Okay, given an ongoing disagreement in another forum, I am posting this poll as a sort of informal survey. Assume the following:
A driver on a major highway is coming up on a construction site. Several miles before the construction begins, there are signs saying "left lane closed ahead" "use right lane," etc.
Traffic is backed up bumper-to-bumper in the right lane.
However, this driver continues to drive in the left lane, passing up the cars stopped in the right lane. He figures, "I haven't reached the merge point yet, why waste a perfectly good lane?"
This person is... what? (See poll responses)
Posted by TSN (Member # 31) on :
"This person is..."
...going to be screwed as long as the other drivers aren't stupid enough to let him/her/it in.
Posted by Ultra Magnus (Member # 239) on :
Dragged? Drug? Draggen?
WHO NOES?
This person is.. usually an SUV'd Soccer Mom, or Soccer Dad, or Ninetofiver.
GO NINE TO FIVERS GO.
Posted by Mucus (Member # 24) on :
I dunno. Translating several miles = 2.5ish(?) times as many kilometres. While this sort of action would be crummy maybe a kilometre or less away from the merge, its rather unrealistic to expect people to pile up several miles back. This is probably a "you had to be there" kind of call.
Posted by Balaam Xumucane (Member # 419) on :
Well think about this logically now, guys. You know that up ahead the lane will be closed, and so you know there will be merging ahead. Does it really make sense to start the stop and go early, like, way before it's even necessary?
I mean if the road would otherwise be perfectly fine and traffic would be normal if it weren't for this construction, there just isn't any sense in bogging shit up any sooner than you have to. Ideally you'd split the misery so the empty lane would be moving at the same rate as the unobstructed ones right up to the bottleneck. I mean it's going to bottleneck anyway you're all bloody stuck in it, why get your knickers in a bind about where exactly that's going to happen.
He might not be an @$$�0�#, that driver could be thinking ahead (and perhaps possess an advanced degree in fluid dynamics.) But, of course, he could be an @$$�0�# too. I would say that would depend on how he behaved when attempting to re-enter the passable lane. If he swerves his big-ole SUV-piloting, gas-guzzling, tinted-window-having ass on in without so much as a glance at the folks screeching their brakes to let him in, well then obviously he's a dick. If he waits for awhile, kinda slowly edging, re-integrating his pussy-pastel hybrid semi-compact into the pack, that's not a jerk.
Posted by Cartmaniac (Member # 256) on :
If I were a construction worker, I would be a tad bit unnerved by a constant flow of SUVs & semis & BIGASS TRUCKS careening down on my ass at 70 mph and not merging w/ the other lane until the last possible instant... like RIGHT IN FRONT OF ME!
[ June 11, 2003, 11:06 AM: Message edited by: Cartmaniac ]
Posted by Wraith (Member # 779) on :
Well, at least he/she wasn't using a bus lane.
That pisses me off. Although it was moderately amusing when I saw a (stolen) car in London turn the wrong way into a bus lane. No one was hurt fortuneately but it was one of those things which makes you think there is a God Posted by TSN (Member # 31) on :
You have special lanes just for buses?
Posted by Cartmaniac (Member # 256) on :
Erh, yes. Mainly because public transportation wouldn't be much good or use without them.
Posted by PsyLiam (Member # 73) on :
We do not have wide roads. This is what happens when you have to fit them in to cities that were never designed to cope with them.
So yes, we have bus lanes. Although most are only officially "for buses only" during rush hour(s).
Posted by The_Tom (Member # 38) on :
A more appropriate question to direct at Tim would be "You've never come across a bus lane?"
Posted by Jason Abbadon (Member # 882) on :
quote:Originally posted by Ultra Magnus: This person is.. usually an SUV'd Soccer Mom, or Soccer Dad, or Ninetofiver.
On cell phone talking to their broker, drinking a Sarbucks Latte and yelling at her bickering kids in the back seat. And there's a horrid plastic american flag stuck to the antenna of her $50,000 gas-guzzeling four ton Explorer limited edition.
Posted by TSN (Member # 31) on :
To my knowledge, there's nothing resembling these "bus lanes" around here.
Posted by Cartmaniac (Member # 256) on :
Yes. This is in line w/ the fact there are "not many" vehicles resembling these "buses" around "there" either.
Posted by MinutiaeMan (Member # 444) on :
I voted for the "dragging from the car" option, but at the same time, there might be some extenuating circumstances. If the traffic was completely backed up, then the person might (might, I said) not have been able to stop in time to get in line? At that point, once you're going fast you end up needing to stop completely in order to get into line, causing an even bigger backup behind you.
Of course, part of the cause of those long backups is because of people who try to race ahead in the first place, and if everyone just got in line in an orderly fashion it'd all be a lot smoother...
