3 ms·

At least in my city in my commute this morning (~30 minutes), I was forced to hard brake 3 times to avoid having an accident with someone wedging themself in at

by ethbro 8y ago

At least in my city in my commute this morning (~30 minutes), I was forced to hard brake 3 times to avoid having an accident with someone wedging themself in at the end of an exit lane. I find the problem isn't people merging into your lane in front of you, but doing so badly (ie not leaving a safe amount of space behind their rear bumper and your front bumper). Semi drivers have this even worse.

Johnny555 8y ago
Are you allowing enough space in front of you for cars to merge in without wedging themselves in front of you? That's the worst problem I see around here -- cars in the freeway running bumper to bumper, and then a block of 3 or 5 cars also running bumper to bumper trying to force their way in, but none of the cars really leave enough room for a smooth merge, so the cars on the freeway end up hitting the brakes when the merging cars force their way in.
- ethbro 8y ago
  Yes. I'm guessing because drivers are so used to "forced merging", they don't know what to do when they have an appropriate amount of space.
tombrossman 8y ago
> Semi drivers have this even worse. There are some advantages to driving a semi in traffic: - Lots of gears to choose from and massive torque in order to find that perfect 'idle forward' speed. - Far more comfortable ride then a car, it's not even close. - Radio communication with trucks ahead, so you know what's happening ahead and which lane to be in long before the cars figure this out. - Visibility over the top of vehicles in front (except another truck, obviously). I think the only thing better than a semi for heavy traffic might be a luxury car with adaptive cruise and a little roof-mounted drone-cam that you could launch to check out the view ahead (though this sounds like something Homer Simpson would dream up). Your own little personal traffic copter/R2D2, with a recharging dock on the roof. Someone please tell Elon Musk to make this a priority for new Teslas. It could even check out side streets in cities and find quicker routes.
- ethbro 8y ago
  I was thinking stop-and-go traffic, which is murder. Heavy load = longer stop distance = lengthier minimum safe following distance Minimum safe following distance > 1 car length = motorists darting in front of semis Rinse and repeat. Assuming a heavy load and ignorant motorists, there's no way to avoid constant unsafe situations. As soon as you create a new safe gap, someone slides in. So, no. It's terrible. (And I'm not even mentioning the additional gear shifts) https://m.youtube.com/results?search_query=Merge+semi https://m.youtube.com/results?search_query=Merge+semi

by ethbro 8y ago

Johnny555 8y ago

Are you allowing enough space in front of you for cars to merge in without wedging themselves in front of you? That's the worst problem I see around here -- cars in the freeway running bumper to bumper, and then a block of 3 or 5 cars also running bumper to bumper trying to force their way in, but none of the cars really leave enough room for a smooth merge, so the cars on the freeway end up hitting the brakes when the merging cars force their way in.

ethbro 8y ago
Yes. I'm guessing because drivers are so used to "forced merging", they don't know what to do when they have an appropriate amount of space.

tombrossman 8y ago

> Semi drivers have this even worse. There are some advantages to driving a semi in traffic: - Lots of gears to choose from and massive torque in order to find that perfect 'idle forward' speed. - Far more comfortable ride then a car, it's not even close. - Radio communication with trucks ahead, so you know what's happening ahead and which lane to be in long before the cars figure this out. - Visibility over the top of vehicles in front (except another truck, obviously). I think the only thing better than a semi for heavy traffic might be a luxury car with adaptive cruise and a little roof-mounted drone-cam that you could launch to check out the view ahead (though this sounds like something Homer Simpson would dream up). Your own little personal traffic copter/R2D2, with a recharging dock on the roof. Someone please tell Elon Musk to make this a priority for new Teslas. It could even check out side streets in cities and find quicker routes.

ethbro 8y ago
I was thinking stop-and-go traffic, which is murder. Heavy load = longer stop distance = lengthier minimum safe following distance Minimum safe following distance > 1 car length = motorists darting in front of semis Rinse and repeat. Assuming a heavy load and ignorant motorists, there's no way to avoid constant unsafe situations. As soon as you create a new safe gap, someone slides in. So, no. It's terrible. (And I'm not even mentioning the additional gear shifts) https://m.youtube.com/results?search_query=Merge+semi https://m.youtube.com/results?search_query=Merge+semi