Thread: Does anybody know (or care) about how to merge on a freeway

I think you can put it down to a combination of arrogance, aggressiveness, incompetence, and overcrowded roads in the Greater Melbourne region. I lived in Brisbane/Gold Coast for two years from late 2007 to late 2009, and although far from perfect, commuting the Pacific Motorway was nothing short of a joy compared to the traffic here in Melbourne (can't comment on how it is now).

I don't think driving conditions anywhere are likely to ever improve, so brace yourself.

Craig

I love those idiots that stop to merge onto 80KPH traffic, on a freeway...... I get at least one a month in peak hour.

Anyone who has driven overseas comes back knowing how to merge onto freeways and motorways. The other thing you quickly learn is to stay in the left lane (in UK) or right lane (in Europe) unless you are passing another vehicle.

Funny you mention this, yesterday I was attempting to merge onto the Eastern Freeway from the Burke Rd exit, Melbourne. The off ramp has two lanes to merge onto the freeway. The car in front of me was doing 60kmh on the ramp to the freeway down the MIDDLE of the two lanes. They then slowed to 40kmh as the freeway approached then STOPPED to wait for a clear lane to drive onto. The collection of cars behind them tooted madly. Upon getting a clear go at it, they then proceeded and did 40kmh on the freeway and took a good kilometre to get up to at least 80kmh (100kmh limit). The carnage behind of blocked lanes and furious drivers was palpable. I must admit, I don't get angry in the car but this one got me riled.

Originally Posted by Scott

Funny you mention this, yesterday I was attempting to merge onto the Eastern Freeway from the Burke Rd exit, Melbourne. The off ramp has two lanes to merge onto the freeway. The car in front of me was doing 60kmh on the ramp to the freeway down the MIDDLE of the two lanes. They then slowed to 40kmh as the freeway approached then STOPPED to wait for a clear lane to drive onto. The collection of cars behind them tooted madly. Upon getting a clear go at it, they then proceeded and did 40kmh on the freeway and took a good kilometre to get up to at least 80kmh (100kmh limit). The carnage behind of blocked lanes and furious drivers was palpable. I must admit, I don't get angry in the car but this one got me riled.

Must be an eastern FWY thing, as that is where I get it the most, the enrty doesnt seem to matter, I have had it on all of them. The one that gets me is at the hoddle street end, comming onto the freeway Hoddle street gets its own lanes, yet people stop to give way to traffic comming through..., GAHHH.

I agree australians are pretty bad at this but I think Perth has the worst merging drivers in Australia.

The culprits should be sent to Italy to practice merging in lanes that are only 50 m long and into 130 km/hr traffic using a old Fiat Bambino.

I agree that a lot of drivers most likely don't know how to do it correctly,the number of people that will hold the left lane at an on ramp when there are clear lanes for them to move over and let others in and then don't adjust their speed to allow you in no matter how you try to adjust your speed makes it hard to understand it they ever think about anyone else.
Some years ago when our kids where learning that was the first thing we did after they had the basic skills,take them on to the on ramps and show then how easy it can be,as most on ramps have a clear view of what's coming and then match their speed as they get to merge.

And we're all is such a bl##$% hurry and cannot bear that thought that someone will actually be in front of us that we resolutely, stubbornly, flat out refuse to apply the "zipper" principle. I cannot believe that we do not know how to merge, how hard is it, rather we can't bear to let someone in in front of us...

I also have to travel on a stop start freeway of an afternoon, and in my little diesel I can place in 1st or second gear, foot off the accelerator and just "puddle' along. Maybe 20 or so kph. I generally have a biggish gap in front of me, so as the cars speed up and then jump on the brakes, I just puddle along. Good for the car and frustration levels. By the time I catch them up they've sprinted ahead another 100 or so metres, and jumped on the brakes. However the number of people behind me that see the gap, then speed up to get in front of me, then jump on the brakes, cracks me up. They're gonna get to where they're going a whole CAR length ahead of me: that's gotta be worth something...I guess

It's another example of a fool proof idea breeding a new type of fool.

