Merging lanes that are far too short

[umop]

Does anybody else find short merging lanes to be extreme annoyances along with being safety hazards?

I really don't know what the planners/engineers in charge were thinking when they were building some of these portions of our highways.

Onto specific examples (and interestingly enough, all the examples I can think of are in the same interchange, 401/400/Black Creek, so maybe this in an isolated problem?):

-> Black Creek north-bound exiting to 401 East
-> Black Creek north-bound exiting to 401 West
-> 401 West exiting to Black Creek south-bound

I always get an uneasy feeling anytime I have to drive through there, simply because it's nearly impossible for cars to speed up to 90 - 100 without already being at the very end of the merging lane (not to mention flat-out impossible for trucks), or, in the case of exiting from the 401 West onto Black Creek south-bound, you have very little room to merge, despite having plenty of room to accelerate up to 80.


See picture: http://i32.tinypic.com/246ooja.jpg


Between the red points is a solid line, and that solid line is extremely long. The broken-up line which allows you to merge is placed at the very end (between the green points), giving you less than 2 seconds to merge. On one occasion I had to drive onto the shoulder because a car with a trailer happened to be driving in the adjacent lane and I had the options of either flooring it to try to get ahead of him, or brake and wait to get behind him (which slows down traffic behind me and creates even more problems if there was a car behind the car with the trailer).

With the first two examples I mentioned, it's a trade-off: either speed up to the 100 but find yourself running out of merging space and risk not being able to merge safely, or merge earlier but do so at a slower speed (again, not something you want to do on a highway).

Either I'm missing something or these are all cases of extremely poor planning.

[rogerrabbit168]

the Jamieson ramp onto the QEW is one of the shortest, one of my buddy got into an accident there once

[originalnutta]

The onramp from rathburn onto 427 southbound is a death trap. and even if you merge quickly, you have to move over to the right even quicker to avoid getting off at Burnhamthorpe. I take the longer way to get onto the 427, so i dont have to deal with that onramp, and ignorant drivers.

[huskylord]

the Jamieson ramp onto the QEW is one of the shortest, one of my buddy got into an accident there once

I call that one the "merge of death".
I have no idea who designed that one.

[JAGpilot]

Trucks don't get up to 90/100km/h to merge. They barely do 100km/h in teh middle lane! I've seen trucks merging at like 60km/h!

If you can't merge at 100km/h or at least 90km/h get into the lane if there is sufficient space and get up to speed fast. It's do-able.

[tyfriend]

Eastbound Gardiner @ Islington Ave

[Avatar]

Want to see short merging lanes? Come to Montreal and you'll know what I mean.

[tonychau]

US highway has this traffic light thing per car for merging, does it help here in Canada?

[gherikill]

You should change the subject to - Cars that accelerate far to slow.

[macalin]

What makes this an even bigger issue are drivers in the right lane that can easily move over to the middle, or left lane but don't when they see drivers trying to merge. Even worse are the idiots who drive right beside you. Either speed up or slow down so people can get in saefely.:mad: Even worse is being stuck behind an idiot trying to merge at well below the limit.:mad::mad:

[VorteC]

Start accelerating while on the ramp so you'll be carrying enough speed to change lanes.

I see waaay to many people merging onto the 401 doing like 60, cut across 3 lanes, and then start to accelerate.

[LarryLat]

stop buying stupid land yachts

you wanna see a short "on ramp" - here's one: http://maps.google.ca/maps?f=q&source=s_q&hl=en&geocode=&q=Stamford,+CT&sll=43.795451,-79.54883&sspn=0.009185,0.019119&ie=UTF8&ll=41.100951,-73.576295&spn=0.001199,0.00239&t=h&z=19

That's one of two major freeways from New York City to Connecticut.

wiki: (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Merritt_Parkway) "The Parkway has two lanes in each direction. Due to its age, it was originally constructed without the merge-lanes, long on-ramps, and long off-ramps that are found on modern limited-access highways. Some entrances have perilously short and/or sharp ramps; some entrances even have stop signs, with no merge lane whatsoever; this leads to some dangerous entrances onto the highway."

