Merging 101
 

Good article on Merging. More states should actively publish this.

http://minnesota.publicradio.org/collections/special/columns/news_cut/archive/2011/06/merging_101.shtml

Hmmm. I wonder who's right about this one.

Funny response was "I think the movie theater analogy works for all motor vehicle traffic. Just ask yourself: Would you attempt this maneuver if you were on foot?"

Wrong analogy IMO. In a theatre line you there to buy what may be a limited amount of seats and you hopefully will get what you believe are the best seats so that's why there's a line. In a traffic line you're just trying to get somewhere. The only cost is a small measure of time.

Wow. All this time my wife thought I was a jerk, and come to find out **I** am the one doing it right!

:)

Let me get on my soapbox of "stay right unless you are passing"...

id say in a perfect world that would work better...unfortunately we are far from that...especially when it comes to driving...

I tend to merge later and use the lane to near its full extent. After all, thats why the engineers built the extra pavement in the first place. It's particularly helpful in NC where there are three painted arrows indicating the end of an acceleration lane onto the freeway, so I tend to use that to the best extent possible.

(In VA and SC it's anyone's guess when the lane ends......)

One of the most infuriating things on the road is when people do not use the acceleration lane either by cutting across or not using the throttle. Worse, when people actually approach the end and hit the brakes. This prompts an immediate series of unpleasant words from me as I have to swerve or slam the brakes to avoid a now-nearly-stationary object.

This actually brings up an arcane and hypertechnical issue about laws and highway engineering and signage ....

Published National standards state that 'lanes' are defined by lines on the roadway...and that signs, such as 'do not pass' are intended to 'reinfrce' the restriction on passing .... But many lazy highway construction places 'do not pass' signs well before the lanes end. And police will write tickets for failing to obey the sign, even though the road marking allows passing, people are cited, and found guilty of failing to obey an 'illegal' sign.

The sign must be placed AT the point that the passing lane ends, which IS where passing is prohibited.

(note- this is based on the federal MUTCD, which most states adopted, with some modifications...)

And yes, I did beat the ticket. ;)

NC uses the yellow trianglar "No Passing Zone" to demarcate the end of the overtaking zone on two lane roads where the dotted line becomes solid again due to a curve/visibility/intersection. Helpful when planning my somewhat-too-frequent overtaking jaunts, although I overshoot them anyway about 30% of the time because I only have 184 horses hauling 1900kg (4200lbs).

NC will put up the white "Do Not Pass" sign at places where one might be tempted to overtake but cannot. For example, a two-lane road that straightens out but has upcoming intersections or driveways, or a 4-lane divided highway that will end/merge within a few hundred metres. But they're really all advisory signs, and NC is fairly liberal in permitting overtaking/passing. As for enforcement........well there is none. I've driven in a lot of states and I'm confident in saying that NC is the most driver-friendly state I know of.

SC is too poor to afford paint striping and qualified road engineers, much less any meaningful signage. VA doesn't allow overtaking quite as much given their roads generally aren't straight in rural areas. Being stuck behind a slowpoke on a mountain grade is a test of patience every single time until you hit the state line to somewhere else.

I was talking about two lanes in the same direction. As in two lanes merging down to one, (like the first post references).


There are no other signs for dictating a 'passing zone" when you have two lanes IN THE SAME DIRECTION, with a dashed line between them.

None of the three states I frequently drive in use signs to regulate overtaking for multiple lanes in the same direction that merge together. That seems superfluous. Waste of signage in my opinion, just look at the striping :p: