posted
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)
Poll Information
This poll contains 1 question(s). 39 user(s) have voted. You may not view the results of this poll without voting.
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Registered: Mar 1999
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posted
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.
Registered: Mar 1999
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posted
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.
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Registered: Sep 2000
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Cartman
just made by the Presbyterian Church
Member # 256
posted
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 ]
Registered: Nov 1999
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posted
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
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Registered: Feb 2002
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posted
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).
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Registered: Mar 1999
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posted
A more appropriate question to direct at Tim would be "You've never come across a bus lane?"
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Registered: Mar 1999
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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.
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Registered: Aug 2002
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posted
To my knowledge, there's nothing resembling these "bus lanes" around here.
Registered: Mar 1999
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Cartman
just made by the Presbyterian Church
Member # 256
posted
Yes. This is in line w/ the fact there are "not many" vehicles resembling these "buses" around "there" either.
Registered: Nov 1999
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posted
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...
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Registered: Nov 2000
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