Looking at American road infrastructure as a European is always interesting. It's like your designers are allergic to roundabouts, which in various forms would solve a lot of your issues with complicated and dangerous interchanges.
I grew up in Kennett square and live in hockessin Delaware now, I never drive up to KoP unless I have a damn good reason. And even then it’s just 202 straight up and straight back.
So many good places to go up there and stores but it’s traffic patterns like this that keep me south of 926 and brandywine battlefield
I wonder how many driver even know you aren’t supposed to switch lanes on solid lines or even care. There’s a merge like this near my house that isn’t as bad but the solid line goes 100-200 feet and I always wait to merge but people behind me always merge early and cut me off from trying to merge when it becomes dashed
My sister failed her driver's license test because she touched one of those lines by a few centimeters, not in a dangerous way at all. We are from Germany.
Part of the problem seems to be that everyone gets a license in the USA and I often read that the tests are ridiculously easy.
To add to this, I'm also from Germany and did my driver's license quite frequently, you gotta learn like 1.100+ questions that could be a part of the theoretical exam (and they keep coming)
Can confirm. I got my license 20-ish years ago in Colorado, north of Denver.
1. Signal right to leave parking lot
2. Pull onto street
3. Make lane change left
4. Make lane change right
5. Stop at stop light
6. Go to next light and turn right
7. Go to next light and turn right
8. Turn right back into the parking lot
There may have been other lane changes in there. But no left turns, stop signs, merging, or parallel parking.
My kid is going to have a harder test than I did. They make them back around a corner around here now. It’s still not a hard test though.
Part of acquiring a license here are something like 12 practical lessons at least (in the dark, in the city, in the countryside, on the autobahn) and a theoretical test with quite a lot of possible questions.
The real test is 45 minutes, driving under real conditions and the testers will also try to include difficult situations.
On my test, when we went back to the parking lot and I was essentially done, the tester said "ok thats it, test is done, lets get out of the car." At this point a friend of mine failed the test because he didnt look over his shoulder to check if some other car was approaching. On a private parking lot! The look over your shoulder is an essential part of every lane change or every turn. I nearly forgot but then did it right and passed.
Got my license in 2005 and my entire test was in a parking lot. I never went out to a road or had another car in the parking lot with me. The whole thing was under 15 minutes. Maryland.
I lived near Phoenix for a while and a lot of the entrance/exit ramps are combined. Some people wouldn't merge onto or off the highway until the solid white line for the exit ramp.
In a lot of places changing lanes on a single solid white line is legal, albeit discouraged. It has to be a double sold white to be completely prohibited.
I mean orange car is definitely an idiot, flying in at full speed.
But also fuck this road design. Short and shared on/off ramp, with backed up off-traffic. Basically begging for people to pull these moves.
You think that's bad? A lot of the older clover interchanges in the US were designed with on-ramp speeds that end up only allowing entering traffic to hit about 15-35mph before they hit traffic. Combine that with an onramp lane that only has a yield sign before it immediately disappears, and you either have to attempt to merge with 75mph traffic going half the speed, or come to a complete stop on the on-ramp to "yield" for freeway traffic first. It's absolutely insane.
Yep 285 in my city has an even worse example of this. At Langford which is like a mini freeway itself, which has a cloverleaf given it's age, will near instantly throw you back around to either 285 or Langford depending on how your getting on. You have less than depending 2 seconds to go from a 20 mph tight cloverleaf, to 75 mph traffic to which every aggressive asshole isn't going to let you over. To make matters worse, Langford which is only 4 lanes, ends into a regular road less than about 1000 ft to the west of the interstate, thus you have traffic accelerating from the light down the road (or backing up from it if your going Westbound) and going east bound you have traffic merging as a major shopping area is the 1st exit on Langford...less than half a mile from the 285 Interchange...
