Are we all heavy footers now when it comes to driving?

[Aikouka]

(damn car doesn't do it automatically, 3 tends to be the common auto setting btw)

Ugh, my car has that, and I really wish it was five to six blinks instead of three. Three is just useless!

I hate that! I try to use my turn signal at every single moment one would think it is proper to use. And I always try and give at least 3 blinks before I actually begin moving into another lane. Or I try to do least 100ft before turning, unless it's faster than I give more... unless of course that means my turn signal is blinking before multiple driveways/roads/etc, then I turn them on at the earliest I think I can get away without confusing anyone.

Sounds pretty much like what I do. I also try to make sure that my signal is on before I start braking for a turn. I think that helps indicate better why you're braking. So, then people will realize that you might be slowing down quite a bit, and they need to keep that in mind.

Oh, and on that note, I really hate it when people enter turn lanes way too late. That in itself doesn't cause a problem, but since they take forever to enter the lane, they start braking in the normal throughput lane! I always try to enter a turn lane as soon as it's open, and unless there isn't enough room (short lane or too many cars), I will always reserve my braking for the turn lane.

Or the other way around, if they do signal their intentions, another driver may react by closing the gap and not let them in so much of the time people HAVE to make surprise moves to be able to get where they need to be.

Ugh, I had that happen to me the other day, and it was an even more egregious than usual! I was driving home, and I saw a guy was on the on-ramp. It looked like he would end up lining up next to me if I remained in the right lane, so I moved over to the left lane. Well, my exit was coming up within half a mile, so I needed to get back over. I put on my signal to merge in front of the car that I just let in, but the guy closed the gap instead. :|

I'd like to think that it was because I grew up in an area with a slight Mafia influence, but back in New York, there seemed to be this unspoken law of respecting other drivers. If someone lets you merge in, you damn well better let them back into that lane if they need to get back in. Honestly, I can't recall a single situation from my time in New York where a driver wouldn't let me back in. I've always found it awkward that Southern Hospitality just goes out the window when it comes to driving.

 

[phucheneh]

It seems like more and more that everyone seems to floor the car whenever the light turns green.

I want to live where OP lives.

Around here, green light = sit there for a while, then everyone slowly roll out with a minimum of forty feet between cars. Nashville is not the top city for 'worst traffic,' but I think it's the smallest one anywhere near the top of the list. Leader in terrible driving per capita, basically.

 

[Linflas]

I want to live where OP lives.

Around here, green light = sit there for a while, then everyone slowly roll out with a minimum of forty feet between cars. Nashville is not the top city for 'worst traffic,' but I think it's the smallest one anywhere near the top of the list. Leader in terrible driving per capita, basically.

You've never been to DC I take it. Take the worst driving habits from all 50 states and locate them in one metropolitan area and get the idiocy you see here.

 

[phucheneh]

You've never been to DC I take it. Take the worst driving habits from all 50 states and locate them in one metropolitan area and get the idiocy you see here.

Been to DC but never driven. Again, though, population is relevant.

I've driven in Atlanta rush hour, and at least it's justified with the enormous number of people clogging their freakin' twelve lane interstates. Even then, at least traffic tends to keep moving...it's sad to find yourself saying 'hey, I can keep rolling in first gear without having to clutch in! Sweet!'

Population of metropolitan Atlanta: 6 million. Nashville: 1.5 million.

The latter is terrible through sheer force of will and supposedly 11th on the 'worst traffic in the country' list.

edit: Also, yeah, someone writing their own little version of the Onion just for Nashville is news to me, too. But I LOL'd at some of the stuff on there.

 

[Exterous]

We, the ignorant, arrogant, self important drivers heeded the warnings, and in an orderly fashion merged over in such a manner as to excessivly disrupt and slow the flow of traffic as the engineers no longer intend, paying no heed to the numerous studies and reports contrary to our beliefs, content merely to bask in the comforting embrace of ignorance

FTFY. Far be it for facts to influence your views...

So I'm supposed to merge late?
Yes! As you see the “lane closed ahead” sign and traffic backing up, stay in your current lane up to the point of merge. Then take turns with other drivers to safely and smoothly ease into the remaining lane. Don't worry about being "Minnesota nice." When traffic is heavy and slow, it is much safer for motorists to remain in their current lane until the point where traffic can orderly take turns merging.

http://www.dot.state.mn.us/zippermerge/

simulations showed the late merge produced a statistically significant increase in throughput volume for only the 3-to-1-lane closure configuration and was beneficial across all factors for this type of closure. For the 2-to-1 and 3-to-2 lane closure configurations, the late merge increased throughput when the percentage of heavy vehicles was large.

http://www.virginiadot.org/vtrc/main/online_reports/pdf/05-r6.pdf

Numerous studies have been done and I am not aware of a single one that says early merge is beneficial over late or zipper merge.

