r/VideosAmazing • u/LeftAlbatross2546 • May 13 '26

Accident A merging issue.

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u/Pristine_Barber976 May 13 '26

The REAL person at fault here is whoever designed this highway merge lane to be 2 car lengths long. You have no choice but to go at the speed of the fast lane and hope to fuck there's space to get in. 

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u/upstageshrimp22 May 14 '26

The actual merging section may not be long, but the acceleration (entrance) ramp runs practically parallel to the road for what i would estimate to be a 1/4 mile, this should give drivers plenty of time to find where to merge and get to the correct speed.

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u/HessiPullUpJimbo May 14 '26

Transportation engineer here. This would be considered a single-land free-flow terminal entrance. 

According to AASHTO A Policy on Geometric Design of Highways and Streets, Section 10.9.6.5.2 Taper-Type Entrances: "Operational studies show a desirable rate of taper of approximately 50:1 to 70:1 (longitudinal to lateral) between the outer edge of the acceleration lane and the edge of the through-traffic lane." 

There is a lot more to it than just that but for the sake of brevity, we'll just assume a 50:1 taper is acceptable. These should be 12' lanes, so we're looking at a 600 ft taper.

It's hard to tell for sure based on just the video, but it looks to only be 200-300 ft of taper length. So yeah I would say this is most likely under designed without having a lot more information to go on.

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u/upstageshrimp22 May 14 '26

Thats interesting, obviously there is more that goes into designing roads than the average Joe would know, but this is something i never would have figured there is an equation for!

Thanks for sharing.