Posted by LOA (Member # 49) on :
Tim~ Bus lanes are also knows as carpool lanes.... do you have those? It's pretty much the same concept.... they have the little Diamond markings in them?
Come on.... I live in a town called GREENACRES and I still have seen carpool lanes *L* Posted by Shik (Member # 343) on :
Say hi to Arnold Ziffel for me.
Posted by CaptainMike (Member # 709) on :
the only dedicated bus lane in Providence is the tunnel.. it goes straight from my apartment, under Brown University, under RI School of Design and comes out near RIPTA Kennedy Plaza.. you're not allowed to hang out in there unless you are tripping on LSD.
Posted by Ultra Magnus (Member # 239) on :
Who lives in a world without buses? Bus Lanes? Bus Stops?
WHERE DO THE HOBOS SLEEP?!
Posted by TSN (Member # 31) on :
We have buses. We have bus stops. But they drive in the same lanes as all the other traffic.
And we don't have carpool lanes here, either. I have seen them, but only in other parts of the country, and only on interstate highways, as I recall.
Posted by Kosh (Member # 167) on :
drag him, let her in.
Posted by Nim (Member # 205) on :
Hmm, carpool, huh? Let me just get my 30-foot cue.
Posted by Saltah'na (Member # 33) on :
TSN: Just go to a place where the population is over 1,000,000. Then you will see bus lanes.
Posted by Ultra Magnus (Member # 239) on :
They have a bus in Moose Jaw.
Posted by Omega (Member # 91) on :
TSN: Just go to a place where the population is over 1,000,000. Then you will see bus lanes.
Well, Canada's out...
Posted by Sol System (Member # 30) on :
OH MY! They are smarting at that one in Saskatoon to be sure.
Posted by Topher (Member # 71) on :
Funny thing is that when heading to Toronto, I noticed that the suburbs had populations >1 000 000...
Posted by LOA (Member # 49) on :
*needs to vent* Just today, I was driving on the freeway, coming home from work, going a leisurely 65 mph, along with the rest of traffic. Suddenly, I noticed signs on the side of the road "Left lane must merge" "Road work 2 miles ahead" "Lane ends 1.5 miles, must merge".
The first thing that caught me about this is that in Spokane, there are no signs in the road to warn of traffic activity EVER. So I thought "Wow, how cool! A warning!" Then I noticed that while most of the traffic was trying to merge and slowing down a bit, quite a few of the @$$hole drivers were still speeding by in the left lane. That made me think of this thread and how much I hate stupid drivers.
Not even a minute later, I chould have died. Had I been in my Civic, I would have. An idiot in a Suburban suddenly decided that since he was about ready to run into the traffic cones as the lane ended, he'd better switch lanes. As a result, all of the cars in the lane he swerved into slammed one their brakes. Then cars started to swerve. That made the cars in the OTHER lanes slam on their brakes and start to swerve. I was a good 12 cars back, and I had to slam on my brakes as hard as I could to keep stop. All around me cars were swerving and braking, and the sound of skidding tires was horrendous. I stopped less than a foot from the car in front of me, sure I'd hit him. Praise the lord for 4 wheel anti-lock brakes. My car stops on a dime, otherwise I'd be hurting. Amazingly the car behind me stopped, too, and no one was in a serious accident as a result of all of this, but I was MUCH less than happy.
Yay for not being dead. Boo for stupid, careless people.
Grr.
~LOA
Posted by TSN (Member # 31) on :
St. Louis County's population on the 2000 census was reported at 1 016 315. So, nyah.
Posted by Kosh (Member # 167) on :
We have a little over one million in the whole state, but no car pool or Bus lanes.
Posted by Cartmaniac (Member # 256) on :
"Praise the lord for 4 wheel anti-lock brakes."
Actually, praise Mercedes-Benz. 8)
Posted by Dat (Member # 302) on :
Then, praise lord for Mercedes-Benz. Posted by Topher (Member # 71) on :
Oh lord, won't you buy me a Mercedes-Benz...
Posted by LOA (Member # 49) on :
The boy I have a massive crush on drives a Mercedes-Benz...
I think he's spiffy............
Posted by Malnurtured Snay (Member # 411) on :
Up near me, at the intersection of Shawan and York ... Shawan's east-bound traffic has the option to turn onto York Rd at the four-way light. There is no merge - the turn becomes the right-hand lane of York Road, and there's a concrete island to prevent southbound traffic on York from entering the lane.
And yet idiot fucker after idiot fucker will treat it like a merge, waiting for a gap in traffic. Hello, biatch? Learn how to fucking drive your pos car.
Posted by Shik (Member # 343) on :
But that IS a merge, or at the very least a right turn on red. I've done it almost every time I'm there with no problems or complaints. And where's the new place now?
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