Pro tip for merging onto a highway

[Anonymous]

I’ll pull up this thread next time I’m merging.

[Anonymous]

The cars already on the highway have the right of way. The merging lane must yield to the flow of the highway.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It is polite to move over or make space if possible, but PP is right, the merging car must yield. But I would not teach my teen to get up to highway speed on the on ramp. It’s often not possible to see oncoming traffic until you’re nearly at the merge point. Make sure there’s an opening, and then get up to speed as quickly as possible.

OP here. I also taught my teen driver to pick a spot to merge into and to accelerate (or decelerate, if need be) accordingly. This skill is also in short supply.

The fact that no one here seems to know this drives me crazy. Look over your shoulder and pick an open spot, then accelerate and move into it.

Its even more important with a short ramp with no merge lane. I used to merge from the GW Parkway onto Memorial Bridge every day, and soooo many people would run up to the front of the ramp and then slam on their brakes, leaving themselves no room to accelerate when an open spot does come. Look back, and if there’s no opening, stop at the back of the ramp, find a spot, and then accelerate into it. You don’t need as big of an opening if you’re at speed when you get there. People used to honk at me if I didn’t go all the way to the front to stop or slow.

Some crazy advice from pp. Don’t do it if you are merging onto 495 at that place. You have about quarter of a mile to merge. Stopping at the back of a ramp is insane.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The cars already on the highway have the right of way. The merging lane must yield to the flow of the highway.

Also if you're in the right lane on the highway, don't hit your brakes to let a merging car go in front of you. Keep going at speed and let them pick a spot to merge into. As PP said, you have the right of way and your unnecessary braking frustrates those behind you.

[Anonymous]

Yep. You cause accidents by trying to merge onto the highway at 40mph.

[Anonymous]

Why TF are you in the right/merge lane grandma?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The cars already on the highway have the right of way. The merging lane must yield to the flow of the highway.

Also if you're in the right lane on the highway, don't hit your brakes to let a merging car go in front of you. Keep going at speed and let them pick a spot to merge into. As PP said, you have the right of way and your unnecessary braking frustrates those behind you.

+100. Also do not speed up to close gaps. The best thing a right lane driver can do if he can’t get to the left is to just maintain pace. If it’s stop and go, allow a zipper. This makes traffic flow smoother and benefits you in the long run.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Yep. You cause accidents by trying to merge onto the highway at 40mph.

OMG. I don’t understand why people think you can merge on a highway that’s 55 mph at 40. You have no idea how many times my life has flashed before my eyes on 495.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It is polite to move over or make space if possible, but PP is right, the merging car must yield. But I would not teach my teen to get up to highway speed on the on ramp. It’s often not possible to see oncoming traffic until you’re nearly at the merge point. Make sure there’s an opening, and then get up to speed as quickly as possible.

OP here. I also taught my teen driver to pick a spot to merge into and to accelerate (or decelerate, if need be) accordingly. This skill is also in short supply.

The fact that no one here seems to know this drives me crazy. Look over your shoulder and pick an open spot, then accelerate and move into it.

Its even more important with a short ramp with no merge lane. I used to merge from the GW Parkway onto Memorial Bridge every day, and soooo many people would run up to the front of the ramp and then slam on their brakes, leaving themselves no room to accelerate when an open spot does come. Look back, and if there’s no opening, stop at the back of the ramp, find a spot, and then accelerate into it. You don’t need as big of an opening if you’re at speed when you get there. People used to honk at me if I didn’t go all the way to the front to stop or slow.

Some crazy advice from pp. Don’t do it if you are merging onto 495 at that place. You have about quarter of a mile to merge. Stopping at the back of a ramp is insane.

No kidding. That was not the situation being described. Did you read the words “short ramp with no merge lane?” The first PP describes the roper way to merge onto the Beltway.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:May I add to your advice?

If you’re the one entering a highway via an on ramp, you are supposed to take some responsibility for merging. You are not supposed to just drive as though you are oblivious to the fact that your merge lane is ending. If you’re the one driving in the rightmost lane on a highway and you come to an on ramp where there is a car approaching that will need to merge into your lane at the time you will reach the merge point, you are supposed to yield to that car. Drivers who are merging from on ramps and drivers in the rightmost lane should be cooperating with each other to keep traffic moving smoothly.

You are a bad driver. The car on the ramp must yield to the bar on the highway. Should the highway car not be a dirk and let the ramp car in if possible? Yes. But the highway car has the right of way

We have all been in heavy traffic where there is no open space between cars in the rightmost lane to merge into, yet the merge lane ends eventually. Drivers aren’t supposed to play chicken with each other. Sometimes drivers in the rightmost lane will have to yield to cars entering the highway. They are not in the right to refuse to let any additional cars merge onto the highway.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:May I add to your advice?

If you’re the one entering a highway via an on ramp, you are supposed to take some responsibility for merging. You are not supposed to just drive as though you are oblivious to the fact that your merge lane is ending. If you’re the one driving in the rightmost lane on a highway and you come to an on ramp where there is a car approaching that will need to merge into your lane at the time you will reach the merge point, you are supposed to yield to that car. Drivers who are merging from on ramps and drivers in the rightmost lane should be cooperating with each other to keep traffic moving smoothly.

You are a bad driver. The car on the ramp must yield to the bar on the highway. Should the highway car not be a dirk and let the ramp car in if possible? Yes. But the highway car has the right of way

We have all been in heavy traffic where there is no open space between cars in the rightmost lane to merge into, yet the merge lane ends eventually. Drivers aren’t supposed to play chicken with each other. Sometimes drivers in the rightmost lane will have to yield to cars entering the highway. They are not in the right to refuse to let any additional cars merge onto the highway.

Guess what? The merge lane has to wait like everyone else. The merge lane ends so people in the merge lanes must brake. The merge lane is not a conveyor belt that throws cars on the highway whether there is space or not.

[Anonymous]

Can I add to this: if you are in the second lane to the right, please do not move to the right lane when there is a merge ramp. I am floored by the number of people who do this every day.

[Anonymous]

And if you’re exiting slow down, and get in behind someone who’s accelerating to get onto the highway. Don’t cut them off while they are trying to merge onto the highway.

[Anonymous]

Zipper merge, people. Learn it. Embrace it.

This is the way ༼ つ ◕_◕ ༽つ

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

If you’re the one driving in the rightmost lane on a highway and you come to an on ramp where there is a car approaching that will need to merge into your lane at the time you will reach the merge point, you are supposed to yield to that car.

Um, what?!?!? Who on earth taught you to drive? And have you remained functionally illiterate ever since?

The car traveling on the highway has the right of way. The car merging on to the highway must yield to the cars already in the lane. That’s what that big red and white triangular sign means. Having a highway car dramatically slow or stop to allow an entering car to merge into the lane is a good way for everyone to get rear-ended.

And here, OP, is why people merge slowly or do weird dangerous things while entering the highway. Because your advice cannot coexist with the above. People entering the highway cannot safely speed up to 55 mph as they enter the highway if the person in the rightmost lane is under the mistaken impression that the entering vehicle MUST yield. You can’t accelerate while also being prepared to stop. Do people split the difference and enter at 35-40 mph before accelating as quickly as possible. It sucks and is one of the many reasons I hate driving.