Unnecessary lane-switching in heavy traffic causes accidents, also gridlock.

Aggressive lane-switching
is a deadly driving game
 
By David Maril
 
Do you want to know how to eliminate rush-hour traffic jams, drastically reduce accident rates and conserve on gasoline use?

Here’s a simple but not so easy solution:

Find a way to convince the growing army of “I’m the only one who counts” drivers who have turned aggressive lane-switching into a deadly game, to stay put. If they remain in their lanes during heavy traffic and allow a smooth steady flow to develop, minutes will be shaved off arrival times for everyone.

These self-centered and reckless lane-switchers, who are oblivious to everyone else on the road, are even worse than the clueless legion of slowpokes who block traffic up in the passing lanes, going 10 miles per hour under the speed limit when traffic is light.

You see lane-switchers in action all the time on highways like Interstate-95.

Four lanes will be crammed with cars, creeping along at slow speeds. Just when one lane of cars gets up to about 30 mph, one vehicle from a slower lane finds a way to force itself into the flow.

Usually it’s done without use of the directional signal. The abrupt, discourteous maneuver forces brake lights to flash on as cars, trucks and buses have to stop on a dime to avoid rear-ending the vehicle they are trailing.

KNUCKLEHEADS WHO CUT OTHER CARS OFF

Each inconsiderate lane-switcher is responsible for a chain reaction of forced slowdowns that can stretch back as much a mile. In seconds, the once free-flowing lane is stopped, thanks to a few knuckleheads who saw a few extra feet of daylight and cut other cars off, forcing their way into another lane.

Just as that lane stops and the one next to it starts moving, these nitwits move back to their original lanes with the same types of dangerous maneuvers, causing more sudden stops and halts in the traffic flow.

These days, too many drivers are switching back and forth, trying to save an extra second in driving time by cutting other vehicles off.

Sports cars, trucks, SUVs, and compact high-mileage vehicles all have contestants in this ludicrous game, played by staying within an inch of the car in front. The rules of competition are simple: You cut off as many vehicles as possible, moving from left to right and right to left.

If you are exiting the highway, it’s become acceptable to cut across at the last second before the exit from three lanes over without even a turn-signal blinking. Why bother thinking ahead and getting into the correct lane a mile back, when you can speed along in the wrong lane, gaining a second or two by waiting until the last moment to get over?

Hey, that’s why other cars have brakes and they can use them to stop, so you can forcefully claim your right of way.

In West Baltimore, if you are driving south on Martin Luther King Boulevard and get over to the right a half-mile before turning off onto the Baltimore-Washington Parkway, how many times do you see cars in the middle lane wait until the last second to force their way over to the parkway entrance lane?

The result is two traffic-jam lanes caused by one person. First, you have cars in the middle lane on MLK forced to suddenly stop, waiting for the lane-switcher to get over. Then, when the switcher finally is able to force his or her way into the right lane, all the cars moving in that lane have to stop, causing a backup there.

And just when you think you are in for clear sailing in the center lane on the B-W Parkway heading out of town, you have a bunch of drivers who stop in that lane, trying to force their way onto the I-695 exit at right, headed for Glen Burnie.

Apparently it’s become perfectly reasonable in the minds of these drivers to stop in the center lane of a high-speed highway simply because they want to exit and didn’t bother to get into the right lane at the proper time.

The few times directional signals are used, they are turned on as the car is pushing into your lane, while you’re forced to slam on your brakes to avoid a collision. It no longer seems necessary to put the signal on a few seconds before they move into another vehicle’s lane.

RECKLESS MANEUVERS SAVE VERY LITTLE TIME

The irony is that these reckless maneuvers save very little time. Often, the most a lane-switcher will gain is a couple of car lengths over a five-mile ride.

It’s a shame we seem unable to find a way to convince these fools they would actually get where they’re going faster if they’d stay in their lane and let the traffic accelerate to a steady flow.

For whatever reason, there’s some type of militant, hostile and self-centered attitude that seems to influence most of these people. Many of these are the ones who will jump into breakdown lanes and zoom by while everyone else is correctly putting up with slow traffic.

It gets so bad sometimes, you actually end up rooting for an army of patrol cars with police issuing tickets and heavy fines.

Forget about bringing back speed cameras. We’d be better served by more “stay in your lane” zones during rush-hour traffic.
 
davidmaril@hermanmaril.com
 
“Inside Pitch” is a weekly opinion column written for Voice of Baltimore by David Maril.
 

Manhattan street sign warns motorists not to block inter- section, causing gridlock. Baltimore could use such a law.

EDITOR’S NOTE:  ‘DON’T BLOCK THE BOX’!

Few drivers seem to understand that.
 
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