"Do the zipper merge" (Minneapolis, St. Paul: living, shop, moving)

[golfgal]

I have driven in 12 states in the past couple months. The drivers in the Twin Cities are by far the best I've come across anywhere. I don't think they actually install blinkers in cars in Ill, IN, PA, NJ because I've never seen anyone from those states actually use one and while you do see some people not use them here, for the most part people do use them.

The merging thing on the cloverleafs though-while not great, still better than most places.

[MSMCGirl]

I LOVE Minnesota, however coming from California the thing I do NOT like here is the way people drive!! Some of the worst drivers in the country. The fact that the "zipper merge"commercial exists is testimony to how poor the driving skills are. People....move to the end of the dashed line....you don't have to merge a mile ahead of the actual merge. ANd NO you're not be Minnesota nice or "fair", you're just proving you don't know how to drive! Also, even if it's not the law in Minnesota, it's COMMON COURTESY in almost every other state to MOVE RIGHT if you want to drive slow. Do you know how much traffic is created when you have people going 40 in the left lane on 35W?? MOVE RIGHT SLOW POKE! Also, so much passive aggressiveness. Yikes. Minnesotans will tail you and then when you gesture to them they freak out, slow down and don't want to make eye contact. Wacky. Again, I LOVE Minnesota but I'll take the drivers on the California freeways ANY DAY over driving in Minnesota!

[golfgal]

Originally Posted by MSMCGirl

I LOVE Minnesota, however coming from California the thing I do NOT like here is the way people drive!! Some of the worst drivers in the country. The fact that the "zipper merge"commercial exists is testimony to how poor the driving skills are. People....move to the end of the dashed line....you don't have to merge a mile ahead of the actual merge. ANd NO you're not be Minnesota nice or "fair", you're just proving you don't know how to drive! Also, even if it's not the law in Minnesota, it's COMMON COURTESY in almost every other state to MOVE RIGHT if you want to drive slow. Do you know how much traffic is created when you have people going 40 in the left lane on 35W?? MOVE RIGHT SLOW POKE! Also, so much passive aggressiveness. Yikes. Minnesotans will tail you and then when you gesture to them they freak out, slow down and don't want to make eye contact. Wacky. Again, I LOVE Minnesota but I'll take the drivers on the California freeways ANY DAY over driving in Minnesota!

The reason the zipper merge commercial exists is that the practice of zipper merging is new in the area, not because people are bad drivers. Zipper merging is not standard practice in most states actually. I agree with you on the people playing State Patrol in the left lane though.

[knke0204]

Drivers in Minnesota aren't very good. I have a lot of friends and family that have lived around the country and it's very very common for me to hear about how crappy the drivers are here. It's unbelievable. On Sunday I was driving on 694 (3 lanes) and I was STUCK IN TRAFFIC! At 12:00 on a Sunday! Why? Because people were going 55 in the FAST LANE!!!!!!!!! Also because people were going a speed of 55 when getting on the freeway. Common Rule is to be going the speed limit when hitting the freeway.

[Min-Chi-Cbus]

Originally Posted by MSMCGirl

I LOVE Minnesota, however coming from California the thing I do NOT like here is the way people drive!! Some of the worst drivers in the country. The fact that the "zipper merge"commercial exists is testimony to how poor the driving skills are. People....move to the end of the dashed line....you don't have to merge a mile ahead of the actual merge. ANd NO you're not be Minnesota nice or "fair", you're just proving you don't know how to drive! Also, even if it's not the law in Minnesota, it's COMMON COURTESY in almost every other state to MOVE RIGHT if you want to drive slow. Do you know how much traffic is created when you have people going 40 in the left lane on 35W?? MOVE RIGHT SLOW POKE! Also, so much passive aggressiveness. Yikes. Minnesotans will tail you and then when you gesture to them they freak out, slow down and don't want to make eye contact. Wacky. Again, I LOVE Minnesota but I'll take the drivers on the California freeways ANY DAY over driving in Minnesota!

I've never heard this rule about moving to the end of the dashed line. In fact, if you did that every time and you did NOT have an opening, you'd be pretty screwed and/or be a much higher risk for causing an accident. The way I approach that situation is speed up along the ramp and highway with the area I have given to me and once I approach freeway speed I take an open spot as soon as it becomes available (whether it's right when I get on or all the way to the end of the dashed line). To me this makes the most logical and safe sense.

[Min-Chi-Cbus]

Originally Posted by knke0204

Drivers in Minnesota aren't very good. I have a lot of friends and family that have lived around the country and it's very very common for me to hear about how crappy the drivers are here. It's unbelievable. On Sunday I was driving on 694 (3 lanes) and I was STUCK IN TRAFFIC! At 12:00 on a Sunday! Why? Because people were going 55 in the FAST LANE!!!!!!!!! Also because people were going a speed of 55 when getting on the freeway. Common Rule is to be going the speed limit when hitting the freeway.

55 mph isn't "traffic" IMO. Traffic would be less than 45 mph.

[rcsteiner]

Originally Posted by knke0204

Drivers in Minnesota aren't very good. I have a lot of friends and family that have lived around the country and it's very very common for me to hear about how crappy the drivers are here. It's unbelievable. On Sunday I was driving on 694 (3 lanes) and I was STUCK IN TRAFFIC! At 12:00 on a Sunday! Why? Because people were going 55 in the FAST LANE!!!!!!!!! Also because people were going a speed of 55 when getting on the freeway. Common Rule is to be going the speed limit when hitting the freeway.

There are poor drivers everywhere, but I've seen drivers do things here in the Atlanta metro that I never saw them do up in the Twin Cities. People seem a lot more impatient here. Not as many slow drivers.

[knke0204]

Originally Posted by Min-Chi-Cbus

55 mph isn't "traffic" IMO. Traffic would be less than 45 mph.

What? Why not? Anything less than the speed limit is traffic IMO.
I don't get why it's a Sunday afternoon and I'm driving 55 MPH on a Major US interstate, when the speed limit is 60.

That's fine if you choose not to drive the speed limit, but get out of the way for those who don't care about it, like me.

[golfgal]

Originally Posted by knke0204

What? Why not? Anything less than the speed limit is traffic IMO.
I don't get why it's a Sunday afternoon and I'm driving 55 MPH on a Major US interstate, when the speed limit is 60.

That's fine if you choose not to drive the speed limit, but get out of the way for those who don't care about it, like me.

Accident, weather construction--there are a lot of reasons why this could be the case. When was this, what else was going on at the time??

[Beenhere4ever]

Reread your driver's manual. The "speed limit" is whatever is safe. A general rule of the road. In theory you could be ticketed for driving 55 in a 60 mile zone if the conditions made that unsafe. Not that anyone in the state retains anything once they pass the written test. Again, its why the performance on the highway is so lousy. People simply have no respect for the concept of skillful driving.