Lane Closed Ahead

[Doggie Daddy]

I was in the men's room at a Pilot one day, and one driver was wiping down the counter. I commented on the futility of his endeavor. "It's just going to be all wet again in 5 minutes," I told him.

"Oh, I dunno...if we all just take an extra minute to be careful to not splash water around and clean up after ourselves..."

Call him an optimist, I guess. Again, if we were machines, that would work, but factor in the human element, and it goes out the window. He saw things how they COULD be under ideal circumstances, and I viewed things how they ARE. Same thing here.

"Some men see things as they are and say why.
I dream things that never were and say why not."

 

[cheri1122]

I'm trying to figure out why a truck driver thinks its his right to block a travel lane just because the other lane is shut down. It is illegal to block a lane in all states. The law in most if not all states say merge at gore point. That means where the barrels are, unless there is a sign that says merge now.

Can't speak for other truck drivers, but reread what I said: 'at the point close to the merge" [BTW: I've never heard or seen the term 'gore point' before]. The point at which 90% of vehicles have already merged, and only the selfish 'me first!' drivers are zooming up to the front is when I MIGHT consider a rolling block a great idea.


Most of the posters here don't understand this because they don't seem to believe they have to follow any traffic laws they don't agree with.

Wrong, wrong, wrong. It's the 'screw everyone of the suckers who waited their turn, I can cut in front of them all, haha' drivers who don't think they have to follow the rules. And if you're one of them, ask yourself this: would you cut in front of the line anywhere else, outside the anonymity of your vehicle?
Didn't think so - so why is it ok in the vehicle?

BTW I was in a rolling road block by a couple of trucks that was 3 miles before the gore point..the truck drivers wanted traffic to be single file for 3 miles.

If people trucks and cars would leave a gap like your supposed to their would be the back ups we have.

You think that following space I leave in front of my truck stays empty? Ha! If it's big enough for a car to get in, they will. Every time. Keeping a safe distance is a never ending problem in heavy traffic for trucks - drop back to restore the space, and it's deja vu all over again.

I also went thru one construction site at speed the 5 miles down the road at the next one trucks started blocking the left lane and caused a back up.

I have also seen trucks blocking lanes and the barrels were already picked up but the lane closed sign wasn't taken down, we had a 2 mile back up for no reason.

I like others wished the police would pull over the drivers doing the blocking and hold them a while and do two things give them a ticket and do a level one inspection. That would make my day.

It's really tough to be thwarted, innit?
All I wish is that the selfish drivers would admit they have no special rights, and take their turn waiting in line as the rest of us do.

 

[Brisco]

There's going to be a back up whether Truckers use the rolling road blocks or not. People just don't get it.......

I've seen it all over the country. Talking about it here on a discussion board aint gonna change nothing. Truckers will still block cars for miles with drivers flying around them in the median, and people are still going to drive with the "left left left left lane - OH Crap - Barrels - I'm taking the right lane whether you like it or not" ignorance that we all see while out there.

Should the Truckers be stopped, cited, and inspected for it?? Nah.....all that's going to do is cause another back up for the gawkers. Plus, another Trucker will come along and do the same thing when out of the Troopers site. We just gotta learn to live with it.

I'm always a right lane guy when it comes to this. Sure, it may take me longer to get through that area, but at least it's safer. All you gotta do is watch your time while going through it, and then 100 miles down the road adjust your logbook showing you were off duty during that hour, or however long it took, eating breakfast-lunch-dinner, sightseeing something, or whatever, and keep on going til you hit your 11 "driving". Trust me, a scalehouse 250 miles away is not going to know you were sitting behind the wheel stuck in a construction zone some 250 miles back when going over your log. (Do I know this by experience or have I ever done it before??? No Comment!!)