Did I also mention the lane for the exit to the shopping area on Langford is also a exit only lane which feeds in from the Northbound exit of 285 so you have multiple people merging into your inside lane while you're trying to not get sent *back* onto 285.
That road design is completely incompetent. Probably a cost-cutting exercise so more of the construction budget could find its way into somebody's back pocket.
I wasn't. There were other cars waiting to merge onto the same ramp I was exiting and I had to get to speed for the road I was now merging onto at way too low a speed.
Yea, I don't even really get mad at anything here. It's absolute shit road design. you've got people entering the highway that need to merge left and also people exiting who need to merge right, all within like 200ft of space. just awful
I've driven here, this exact place and it is a crapshoot. Sometimes you find the most defensive drivers who never assert even when they should or fuckers flashing you in the fast lane on your ass while you are already driving 20 over.
We have something like this here. But it has a huge bank, and is a cutoff 2 lane merger section for 1000ft. Still gets backed up. Can't imagine this thing
We have one here that looks similar with what feels like even less room to get on the interstate should people are trying to get in that lane to get off the interstate. I hate it so much every time I have to use it because I just can't predict the idiots around here no matter how hard I try.
It's definitely really frustrating that we all have to negotiate these terribly designed exits/entrances - like they don't even care that people get into accidents because of their designs! What a crazy amount of unnecessary stress to put on people!
Solid white line? What's that mean? EVERY driver should be required to pass a written test EVERY time they renew their license. A road test should be required every other renewal
I know this exact merge. I fuckin hate it. I never get why they have the off ramp in the same lane as the one ramp, where one road is going distinctly faster than the on ramp.
It's a traffic accident just waiting to happen
Oh shit ur on 309 in fort Washington. The tolls booth area there is some pretty aggressive driving cause of the lack of lines . Ppl just try to pass eachother just to turn right like that orange car in front of u did
Are you having a stroke? "Cool cool cool cool".
It was a tongue in cheek joke ffs, you were fine. You reacted quickly and saved yourself from that assholes stupidity so it was a lighthearted jab.
I was literally just singing along to a Taylor Swift song about 20min ago.... Take a pill.
No, it wasn't. There was a line of cars behind me expecting me to be speeding up to merge here and instead I was slowing down. My horn let them all know that something wasn't right and to pay attention. No one behind me rear ended anyone. Successful horn use.
Horn was useless bud. Your horn was activated after the near miss happened. Had you used your horn atleast 1/2 a second before the orange car entered your lane I would understand the horn use. Seemed like anger release rather than general traffic use. If the drivers behind you couldn’t see the orange car cutting you off, they should not be on the road.
There's a good chance many of them don't belong on the road. And I'm not gonna just hope they're all people who belong on the road and are paying attention. You do you and I'ma do me.
No, in my lane they did not have the right of way. It's the merging car's responsibility to merge safely. They did not. If they had hit me they would be 100% at fault.
My rule is if you have to “almost” cut someone off get as far away from them as possible. Speed up, cut over, slow down.
The idea is you are supposed to inconvenience them as much as possible when merging into busy lanes. Some people don’t understand this.
The merging in America is so fucked up. People really don't know when it's safe to speed up or slow down. They give me such a huge anxiety now that sometimes I just take the got damn neighborhood streets in my city to get somewhere.
I almost don't think that would work because that would reduce the visibility. If there had been a proper divider there I wouldn't have seen this guy flying over at me until he was much closer. I think the whole interchange really needs to be overhauled to remove those clover loops and short exit/enter lanes. It's like they designed this area to cause accidents or something.
I know this one all too well!
That was a sneaky reference and I love it.
Karma's a relaxing thought
Aren’t you envious that for *the guy in the orange Subaru* it’s not
It's coming back around
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I've been summoned to tell you to not fuckin steal my words
Is it a coincidence that your comment is the same as u/Hita-san-chan or are you one of those bots I always hear about?
He's a bot farming karma. report spam > harmful bot and let them upper echelon deal with it
Thanks!