 

[PingSpike]

Ugh, I had that happen to me the other day, and it was an even more egregious than usual! I was driving home, and I saw a guy was on the on-ramp. It looked like he would end up lining up next to me if I remained in the right lane, so I moved over to the left lane. Well, my exit was coming up within half a mile, so I needed to get back over. I put on my signal to merge in front of the car that I just let in, but the guy closed the gap instead. :|

There's crap designed on ramp off ramp combo with an insanely short merge section near where I live. This design is suppose to work alright at lightly traveled exit locations. Of course, they installed it on the busiest exit location in the entire state as the only entry point to the largest city so its a complete deathtrap. In a cheap bastard attempt to reduce the amount of highway deaths here they installed signs that say "through traffic keep right" so that in the 0.2 seconds to accelerate some one has after the hairpin turn on the entry ramp ends they will only have to deal with people trying to get off the highway. These people of course have to slam on their brakes because the road goes from highway speeds to a turn so sharp the car will fly off the road at those speeds, the same as the on ramp portion.

Anyway, my problem is I want to get off at the next exit. So I move over right? And then the flood of cars coming from the two on ramps fill up the right lane and I can't get over for the next exit that comes up pretty fast. Its a fucking shit show. I get to make that bad situation worse by ignoring the sign or fuck myself into a situation where I have to cut some one off to avoid missing my exit.

 

[Raduque]

You aren't supposed to stop at yield signs either, if you don't have to.

Yes, but what I'm getting at is, you're supposed to keep moving, even if there's cars coming off the exit, you just get out of the way if there's a yield sign in place and let them merge onto the feeder road, as they have right of way.

If there's no yield sign, you both just keep going and merge when you can, especially if you're trying to get ON the freeway.

 

[Midwayman]

Bullshit! there's a reason why there is nearly a 2 mile warning when a lane is going to end. We, the alert, conscientious, courteous drivers heeded the warnings, and in an orderly fashion merged over in such a manner as to not disrupt the flow of traffic as the engineers so designed. It's not that we purposely try and maneuver to block you, it's just that anytime you put a big sign on your car saying, I'm an asshole, nonconformist, trying to beat the system, and you will do my bidding, you should expect some people to push back a wee bit. I have to admit, I do get a little giddy when I see someone at a standstill, at the end of their lane, and their rope all because they tried to squeeze every last foot out of a lane they knew was about to end. Face it kiddo, out on the roadways of America, it can't always be just about YOU. And here's your sign;----
LEFT LANE ENDS IN 2 MILES, PLEASE MERGE RIGHT.
Oh, and have a nice day

This is the exact sort of hissy fit that causes issues in an orderly merge. While blocking the guy trying to merge correctly might make you feel good, it slows down traffic overall.

 

[Linflas]

This is the exact sort of hissy fit that causes issues in an orderly merge. While blocking the guy trying to merge correctly might make you feel good, it slows down traffic overall.

Not to mention that I am pretty sure traffic engineers would agree that the most efficient use of the highway would be to use all available lanes with an orderly zipper merge at the merge point rather than slowing the traffic beginning 2 miles from the actual merge point by needlessly merging early.

 

[Aikouka]

Oh, I remember one of the things that people do that usually irks me the most. When a driver around here realizes that they made a mistake, they will correct it the fastest way possible. Keep in mind that I didn't say the fastest legal way possible. For example, there's a right-turn lane around here that's a little bit segmented from the left-turn and straight lanes. Well, the problem is that when people don't realize that they needed to get in the right-turn lane, they simply turn right from the straight-only lane. I've had a really close call one time where someone did that, and I was lucky that I was paying enough attention to where I saw the guy coming out of the corner of my eye.

There's crap designed on ramp off ramp combo with an insanely short merge section near where I live. This design is suppose to work alright at lightly traveled exit locations. Of course, they installed it on the busiest exit location in the entire state as the only entry point to the largest city so its a complete deathtrap.

Ugh, I feel your pain when it comes to those combined on-ramps/off-ramps. We have them here, and they can get really backed up to the point where traffic is stopped on a 65 MPH highway. That's one of the reasons why I work much later than most (until about 6 PM) as the traffic dies down significantly (it's pretty heavy from 3:30 to 5:30).

Honestly, it makes me wonder if the civil engineers even know what they're doing. We have silly things like an entrance to a strip mall that doesn't even have a dedicated turn lane, and what makes it worse is that the next turn that's maybe 100-150 feet away is an on-ramp to a major highway. So, that right lane tends to get full of people wanting to merge onto that highway, and people end up stopping for those trying to enter the strip mall. We also lack a high-speed road in the north. The only main road that we have up there is heavily commercialized, so it's littered with stop lights and a relatively low 45 MPH speed limit (it does go up to 55 or 60 in some parts). What we need is a speedy (55 MPH or higher) no-stop road in the northern section. I've considered using the southern high-speed road in conjunction with a northbound road to get me up to where I live, but all of those roads run through residential areas and may go as low as 35 MPH with a good deal of stop lights.

Personally, I always look for the fastest way to get home, because for me, the time I spend driving is wasted time.

