"I couldn't possibly fail to disagree with you less."
30 June 2007Failure to launchJudging by the local freeway traffic, no one pays attention to anything I say on the subject. Maybe they'll listen to someone else saying it:
You simply cannot safely merge onto a highway when you are moving at half the speed of the cars on the highway. Period. Full stop. End of story.
The entire point of on-ramps and merge lanes is to allow you the possibility to get up to the same speed as the highway you are about to be launching your car onto — that you do not take advantage of that opportunity is indicative of a remarkable lack of self-awareness, an even stronger lack of situational awareness, and an amazing amount of purebred stupidity. There is absolutely nothing worse than being stuck behind some dumbass in an econobox doing 40 trying to merge onto a highway where the speed limit is 65, and traffic is moving at 80. That is, there is nothing worse than that except actually being on that highway as the dumbass in the econobox just lurches out into your lane doing 40, and make absolutely no attempt to get up to a rational speed. Around these parts, it might be an econobox — or it might be a Buick. Not that Buicks are incapable of coming up an onramp at a reasonable speed, but Buicks in this neck of the woods tend to be driven by people whose average age is Deceased, with exactly the consequences you'd expect. And on my commute particularly, the vehicle to avoid is a wan Dodge minivan driven by Nurse Ratched at a constant 52 mph in either of two 60 zones. I have memorized her plate, and work diligently to stay away from her. In the meantime, I must echo these sentiments:
People, your cars were given engines for a reason. If your vehicle is physically incapable of accelerating fast enough to get onto a highway from an onramp, get it looked at, or get a new car. Barring that, take your driver's license (assuming you even have one) out of your wallet, take a pair of scissors, and slice it into very fine strips. Once completed, take a phillips-head screwdriver, go out to your car, and puncture each of your four tires.
And the spare. Posted at 8:36 AM to Driver's SeatThanks for catching the spare... somehow slipped my mind ;). Posted by: Linoge at 1:19 PM on 30 June 2007I am a firm believer in accelerating to at least the speed limit of the road I am entering when I get to the end of the ramp. One time there was a car in front of me who seemed to be following suit so I was busy checking traffic to be sure our merge would be smooth. Then I turned back around front and he had STOPPED at the end of the ramp! I nearly took him out but increduously came to a screeching stop about two inches from his back bumper. I have never been more tempted to kill someone. Posted by: ms7168 at 5:50 PM on 30 June 2007Or maybe folks should do what I do. Turn off the AC when attempting to merge Posted by: Dwayne "the canoe guy" at 7:35 PM on 30 June 2007Most reasonably-modern vehicles, when they detect a wide-open throttle position, kill the A/C compressor for a moment. My second Mazda 626, the slowest gas-powered mid-sized sedan you could buy at the time (zero to sixty in 12.5, said the manufacturer), had no A/C-related trouble getting up to freeway speeds. Posted by: CGHill at 7:59 PM on 30 June 2007My adaptation to the problem of slow-merging drivers, when I'm already on the freeway of course, is to avoid the far-right lane near on-ramps. I take some liberties with this principle if I can see that there's no one on the ramp. I take some liberties with the Third Commandment (Protestant numeration) if there's someone on the ramp but I can't change lanes to avoid them. Posted by: McGehee at 9:06 AM on 1 July 2007During a roadtrip through Wyoming, I learned that while the Interstate speed limit is 70mph, the speed limit of all on ramps is 40mph. Thus, if you accelerate there to match traffic before merging, you'll be speeding. Somewhere around here I have the ticket to prove it. Posted by: Rob "Flack" O'Hara at 4:48 PM on 1 July 2007Especially if that traffic is moving at around 80, as I remember it doing the one time I was in Wyoming. Posted by: CGHill at 4:51 PM on 1 July 2007 |