Busy highway merging?

Question

When I am merging onto an extremely busy highway, where vehicles are following close to each other at high speeds while there is not a safe place to merge, what is the best thing to do?

As far as I know, the vehicles on the highway have the right-of-way. So, when the lane comes together, what should I do if there is not a safe place to merge?

Answer 1

Well most of the time if you actually use the ramp for what it is there for and that is accellerating to the speed of traffic than you should have to problem getting in. Just press the gas and get up to the speed of traffic someone will let you in.

Answer 2

Floor it and be aggressive.

Answer 3

Notice the vehicles around you. Check your mirrors to be aware of nearby vehicles, especially those next to and behind you. If a vehicle is blocking your entrance to the highway, slow down so that you can try to merge in behind that vehicle.

Increase your speed. Before merging onto the highway, you need to be driving near highway speed. If the acceleration lane is long enough, accelerate to match the speed of the vehicles on the highway before you merge completely.

Use your turn signal. Put on your turn signal to let the drivers around you know your intentions. Seeing your signal, the drivers on the highway may adjust their lane position to allow you easier access to the highway.

Check your blind spot. Even though you have checked your mirrors, double check your blind spot by turning your head toward the highway and using your peripheral vision. Depending on the angle at which you are approaching the highway, your blind spot may be larger than normal.

Accelerate into the open space. When there is space for you on the highway, merge into the space, bringing your vehicle up to highway speed as quickly as possible.

Answer 4

You slow down as much as you can in your lane or come to a stop until there's a safe spot to merge into, there's nothing else you can really do.  Sometimes people can be such jerks and won't let you merge though, I hate those f***ers.  Me, if I'm driving and see a merge is coming up and an open spot in front of the vehicles ahead of me, I speed up and merge, as long as it's safe.

Answer 5

Just close your eyes and FLOOR IT!

Well thats what i do....

Or you could just slow down or stop if you need to and wait untill theres an opening..

Answer 6

In California,  merging cars have a responsibility to NOT collide with each other.  Caltrans does not install very many yield signs on freeway merging ramps - the objective of traffic engineers is that drivers on the ramps and drivers on the freeway will look out for each other and adjust their speeds to accommodate each other.

Your best bet is to signal your intentions  well in advance with your turn signals, check for the traffic speed and car spacings for the vehicles on the freeway, adjust your speed to merge smoothly into traffic and be assertive but not aggressive in your merging.  

But be aware that there are some jerks on the road who will try to keep you from merging into "their" space (idiots) by closing up any gaps.   So drive defensively and let them have their way - it's not worth risking an accident with a jerk.  Take a deep breath and let them pass.

Answer 7

The key is to determine this situation early.  You want to have noticed this WAY BEFORE your on-ramp begins to merge onto the highway.  Why?  You need to formulate a plan-of-attack that consists of 1) signaling your intentions early, 2) picking out the spot between vehicles you're most likely to merge smoothly into, and 3) giving yourself as much distance as possible to accelerate to MATCH TRAFFIC SPEED.

See, even as cars whiz-by in fast traffic, the reality is that very few drivers will follow so closely to the car ahead as to leave less than one car length of space.  (Those that do are tailgaters, and are either: clueless drivers who don't realize the risk they're running, road ragers who could care less about vehicular homicide, and/or expert drivers who are actually watching traffic several cars ahead through the other cars' windshields and are doing this for unknown reasons.  Regardless, all of them are in the midst of a high-risk activity, so you don't want to deal with any of them.)  As much as one-car-length is enough to assert a merge in theory, that gap is impossibly daunting when there is a speed differential.  In addition, forcing that merge with a speed differential is cutting-off the flow of traffic, which is a big no-no from both a safety and driving ethic perspective.  The obvious solution is to match speed with traffic as much as possible in the merge, and then it becomes a piece of cake for both you and the highway traffic.  Without having to slow down significantly, most traffic will go out of their way to accommodate you (except for the kind of jerks noted in the prior response).  OTOH, if you're distracted or otherwise incompetent and end up at the merge point much slower than traffic, nobody wants to brake suddenly to let you in.  It's both inconvenient and unsafe for them to do so.

If your on-ramp is itself very busy and your ability to accelerate is limited by the car ahead of you, it helps if you can back off his bumper and create a safety gap for your acceleration in case the guy ahead of you suddenly decides that he can't merge and stops dead in his tracks.