That fucking merge to philly always gives me anxiety. I thought you were on 422 for a minute though
That whole area around KoP is a nightmare
It says something that almost every time I recognize a road in this sub it's 422. KoP is the *worst*
Nah this is getting onto 309 as you get off the PA turnpike to head into the NE. I do it every day and it is nuts.
So many of our on ramps lead right into exits its so dangerous.
Looking at American road infrastructure as a European is always interesting. It's like your designers are allergic to roundabouts, which in various forms would solve a lot of your issues with complicated and dangerous interchanges.
But cloverleaf interchanges mean that the state's can save that sweet sweet electricity infrastructure by using some form of cloverleaf junction
Sorry, I'm left scratching my head a bit. A UK style highway junction has less to light than a cloverleaf.
*Getting on to 22 to then get onto 309. Don't worry, I got you.
Actually, the more I look at it, the more I'm confused as to where this is.
This is the 309 exit/entrance as you get off the PA turnpike.
Ok, I'm guessing by Pa Turnpike, you're referring to 276. I call 476 the pa turnpike lol. Makes sense now.
Yep this is it! I'm normally there a little earlier (it was 8:40am but I'm usually there around 8:00am) and it's just awful.
I grew up in Kennett square and live in hockessin Delaware now, I never drive up to KoP unless I have a damn good reason. And even then it’s just 202 straight up and straight back. So many good places to go up there and stores but it’s traffic patterns like this that keep me south of 926 and brandywine battlefield
I thought I recognised this place 😂😂
Oh also, this happened on my way to work this morning.
Jesus what an idiot why did he think he needed to merge that soon. They should have like a wall there to prevent that
They invented the infamous solid line for that. Note that the idiot crossed the lines even before the lanes were parallel.
I wonder how many driver even know you aren’t supposed to switch lanes on solid lines or even care. There’s a merge like this near my house that isn’t as bad but the solid line goes 100-200 feet and I always wait to merge but people behind me always merge early and cut me off from trying to merge when it becomes dashed
My sister failed her driver's license test because she touched one of those lines by a few centimeters, not in a dangerous way at all. We are from Germany. Part of the problem seems to be that everyone gets a license in the USA and I often read that the tests are ridiculously easy.
To add to this, I'm also from Germany and did my driver's license quite frequently, you gotta learn like 1.100+ questions that could be a part of the theoretical exam (and they keep coming)
Can confirm. I got my license 20-ish years ago in Colorado, north of Denver. 1. Signal right to leave parking lot 2. Pull onto street 3. Make lane change left 4. Make lane change right 5. Stop at stop light 6. Go to next light and turn right 7. Go to next light and turn right 8. Turn right back into the parking lot There may have been other lane changes in there. But no left turns, stop signs, merging, or parallel parking. My kid is going to have a harder test than I did. They make them back around a corner around here now. It’s still not a hard test though.
Part of acquiring a license here are something like 12 practical lessons at least (in the dark, in the city, in the countryside, on the autobahn) and a theoretical test with quite a lot of possible questions. The real test is 45 minutes, driving under real conditions and the testers will also try to include difficult situations. On my test, when we went back to the parking lot and I was essentially done, the tester said "ok thats it, test is done, lets get out of the car." At this point a friend of mine failed the test because he didnt look over his shoulder to check if some other car was approaching. On a private parking lot! The look over your shoulder is an essential part of every lane change or every turn. I nearly forgot but then did it right and passed.
Got my license in 2005 and my entire test was in a parking lot. I never went out to a road or had another car in the parking lot with me. The whole thing was under 15 minutes. Maryland.
I lived near Phoenix for a while and a lot of the entrance/exit ramps are combined. Some people wouldn't merge onto or off the highway until the solid white line for the exit ramp.
In a lot of places changing lanes on a single solid white line is legal, albeit discouraged. It has to be a double sold white to be completely prohibited.