[GangStarr]

How about Don Valley Rd on ramp to DVP north? Thats short and blinding.

Solution, buy a faster car :p

Its just a case of old engineering and not enough safety standards. If you ever drive on "US Routes" many of them have a 90 degree merge point and cars are going anywhere from 70-120 km/h

[johnboy]

Start accelerating while on the ramp so you'll be carrying enough speed to change lanes.

I see waaay to many people merging onto the 401 doing like 60, cut across 3 lanes, and then start to accelerate.

I see these fools do that all the time and worse of all, most use 30-50% of the merge lane. Plenty more room to get up to speed. They are the ones that mess traffic flow. Terrible. :-(

OP, if you think some of our merging lanes are too short, try NYC highways. They basically don't have have. But majority merge properly, use up as much of the merging lane as possible and stomp on gas to merge in safely and most times, don't disrupt traffic flow unlike here. It's sad...

[ssainani]

You should change the subject to - Cars that accelerate far to slow.

this is where everyones corolla and civic on this forum fail

[Nyte]

I have to deal with that everyday, 80% of the ramps I take are like that. The ones that I find more annoying are when you have a short merging lane, but that merging lane is ALSO the exit off the highway on the other end. So as people are coming on to the highway trying to get into the right lane, the people in the right lane are trying to get into the merging lane to exit; I'm surprised there aren't more accidents. Oh and immediately upon exiting is a bend/loop that the average car in Ontario would probably take at about 40.

[jandumm]

ugh yah, the on-ramp from Northbound Hurontario to the Westbound 401 is short as well. Worst is if you're behind someone doing 60 with idiots doing 120 in the merging lane :S

I remember the on ramp from southbound Hurontario to the westbound QEW also being deathly short but I think they've been reconstructing it.

[jason9945]

US highway has this traffic light thing per car for merging, does it help here in Canada?

http://www.thekingshighway.ca/PHOTOS/qew-303_lg.jpg

You mean like this picture of a metered on ramp.. from the QEW.. :lol:

[GunnerX]

US merging lanes are way shorter and usually have enter and exit lanes right after each other using the same lane. Yet there's no issues there. These really long lanes in Canada are more like special lanes for jumpers who use these to pass other people in heavy traffic.

[fastlayne]

ugh yah, the on-ramp from Northbound Hurontario to the Westbound 401 is short as well.

If you are one of the drivers that believe that you have to merge onto that section of the 401 before passing under Hurontario, then yes, it would seem short.

Next time, continue in the merge lane beyond the overpass and you'll see that there is easily another 200m of road to plan your merge.

http://maps.google.ca/?ie=UTF8&ll=43.629661,-79.685292&spn=0.003238,0.005718&t=k&z=18

[aquariaguy]

US highway has this traffic light thing per car for merging, does it help here in Canada?

That's not to help merging. Those lights are all over the place in LA. It's mainly to try to decrease congestion but it doesn't help since, LA is always constipated with cars. I hated 5 months in LA traffic.

[magnodrome]

this is where everyones corolla and civic on this forum fail

The problem is not on the car (I drive a Civic and am perfectly fine merging onto the highways) but the driver (people should anticipate when they merge onto the highway and not wait until the end of the merge laneway and suddenly signals and get onto the highway without checking). Better yet leave yourself some room in front of you so you can accelerate and not pound on the brakes if the car in front of you cannot merge on time.

[bembol]

I somewhat disagree, never had an issue. The problem I see is that most are too afraid/don't know that they have to accelarate.

I understand some are too short but I still blame the driver's. Honestly, I think they are unskilled or scared.

[Nyte]

The problem is not on the car (I drive a Civic and am perfectly fine merging onto the highways) but the driver (people should anticipate when they merge onto the highway and not wait until the end of the merge laneway and suddenly signals and get onto the highway without checking). Better yet leave yourself some room in front of you so you can accelerate and not pound on the brakes if the car in front of you cannot merge on time.

The car is not the problem, but a faster car gives you a lot more options. People just need to know the limitations of what they can or can't do in their cars and act accordingly.