Why do people never accelerate past about 40 when merging?

[manowar821]

Originally posted by: AstroManLuca

Originally posted by: manowar821
Two things that piss me off more than anything else. People who stop or go slow on merges, and people who blow through yields.

People. Are. Stupid.

You don't technically have to even slow down for yield signs. You just have to make sure the way is clear. Most intersections I slow down, sometimes stop if necessary, but there's one on my way to work that is almost always clear AND has such good visibility that I usually don't have to slow down any more than I would if there was no sign there.

I know, but when there is literally no way to avoid impeding traffic, you're supposed to stop. Or if it's blind. Or if any other number of things cause you to not be sure about merging.

 

[DingDingDao]

Originally posted by: CoinOperatedBoy

Originally posted by: DingDingDao
1) Prius drivers who merge on the freeway and immediately make a beeline for the far left lane, then proceed to drive at 65mph. (This might be a problem unique to California)

These people are good-intentioned; they just don't realize until it's too late that 65MPH is the top speed of their vehicle.

Perhaps. One friend of mine who owns a Prius pretty much never goes further than about the third lane from the right (is that the #3 lane?), for exactly this reason.

 

[yhelothar]

I never get half of these ridiculous driver threads. I hardly, if ever, see any of the shit mentioned in this thread. Who TF merges at 40?
where the hell do you guys live to see such shitty drivers?
I live in LA ffs.

One thing that does annoy me though are freeways that go uphill, no one bothers to increase the throttle and traffic speed usually drops down to 55.
But admittedly, even I have to downshift to 4th on my miata to maintain a 70-80.

 

[evident]

Originally posted by: BlahBlahYouToo
what's dumber is stop signs at on ramps.

i got a ticket in NJ for this stupidity, ended up costing me $150. all the self righteous armchair cops here didn't care for how stupid it was and criticized my driving. :rolleyes;

 

[MovingTarget]

Originally posted by: AstroManLuca

Originally posted by: MovingTarget
...because a 3cylinder Geo Metro cannot go any faster uphill without a good tailwind. 😛

LOL, funny thing is I'm usually driving the most underpowered vehicle of everyone stopped at the light. Everyone's going around in their BMWs and their pickup trucks and their V6 Camrys and Accords, and here I am with a 109hp Honda Fit leaving them all in the dust because I actually use my gas pedal. I don't even floor it or anything, I just accelerate quickly. Still get 32-35 mpg overall, even with a fair amount of city driving and rush hour traffic every week.

In all fairness though, the Fit is a rather light vehicle. You have to take into account the weight of a vehicle as well.

 

[CoinOperatedBoy]

Originally posted by: astroidea
One thing that does annoy me though are freeways that go uphill, no one bothers to increase the throttle and traffic speed usually drops down to 55.
But admittedly, even I have to downshift to 4th on my miata to maintain a 70-80.

I would rather see people decelerate sharply on an upward slope than a downward one. The people around here SLAM on their brakes when driving downhill, even with no drivers in front of them, and it drives me nuts.

 

[torpid]

Perhaps they do this because the on-ramp lane ends quickly and there are a lot of asshats who won't move over or let them merge at high speed in a timely fashion.

 

[Zenmervolt]

Originally posted by: astroidea
I never get half of these ridiculous driver threads. I hardly, if ever, see any of the shit mentioned in this thread. Who TF merges at 40?
where the hell do you guys live to see such shitty drivers?
I live in LA ffs.

One thing that does annoy me though are freeways that go uphill, no one bothers to increase the throttle and traffic speed usually drops down to 55.
But admittedly, even I have to downshift to 4th on my miata to maintain a 70-80.

Happens all the bloody time in Washington State. Hell, when the on-ramp has its own lane after joining the highway (i.e. highway is two-lane before the on-ramp and 3-lane after, so cars coming up the on-ramp do not have to merge) people will even hit the brakes. There's on in particular where two separate exit/entrance ramps branch off of one highway and become another highway (exit from Northbound and exit from Southbound come together to form a two-lane spur going East, each ramp becomes its own lane, no need to merge) where this happens every single time.

ZV

 

[pontifex]

Originally posted by: torpid
Perhaps they do this because the on-ramp lane ends quickly and there are a lot of asshats who won't move over or let them merge at high speed in a timely fashion.

this happens all the time here in PA. people simply do not move over so you almost always have to stop at an onramp and wait for an opening.

 

[SSSnail]

Originally posted by: RapidSnail

Originally posted by: SSSnail

Originally posted by: oldsmoboat

Originally posted by: SSSnail
Because there are people out there that think 75 BHP is good enough and you don't need more than that, even if it takes them 2 weeks to accelerate to the desired speed, more than 75 BHP is a waste to them.

So says SuperSonicSnail...

:laugh:

Yes, because I'm the fastest of the snails. 😉

A challenger emerges!

WARP!!!

Dude, rapid is nowhere near as fast as supersonic; when I say rapid, I think of buses, quicker than walking but that's about it. :laugh:

 

[gwai lo]

Originally posted by: astroidea
I never get half of these ridiculous driver threads. I hardly, if ever, see any of the shit mentioned in this thread. Who TF merges at 40?
where the hell do you guys live to see such shitty drivers?
I live in LA ffs.

Really? I live here as well and I see it everyday.

Originally posted by: BW86
you should see some of the on ramps by me, it's almost impossible to reach 30mph before merging on some of them

Same here, but you gotta at least try. I know flooring is heavily discouraged, but I say in these situations, you just gotta keep it in low gear and floor it to try to get to speed. If you don't, you'll end up like my friend merging into 65 traffic at 30 mph.

