The latest traffic stupidities

[Valentinian]

There's twerps on the road every day, of course, but most of them are so minor and forgettable that they are indeed forgotten within minutes. On the other hand, there are also the ones that are so ridiculous that you find yourself thinking about them weeks later, going "Who the heck does that?!"

These people do.


Twerp the First:

You do not stop in a roundabout. You do not, ever, if you can possibly avoid it, stop in a roundabout, and cars that are already in the roundabout have right-of-way over cars waiting to get in. (I've heard of jurisdictions where the opposite is true, but a: that's RIDICULOUS, and b: it isn't the case here.) Questions about roundabouts are guaranteed to be on the written test to get your learner's license, and if you take your driving exam in my state the examiner will take you through at least one.

Sooooo the guy who stopped in the roundabout and tried to wave me in to go ahead of him was wrong enough that we were speculating on whether or not he actually had a license at all.


Twerp the Second:

Another road rule around here that I gather may be different elsewhere is that if you are merging from an onramp onto a road, it's up to you to match speed and find a gap in traffic. It's nice if someone sees you coming and speeds up / slows down / changes lanes to make it easier for you, but they don't have to.

If they don't see you coming, they really don't have to.

If they don't see you coming, and they are the only car on the road so that there is plenty of room for you to merge in behind them, they really really don't have to.

If they don't see you coming because you started out wayyyyy behind them and sped up to well over the speed limit in an attempt to get ahead of them, and you still barely managed to get your car's front end level with their car's rear tyre, and you are honking madly in an attempt to make them admit your vehicular superiority and get out of your way, then finally give up, brake, swerve madly around them and pass them at speed while making frantic gestures and honking some more, what the hell were you thinking?

And if you do all that, and realise halfway through speeding off into the distance that there is a speed camera Right There so that you have to slam on the brakes, leaving skidmarks that would have been way more impressive if you'd actually meant to do that, the people you just passed will laugh at you. A lot. And then post about you online so more people can join in.

[prjkt]

considering the number roundabouts in Canberra you'd think Twerp the First would know how they work by now.

[Aria]

Ah, is that how roundabouts work?

See, I'm Canadian and I was trained to drive in Ontario. They don't have any roundabouts, period, and either they weren't mentioned or I just completely forgot over almost twenty years of not seeing one. Now I live in Alberta, in a newer community, and they're putting those things in. I figured you don't STOP in them, but I wasn't sure about the right of way thing.

[Sunshine]

There aren't roundabouts here either, but they are in ft. Worth, and I hated driving in them. That, and freaking cloverleaf exits off the freeways. But it only takes one time of needlessly circling a roundabout to learn the ins and outs.

[CyberLurch]

I encountered my first roundabout EVER within minutes of arriving in Toledo. Wasn't hard to figure out. I thought it was a rather good idea, myself.

[NecessaryCatharsis]

Ah, is that how roundabouts work?

See, I'm Canadian and I was trained to drive in Ontario. They don't have any roundabouts, period, and either they weren't mentioned or I just completely forgot over almost twenty years of not seeing one. Now I live in Alberta, in a newer community, and they're putting those things in. I figured you don't STOP in them, but I wasn't sure about the right of way thing.

I can think of a few (smaller ones) I've been through in Ontario; Bracebridge, Stratford and Collingwood come to mind. I'm pretty sure the ones in Stratford at least would have existed when you were learning to drive in Ontario. The rules are pretty simple - yield on entry, right of way with blinker on exit, DONT stop unless you are going to hit something. You don't even stop for emergency vehicles, take your exit then pull in and stop on that street if they follow you. I'm still not totally comfortable with them either.

As for the mergers, I really hate the ones that can't merge so they slow to 10km/hr or stop dead in the merge lane. You not only screwed yourself, but I'm behind you, now I have to figure out how to fit into traffic going 100km/hr + with only 100m to do it in. So many people suck at merging!

[Nunavut Pants]

How about "DO NOT F***ING STOP AT THE END OF AN ON-RAMP!" People who do this absolutely infuriate me! If you cannot merge into traffic, then stop EARLY. At the BEGINNING of the ramp, so you have room to ACCELERATE to traffic speed. If you stop at the END of the ramp, then you need approximately ELEVENTY BILLION MILES of open space on the freeway in order to get up to speed. And since you couldn't find a space big enough to merge in while going faster than "zero", what do you think your chances are of finding that much larger space?

Not to mention some people (like me!) are trying to accelerate up to traffic speed while looking for an opening, and when you come to a COMPLETE STOP in front of them it makes life much more exciting than it should be! And brings them to a stop at the end of the ramp, meaning they ALSO need a large break in traffic... Oh, and of course there are the impatient people behind us who zip around us AT SPEED because they have seen smaller spaces they can actually merge into.

Yeah, I hate those bastiges!

[notalwaysright]

Growing up there were not any roundabouts at all in my town. In the larger neighboring city their were several tiny ones which basically replaced some all-way stops. They were there specifically to force people to slow down on residential streets where pedestrians kept getting hit because idiots would run the stop signs at 45mph in a 20mph zone.

