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With a zipper point, I think it's only natural that one of two things would happen in a high-traffic situation. Either (1): the two lanes continue to back up beyond the zipper point or (2), the zipper point itself moves further and further back, and the cars form a single line.
Of course, this is only with discipline, paying attention, courtesty, etc. None of which seems to apply in the real world!
Were all the drivers already bumper to bumper prior to the merge, then sure, capacity is met.
That said, though, see you at the next traffic jam! :P
Not always true. If the cars speed up to 120 MPH then they would have to double the distance between cars. Say if two lanes are going at 60 MPH two seconds apart (suggested safe following speed) then on average one car will pass every second. Now funnel them into one lane and increase the speed to 120 MPH but keep the same two second rule now you will have one car pass every two seconds. Half the number of cars in a given period of time.
2011 Hyundai Sonata, 2014 BMW 428i convertible, 2015 Honda CTX700D
The answer to that is: It depends.
First, you must get accurate license# and description of car AND you must give an accurate description of the driver. Without all three the cops can't do anything. You also must be willing to appear in court or the case will be dismissed.
Even if you are willing to do all of the above, you may not get anywhere. Several years ago, as a school bus driver I was crossing a large number of students when an older man approached from the other direction. He slowed and the continued to drive RIGHT THROUGH the group of about 10 kids who were crossing. I laid on the horn and as he came even with my window turned, gave me the finger and sped off!
Because he paused long enough to flip me off I got a good look at him and his plate. A the end of my run I called the troopers and gave them my info.
Three days later the trooper called me at work and said: "Oldfarmer, we've identified the person who ran your red lights. You got the car right and the plate right and I'm looking at the owners license photo and you description is dead on...BUT...We can't touch him."
"WHAT?" I said. "How come?"
"Well" the trooper said "This person lives 150 miles from our area and our supervisor won't allow us to travel that far to give him the ticket in person." That was the last I heard about it. That clown is still driving around running down kids.
2019 Kia Soul+, 2015 Mustang GT, 2013 Ford F-150, 2000 Chrysler Sebring convertible
Here are the bottom 5 - the safest, most polite drivers in the world....
21. Dallas-Ft. Worth (Yay!!!)
22. St. Louis (No more complaining, folks)
23. Seattle-Tacoma
24. Pittsburgh
25. Portland, Ore.
Here are the bottom 5 - the safest, most polite drivers in the world....
21. Dallas-Ft. Worth (Yay!!!)
22. St. Louis (No more complaining, folks)
23. Seattle-Tacoma
24. Pittsburgh
25. Portland, Ore.
I think you're reading this wrong --- these are the 21st-25th worst places to drive. Go look at #50 or #100 on the list --- they should be safter/more polite.
It becomes relative after awhile.... It would be a pretty small place by the time you got to #100.
A couple of miles down I make a left turn onto a road (posted SL is 15 MPH faster on this road) that is straight flat and has a passing zone for about a mile. Since I made a left turn following a dump truck (quarries in this area) and no one was in sight coming the other way I did a nice easy pass of the slow moving truck.
Well some clown in a Benz followed me around the truck, no big deal. But the instant s/he cleared the truck, about the time I got a comfortable distance in front of it and started back into my lane, s/he swerved back into the proper lane (effectively cutting off the truck) and gunned it. Of course this was at the same time I was merging back into the proper lane. Of course s/he blew the horn flashed the brights and rode my rear end. I supposed they thought I was just going to stay driving on the wrong side of the road. :sick:
2011 Hyundai Sonata, 2014 BMW 428i convertible, 2015 Honda CTX700D
Holy cow... Now that was brazen!
The worst I have seen is people who will make a left turn behind me onto a 2-lane-in-one-direction road and turn directly into the far right lane rather than the proper lane, then blow the horn/flash when I change lanes into the right as they are bearing down on me. But at least we were both traveling in lanes meant for us.... :sick:
Well, he goes to this newer Bangle-generation 3-series sedan, opens its door, but instead of getting in, looks like he's ruffling through something on the seat. As I walk past, I see that he's actually got his door open as far as it will go, and rubbing against a Crown Vic parked next to him. Oddly, the Crown Vic looked like a police interceptor model that might have been sold to a civilian. It was a cop-looking brownish-gray, had a blacked-out grille, and cop hubcaps. Had civilian tags, though.