 

[Nitemare]

The average driver is stupid.

Probably the same people that drive 10 mph under the speed limit in the leftmost lane and won't leave it.

 

[CoinOperatedBoy]

Originally posted by: SSSnail
Dude, rapid is nowhere near as fast as supersonic; when I say rapid, I think of buses, quicker than walking but that's about it. :laugh:

This is a pointless argument. You're clearly a cow, not a snail.

 

[Jeff7181]

It's scary, man. You're much safer if you merge slowly so you have more time to react if something bad happens. Don't use your turn signal either... the flashing is distracting to other drivers and may cause epileptic seizures. That would be REALLY scary.

Oh... it also wastes gas. If you accelerate at the rate of an increase of 5 mph per mile, you'll save gas.

 

[uclaLabrat]

Originally posted by: astroidea
I never get half of these ridiculous driver threads. I hardly, if ever, see any of the shit mentioned in this thread. Who TF merges at 40?
where the hell do you guys live to see such shitty drivers?
I live in LA ffs.

One thing that does annoy me though are freeways that go uphill, no one bothers to increase the throttle and traffic speed usually drops down to 55.
But admittedly, even I have to downshift to 4th on my miata to maintain a 70-80.

I'll tell you where. Everyday, without fail, on the 405 south on ramp at wilshire. I am damn near run off the road every day unless it's jammed.

 

[Lord Zado]

I see this crap every morning too. It bugs the hell out of me. Whenever I am first in line coming up this particular on ramp with a very short merge lane, I gun it as soon as possible and I never have trouble merging. Whenever I am behind other people though, inevitably they slow down and/or stop and it becomes a complete mess.

Like gwai said, even if the ramp is short, you have to at least try to get up to speed. People are more likely to let you in if you are clearly accelerating and getting close to traveling speed. When people try to merge at 40, it just pisses off the people already in the lane because they have to slow way down. As a consequence, they just don't let you in, which only makes the problem worse. If you just accelerate as fast as you possibly can when merging, you're usually fine. I drive a crappy '97 Elantra on its last leg and I never have trouble merging.

 

[BlackTigers]

On short ramps, I keep the car in second gear and maul my gas pedal. I HATE merging slower than traffic. If anything, a hair above the speed of traffic causes less headaches.

My mom on the other hand, is the kind of person that nonchalantly merges at half the speed of everyone else and is completely oblivious to what she is doing. It drives me insane.

 

[Chiropteran]

If I am behind someone on an on-ramp, I intentionally drive extra slow so they can get a big lead on me before we approach the highway, so hopefully I can accelerate unimpeded.

 

[tokie]

Where I live if you aren't going at least 90kph on the onramp you aren't getting on the freeway. I've actually seen idiots reverse on the onramp and then try to pick up speed. No idea how they got a driver's license.

 

[Gibson486]

Originally posted by: pontifex

Originally posted by: torpid
Perhaps they do this because the on-ramp lane ends quickly and there are a lot of asshats who won't move over or let them merge at high speed in a timely fashion.

this happens all the time here in PA. people simply do not move over so you almost always have to stop at an onramp and wait for an opening.

same thing in MA. people see you coming on the on ramp...their first thought...let just cut him off.

 

[helpme]

San Francisco/Oakland bay bridge, best merge ever.

Trying to get on the bridge from treasure island going westbound? Oh, you have a stop sign where the onramp meets the slow lane. Driving a scooter? Good luck!

 

[Dedpuhl]

This happened to me all the time in Baton Rouge. Now, I deal with it all the time in the Orlando/Space Coast area. Accelerate to match the friggin' speed of the traffic.

Although it pisses me off, there's something that people do in Florida that's just flat out ignorant and absolutely enrages me. When they approach flashing yellow signals, they stop. WTF.

 

[PlasmaBomb]

Originally posted by: AstroManLuca
This seems to be one of the most widespread driving stupidities I encounter. Other things people do while driving occasionally bother me, but this one is by far the worst because it happens every time I merge onto the highway. I merge onto the highway as part of my commute every morning and whenever I happen to be first in line, the person behind me is always way, WAY back by the time I merge.

I'm not even asking people to exceed the speed limit. I just wish they'd get to 50 or 55 by the time they merge, so they're at least close to matching speed with traffic. But every morning, when I commute, the person in front of me has never gotten past 45 before attempting to merge. It's dangerous and causes delays as the people in the right lane attempt to move over or slow way down to make room. I literally cannot remember the last time someone DIDN'T do this.

And I know that I'm doing it right because when someone posted that driving aptitude quiz a few weeks ago, it said you're supposed to be going about the same speed as the surrounding traffic when you merge. That was the correct answer to the question, while one of the wrong choices was "10 mph slower than everyone else."

Your horn... try using it.


😉

 

[PlasmaBomb]

Originally posted by: Dedpuhl
This happened to me all the time in Baton Rouge. Now, I deal with it all the time in the Orlando/Space Coast area. Accelerate to match the friggin' speed of the traffic.

Although it pisses me off, there's something that people do in Florida that's just flat out ignorant and absolutely enrages me. When they approach flashing yellow signals, they stop. WTF.

Erm... flashing yellow means stop in the states does it not? I think it was on that test thingy a while back...

 

[PlasmaBomb]

Originally posted by: oldsmoboat
Simple. They are idiots.

This.