The Amateur Traffic Engineer: I-285 to 141
I travel north on I-85 to I-285 Westbound, exiting onto 141 North on a pretty regular basis (map of the area). Two lanes merge before the 141 exit as the right hand land ends. By following the natural progression of lanes, once I’m on 285 I end up in the left lane of the two; the lane which, followed directly, exits onto 141. This lane is invariably backed up for at least a half mile, while the right lane is mostly empty as people speed up it in order to merge at the last minute. This merging causes the slow-down, which causes the left lane to get backed up. As near as I can tell, anyway.
What I can’t figure out is this: Which lane is the lane of idiots?
Am I an idiot for queueing up in the lane I need to be in ahead of time and waiting for progress? Or is it the people who speed past on my right, putting their blinker on only when they have no choice? I used to think it was them and I’d even slide my car over to keep people from doing it. “They’re cutting in line,” I’d think. “I’m not putting up with that!”
As I sit and ponder over this traffic flow problem day after day, however, I’ve begun to wonder if I’m only helping to create the problem by getting in the lane I’m in. When enough of us do what I do — and we do — we only create a nice long line of cars which is then harder to merge into at the back of the line. People are, perhaps, traveling too fast to append themselves to the end of the line, don’t realize the exit is coming up and this is the line for it, or, in the case of those entering from Buford Hwy, have no choice: the line has stacked up past their entrance ramp.
I could be one of those people, skipping the line and moving up to the front to merge, but maybe they aren’t “those people” — maybe what they’re doing isn’t unreasonable. There are two perfectly good lanes there until one ends: why shouldn’t everybody use both of them? If we did, the left lane line would be half as long, and you might get less of the other people zooming up to the front and butting in from the left lanes because they couldn’t get into the line at the back in time.
¿Qué es más estúpido?
October 26th, 2005 at 2:25 am
Adam,
I’ve pondered this thing day after day. For me, it occurs going north on I85 at the I985 split. For the most part, I feel like 99% of the folks in the right lane (the ending lane) know exactly what they are doing. Some poor sap in my lane (the one that does not have signs saying “Right lane ends …”) will ultimately slow down to let them over and ultimately slow everybody down behind him and ultimately cause the backup you describe. I drive a full size pickup so my presence on the road is well known. And I’ve done the ease over to the right lane thing to not let them pass as well but it does get old after a while. I’ve also tried to go with the flow of idiots (smart ones?) and stay in the right lane till the last minute knowing I can get over. But, then I feel like an a-hole because I just cut off a hundred people and I knew that the lane ends. The ending lane is not something that just creeps up on me everyday at 5:30. Anyway, I don’t know what to say about it really. I guess I’ll just keep on keepin on.
October 26th, 2005 at 10:45 am
Adam,
I think to be least “idiot” is to act according to your mood. If you’ve got to get there, then take the route to get there the fastest, even if you have to cut people. If you don’t care that day and the line where cars are waiting is not too long, then just wait with them. Finally, if you have to time to kill, then just wait in the line patiently, and let all those in rush to cut in.
October 26th, 2005 at 7:10 pm
I drive this every single morning on my way to work - I’m a left laner. Why? Because I love to not let people in! Bwahaaahahahaaa. It is my guilty road rage pleasure.