And he is indeed just standing there, bent over, ruffling through something on the seat, like a duffle bag or something. And it's not like the two cars were parked close together...there was plenty of room between the two! I memorized the license plate and wrote it down when I got to my truck. I'm almost tempted to leave an anonymous note on the Crown Vic mentioning the the incident and describing the offending car and tag #.
Seriously, if I had come up to someone doing that to my car, I'd probably kick his door closed! :mad:
I could share a story about this, but it brings up bad memories, so I will pass. :mad:
At the time I was driving a little old Tercel so I just eased on in next to it. :shades:
I was nice and didn't open my door into his sheet metal.
I understand some people like to search out the fancy cars out in the far reaches of parking lots where they are supposedly protected from door dings, and then park next to them. :P
2014 Malibu 2LT, 2015 Cruze 2LT,
I was so mad about not finding a space that I used my wife's lipstick to write a pleasant little note on the driver's side window of his car.
Then my wife got mad because I basically used up the whole tube of lipstick!
The side of the car had been gently marred by the previous owner going into a country ditch in snow so that side couldn't be damaged. I often imaged the angst in the face of the careful parker taking up two spaces close to the mall with their new perfect car. If you want two spaces, park away from the close in spaces.
2014 Malibu 2LT, 2015 Cruze 2LT,
I never really had a true junker, so I wasn't able to do the "squeeze-in" technique. Even my 23-year-old Volvo looked pretty good considering its age at the time I sold it.
I usually would park very close to the offending double-spacer and get out on the right side. The new car driver probably saw that sharp point on the door and 6 inches between the cars and looked for the dent.
I don't think parking spaces are as wide as they were then so there's not as much room left.
2014 Malibu 2LT, 2015 Cruze 2LT,
As I entered the store I wondered how long it would take for someone to key his paint job.
2019 Kia Soul+, 2015 Mustang GT, 2013 Ford F-150, 2000 Chrysler Sebring convertible
That would be worth a call to the local police. Abusing a handicapped space is bad.
The stores often don't want to call in complaints because customers abusing the spaces get mad, so individuals have to call.
2014 Malibu 2LT, 2015 Cruze 2LT,
2011 Hyundai Sonata, 2014 BMW 428i convertible, 2015 Honda CTX700D
Parking spaces are often narrower these days. And sometimes shorter, too. Here at work, I remember back in the early 90's, driving my grandma's '85 LeSabre to work on occasion and having no problem parallel-parking its 218 inches at the spaces along the street in front of my building. Well, a decade later, our project had moved a couple times, and we were back in the same building. By this time, Grandma didn't drive anymore and signed that car over to me. I tried parking it in one of those spots one morning when I came in early and saw they were mostly empty. The car actually hung over the space just a little on either end! So I imagine that they had to have shrunk up the spots at least two feet during a re-striping. I also remember one time when they re-striped the parking lots. You could see where the old lines for the spaces had been, compared to the new ones, and they were about 8 inches narrower.
When you couple that with the fact that the average vehicle fleet today is probably wider than it was years ago, not to mention larger doors that, by default are going to be able to reach further out and hit something, it's no wonder that we don't suffer more parking lot dings than we do!
Oh, as for keying, here's a fun story. I have this cow-orker who is, for lack of a better word, a princess. Spoiled, bratty, celf-centered, will argue almost anything and regularly tries to put the spotlight on herself to make herself look like a victim in any situation, etc.
Anyway, she had a 2001 Dodge Caravan. She had a habit of parking sloppy, often over the line. One day she parked in the parallel spaces out in front, and was about 2 feet over the line in back. Another, identical Caravan pulled in, right up to her but without touching. I think he was totally in his space, if just barely. Well, ANOTHER car pulled in behind him, right up to his bumper, so he was blocked.
Come quitting time, this guy comes around asking the secretaries if anybody knew who owned either the minivan in front or the car in back. I looked out the window, and recognized my cow-orker's minivan. I went in to ask her to move it, because she was blocking someone in. She went off the deep end, griping and carrying on, about how she didn't understand why somebody would park that close to her anyway? When I told her she was over the line, she said that didn't matter.
