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Philosopher B.
... you are located just below the back.
...If you park in such a way you take up FOUR FREAKIN' SPACES!!!
Heading out to the movies, I thought I had finally managed to find a parking space amidst the crowds. Instead, I find that abomination of parking. Seriously, WTH is that driver's issue?
Heading out to the movies, I thought I had finally managed to find a parking space amidst the crowds. Instead, I find that abomination of parking. Seriously, WTH is that driver's issue?
Cajungal! It was you, wasn't it?!?!
I have to second the whole "...I'm NEVER come back here EVAR/I'll take my business elsewhere!!!" bit. That REALLY gets on my nerves. I heard someone pull that at Wal-Mart last night...of all places. I'm sure the employee was thinking that they wouldn't miss the ol' snaggle-toothed, poorly dressed, stinky customer who had all of 5 things in her basket.
^ Man, I could fill this thread up to the 60 page limit with just retail stories, but thats what customerssuck.com is for.
I'd rather hear personal stories from someone I "know" (as much as one can on a forum) than read them on a website that is likely blocked here at work.
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