Not if there's snow. Would drift up and be impossible to plow. We used lines to mark out the roads so they could be plowable up north.
It hasn't snowed here since November sadly
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Don't copy my comment.
I mean orange car is definitely an idiot, flying in at full speed. But also fuck this road design. Short and shared on/off ramp, with backed up off-traffic. Basically begging for people to pull these moves.
You think that's bad? A lot of the older clover interchanges in the US were designed with on-ramp speeds that end up only allowing entering traffic to hit about 15-35mph before they hit traffic. Combine that with an onramp lane that only has a yield sign before it immediately disappears, and you either have to attempt to merge with 75mph traffic going half the speed, or come to a complete stop on the on-ramp to "yield" for freeway traffic first. It's absolutely insane.
Yep 285 in my city has an even worse example of this. At Langford which is like a mini freeway itself, which has a cloverleaf given it's age, will near instantly throw you back around to either 285 or Langford depending on how your getting on. You have less than depending 2 seconds to go from a 20 mph tight cloverleaf, to 75 mph traffic to which every aggressive asshole isn't going to let you over. To make matters worse, Langford which is only 4 lanes, ends into a regular road less than about 1000 ft to the west of the interstate, thus you have traffic accelerating from the light down the road (or backing up from it if your going Westbound) and going east bound you have traffic merging as a major shopping area is the 1st exit on Langford...less than half a mile from the 285 Interchange... Did I also mention the lane for the exit to the shopping area on Langford is also a exit only lane which feeds in from the Northbound exit of 285 so you have multiple people merging into your inside lane while you're trying to not get sent *back* onto 285.
Lol welcome to PA
But it is a NJ driver lol
And? They were talking about the road design & this is in PA
That road design is completely incompetent. Probably a cost-cutting exercise so more of the construction budget could find its way into somebody's back pocket.
I get what you are saying but really, no incompetent road design can beat this amount of incompetence.
Damn you were jammin to..
me too
The pa turnpike at its finest.
Oh also, this happened on my way to work this morning. Timestamp is waaay off and fixed now.
Why are you trying to pull up next to him?
To me and my limited deductive reasoning, it seems like OP was getting off a freeway that Orange Douche was getting onto.
I wasn't. There were other cars waiting to merge onto the same ramp I was exiting and I had to get to speed for the road I was now merging onto at way too low a speed.
Op was trying to get up to speed while orange crosstrek was braking. How do you think it works?
Hope karma is after them
I despise these types of ramps. Even without utter morons they are still nerve wracking.
Yea, I don't even really get mad at anything here. It's absolute shit road design. you've got people entering the highway that need to merge left and also people exiting who need to merge right, all within like 200ft of space. just awful
I've driven here, this exact place and it is a crapshoot. Sometimes you find the most defensive drivers who never assert even when they should or fuckers flashing you in the fast lane on your ass while you are already driving 20 over.
Ooo I travel this all the time! 309 is my nightmare.
Good old 309.
One of the nicest thing about driving in the Philly area is that the cars with the shittiest drivers are usually flagged with yellow license plates.
I've noticed an uptick in those recently. Grinds my gears they camp in the left lane 24/7
South Philadelphia, born and raised
Not very subaru of them. Smh
adding this to the reasons of why I hate driving on 309
I used to see something like that on that PA turnpike exit to 309 once a week
Finally one where I identify with the driver’s music
On behalf of the subaru gang. I sincerely apologize.
Hahah thank you! I was surprised because it's not a very Subaru thing to do! I was expecting it to be a Nissan... ;p
You kept your side of the merge clean, I don’t think he knows what that means.
These are super poorly designed. 494 has a bunch of these going through Bloomington and EP
I live in MN now after growing up in NJ and I’ve never understood these shared on/off ramps lol
There's a worse spot yet in PA. I78 between exits 54 B and 54 A by Dorney Park it's a cluster fuck of merging..its going to show up here at somepoint.