There also needs to be a distinction made between the right (legal) way and the sensible/courteous way. If you are in a merging lane that makes you cross a dashed line to enter the next lane, you are obliged to give way. There is no zipper rule in Queensland at least and a person in the left lane is not obliged to move to the right lane nearing a merge point just to let people in. I think it was NZ that had merge like a zipper signs on some merge lanes, but I'm not sure if it is actually legislated there.

What I hate on suburban roads is idiots who use a short length of clear left lane (typically at lights) as an overtaking opportunity to get a few cars ahead and get irate when the clogged right lane won't let them back in at the dashed line end. What's perhaps even more annoying are the clueless that use the left lane that has become a bus lane at the lights then sit there when the bus lane light comes on. Should we also perhaps mention cyclists who have tunnel vision and seem to be color blind at intersections and merging lanes?

Learning to merge on European roads brings up the issue about what speed you should be doing in which lane. I recon a 4 lane highway in Italy carries twice as many cars smoothly as the 8 lane M1 between Gold Coast and Brisbane, because you can actually overtake a slow vehicle in the slow lane without fear of running up the back of an even slower car in the next faster lane or a rolling blockade of 4 cars abreast doing 100 or less in the 110 zone.

Originally Posted by Fuzzie

. . . . Learning to merge on European roads brings up the issue about what speed you should be doing in which lane. I recon a 4 lane highway in Italy carries twice as many cars smoothly as the 8 lane M1 between Gold Coast and Brisbane, because you can actually overtake a slow vehicle in the slow lane without fear of running up the back of an even slower car in the next faster lane or a rolling blockade of 4 cars abreast doing 100 or less in the 110 zone.

Plus they have turn Right allowed on Red TL (That's a turn Left for us).
Every year at Xmas I argue this one with a BIL who is a chief traffic signals engineer for WA main roads.
His response is, Perth Drivers are too stupid and don't deserve it!

Wow, I'm not the only one who's frustrated, that kind of helps LOL. I was actually expecting a few to be having a go at me. I stand humbled.

Well officially here in Victoria, the merging driver is obligated to give way to traffic already on the freeway (assuming there's a broken white line to cross). Now if drivers already on the freeway blindingly took advantage of that and were complete arrogant pricks in heavy traffic when everyone is bumper to bumper, it would be literally impossible for the merging drivers to cross that broken line. I always open up a space for merging drivers in those conditions.

Funny thing is though a great many merging drivers seem to think they have right of way and I truly believe many would drive straight out into a vehicle already on the highway beleiving the guy on the highway is going to fit the bill. I regularly watch merging drivers very carefully and they are making no attempt whatsoever to check ahead, position themselves, and easily merge into one of many free spaces. They get right next to the broken line then start looking in the wing mirror, and never even look over their shoulder. Others seem to think that by following that unbroken white line to their left, as though it's a railway track, that the freeway drivers must let them out because the merging lane is finishing. They follow it to the end even when there are no cars whatsoever in the left lane of the freeway.

When I'm merging, as soon as I can see the freeway, even if that's right at the start of the merging ramp and I'm 150 metres away, I'm looking for my entry point, and keep looking until I'm on the freeway. Also as taught in the Victorian road rules book, I floor the throttle to get to the same speed as the traffic (not every vehicle can do that though). Why some idiots brain cells calculate that merging at 80 Ks when the traffic is doing 100 just boggles my brain, surely they must have experienced a hundred times the frustration of braking for people merging below speed. But then to add insult to injury the freshly merged driver immediately accelerates to 100 Ks AFTER they have entered the freeway. 20 K speed differential is not very good for merging.