 

[BUTCH1]

I accelerate at a moderate pace but not so much so as to slow down traffic, what I don't understand is when highways get busy everyone feels like it's OK to run 3-4 ft behind the car in front. On I-4 (Orlando) this is a constant, try and leave ANY distance in front of you and someone inevitably swoops in, then when something happens you see a 3-4 car pileup instead of what would have been a fender-bender, makes no sense whatsoever, tailgating on a packed freeway is just dumb..

 

[Midwayman]

Oh, I remember one of the things that people do that usually irks me the most. When a driver around here realizes that they made a mistake, they will correct it the fastest way possible. Keep in mind that I didn't say the fastest legal way possible. For example, there's a right-turn lane around here that's a little bit segmented from the left-turn and straight lanes. Well, the problem is that when people don't realize that they needed to get in the right-turn lane, they simply turn right from the straight-only lane. I've had a really close call one time where someone did that, and I was lucky that I was paying enough attention to where I saw the guy coming out of the corner of my eye.

My personal favorite is the guys who miss their exit and then pull off onto the shoulder and reverse back to the exit. Yikes.

 

[ElFenix]

only speedy people that piss me off are those who a) pass people on the right when there's plenty of room on the left; b) people going 10 or 15 over in residential areas. though sometimes i do think "hurry up and wait" when people accelerate toward a red light where lots of cars are waiting. no doubt, they complain about the price of gas.

 

[Exterous]

Not to mention that I am pretty sure traffic engineers would agree that the most efficient use of the highway would be to use all available lanes with an orderly zipper merge at the merge point rather than slowing the traffic beginning 2 miles from the actual merge point by needlessly merging early.

You are correct from all of the studies I have seen done by the various state DOTs

 

[Fritzo]

I love my car's acceleration (BMW 330i), but my go-fast fun is hindered by that cursed MPG needle right next to my spedometer. I have to use premium, so my drives are usually like this:

"WOOHOO!!!! ZERO TO SIXTY IN...oh crap...8MPG!" ::shifts to 5th gear::

 

[destrekor]

I love my car's acceleration (BMW 330i), but my go-fast fun is hindered by that cursed MPG needle right next to my spedometer. I have to use premium, so my drives are usually like this:

"WOOHOO!!!! ZERO TO SIXTY IN...oh crap...8MPG!" ::shifts to 5th gear::

Oh that's just miserable. I mean, that gauge must suck out all the fun.

 

[Midwayman]

Oh that's just miserable. I mean, that gauge must suck out all the fun.

Try going on a track day. Reset your computer before the first lap.

 

[TheSlamma]

I'm not, I'm too in love with my money to burn it away on fuel.

 

[Aikouka]

My personal favorite is the guys who miss their exit and then pull off onto the shoulder and reverse back to the exit. Yikes.

I've never seen that, and I'm quite glad! I have seen people make illegal u-turns on highways, and given the people are unwilling to turn around properly (i.e. impatient), they always pull out in front of another vehicle traveling at 65 MPH or higher.

I'm not, I'm too in love with my money to burn it away on fuel.

I'm pretty picky about being quick, but I hypermile to help make up for the higher gas consumption. Most people probably foam at the mention of that word, but I'm still making sure that I don't needlessly slow others down. Essentially, the less that I have to use the brake, the better!

 

[McLovin]

So my drive into L.A. was about what I expected but I am still not used to opposite world where fast is the right lane and slow is the left lane lol. From the 15 north into Victorville, 210 east from the 134, 134 east from chauenga blvd, bumper to bumper. Soooooo thankful I didn't have to drive in that.

 

[Mixolydian]

Well this thread has turned into an ordeal.

 

[phucheneh]

So I'm supposed to merge late?
Yes! As you see the “lane closed ahead” sign and traffic backing up, stay in your current lane up to the point of merge. Then take turns with other drivers to safely and smoothly ease into the remaining lane. Don't worry about being "Minnesota nice." When traffic is heavy and slow, it is much safer for motorists to remain in their current lane until the point where traffic can orderly take turns merging.

Sweet jesus it took me a long time to realize this wasn't sarcasm.

If you ride the merge lane to the end, especially after coming onto the interstate at 30mph, I will do my best to run you off the road.

I merge as early as possible. In ANY kind of traffic, I find my own gaps. I never have to sit at a standstill with my turn signal on waiting for someone to be 'nice' and let me in. If you're stopping at something other than a stop sign or a red light, you're doing it fucking wrong; please sell your car and stay home so I don't have to deal with you both creating traffic jams and endangering others.

 

[AyashiKaibutsu]

I don't think I've ever floored my car in my life... but I do accelerate faster than about 70% of people on the road anyway. I generally assume it's because I have a 6 cylinder and they probably have 4 so they'd need to floor to match my acceleration.

 

[IronWing]

only speedy people that piss me off are those who a) pass people on the right when there's plenty of room on the left;

If people can pass you on the right, you are too far to the left.

 

[BUTCH1]

I want to live where OP lives.

Around here, green light = sit there for a while, then everyone slowly roll out with a minimum of forty feet between cars. Nashville is not the top city for 'worst traffic,' but I think it's the smallest one anywhere near the top of the list. Leader in terrible driving per capita, basically.

Try driving in Boston my friend, they don't call them "Massholes" for nothing..