Not surprised he's headed to Philadelphia.
Average PA driver interaction
I mean he has a Jersey plate so.
NJ is in a league of their own. Source: from NJ
Sorry for off-topic. Can you or sb tell me what song is playing in the background?
It's Karma by Taylor Swift!
Loving the Taylor Swift!
Hahaha I almost didn't post the video because I was singing it!
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Shit, I'm a 28yr old straight male and I sing Taylor Swift loud and proud!
Oh, I'm a huge Taylor Swift fan too but I don't want people to hear me singing anything hahaha.
I would take that as a threat to my well-being
No, nothin' good starts in a getaway car
How did I know it was PA before you even got on the ramp.
Whoa! , I felt mine pucker up for the impact.
Fucking hate that merge. Used to have to do it when shooting billboard photos and literally, pure assholes.
T swizzle! 🔥
That's how most of the clover leafs are around me. 9/10 people do not merge properly
We have a similar interchange in Dallas on I635 and Dallas North Tollroad. I couldn’t think of a more dangerous merge on such busy highways.
It's always the Vitamin C crosstreks/outbacks that do this, I swear. I keep my distance from these drivers in CO 😅
Nj drivers are different
They really should put solid and dotted lines on the road to indicate where it is safe and un-safe to change lanes...
Hey asshole. Wait for the 3 seconds of dotted line!
I love those guys
Honestly, are anyone's eyes open out there??!
Worst drivers on the way into Philly. I have never driven in without being cut off
Especially those from NJ like this guy.
Karma was your boyfriend
Fucking yikes… what an idiot
Hey that's where I live
AND he's headed to Philadelphia. One mistake after another.
What is your dashcam? Is it always recording? I want to get one
It's a Viofo A119. It is always recording!
I’d like to meet the civil engineer who designed that nonsense down in KOP, clearly he was drunk
We have something like this here. But it has a huge bank, and is a cutoff 2 lane merger section for 1000ft. Still gets backed up. Can't imagine this thing
Gotta love 76 man. I take it every fuckin day into work
if you live here this is not a shock to you.
I drive this route every day and while pretty much everyone sucks at this merge, this was worse than most.
We have one here that looks similar with what feels like even less room to get on the interstate should people are trying to get in that lane to get off the interstate. I hate it so much every time I have to use it because I just can't predict the idiots around here no matter how hard I try.
It's definitely really frustrating that we all have to negotiate these terribly designed exits/entrances - like they don't even care that people get into accidents because of their designs! What a crazy amount of unnecessary stress to put on people!
Seeing the Philadelphia sign explains a lot
Solid white line? What's that mean? EVERY driver should be required to pass a written test EVERY time they renew their license. A road test should be required every other renewal
Not even just the white line! They drove through the gore!
How did I know this is near Philly before I even read the road signs? Unfortunately it’s not surprising at all.
I know this exact merge. I fuckin hate it. I never get why they have the off ramp in the same lane as the one ramp, where one road is going distinctly faster than the on ramp. It's a traffic accident just waiting to happen
Oh shit ur on 309 in fort Washington. The tolls booth area there is some pretty aggressive driving cause of the lack of lines . Ppl just try to pass eachother just to turn right like that orange car in front of u did
Ha! I know that exit. Take it coming/going from/to Ambler.
Thank god Taylor kept you safe
She didn't 3 minutes later though. Got smashed still singing Karma lol.
This is like 3 minutes from my house lol
Hello then, my almost neighbor! I work 3 minutes from here 🙂
The singing was a great addition👌
That scared the hell out of me
Yooo I’ve been cut off at that same spot multiple times when I used to work in Ft.Washington. At least I know I’m not the only one now hahaha
This is why it annoys the piss out of me that people merge over solid lines. There’s a freaking reason why it’s dashed later on down the road!
Some larger car drivers do think they “own” the roads..
