If you already know what an acceleration lane is, don’t go ahead and skip this. I’ve been behind you and I know damn well you have no idea what the hell I’m talking about.
Why am I the authority on driving? Let me share my credentials:
- In the mid 90’s, Shell used to hand out driving information pamphlets. I’d ride my bike to the gas station and pick them up and absorb all the information in them
- I used to read the Illinois Rules of the Road, for fun
- I’ve read most of ILCS 625 and some of 720. That’s Illinois’ motor vehicle code and criminal code. YES THEY OVERLAP! Don’t be reckless!
- I’ve worked as a mechanic at two shops, doing everything from oil changes to replacing entire engines to minor body work. I understand how they work.
- I’ve probably driven larger vehicles and pulled trailers more than both of your husbands combined.
- I’ve gotten more tickets that Taylor Swift can sell in a lifetime and have been in court more often than Diddy soon.
- I’ve even managed to total a few cars.
Now that we got that out of the way, and your total committed and implicit trust, I’m going to rely on Google Images for a few screenshots. One, because I don’t have an FAA license for unmanned aircraft (yet), so I can’t legally use photos for profit. And two: When I’m behind people on the road, I’m shaking, and that makes really poor footage. Plus: BEING ON YOUR PHONE WHILE DRIVING IS ILLEGAL.
An acceleration lane is, simply put: A lane you accelerate in. See, speed is 100% safe, at least I’m sure of it below say 300MPH. Speed differential is the dangerous bit. So, highway designers design highways so that you have ample space to get to speed before merging (in some areas). I will share two of those today:
I don’t live and have never lived anywhere near these areas, don’t dox me bro.
Rockwall, TX: Ridge Road & Interstate 30
Texas has really cool roads, we have the tallest overpasses, really nice bridges (I’ve been to upwards of 40 states, they all suck), and a really interesting frontage roads that run along the interstates and have U-turn designated lanes (indicated in yellow above). This video talks about them a bit but he thinks it’s bad.
The yellow section is where the under-interstate U-turn only lane goes to the frontage road on the other side of the interstate. The blue part is what we’re learning about today! ACCELERATION LANES!!
Here’s what this looks like from the yellow lane:
Now this looks reasonable… you’re merging, you have the yield, let’s stop here and wait for a spot to merge!
NO DUMBASS
Let us look even closer:
This is one lane from the U-turn, merging into one lane from Ridge (depending on signal, or a straight lane). The immediate junction of these two lanes, while not visibly striped here, is striped — and turns into two lanes. This means that the two lanes you’re seeing feeding into this area do NOT interfere. In fact, several hundred feet later is where the merge happens. Let’s look from the other driver’s perspective:
You likely are saying “wow, that sure looks like two lanes”, but you’re forgetting that it is illegal in Texas to operate anything under a 3/4 ton truck with 18″ wheel spacers, so no, that 12′ wide lane is actually normal here.
Don’t believe me about the merge?
And THIS is where the cars first meet the spot where they have to merge. In a later blog post, I’ll talk about Zipper Merging.
Volo, IL: Hartigan Road & Route 59
I actually feel like this one is even more self evident
There’s two lanes heading North on 59, and a protected right turn lane, and a protected turn left lane.
Across the intersection (at the top, on the second 12), you can see there’s three lanes — you can judge that by the grease marks indicating where the lanes are because the idiots in Illinois are broke from paying for their local government and can’t replace the O-Ring on their oil plug.
On the right side, you see an only lane, that enters a 3rd lane (That comes from nowhere else). Where can that lane go?!
From the perspective of a driver on Route 59, you wouldn’t create a new lane where there’s paint!
But what about the perspective of somebody pulling out from Hartigan?
LOOK! A PROTECTED RIGHT TURN!
Also:
There’s the merge.
So don’t stop at the line, accelerate in the area traffic engineers give you and MERGE!
Thanks!
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