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zombiereign t1_itqqt16 wrote

Maybe do something about that godawful merge from 70 onto 695 (going to Towson) where everyone needs to alternate to get in and no one seems to want to (or know how to) do it

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D0NNIENARCO t1_itqsyk5 wrote

I really wish they'd put a partition or bollards up along the first and last ~quarter mile of the 83/695 merge.

Way too many assholes trying to ride the 83 exit lane then slam on the brakes and merge in at the last second.

Also way too many dipshits that slam on the brakes the second they come around the bend at the beginning acting like the merge lane is lava and they can't touch it.

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animeguru t1_itrhwc3 wrote

You have described literally every highway intersection in Maryland. Probably the country.

People are the worst.

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BlarghMachine t1_its0jjf wrote

I love when I try to make space for someone entering or exiting at a reasonable speed and someone cuts me off around them and almost hits both of us lmao

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yellahammerrrr t1_itse9os wrote

That’s called zippering and it’s the correct way to do it. Slamming on the brakes would be because someone doesn’t also zipper on the other lane and they are the dick.

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neutronicus t1_itvqb9v wrote

> That’s called zippering and it’s the correct way to do it.

It's the correct way to use a merge lane, but the lane they're talking about is not a merge lane, it's an exit-only lane for an off-ramp.

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Alaira314 t1_its7tpw wrote

> I really wish they'd put a partition or bollards up along the first and last ~quarter mile of the 83/695 merge. > > Way too many assholes trying to ride the 83 exit lane then slam on the brakes and merge in at the last second.

I've had people on reddit(I want to say on this very sub) tell me that's how you do it in order to use the lanes to their full potential, and if you get in the slower lane "too early" then you're the one doing it wrong and fucking up traffic. 🙄 I'm pretty sure there's no such thing as "correct" driving, but rather a dozen different strategies that are all mutually exclusive and have everybody all pissed off at the "idiots"(ie, everyone else) who are doing it "wrong"(ie, not the way it works in their desired system).

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Sugarbabedc t1_itsdjyn wrote

Those people are dicks trying to excuse their shitty behavior.

If that's the way to do it, why the fuck would everyone else choose to spend an eternity sitting in the turn lane? Why would the correct way be blocking traffic for the lane next to the turn lane?

I rarely sit in rush these days so it's been a while but the last time someone tried to "cut to the front of the line" so to speak in front of me, I blocked him and flipped the bird tbh. I don't have much tolerance for people who believe their time and energy are more important than everyone else's.

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thirdrm t1_itt6cn5 wrote

It's literally in the driver's manual where people learn to drive published by the states.

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tacsatduck t1_itv1p3l wrote

Zipper merge when two lanes are combining or merging, great. That doesn't excuse people on 695 stopping the left hand lane on this multi-lane highway, because they want to drive up all the way to the point that exit 23A is Ying off before merging over, even though there is a really long solid-white line turning lane for a good distance before the turn. Every single morning back when I made that commute there would be stop and go traffic for all the different lanes on the highway because people were doing that.

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sciencesold t1_its6ylc wrote

It's about a million times worse in NY, people will literally drive miles on the should and cut you off when there's like 5 feet between you and the next car.

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Mustypeen t1_itrm2te wrote

Hey, I save 20 minutes every afternoon blowing down that lane from 695 IL to 83 SB. I’ve never slammed on my brakes though. There’s no need. Always some dipshidiot playing on their phone not paying attention leaving a 18 wheeler sized hole for me to slip into.

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abooth43 t1_itro555 wrote

Yea how dare they not stick right up the ass of the car in front, those are the people really slowing traffic down.

Or maybe people leave those gaps because it's inevitable some schmuck comes and tries to merge at the last second. If they have to stop in the adjacent lane it just makes it worse for everyone else.

And covering that 20 feet only takes a second once there's actually somewhere to go....

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BlarghMachine t1_its0rq6 wrote

An 18-wheeler sized hole that the presence of your car squeezing in makes a much smaller space, causing the car that was giving distance - for a reason - to slam on their brakes. Foolproof! Totally not an accident waiting to happen, but you know who cares if your car’s not involved.

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Mustypeen t1_itsbimo wrote

Yea they’re already stopped so they aren’t slamming any brakes. Unless they suck at driving, which would make sense why they think they need so much room…

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Thatdewd57 t1_itqud9h wrote

I was curious if that was designed intentionally to throttle how much traffic is able to merge onto 695 at one time but yeah it’s ridiculous. Sometimes the park and ride is faster to get on 695.

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lazzarone t1_itr7kf8 wrote

Used to be that it was a single lane without the merge ... they actually added the merge a while back (maybe 8-10 years?) to reduce the backups onto I-70.

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Thatdewd57 t1_itr8ghq wrote

Ahh ok didn’t know that. Wasn’t here then.

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rental_car_fast t1_itt9g2q wrote

Sometimes waze takes me through the park and ride. I do not miss the commute back from Columbia…

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roccoccoSafredi t1_itriks1 wrote

The stupid "Maryland Merge" where they love slimming two lanes into one on ramps or, my personal favorite, right at the merge point.

Should be illegal.

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yellahammerrrr t1_itsefuv wrote

Just zipper. Idk why they don’t teach that in MD drivers ed

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ghostmutt8 t1_itqxfxh wrote

I was JUST thinking this weekend when going through there that I don’t think there has been a single time I haven’t gotten stopped in traffic on that exit.

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unholyburns t1_itrirrs wrote

Right, The alternating merge, every other car, concept is lost on the general public. SMH

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chairmanm30w t1_itsru37 wrote

It's spots like that that make me wonder if the civil engineers who designed it have ever driven in the region. Did they really think people would take turns?

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