Driving in this area

[Anonymous]

This area has caused me to have such a fear of driving on the highway. Of course it's not practical since I need to get on 66, 28, and busy areas like Bailey's crossroads to get around. It seems impossible to merge on the highways because no one lets you in. How do I get over this? I'm constantly worried I'm going to get into a huge accident. It doesn't help that the highways are a mess, the exit off of 66 is immediately before getting on. I'm honestly surprised there's not more accidents. How do I get over this?

[Anonymous]

Planning, practice, and patience. Plan ahead so that you almost never NEED someone to let you in. If you need to exit, know which side of the road the exit is on, and get in that lane early. Practice at times with little traffic, like Sunday morning. Leave extra time. That way, if your choice is a maneuver that feels unsafe for you or missing your exit and finding another path, it's an easy choice.

Have Waze on your phone for re-routing. I also like to not have other cars too close to me if possible, obviously this won't work sometimes. But especially if I see someone driving dangerously - I keep my distance.

[Anonymous]

Once you're on the entrance ramp you floor it until you get up to highway speed, which may be about 10 MPH higher than the speed limit. Then you should be able to merge in as easily as changing lanes. If you're having trouble, you are probably trying to enter the highway going slower than traffic and making things dangerous for everyone.

[Anonymous]

You're merging wrong, OP. You're not supposed to signal and wait for someone to let you in. You're supposed to pay attention to the movement of cars, look for a gap. THEN you signal and immediately go.

You have to understand and learn the rhythm. Driving is a dance, not a conversation of turn signals.

And you need to be much more regular about checking your mirrors. Check them constantly to have a sense of where people are around you, not just when you need to merge.

[Anonymous]

No enforcement for drivers under the age of 26 here. They are now considered “juvenile offenders.”

Why not drive crazy? Who’s going to stop you??

[Anonymous]

Driving along the beltway I nearly always smell marijuana wafting from some car or SUV in front of me.

When you decided to legalize pot, you forgot to tell all the pot heads they are not supposed to get high while they are driving (they literally believe “it’s legalized”).

[Anonymous]

This area is high paced...living and driving. If you live here you don't really appreciate how much so until you come back from being away for a while.

You have to drive "assertively".

[Anonymous]

Drive an older model white Cadillac as that is a clear signal for people to get far away from you.

[Anonymous]

What? In NoVa? You can get into anything with a car, people are slow drivers. Merge, switch lanes and all is a non issue here.

[Anonymous]

Here is he answer to that thread about who is driving so slow in the left lane.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:This area has caused me to have such a fear of driving on the highway. Of course it's not practical since I need to get on 66, 28, and busy areas like Bailey's crossroads to get around. It seems impossible to merge on the highways because no one lets you in. How do I get over this? I'm constantly worried I'm going to get into a huge accident. It doesn't help that the highways are a mess, the exit off of 66 is immediately before getting on. I'm honestly surprised there's not more accidents. How do I get over this?

Be the aggressor and make others make way for you.

[Anonymous]

You will get used to it. Practice changing lanes, hire a driving coach if you want to speed things up. This area is no different from any other large metro area.

[Anonymous]

Thanks everyone. I think one thing I'm having such an issue with is that I'm driving in places that I'm not familiar with and it seems like all of the lanes immediately end. I'm not sure who designed the new 28, you get off the exit on 66 and the lane ends and then the lane that you're into also immediately ends and then you're into a turn only lane. It's like a fifth grader designed it. I feel like a lot of the layout here is just bad but of course that's my opinions and I know what opinions are compared to. I don't agree that people go slow, I find that most people are aggressive jerks. Not just with me but I see people with their turn signal on and people deliberately don't let them in. Sometimes when you just floor it and try to go in you'll get into an accident and that's what I'm trying to figure out.

[Anonymous]

How far ahead are you looking when driving? Nothing really happens all of a sudden if you look way far ahead for traffic patterns, road construction, lane ending etc. But if you are stuck looking at just the first car ahead of you and traveling 50 mph, things may seem rushed and happen all of a sudden.

[Anonymous]

The drivers around here are insane. You take your life into your hands every time you drive here.