On Topic? Cars, anyway: 55 MPH speed limit...

When I took my Advanced Driving Test (optional test for the Institute of Advanced Motorists in the UK, giving slight discounts on car insurance) I was told that I should always *try* to move to Lane 2 (on the right, since this is the UK) if possible to make it as easy as possible for joining traffic to merge. Failing this, be prepared to slow down or speed up

*slightly* to create a gap ahead of me or behind me if it helps joining traffic. The reason for this is that the entry slip is a finite length: if a car which is joining runs out of slip road because there isn't gap to fit into, it will probably have to come to a dead halt and then will be a bigger hazard as it tries to accelerate from 0 to 70 before another car travelling at this speed comes along.

There are some junctions where minor roads or service station exits join the non-motorway sections of the main A1 road (the Great North Road) which have absurdly short slip roads, and if traffic on the A1 doesn't move over or slow down to create a gap, it's virtually impossible to join. And that's in a car with fairly good acceleration; in a lorry with poor acceleration it must be even more of a nightmare.

I've never heard of such a thing but will take your word for it. It will be interesting to check Indiana traffic code to see if that's still the case.

Willy

I certainly wouldn't argue that's it's the courteous and sensible thing to do. however, if push comes to shove, it's the merging car that has to yield... not the general flow of traffic, at least in the states with which I'm familiar.

Willy

I've not seen such a sign when I've driven in Indiana. It's certainly ass-backwards and if it ever was the case it would go a long way in explaining why Indiana drivers are so bad.

Yes agreed - no-one on a slip road should ever *assume* that traffic will give way to him. Ideally, if you are joining, you should size up the situation at the beginning of the slip road, so if you are forced to come to rest because there isn't a gap, there is still room on the slip road to accelerate up to the speed of the rest of the traffic before you *have* to join it (or else stop again) because you've run out of road.

I once stopped at the beginning of a very short slip road because I could see that there were no gaps, and waited for one to appear in the distance and then set off at maximum acceleration. Just as I was getting ready to move into the gap, and while clearly indicating, some pillock in Lane 2 decided that now was a good time to move back into Lane 1. Cue emergency stop and the need to start all over again but now with no accelerating lane left. Luckily I didn't have to wait too long before an artic sized up the situation and moved out to let me in.

Here's a post from Virginia code:

§ 46.2-863. Failure to yield right-of-way. A person shall be guilty of reckless driving who fails to bring his vehicle to a stop immediately before entering a highway from a side road when there is traffic approaching on such highway within 500 feet of such point of entrance, unless (I) a "Yield Right-of-Way" sign is posted or (ii) where such sign is posted, fails, upon entering such highway, to yield the right-of-way to the driver of a vehicle approaching on such highway from either direction.

Ohio code says YOU MUST YIELD TO ALL TRAFFIC ALREADY ON THE FREEWAY WHEN ATTEMPTING TO MERGE. IF YOU MUST SLOW DOWN, DO SO ABOUT 1/2 THE LENGTH OF THE ON RAMP, THUS ALLOWING TIME TO ACCELERATE BEFORE ENTERING THE LANE OF TRAFFIC.

West Virginia says: Be prepared to ADJUST YOUR SPEED, and if no room exists to merge, continue on the shoulder as a last resort. Do not stop on the ramp (rather, move to the shoulder if no merge point is available until you can safely enter).

Indiana say: it is YOUR responsibility to yield to the oncoming traffic when merging on an interstate. However, it does also say that drivers in the flow of traffic, as an act of safety, should move to the left lane when possible.

Told ya.

I said that I thought it would be the law, not that there was one. I do remember the signs on the beltway around Indianapolis and on I-70. I don't know it they are still there, that was about 30 years ago.

If you stop and think about it, it makes sense for drivers on the Interstate to yield. I know my best performing car takes about 25 seconds to go from 0 to 70 mph but I can take my foot off the gas and open up a 10 car-length space in just a few seconds. Or I can move over to the middle or left lane.

Jack

You're not dreaming. I remember those same signs 40 years ago in Indiana and Illinois. There was even a question on the drivers' test in Illinois in

1965 that cars on the interstate had to yield to merging traffic (the answer was ). Blew my mind when I got to Dallas and the merging lanes onto US75 had red and green lights at the end.

There was a law passed in 1965, too, that cars in Illinois changing lanes had to signal. As far as I know, they haven't repealed it, but nobody enforces it anymore.

Charles the Curmudgeon

Do people generally not signal when they change lanes in the US? Here in the UK I'd say that about 90% of the time people indicate to move to an overtaking lane (on the right in the UK) and about 75% of the time they do so when they move back to the "slower" lane again. OK, so a lot of the time they indicate as they start to move, rather than giving a couple of seconds' notice before moving - lorry drivers are very bad at this: they seem to think that if they indicate, the car on their right which they are about to hit will magically disappear!

I'm not sure of the precise rules on indicating in the Highway Code, but I'm sure it's one of those things which is very strongly advised even if it isn't strictly policed. It's also something which would almost certainly count against you if you were involved in an accident and didn't indicate in a situation where the other driver would have taken avoiding action if he'd seen that you were indicating to move into his lane directly in front of him. People who fail to indicate in borderline-dangerous cases often get hooted at and flashed.

People generally drive like shit in the US.

Within 10 minutes of leaving my house this AM, I saw:

1) a cyclist riding the wrong way on the sidewalk, at an intersection where I was about to pull out 2) a car that had apparently backed out of a gas station, stopped crosswise across two lanes of traffic (this was within a block of 1. above) 3) a moving truck that made a left turn directly into my path as I was proceeding straight through an intersection (yes, I had a green light.)