Then they put in what I called the "rings of death" in a very busy new part of town. There's a Target, Costco, Home Depot, and a hospital in the area. If you zoom out (in?) to the right place you can see there are seven roundabouts. The main problem was someone going into the roundabout not understanding the two "lanes." They would want to go all the way around, but they would stay in the outside lane, which is supposed to exit immediately. So I'd be in the inside lane wanting to exit, and the car in the outside lane who should have exited didn't and he'd nearly sideswipe me. Sorry if that makes no sense, but it was stressful and people have improved since they went in. Maybe they have started including roundabouts in driver's ed. We didn't cover them at all when I got my license.

And I think when you merge on the highway, you are supposed to merge at the same speed as traffic, and other drivers are just supposed to maintain speed. After all, you are merging with them. When there is a long line of drivers trying to get on, it is nice when cars move into the fast lane, but that isn't an obligation, I don't think? What I hate is when there's one person in front who tries to merge at like 40mph, when traffic is going 55-60. And I'm like goooooooo!

[greek_jester]

Then they put in what I called the "rings of death" in a very busy new part of town.

Meh. In the UK we have that setup for just about every motorway junction and many major dual carriageways.

That's not a roundabout from hell. This is a roundabout from hell!

https://www.google.co.uk/search?q=ma...obile&ie=UTF-8

[notalwaysright]

Meh. In the UK we have that setup for just about every motorway junction and many major dual carriageways.

Well, I have been known to exaggerate, But you said it, in the UK they are very common. Here, in the area I grew up, a person could drive for years and never see one. So when that shopping area was built and they suddenly put in the roundabouts everyone was like "oh crap, what's this? I want to buy my bulk food now! *shrug* I'll just drive around and hope for the best." Or the opposite, the ones who would not take the clear spot to enter, they would be waiting for less traffic, which would never happen.

[csquared]

(I've heard of jurisdictions where the opposite is true, but a: that's RIDICULOUS, and b: it isn't the case here.)

New Jersey.
http://www.state.nj.us/mvc/pdf/Manuals/drivermanual.pdf
See page 63.

A recipe for gridlock.

Oh, and the senior drivers like to stop on the on-ramp and look over their left shoulder. Particularly annoying when the on-ramp is a new lane that continues for the next five mile.

[Kogarashi]

I've encountered several roundabouts in my life (all of them after heading off to college, but they were at least covered in Driver's Ed), but never a two-lane one. I'm not sure I'd understand how they were supposed to work unless the lines and signage were very clear.

I also don't get the places where traffic entering the roundabouts is supposed to have the right of way. Would someone from such an area care to explain? The way I learned was that traffic already in the circle had the right of way, so that the circle wouldn't come to a standstill if there was a long line of cars wanting to enter.

As for merging, the way I learned it (upstate NY) was that merging traffic was in charge of finding a space and matching speed to get into it, and was not supposed to stop at the end of the on-ramp (I got a personal lecture from the Driver's Ed instructor on that one). Driving etiquette says that cars already on the highway should probably try to make room for merging traffic if they can, so as to help prevent accidents, but it's not a legal requirement. Just good form.

Notalwaysright, I completely sympathize on the people who try merging at a crawl. I end up behind them frequently, and find myself ranting, "The highway speed is 55 here. You're merging from a side street that was signed at 45. Why are you taking the ramp at less than 30? It's a straight line!" Unfortunately, every single car I've seen do this (with maybe one or two exceptions) has had an elderly person behind the wheel, which I think explains a lot. I actually got stuck behind one such car after a recent doctor's appointment. Merging onto a highway signed at 65, where much of the local traffic does at least 75 (which I think is nuts, but only because the highway doesn't really look like it's designed for speeds above 65; no shoulders to speak of at all), and the car was toddling along at 45. I got stuck behind them because there was a whole line of cars just zipping past us once we got on the two-lane highway, so I had to wait a good while before there was a gap where I could pass the toddling car and see that it was a little old lady driving. I passed her at the flow of traffic and left her in the dust.

[Cia]

I got stuck in a roundabout in New Orleans, Louisiana. I think I might be stuck in it still. Circling...circling...circling....

[Ophbalance]

My car does 0 - 60 in 13 seconds. I NEED the entire merge Lane to come up to speed. It drives me nuts when folks use the last 100 get to accelerate and leaves me in a bind each time.

[wolfie]

Roundabouts are a tool of the devil. Even on main roads, a roundabout in a small town will frequently not have enough clearance on the corners for the right turns to enter and exit, and not have enough clearance around the center "island" for the curve to the left driving around the roundabout.

My car does 0 - 60 in 13 seconds. I NEED the entire merge Lane to come up to speed.

13 seconds? That's EXCELLENT acceleration. 500 horses under the hood doesn't mean squat when you're approaching 80,000 pounds gross weight.