"Do the zipper merge" (how much, law, safe)

[Min-Chi-Cbus]

Originally Posted by Anneee

When I first moved to Minnesota, I found all the extra road signs very distracting. Most of them tell us things that are pretty much common sense.

"Common sense" in driving simply does not exist, in my experience! You must assume EVERYBODY has an IQ of 75 while texting in the rain on bald tires, or you will parish trusting other driver's instincts.

[WRosado]

Originally Posted by Min-Chi-Cbus

In Cleveland people simply do not merge. It's not like they aren't good at it or they do it differently....they just don't do it at all. Here it seems like to get onto the freeway the entering driver has to find room on his/her own -- existing freeway drivers simply don't care if you are coming on and don't slow down, speed up, or move over lanes. If there is an obstacle in my lane on a 2-lane street and I have to move over and use my signal, the person behind me in the open lane will speed up EVERY TIME to keep me from coming in. It's an everybody-for-themselves attitude around here and it drives me nuts!

Minnesota isn't as bad as you may think!

I don't know why, but I saw this from the main page and clicked on this thread and found your post. This is very true. I don't know what areas of Greater Cleveland you drive in, but one of the worst areas I have noticed (especially during rush hour) is the I-77/I-480 interchange. I try my damned hardest to speed up to find an opening somewhere in my approaching lane so I can get in without having to hit my brakes. Metro Cleveland has too many freeway entrance lanes, that while entering are two separate lanes, but turn into one single lane causing a lot of headaches. Although, it is much better driving up here compared to when I lived in Orlando where no one knew how to drive. Driving under the speed limit seemed like it was a priority, not to mention the left lane idiots all over Florida.

[Min-Chi-Cbus]

Originally Posted by WRosado

I don't know why, but I saw this from the main page and clicked on this thread and found your post. This is very true. I don't know what areas of Greater Cleveland you drive in, but one of the worst areas I have noticed (especially during rush hour) is the I-77/I-480 interchange. I try my damned hardest to speed up to find an opening somewhere in my approaching lane so I can get in without having to hit my brakes. Metro Cleveland has too many freeway entrance lanes, that while entering are two separate lanes, but turn into one single lane causing a lot of headaches. Although, it is much better driving up here compared to when I lived in Orlando where no one knew how to drive. Driving under the speed limit seemed like it was a priority, not to mention the left lane idiots all over Florida.

I-77/I-480 is also where I drive much of the time (from home to downtown WHEN I drive to work from Shaker -- usually take the train). That interchange does suck for those reasons. It must be I-77 that has too many exits/ramps because I can't envision what parts of I-480 have too many. There are places in some cities that have exits/ramps every 1/8 mile (like I-90/94 near the Loop in Chicago)!

[knke0204]

Originally Posted by iNviNciBL3

When you see those type of signs you know the drivers are pretty dumb when you need all these reminders even though they are common sense.

My favorite are the Dont turn left on Red arrow. like people couldnt already understand the meaning of a red arrow

Pretty soon there will be signs that read things like: "Don't forget to blink today".

It reminds me of public bathrooms at places saying like "Please wash your hands"

That's how moronic our society is. We have signs that remind us to do things that we should be doing without reminder.

[sondra_finchley]

I think some of the road designs are awful - the on/off ramps here are very short. Going from 35E on to 77 South is insane - you have to come off a tight turn on ramp at 20 mph to merge with fast on coming traffic going 60 mph on 77 and, with the construction closing the right lane, have to cross over a lane or two.

Getting on to 35E in town is a nightmare too because of the short on ramps and the short space between the on ramp and the next exit ramps in some areas.

Finally - my ultimate favorite fo stupid layout - exiting off the Mendota Bridge to merge on to 5/West 7th. A Yield at the bottom of the (very short) off ramp, to merge on to two constricted lanes, with half blocked sightlines so you can't see who is coming? I got in an accident there because the woman who was supposed to Yield panicked and just wouldn't go. Guy exiting was tearing down the short ramp expecting the two of us to move and plowed right into me.

I live with a true Scandinavian and he is the loudest complainer about the terrible drivers here. Folks dont drive this bad in Sweden, trust me.

[PullMyFinger]

In the Twin Cities, when I see a good driver. I mean one who backs off and lets other cars merge and uses their blinker properly.....far too often the car has an out of state plate on it. Pretty sad if you ask me.

[RC01]

I think that the drivers here are 1,000X better than the drivers in SD. I mean, I've seen a couple idiot moves here, but you can see those everywhere. It's a good thing SD doesn't have any cities that are too big.

[iNviNciBL3]

Originally Posted by sondra_finchley

I live with a true Scandinavian and he is the loudest complainer about the terrible drivers here. Folks dont drive this bad in Sweden, trust me.

I live with a true Romanian and she complains that the drivers out here are not crazy enough! lol. Drivers in Scandinavia and Finland are great, but see a car with Russian tags you better brace yourself.

[sondra_finchley]

Ive been to Vilnius a few times. The first was 10 years after independence, and everything still seemed kinda quaint. I then visited again after a bunch of money had pumped through the system in the 2000s and was running for my life across plenty of intersections! Eastern European drivers are no joke - almost as bad as Italians

[1stpontiac]

Originally Posted by knke0204

People really do need to learn how to merge around here. That's interesting I read this thread. Just tonight in the car we laughed at these two GIANT white-signs with black text. One read something like - USE TURN SIGNAL IF TURNING RIGHT-ON-RED. The other one read something like SLOWER TRAFFIC MERGE RIGHT.

Originally Posted by iNviNciBL3

When you see those type of signs you know the drivers are pretty dumb when you need all these reminders even though they are common sense.

My favorite are the Dont turn left on Red arrow. like people couldnt already understand the meaning of a red arrow

Its a side effect of MN Nice. Since we have to be all passive-aggresive all the time in conversation, we go all out when presented with the chance to say exact what we mean, like on road sighs.