If you're driving in the US it is safest to assume that all other drivers are actively trying to kill you and/or themselves, and that if there is something that they can do that will endanger and/or inconvenience you more than any other action, assume that that is exactly what they will do.

Just getting the mechanics of moving in the correct direction at the correct time and at the correct speed is more than many drivers seem to be able to handle; superfluous extras like signaling would be nice, but certainly not one of the more pressing issues.

nate

People generally drive like shit in the US.

Within 10 minutes of leaving my house this AM, I saw:

1) a cyclist riding the wrong way on the sidewalk, at an intersection where I was about to pull out 2) a car that had apparently backed out of a gas station, stopped crosswise across two lanes of traffic (this was within a block of 1. above) 3) a moving truck that made a left turn directly into my path as I was proceeding straight through an intersection (yes, I had a green light.)

If you're driving in the US it is safest to assume that all other drivers are actively trying to kill you and/or themselves, and that if there is something that they can do that will endanger and/or inconvenience you more than any other action, assume that that is exactly what they will do.

Just getting the mechanics of moving in the correct direction at the correct time and at the correct speed is more than many drivers seem to be able to handle; superfluous extras like signaling would be nice, but certainly not one of the more pressing issues.

====

My only experience of driving in the USA was in the late 90s in the area around a small coastal town about 30 miles north of Boston and on the freeways past Boston to/from Cape Cod. I was surprised at how laid-back and non-aggressive the driving was, and how courteous drivers were to pedestrians wanting to cross the road or to drivers who wanted to pull out from a side road. This was not only in Ipswich but also in the centre of Boston: in places drivers would stop for anyone walking along a sidewalk

*near* a pedestrian crossing (*) - on several occasions as a pedestrian I had to wave cars on because I was actually intending to carry on along the road instead of crossing it!

It took a bit of getting used to drivers passing me on either side on a multi-lane road, though unlike my sister and my brother-in-law who'd lived there long enough to start to pick up American ways, I tended always to return to the right-hand lane when I'd finished overtaking so the chance of it happening were fairly remote.

I'd been a bit apprehensive about driving on the other side of the road but I found I adjusted remarkably well: the only thing that I had to think about was taking the correct route at complicated traffic-light junctions with multiple lanes and filter lights. I was amused to see how reticient people were at the "rotary" (which in the UK is called a roundabout) going onto Cape Cod because these are a much less common type of junction than in the UK. Consequently I negotiated it with ease (just apply priority from the left rules instead of from the right) and earned a few "he must be a superhero" type glances from Americans! Mind you, they'd have got their own back if I'd ever encountered a four-way-stop junction ;-)

I did notice how low a lot of the speed limits were on single-carriageway roads away from the highways. It was rare to find a limit faster than 45 on roads which may have carried a 60 limit here. Mind you, I did like their idea of temporary speed limits around schools that only applied during arriving and departing times: over here we'd get a blanket 30 (or even 20) limit 24 hours a day 7 days a week :-(

I'm glad I'd been briefed about the rule on passing school buses because I would probably have passed one that was parked on the *opposite* side of the road with its lights on, even if I woudl have hung back from overtaking it if it had been ahead of me.

One thing that I did miss was the level of direction road signs that we have over here where almost every side road except purely residential access-only roads tends to have a three-way sign saying where you can reach if you turn off the major road and where you can go in either direction as you turn from the minor into the major road. A street atlas was essential as many fairly important-looking rural roads only had signs giving the road name. Unfortunately the atlas that my sister lent me was organised by town (with maps for different towns at different scales!) rather than being organised in a more understandable west-to-east, north-to-south order. It was weird to see short distances expressed in feet rather than yards - eg road works "for

900 feet" rather than "road works for 300 yards". I saw one sign, I think for a service/rest area, which told me that it was "10,600 feet ahead" rather than than saying "2 miles ahead".

(*) When I first saw signs saying "PED XING" I thought "what language is this - what does it mean?". Then I worked it out... ;-)

usually a 930 is fairly stuck up, but my 944 told me that it liked my new haircut this morning. Of course it also hit on the neighbor lady walking her dog, so whaddayagonnado.

nate

(who knew that German cars were such dogs?)

Whoa. Was that the *1890's* and you were driving a horse and buggy?

And, if you think drivers in Boston are courteous, I would *REALLY* hate to be driving where you are!!!

The Boston area is the reason our insurance rates in the state are so friggin' high!

When you get up on the North Shore, however, things do lighten up a bit. When you get to Western MAss where I am, it's better, but people still don't really know how to drive.

I don't get it. It's not rocket science. Just drive like there's always a cop behind you...

Better yet, drive like you would want others to drive.

Are you kidding? Driving in Boston is like a breath of fresh air compared to the knuckleheads we have down here in DC. Boston drivers in my experience are somewhat aggressive and fast, but other than that quite competent and predictable. (and i'd say the same about NYC, Chicago, etc. in comparison to DC)

DC-area drivers are hands down the worst I have ever encountered, anywhere. (granted, I have never driven in any foreign countries save for Canada.)

nate

Washington D.C. is not so bad if you learned to drive there like me.

IME, it's not the whole Boston area that drives aggressively, just within Boston proper. Of course, Boston's myriad of 1-way streets - with no pattern - doesn't exactly help.

I'd drive in Manhattan if the taxis disappeared. They're the ones who dart all over the place.

They're *both* nuts. But Paris takes the cake. I've come back home - from any of those places - & it seems (for a short while, anyway!) like everyone actually follows the rule of the road & no one's out to actually *get* pedestrians!

Cathy

Gentlemen please note, the law NO LONGER says that in Indiana. It says the MERGING DRIVER must yield. It simply adds a comment that "as a matter of courtesy, drivers already on the interstate should move to the left lane if available".

Willy