From my "conversations" with a few people it's clear many think the freeway traffic should just "get out the road" of merging vehicles. I completely agree to this when there are no viable spaces for a car to merge into (heavy traffic or traffic jams), because under those conditions it's impossible for a car to merge. But when there are clearly plenty open spaces for the merging car to safely enter the freeway, it's just plain arrogance and lawlessness. Very often I correct their mistaken belief that the freeway drivers are legally obligated to move, then their true arrogance shows and they basically say they don't care.

I'm not finished yet ha ha.

Then there's the merging road train, and no I'm not talking about a truck. I'm talking about when all the merging cars are bumper to bumper effectively creating a solid line of cars that makes zipping just a tad impossible. I personally leave a decent gap in front when I'm merging so that zipping is possible with the freeway traffic. Of course then you've got the idiot behind who's cheesed off because he's angry that you are leaving a space in front of your vehicle.

I was driving home a couple of weeks ago on the freeway in the left lane which was quite empty. A merging vehicle made no attempt whatsoever to merge into the massive long spaces in front and behind me, and basically ended up right at the side of me and started the long horn beeping at me. I angrilly beeped back and held my (legal) ground. That driver obviously thinks that blindingly barging out onto the freeway is the correct and legal way as do a lot of others.

The way the rules are made actually makes sense to me. If the merging drivers take the effort to merge correctly (when possible), then they only have to put that effort in once. In contrast if the traffic on the freeway must give way, slow down, move over to the lane on the right, etc, they may have to do it at EVERY merging point.

If I had nothing better to do, I'd like to take an old vehicle, set it up with cameras, take some security guards with me , and see just how many merging drivers would just drive straight into me, and then start screaming their heads off at me for "causing" this accident. Then see if Today Tonight or 60 Minutes would be interested in airing the footage. Of course it would probably be considered illegal because despite me totally obeying the law, I was predicting that drivers would break the law and simply drive into me.

That's probably the longest rant I've done, but this is a "get it off your chest" part of the forum. Hope I didn't hurt your ears LOL.

There's been some other points brough up in this thread that I completely agree with, and it's clear there's a good deal of lawlessness and wrecklessness on the roads here. The main focus the police / government seem to have though is just collecting fines for speeding. Over in the UK the police publicly stated that they often turn a blind eye to drivers doing up to 90 miles per hour on the freeways (70 mph limit). Germany has its' high speed Autobarn and if the stories are true the high speeds themselves are not the cause of accidents. Moreso it's wreckless and irresponsible driving.

The amazing part is that here in the US it varies by area or region.

The concept of match the speed, find an opening and move in seems to be lost in the minds of drivers.

So many times you want to walk up to the other car, knock on the driver's window and ask, "What are you aiming at?"
Why? Because I want to be some place else.

Originally Posted by Gra

I love those idiots that stop to merge onto 80KPH traffic, on a freeway...... I get at least one a month in peak hour.

When I was driving to work, there was a merge from Pennant Hills Rd. (60 km/h) onto James Ruse Dve. (90 km/h). During the week, there was rarely a problem. On the ramp, drivers would accelerate to about 90, adjust so that they fitted between JR Dve. traffic and merge seamlessly. On the odd occasion that I use that ramp at weekends, some idiot will inevitably stop at the bottom of the ramp until there is sufficient gap in the traffic for him to accelerate for 0 to 90 without someone running up his backside - and that never happens.

Originally Posted by beefy

Well officially here in Victoria, the merging driver is obligated to give way to traffic already on the freeway (assuming there's a broken white line to cross). Now if drivers already on the freeway blindingly took advantage of that and were complete arrogant pricks in heavy traffic when everyone is bumper to bumper, it would be literally impossible for the merging drivers to cross that broken line. I always open up a space for merging drivers in those conditions.

There is a difference between simply changing lanes and merging. In NSW:

3. Giving way when lines of traffic merge into a single line of traffic.
A driver in a line of traffic that is merging with one or more lines of traffic travelling in the same direction must give way to a vehicle in another line of traffic if any part of the vehicle is ahead of the driver's vehicle.