Rant: Idiot Drivers in Work Zones

You know you’re approaching a road work zone when you see an orange sign like this one. Right now, these are a pretty common sight on the interstate highway between my home and my job.

If you’re like most people, as soon as you see that sign, you make sure you’re in the proper lane, well in advance. But you know there’s always that one idiot driver… who uses up the entire remaining mile or half-mile before practically causing an accident to cut into the line.

Of course, the 20 cars ahead of you that were already moving much slower than the speed limit to begin with, are now stopped, because they had to let this jerk in.

And don’t get me started on why the line is going so slow in the first place. Yes, there are times when trucks are crossing the driving lanes… or you get those “two lane road” deals where they only let traffic by in one direction at a time. But when we’re talking about an Interstate highway, where there’s always one lane open and clear… the only reason people are going even slower than the already reduced limit is because they’re rubbernecking.

They’ve never seen steamrollers and pavers before? Come on! That’s all it is… keep your eyes on the highway and hit the gas, people!  Don’t get me wrong — I am in no way suggesting people speed in work zones… but don’t go slower than the limit either.

Well, back to the “jerk” who waited until the last minute to merge in. I learned today that some states actually encourage people to merge at the last moment!

It sounds crazy at first, but the general idea is that if everyone merged over as soon as they saw the first warning signs (usually 1-2 miles before the merge point), then you’d have that entire 1-2 miles where one lane isn’t even being used. That means the line could grow longer — to the point where the end of the line extends beyond the first “road work” warning signs.

That could be dangerous when you have traffic moving at full speed, then suddenly stopping before they even know there’s road work ahead.

If people keep both lanes full until they get closer to the merge point, apparently it keeps the overall length of the line down. And as long as drivers properly take turns merging into the one remaining lane, it supposedly moves along more efficiently.

Think of the ride queues at Disney World before they installed FastPass. If everyone used just the “right” line, it would be much longer than using two lines. (And in fact, most people did anyway — which is why one of the popular guidebooks advocated using the “left” lines because they were usually shorter. Of course, that theory was made obsolete the day Disney introduced Fastpass.)