After a good 5 minutes or more, she finally DID move it, but I remember hearing the griping about that instance for days afterwards.
Well, one day I heard her repeating a story about what happened to her in the parking lot at her condo. Evidently she parked sloppy, in one of the spaces right up in front. She parked far enough over the line that nobody could get into the space beside her. When she came out the next morning, someone left a note on her windshield, and there was a nice, deep scrape on her hood. The note read "Perhaps this scratch will encourage you to park more considerately next time."
Normally I don't condone keying somebody's car. But in this case, I don't think it could have happened to a "nicer" person.
"this cow-orker who is, for lack of a better word, a princess. Spoiled, bratty, celf-centered, will argue almost anything and regularly tries to put the spotlight on herself to make herself look like a victim in any situation,"...
Is this co-worker's name Paris Hilton? ha ha.Oh, I almost forgot, she will be not driving soon for maybe 45 days.
I went to pick up my 5 year old grandson from kindergarten yesterday and I was boxed in by another car that parked behind me in the red zone in front of a fire plug.
After I got my grandchild, I walked up to his window and told him that I will have to back up to get out and will be backing into his car's front area to do it. He got the message and determinged that I was angry. He started his Lexus and left.
I then drove me and my grandson to Mc Donalds for his weekly day with grandpa eating chicken nuggets.
One more sidelight. I also dislike discourteous tailgate drivers. I remember a driver who was being tailgated on the Nimitz Freeway Oakland and hit his brakes.
Needless to say the tailgater hit his brakes and hit the center divider. Never did get the front driver, but the tailgater admitted he was tailgating. Very dangerous stuff at 65 mph.
Anyone else observe the summer time tends to have increased speed and more drivers taking chances? I have at least in No. Cal.
Good luck to all and stay safe.
jensad
I am at the stage in my life where I (really go out of my way, if I determine I have to) get out of the way. Actually if one is paying attention, one can spot these kind of folks WAY back (no matter which lanes one tends to use). It has never made too much sense for ME to tail gate. I can see even less reason for someone else to tail gate me. With my luck, they will probably not have insurance.
This was... I dunno; must have been about 6 or 7 years ago. My wife and I were driving around to different businesses where she wanted to apply for jobs. We stopped at this local ice cream shop that manufactures its own ice cream, and it was BUSY. There was only one spot available to park in the non-marked parking area. It was not very wide, but there were about 12" on either side of our car after we pulled in. On one side was wagon of some sort, and on the other was a large Chevy Blazer of the 74-87 body style.
I was dozing in the passenger seat while I waited for my wife to drop off her application. I hear a man and his family approach the Blazer, followed by a bit of rocking to the car as the man careens off the passenger side mirror. I did not think much of it and did not open my eyes. Then, I hear a CRACK! into the rear door (next to my ear) and the car sways again. I open my eyes, look up, and this big fella (about 6'6', maybe 250#) looks right at me and says, "WHY THE F*** DID YOU PARK SO CLOSE?!" Then, he smacks his door into my car again for good measure.
Well, I am typically a very civil person, but I nonetheless felt it was necessary at this moment to confront this fella. So, I briskly stepped from the car and start to ask him where else was available to park when he lays into me. First he throws his very delicious-looking ice cream at me, then just starts in with the punches through the open window of his truck (so, his door is between us, but he is still on the ground). Still being the civil one with no intention of getting into a brawl, I quickly land a knee into his door to push it closed, then pressed him against his truck and requested that he stop hitting me. I repeated my request after every shot. Then, finally, after 6 or 7 more attempts to hit me, as I was just about to lose patience with him, I pinned his arms to his chest and I said, "fella, I will not ask you again. If you hit me one more time, I am going to lay you out."
At this point he stopped and seemed to calm down a bit. So, I resumed. I told him that there was no other place to park and that if he felt there was not enough room, he could ask me to move the car in order to give him more space. I then asked him if he felt there was not enough room for him to enter his vehicle. He said no somewhere within his string of expletives. So, when my wife came back from dropping off the application, I asked her to move the car and she did.