Tell you a quick little story about an incident over this some years back. Remember back when they had I-44 through Rolla Missouri under construction for miles and miles and miles? Well, I got stuck in that crap more than once over a 2 year time period. "Rolling Road Blocks" were a norm for Truckers through that construction zone. One day I was sitting there in the right hand lane inching up to the "1 Lane" portion. I was about 10 cars back and was watching this Trucker in my left side mirror doing a RRB probably a good 30-40-50 cars back. As I was watching him fixing to merge into the right lane back there, I saw this little black Porsche come flying around his left on the shoulder. The Porsche driver then punched it coming up to us in the clear left hand lane. The vehicle in front of the little car in front of me was an older Suburban with dark tinted windows. By now, I was just 3-4 cars away from it being only one lane. Just as that Porsche came flying by me at a high rate of speed, the driver of the Suburban swung left real hard, thus causing that Porsche to jerk left also. I watched that Porsche take out 4-5 barrels, saw glass flying in the air, and actually seen the mirror on the Porsche shoot straight up in the air a good 30 feet or so.

Well, Porsche driver came to skidding stop in our now "free and clear" right hand lane (all the other cars were already gone) and it was Porsche stopped in our lane, Suburban, little car in front of me, me in my Dodge Dually with a high clear view of everything, and so on. Guy in Porsche jumps out yelling. He looks at his car, turns towards the Suburban, then starts walking towards it yelling cuss words - MF that, MF this - Get your yaya out of the truck, etc. All 4 doors of the Suburban flew open at the same time and 6 guys wearing Larry the Cable Guy flannel shirts (no sleeves) who looked liked muscled up Oil Field guys came barreling out of it. I swear, the Porsche driver made it back to his car, some 20-30 feet away, in 2 giant steps, and last I saw of him was him going down the road in a cloud of tire dust. I bet he had that car up to 80mph in 4 seconds flat. Guys from Suburban just climbed back in it like nothing was going on, put it in gear, and we all just mosied on through the construction zone like nothing ever happened. Suburban Driver didn't take off after Porsche Driver, guess he made his point after all, Huh.

Like I said, I'm a right hand lane stayer. Could care less if they do the RRB or not. Could care less if ignorant drivers fly down the left hand lane and cut in at the last second, and so on. I'll get where I'm going eventually. Know what I mean.

 

[Turtle]

BTW I was in a rolling road block by a couple of trucks that was 3 miles before the gore point..the truck drivers wanted traffic to be single file for 3 miles.

Doesn't matter if it's 1 mile, 3 miles or 30 miles, a single lane of traffic in which no one has to slow down to let someone into the line will move faster than any other merging scenario. Amonger nailed it - from the point of the single line forward, traffic moves smoother and quicker than at any point behind it. If someone shoots down and tries to get in, the entire single and double lines get slowed down, and for each one who tried to get in the slowing multiplies. It's like the baby-butt wipes who cut in front of the lunch line at school. They're rude, inconsiderate and need to be beaten to a pump.

The zippered merge works, but it works at the blazing speed of a 4-way stop sign intersection. Yay.

Truckers who perform the lane block might tick some people off, but those blocks can turn a 20 minute delay into a 5 minute delay. I've only seen it three times where the police performed the same kind of rolling block (New Mexico, California, and Iowa), except they rolled in the other direction, pushing the merge point farther and father and farther back, followed by a truck setting out a trail of new cones to extend the merge point, creating a miles-long single lane that moved quickly and smoothly through the construction. At one point in California, the single line was more than 12 miles long, but it moved right along at 50 MPH the entire way.

 

[Dakota]

I'd love to see cops at these construction areas, stopping the line cutters and giving them tickets, I don't know if they can give tickets for being a selfish self absorbed moron though

 

[OntarioVanMan]

Well anyone that is a lane runner as I call them...zooming up the empty lane....I will NOT let you in...even an expeditor...I will run you into the curbing/shoulder before I let you in....it is the last minute mergers that cause that line up...and makes people hit thier brakes...

 

[Dakota]

Well anyone that is a lane runner as I call them...zooming up the empty lane....I will NOT let you in...even an expeditor...I will run you into the curbing/shoulder before I let you in....it is the last minute mergers that cause that line up...and makes people hit thier brakes...