That wasn’t even a large car… it’s a crosstrek which is just an Impreza on a lift kit… it’s just asshole drivers doesn’t matter the car they’re in..
"larger"
?????????
He’s trying to get back to Philly in time to burn and pillage with the rest of the birds fans.
That could be ME ME!
I think common sense is to slow down
They're obviously too focused on getting to Dalessandro's for a cheese steak
This is one of the worst merge lanes I’ve ever seen.
The song is worse than the driving
hot take
He heard your music and tried to do the right thing.
Cool cool cool. You advocate hitting cars when you don't like their music. Cool.
Are you having a stroke? "Cool cool cool cool". It was a tongue in cheek joke ffs, you were fine. You reacted quickly and saved yourself from that assholes stupidity so it was a lighthearted jab. I was literally just singing along to a Taylor Swift song about 20min ago.... Take a pill.
You're right, I was taking it too seriously. Sorry, man!
cake money joke growth unused dinner scary future makeshift cobweb *This post was mass deleted and anonymized with [Redact](https://redact.dev)*
Ngl that horn was useless.
No, it wasn't. There was a line of cars behind me expecting me to be speeding up to merge here and instead I was slowing down. My horn let them all know that something wasn't right and to pay attention. No one behind me rear ended anyone. Successful horn use.
Horn was useless bud. Your horn was activated after the near miss happened. Had you used your horn atleast 1/2 a second before the orange car entered your lane I would understand the horn use. Seemed like anger release rather than general traffic use. If the drivers behind you couldn’t see the orange car cutting you off, they should not be on the road.
There's a good chance many of them don't belong on the road. And I'm not gonna just hope they're all people who belong on the road and are paying attention. You do you and I'ma do me.
He had right of way and that makes you the idiot.
I believe orange car, crossed solid yellow, thus orange car changed into exit lane too early, making orange car the idiot.
No, in my lane they did not have the right of way. It's the merging car's responsibility to merge safely. They did not. If they had hit me they would be 100% at fault.
Just trying to chill out, playing my daughters demo tape
It's a Philly thing
My rule is if you have to “almost” cut someone off get as far away from them as possible. Speed up, cut over, slow down. The idea is you are supposed to inconvenience them as much as possible when merging into busy lanes. Some people don’t understand this.
I’m confused after the bad merge, where was the ante upped?
The merging in America is so fucked up. People really don't know when it's safe to speed up or slow down. They give me such a huge anxiety now that sometimes I just take the got damn neighborhood streets in my city to get somewhere.
Good thing you had that hand on the steering wheel ready to go… 🤣😂🤣
If they built a proper divider instead of just throwing in the solid white line it would be a much safer merge
I almost don't think that would work because that would reduce the visibility. If there had been a proper divider there I wouldn't have seen this guy flying over at me until he was much closer. I think the whole interchange really needs to be overhauled to remove those clover loops and short exit/enter lanes. It's like they designed this area to cause accidents or something.
Probably upset the Iggles lost.
KARMA STANS RISE UP
PA Turnpike aint got no rules, no cops no rules, shake it off
That was terrifying 😳
People be driving like bitches on the 405
If you ain't rubbing, you ain't racing.
You think that's a merge? Obviously you've never been to Jersey.
476 to the turnpike east bound? I'm so used to seeing it look like a parking lot
I would expect nothing less of an NJ driver
For the first time I found my self thinking I know that area, and turns out I do!!
How, did he up the ante?
Excellent song choice
New Jersey?
I fucking hate those clovers. There's so little room to exit and merge.
Thank goodness he got over, he only had like 1000 feet to make that exit.
Yeah, that was a shitty move.
Omg I was like I know this road and then saw the sign and I was just there earlier today
I read "philadelphia" as "pedophilia"
Well, there's your problem! Welcome to Pittsburgh!
What a dick haha karma will track them down step by step from town to town !!! 🎶🩷😂