The guy's wife then sees the large dent in their driver door left by my knee and goes off the wall. This gets the guy's blood back up and he starts acting like an [non-permissible content removed] again, but still not to the point of swinging at me (which is good for us both). He then demands my insurance info. I ask him why... his car hit *mine* not the other way around. I offer him my insurance info in exchange for his, as well as summoning the police to arrest him for assaulting me. He quickly changes his tune. Trying to leave this one on a not-so-sour note, I ask him if that ice cream he threw at me was his or his daughter's. He said it was hers, so I asked him what it was and then replaced it for them. I told him that I felt sorry for his daughter because she had to witness her parents being so foolish, but that I truly hoped it was an isolated incident.
We left after that. My wife was pretty embarrassed, so she never went in for an interview. You have to remember, there were at least 30 people that witnessed this whole exchange.
Speaking of him, he doesn't happen to be one of the recently arrested ones does he?
That story gave me a fond flashback to my childhood. In the 1979-80 timeframe, my Mom and I lived in southern Maryland. She had just bought a house, and I know expenses were tight. For a special treat, once a week we'd go to the new McDonald's that just opened up in Waldorf. That was pre-Chicken McNugget times, though.
Things seem to be getting worse. We had a work zone fatality a couple of weeks ago that affected my judgement. I think in order to be safe we will be setting up wider safety zones and shutting down more lanes and causing longer traffic delays
When I was in college I worked on the state highway department. One day I was flagging on a ditch clearing project where a large, early version of a backhoe dug muddy water and guck out of the 20 ft. wide ditch and plopped it into the waiting dump truck. One car went through instead of stopping for me when I flagged him to stop.
As he got by the dump truck the backhoe operator dumped a large load quickly into the truck. The mud, water, and other [non-permissible content removed] splashed out over the other wide right onto the car which had gone through my flagging him to stop. Talk about poetic justice. Worse was that the [non-permissible content removed] had lots of smell of the abutting hog farm manure in it from runoff of the fields where the hog were.
Poetic justice.
Inconsiderate interstate drivers don't slow down for the construction rebuilding our major I70/I75 interchange. The traffic has been maintained by engineering changes and careful planning. But many drivers see it as speedway rather than 50 mph market at 55 even faster than it should be.
Just yesterday a tour bus coming to the Dayton Ham Vention mashed with a semi truck. Trucks are among the worse not wanting to slow down for the narrowed lanes bounded by concrete temp sides. Blocked the interstate for 2-3 hours, the paper said.
Travelers from the east, New York, Maryland, also seem not to want to slow down for two miles or more for the construction. I avoid driving through but it's on the way to a nice shopping area we like with a Kohls. All due respect given to the drivers from those two states who do slow down for the construction. But the lane changes and narrowing are trickier than they appear. The only worse ones I saw were a few years ago at the edge of Nashville on I65 where they had construction.
2014 Malibu 2LT, 2015 Cruze 2LT,
Thankfully, no. Anyway, he saw a Lamborghini go past him, followed by a Hummer H2. A Lexus in up in front of him suddenly decided to go into the fast lane and hit its brakes for whatever reason. The Lambo ended up in the back of the Lexus, and the H2 into the Lambo, and then 4 or 5 other cars piled into that one. Probably a danged miracle that my roommate DIDN'T end up in that little menagerie!
So, running up the Garden State Parkway earlier today, traffic on this particular 2 lane section relatively heavy, but moving at about 60-70 mph. I see 2 fast boys coming through traffic (Subie WRX & VW Jetta), complete with multiple lane changes, no signals etc... so far, sadly, not that unusual - until the VW pulled on to the shoulder and raced by at over 90!
Some days I just shake my head...
I tried my best to fix those brakes, but it turned out that the master cylinder was going bad. I ended up driving 1200 miles sans brakes (for the most part), but it was much easier the rest of the trip because I knew the brakes were not working well rather than being surprised by it.
Ah, the silly things we do as teens....
This is also not in an area known for deer but there it was. This happened just outside the building where I worked and it ran onto the building property. Since the State Police have a district HQ by the entry I just notified the guy at the reception that there was an injured deer on the property, I hoped that helped.
2011 Hyundai Sonata, 2014 BMW 428i convertible, 2015 Honda CTX700D
Reminds me of what happened here in Chicago with the Dave Matthews band a few years ago. Chicago has a river bisecting the downtown area and the bridges crossing it are all draw bridges so the roadway is a steel grid. That means if you dump a liquid on it it will just pass through into the river.