I might let a semi in, although they should have been able to see what was coming up long before, but just in case they were day dreaming, I'll give them the benefit of doubt.

 

[cheri1122]

Well anyone that is a lane runner as I call them...zooming up the empty lane....I will NOT let you in...even an expeditor...I will run you into the curbing/shoulder before I let you in....it is the last minute mergers that cause that line up...and makes people hit thier brakes...

Totally agree: if they couldn't get in, they'd quit doin it.
One woman in Chicago though, was not to be dissuaded - she kept nudging her Escalade [talk about 'entitled'!] closer & closer to my truck, and even the air horn didn't faze her! She won, because I am too much of a lady to roll the truck right over the top her entitled behind....Well, that and I like having a license to keep driving.

 

[MCBuggyCo]

Thanks to everyone so far for the replies. It seems that about half of us merge early, ten percent or so merge late, and the rest are looking to run the middle group in the ditch.
I find it interesting that the MnDot webpage about the zipper merge says "Don't worry about being "Minnesota nice."" in merge situations. This reflects a recent answer given by Click and Clack, the Tappet Brothers. The question was about a driver who would allow others ahead of him even if he had the right of way. The brother's answer was that he was wrong to be nice, that safe driving is based on being able to predict what the other drivers are doing.

 

[OntarioVanMan]

yes..anticipating the other driver and being aware of surrounding traffic flow...aka Defensive driving...

 

[x06col]

I'm trying to figure out why a truck driver thinks its his right to block a travel lane just because the other lane is shut down. It is illegal to block a lane in all states. The law in most if not all states say merge at gore point. That means where the barrels are, unless there is a sign that says merge now.

Can't speak for other truck drivers, but reread what I said: 'at the point close to the merge" [BTW: I've never heard or seen the term 'gore point' before]. The point at which 90% of vehicles have already merged, and only the selfish 'me first!' drivers are zooming up to the front is when I MIGHT consider a rolling block a great idea.


Most of the posters here don't understand this because they don't seem to believe they have to follow any traffic laws they don't agree with.

Wrong, wrong, wrong. It's the 'screw everyone of the suckers who waited their turn, I can cut in front of them all, haha' drivers who don't think they have to follow the rules. And if you're one of them, ask yourself this: would you cut in front of the line anywhere else, outside the anonymity of your vehicle?
Didn't think so - so why is it ok in the vehicle?

BTW I was in a rolling road block by a couple of trucks that was 3 miles before the gore point..the truck drivers wanted traffic to be single file for 3 miles.

If people trucks and cars would leave a gap like your supposed to their would be the back ups we have.

You think that following space I leave in front of my truck stays empty? Ha! If it's big enough for a car to get in, they will. Every time. Keeping a safe distance is a never ending problem in heavy traffic for trucks - drop back to restore the space, and it's deja vu all over again.

I also went thru one construction site at speed the 5 miles down the road at the next one trucks started blocking the left lane and caused a back up.

I have also seen trucks blocking lanes and the barrels were already picked up but the lane closed sign wasn't taken down, we had a 2 mile back up for no reason.

I like others wished the police would pull over the drivers doing the blocking and hold them a while and do two things give them a ticket and do a level one inspection. That would make my day.

It's really tough to be thwarted, innit?
All I wish is that the selfish drivers would admit they have no special rights, and take their turn waiting in line as the rest of us do.

Hey Missie, me tink, beachbum might be one o them that's most of the problem steda PART of the solution......whatcha tink?

Bottom line, when you have to negotiate a lane closure, no matter what State you are in, and which no background fool decided the merge point......you're still gonna have the pooch screwers that WILL cause a delay. Period!!!! Oh well. I'm actually hoping tho, to live long enough to see/experience a flow thru a lane closure at an orderly 40-45mph. It may enlighten me a bit.

 

[OntarioVanMan]

same as with Chicago...294 north off ramp to 290....people zooming up even seen them ride the shoulder around when people refused to let them in.....where's the enforcement?
these are the ones that pull the same stunt every day...