A caller on the Jan 2, 20 24 show asked about a trucker’s behavior re, merging before a construction lane closure. He was upset that that the trucker used his rig to block off both lanes of traffic short of the actual merge point.
If the caller had been paying attention at the time of the incident. He would have noticed that there were signs at least a mile or so earlier advising of the lane closure and instructing traffic to “Merge Left/Right” depending on which lane was closed. The reason for the sign is to initiate an orderly (LOL) merge, well in advance of the actual lane closure.
Unfortunately, although a small percentage of drivers attempt to do the right thing and initiate an orderly merge well in advance, all too many a lot of the others go, “ Aha, there’s still lots of room in the right/ left lane so I’ll just wail on ahead, to hell with the rest of you”, Now if you’re one of the “nice” drivers in a car and you’re getting more and more peeved at the drivers passing in the opposite lane and bringing your lane to a virtual halt as they try to cut back in before the closure there’s a limit to what you can do.
But if you’re in a truck, you can straddle both lanes (and if necessary, weave a bit and cover the shoulder also” and make everyone behind you “follow the rules”.
Not all states advocate zipper merge like Minnesota. Just makes sense but some are not good at math. Not just some truckers but I had an suv in Illinois block me. Dumb.
Do you believe the SUV would have been able to pass through the construction area faster if that person would have let you and a dozen others pass by in the ending lane and merge in front of him?
Truckers generally seem less professional than decades ago, more careless and error prone. I don’t know how much it might have to do with diminishment of the Teamsters.
I re-formatted the posting by @Bones53 for easier reading…
A caller on the Jan 2, 20 24 show asked about a trucker’s behavior re, merging before a construction lane closure. He was upset that that the trucker used his rig to block off both lanes of traffic short of the actual merge point.
If the caller had been paying attention at the time of the incident. He would have noticed that there were signs at least a mile or so earlier advising of the lane closure and instructing traffic to “Merge Left/Right” depending on which lane was closed. The reason for the sign is to initiate an orderly (LOL) merge, well in advance of the actual lane closure.
Unfortunately, although a small percentage of drivers attempt to do the right thing and initiate an orderly merge well in advance, all too many a lot of the others go, “ Aha, there’s still lots of room in the right/ left lane so I’ll just wail on ahead, to hell with the rest of you”, Now if you’re one of the “nice” drivers in a car and you’re getting more and more peeved at the drivers passing in the opposite lane and bringing your lane to a virtual halt as they try to cut back in before the closure there’s a limit to what you can do.
But if you’re in a truck, you can straddle both lanes (and if necessary, weave a bit and cover the shoulder also” and make everyone behind you “follow the rules”.
I think this posting has more to do with “entitled” drivers who are in a rush, and have no consideration for others… They race past every other driver who is merging into a single line and expect to be let in at the last moment… And some drivers who might not take too kindly to the those drivers racing for the last minute merge and taking some defensive action to prevent that from happening and saying that a Trucker can use their vehicle to vigilante the situation…
I often take and entrance ramp to a cross-town parkway that would test the patience of Job…
On the map below (position 1) there is a two-lane, left-turn, from a stop light into the entrance ramp. When the light turns Green, drivers race around the turn (position 2) and they accelerate up the ramp (position 3) but have to merge quickly into one lane and onto the acceleration lane (position 4) of the parkway. However, as they accelerate, others drivers on the parkway are racing ahead of them (position 5) only to decelerate so they can exit to the right (position 6).
It’s like a real life game of “Carmageddon…” L L . . .
My son is a trucker, and I believe that skilled truck driving is on the decline , that’s a different subject. Fortunately my son is a serious driver. But according to his experiences, many times a car will try to beat him through a merge. They don’t seem to realize that with a load, he can’t speed up or slow down to compensate for their mistake. He would have to merge whether they are in the way or not. The above truck driver may have been trying to avoid this common situation.
As others have noted, the right thing is to not merge well in advance - when there is a backup. Filling both lanes and taking turns at the merge point has been studied and shown to be the most efficient and safest method but it goes against an engrained opinion that people have. I live in Minnesota where they encourage the late (zipper) merge by putting signs up that say “Use Both Lanes During Backups” and “Take Turns At Merge” and, still, drivers constantly block the to-be-closed lane to prevent drivers from doing what they’re supposed to do.
Maryland encourages zipper merges too. When two lanes converge into one there is a merge sign but no indication whether there is a right of way for either lane. The idea is to promote good lane etiquette where the car in front is first, then the car next to it is second and the car in the lane behind the #1 car allows the merging vehicle to join the line. There is a merge like this close to my hime on a state road. Most of the time it works well.
Why doesn’t the truck just stay in the lane to be closed and match their speed with the other lane? It accomplishes the same thing without driving in both lanes at once.
Here I see that there is a big problem with late merge method. Most vehicles stay in the lane that is open. A small number drive fast all the way to the end, basically cutting in line, then they force their way in at the end and bring both lanes to a near complete stop. Driving with the flow in the ending lane to stop the cars from cutting in line seems to greatly reduce the congestion at the merge point and significantly increases the flow of traffic.
The wikipedia article from lion9car has a good write up.
In other words, the governments see allowing some drivers to agressively cut in line at the very end of a long line of vehicles as a good thing for some reason. The only benefits of the technique are to the cars that get to cut in to the front. If everyone would wait to merge at the end it would be fair for both lanes, but it doesn’t seem to happen in Illinois. “sometimes including straddling lanes to block late mergers” that is called cutting in line not a late merger. They but in at the end and bring the whole line of hundreds of cars to a halt.
Yes, people will block you from merging in at the end since they view you as trying to cut in or something. Even if I try to merge in very near to the beginning of the line they won’t let me in. Sometimes keeping the right lane free for cars that need to turn off before the choke point is a good thing.
The it’s my lane and you can’t merge in attitude is strong when it is already established that you’re supposed to stay in the lane that is open and people who speed to the end and but in are cutting in line.
Increasing the backup length alerts drivers of the situation sooner and lets them decide to go a different way. How is this bad?
Have you not been reading any of the posts on the zipper merge method? Late merging reduces congestion, it doesn’t increase it. This has been studied many times. Also, if you live in Illinois (you mentioned Illinois in your post), you should know that your state encourages late merging and has a law requiring drivers to let you in.
That formatting problem is often caused by composing the text using one program, then cutting and pasting it into the Car Talk posting/editting page. Next time try just typing the text directly into the box that appears when you click “new post”.
You completely misunderstand the recommended practice: Fully use both lanes until merger is needed.
The other method raises the question of when should folks form one line? 100 yds before? 1000 yards? 1 mile? 10 miles? I’ve seen traffic line up for over a mile, which is nuts, to me.
I expect you’d understand if you drove one of those trucks. Not even close to being as maneuverable as a car. Harder to slow down accurately, harder to speed up accurately, harder to turn, less visibility, etc. I always yield to those beasties, try to make the truck driver’s job as easy as possible. Safer for them, safer for me, safer for everybody.
L . . .
The ;;;;; SNOWMAN ;;;;;; has his own set of rules that don’t apply to real world.