Well the Dave Matthews band tour bus was crossing one of these bridges and the driver decided to just dump the contents of the buses lavatory on the bridges into the river. One problem though was that there is a sizable tourist industry of boat tours along the river and it so happened that one of these boats was going under the bridge at this time. Needless to say quite a few people got hit with this.
2011 Hyundai Sonata, 2014 BMW 428i convertible, 2015 Honda CTX700D
What kind of outcome did this have? Fines? Damage payments?
Love those Chicago tours. We took the open buses that wind around through downtown with a talking host/entertainer. They were great. Different than the horse-drawn carriage hosts in Charleston who were factual based. These Chicago people were great. I especially enjoyed the taxi number joke about that number up on the roof is the number of accidents they're caused.
We almost took the boat tour on one visit but decided against it.
2014 Malibu 2LT, 2015 Cruze 2LT,
If the cab-owners are using retreads on their cabs and not replacing them before they come apart, I suppose that would be inconsiderate. But often the trailer is owned by someone else. Anyway, all those truck-tires coming apart on highways are dangerous. Once I encountered one unexpectedly during a 70 mph lane-change and ended up doing a 180 after avoiding it...
I know the state took them to court fining them something like 70-80k. Not sure in the passengers and boat operator sought anything.
2011 Hyundai Sonata, 2014 BMW 428i convertible, 2015 Honda CTX700D
The retreads are really a tough one to notice sometimes (especially during the summer months) as they may look fine at a stop, but often come apart anyway as a result of heat build up while the rig is in motion - once the delaminating starts, it just peels right off. The tire is still inflated and otherwise performs its duty. Since the tread may not stick out the side of the rig and it can happen fast, it is not something a driver can readily see in the mirrors. Blowouts/flats on the other hand... I am not so sure (never had one on a large rig), but there is what... 40 or more feet to those rear tires? Convex mirrors, which are going to be the ones to show that area of the rig, make things look very small that far away....
I agree that they are a road hazard though - especially if you are unfortunate enough to be behind a truck when it first goes! :surprise:
I was driving an old 50s-era dump truck once when a retread delaminated. I did notice it after a while, but again, it was a smallish dump truck (compared to those of today) and I was only going about 25 mph when it happened. I had the window down and heard a slapping sound when the retread would hit the truck - it was delaminating with the rotation of the tire. Not much I could do about it at the time (I was hauling short loads of gravel about 25 miles and was borrowing the truck), so I just kept it slow and steady back into town, dumped the load, then dropped it off with the owner for repair. He, I think, just reattached that portion of the tread. I was using it again early the next day and had no further problems over another 6 or 7 loads.
Typical. The government gets all the money and the taxpayers get s**t.
2019 Kia Soul+, 2015 Mustang GT, 2013 Ford F-150, 2000 Chrysler Sebring convertible
2011 Hyundai Sonata, 2014 BMW 428i convertible, 2015 Honda CTX700D
New Yorkers rate as worst drivers (CNN)
Did I mention that I live in Boise?
I don't know about where you drive but around here the only time there are log jams is when either there is so much traffic that it all has to slow down to accommodate merging, or there is some yahoo that is going waaaay slower than all the rest of traffic. In the first instance, I absolutely hate it when people get in before the lane drops. Here they are, typically single woman driving a huge luxobarge SUV or a soccer mom in their minivan (neither of which know how to pilot the thing properly) stops traffic while they squeeze into what they thought was a large enough spot. Inevitably it isn't and they end up with a gigantic traffic backup as we are stuck waiting for the next lane to start moving so this person go and unclog our lane. Oh and somehow it's my fault, because if I honk as I go by I get a dirty look and/or honking back.
However, what is deliciously ironic is that, probably 90% of the time I end up way in front of these people. In traffic jams, the lane that drops is always the lane that goes faster. I guess the early mergers never learn, do they?
http://www.azcentral.com/news/articles/0515roadrage15-on.html
Phoenix drivers are #6 for most rude. I can attest to that, and it only gets worse. People here seem to major in rudeness and carelessness.