[geeks] Stuff fo' sale

[Dan Duncan]

On Wed, 16 Aug 2006, Sridhar Ayengar wrote:
> There's this one asshat who lives near me who does this *every* *time*.
>   I usually merge into the traffic directly by passing him.  I made the
> mistake of waiting for him couple of times.  He sits there for about
> *five minutes*.

I take this shortcut to work that involves this really strange merge lane
setup.  I'm sure it has a name but I can't be arsed to look for it so
here's the satellite photo.  The blue car heading west at the end of the
merge lane was probably STOPPED when the photo was taken:
http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&hl=en&q=van+teylingen,+Colorado+Springs+CO&ie=UTF8&ll=38.889191,-104.773918&spn=0.000925,0.001869&t=h&om=1
Basically, I make a left turn from a stop sign onto a divided road and
my merge lane is a VERY short one in the median.  The road is extremely busy
and traffic is posted for 40mph but you know how it goes.  Add to this the
fact that the cars I'm merging with are cresting a hill so there's only so
much visibility to the east.  On the rare occasion
there is a car ahead of me (part of the reason I use this shortcut is because
I usually have it to myself) the driver usually stops at the end of the merge
lane.  My typical strategy is to make sure it's clear left (and right because
occasionally a westbound car will turn left onto the road I'm on) and get to
the very beginning of the merge lane and be ready to stop if there is more
traffic.  If there's a car behind me it's critical that I keep them from
getting behind me in the merge lane because then I can't see AT ALL and
we're never going to get out of there.  (The one time it happened, the driver
behind me had to go first after I pointed out that he was preventing me from
merging in because I couldn't see.)  Again, luckily I have this to myself most
of the time.   Getting up to speed for a safe merge is tough, but it's fun.
I'd give it a difficulty of 7.  (9 when I'm on the phone. Ok, not really.)
The easiest way to do it is when it's clear in both directions but waiting
for that rarity to happen during rush hour would eliminate it as a shortcut
and is probably why it's rarely busy.  (My life is boring, OK?)

-DanD

-- 
#  Dan Duncan (kd4igw)  dand at pcisys.net  http://pcisys.net/~dand
# "A man full of faith is simply one who has lost (or never had) the
# capacity for clear and realistic thought.  He is not merely an ass: he
# is actually ill."  H L Mencken