Morning Drive Rant

[Exterous]

So I got stuck in traffic for an extra 30 minutes today - doubling my commute. Sure the snow had some to do with it but the real reason was there was an accident

ON THE OTHER SIDE OF THE FREAKING HIGHWAY!!!!!!!!!!!

There was a barrier and about 40 feet between the cars going west and the accident on the east bound lanes. It wasn't even a bad accident and was off to the shoulder.

Why is it so goddamn hard to not slow down and stare? No - lets instead make a traffic jam for miles where everyone is at a dead stop so I can gawk at something I have seen before for 30 seconds...

Maybe they get distracted by the flashing lights

I fvcking hate other drivers

 

[LookBehindYou]

So I got stuck in traffic for an extra 30 minutes today - doubling my commute. Sure the snow had some to do with it but the real reason was there was an accident

ON THE OTHER SIDE OF THE FREAKING HIGHWAY!!!!!!!!!!!

There was a barrier and about 40 feet between the cars going west and the accident on the east bound lanes. It wasn't even a bad accident and was off to the shoulder.

Why is it so goddamn hard to not slow down and stare? No - lets instead make a traffic jam for miles where everyone is at a dead stop so I can gawk at something I have seen before for 30 seconds...

Maybe they get distracted by the flashing lights

I fvcking hate other drivers

I feel your pain. I have that happen all the time. Traffic slows down and you think there is a wreck and its on the other side of the barriers.

Damn rubberneckers.

 

[JTsyo]

What I think that happens is that the first person to slow down probably saw it happening. The rest figured since they were already going slow, might as well look instead of speeding up. At 55mph, traffic can back up real quick with a 10 sec slow down.

 

[sao123]

or perhaps the accident made them realize the roads were worse than originally thought...

or maybe the accident deposited debris on your side of the barrier...

or maybe they were slowing down as a courtesy to the emergency crew attempting to work at the scene...



LEARN TO LEAVE EARLIER AND DRIVE SLOWER AND MORE CAUTIOUS AND YOU WONT BE LATE.

 

[highland145]

<---Happy Guy. ~1 mile to the office.

 

[MotF Bane]

Rubberneckers suck.

 

[vi edit]

Yesterday was opening day for Idiot season in downstate IL. Had our first significant snowfall of winter. Took me 90 minutes to do a normal 40 minute loop. Wrecks. Rubberneckers. Slippery intersections letting 2 cars through at a time and having exit ramps backed up.

Bleh.

 

[Baked]

Maybe somebody was flashing their boobs. That's the only reason people slow down in the freeway.

 

[PingSpike]

LEARN TO LEAVE EARLIER AND DRIVE SLOWER AND MORE CAUTIOUS AND YOU WONT BE LATE.

I often see this solution to controlling the uncontrollable and wonder why anyone actually takes it seriously.

There's no reason your plan will assure he always arrive on time as the amount earlier is variable and cannot be determined until after the fact. In order to assure he always arrives prior to he scheduled start time he would have to leave every day at an amount early to account for the estimated longest commute time which would probably be a snow storm day where it took him an extra hour. If we use this strategy it will mean that vast majority of time he gets to work an hour early. Which may or may not even be acceptable depending upon what kind of job he has.

You might suggest he leave that early only on snow days, except that the weather report is wrong as often as it is right meaning some days he will wake up to a unpredicted snow storm and be late and other days he will wake up early to no snow and arrive early. This also does nothing to account for car accidents and other delays which have no advanced warning system, not even an inaccurate one. In short, this strategy would at best slightly improve his chances of arriving on time, but is no promise and would also increase early arrivals.

I therefore have to reject this loud and simple solution to a complicated problem as wholly inadequate. The data to solve this problem is simply not available.

 

[Zedtom]

We are vampires. When there is a collision on the freeway people start rubbernecking looking for something to dazzle the senses. The flashing strobe lights on emergency vehicles are supposedly a safety warning but actually are a signal to stare like mesmerized zombies.

 

[Exterous]

or perhaps the accident made them realize the roads were worse than originally thought...

or maybe the accident deposited debris on your side of the barrier...

or maybe they were slowing down as a courtesy to the emergency crew attempting to work at the scene...

1. Then why did everyone - yes - I mean every single one of the hundreds/thousands of cars stuck in this speed up after passing the accident? Your telling me that it was some magical coincidence that the road conditions were so bad before the accident that people had to be stopped or going up to 10mph but on the other side of the accident road conditions were good enough to go 50+ mph?

2. The accident wasn't bad at all - I find it highly unlikely that it would have thrown noticeable debris to the other side of the highway. Certainly I saw none and saw no body swerving to avoid any

3. Courtesy? At the edge of the west bound lane there is the almost lane wide shoulder, then a barrier, then a large expanse of grass (20'? I've seen three fit cars end to end in that space with some room left over), and then another barrier. How is that necessary?

LEARN TO LEAVE EARLIER AND DRIVE SLOWER AND MORE CAUTIOUS AND YOU WONT BE LATE.

Eh? So I should leave 25* minutes earlier every day because once every couple of months there is an accident? That doesn't make any sense at all

*At this point my commute was taking about 5 minutes longer than it normally would which is typical for a light snow or rain

 

[rcpratt]

I was saying the same thing on New Year's Eve when I was headed down 96 going to the Wings game. The express lanes were closed, traffic on the local lanes was slow because of gawkers. But then when I got to the accident there was a horse laying in the middle of the road so it was actually kind of interesting. Oh well.

 

[GregGreen]

Had this issue a few months ago. I was driving eastbound on I40 and it was backed up for miles. Got to the accident and saw a tour bus on I40 West flipped over from going too fast around a cloverleaf on-ramp. It was frustrating, but you just have to be glad it's not you.