Exit-only signs: A bit more on what’s happening
Posted on January 27th, 2008 – 10:45 PMBy Roadguy
Here’s Roadguy’s column from the Sunday paper. If you’ve already read it elsewhere, please skip on down to the comments below.
Freeway drivers tend to have little affection for a lane that’s about to end, but they harbor a great deal of love for exit-only signs.
After last week’s column about the removal of such signs along Interstate 394, several alert readers wanted a better understanding of the Minnesota Department of Transportation’s motivations, so Roadguy got more info from Heather Lott, a MnDOT sign guru.
Lott says that exit-only signs were developed to let drivers on the main part of a highway know that their lane is ending, not to tell drivers entering from a ramp that they’re in a short acceleration/deceleration lane.
“Exit-only signs create a strong reaction from drivers, resulting in many leaving the auxiliary lane immediately, even if they have not accelerated sufficiently to merge into mainline traffic,” Lott wrote, using italics for emphasis. “This defeats the primary purpose of the auxiliary lane.”
So to reduce driver panic, MnDOT has decided that auxiliary lanes that are a half-mile long or longer should get exit-only signs, while shorter ones generally get the “dotted” lane striping and sometimes a black-and-white “right lane must exit” sign. Lott says that, compared with other states, Minnesota had been “overusing” exit-only signs on auxiliary lanes.
Lott encourages drivers entering a freeway to look at the sign near the end of the ramp. An added-lane sign…
…is used for lanes that are going to stick around for a while, whereas a standard merge sign…
…indicates ramp traffic should plan to merge into mainline traffic.
So the answer is still there in black and yellow; it’s just at the end of the ramp instead of overhead.
18 Responses to "Exit-only signs: A bit more on what’s happening"
I would just like people to be at highway-speed a little before they arrive at the bottom of the ramp. This would prevent a wave cars building up behind slowpokes where the rear of the wave of cars ends up merging at less than half of the posted speed limit.
Maybe it is just a mix between certain cars that accelerate poorly and onramps engineered poorly that cause it, I dunno. I’m just terrified when I’m at the rear of a wave behind somepoke where by the time I get to the highway I’m merging into the main flow of highway traffic at 30 mph.
Try to get onto eastbound 94 at the Cretin/Vandalia exit! There’s “panic” for you:
The right lane isn’t “exit-only” as such, but once it gets past the University/280 exit, it quicky merges into the rest of 94.
Then there’s the people who want to exit to University/280, who cut across that entrance lane to get off 94.
With all the weaving and zig-zagging, it sometimes looks like a car commercial, but you don’t get the “do not attempt” warning!
On a slightly different topic, highway entrances seem to have either merge or yield signs, but never both. There’s a definite trend toward the merge over the yield.
Does the merge sign imply a yield? Or, the fact that it does not, could this be the cause of some of Minnesota driver yielding problems on the highways?
A simple solution could be to add a little sign under the merge to “Yield to Highway traffic”.
Me no speakie english. How I care?
Git out my way round eye.
Git out of my country Hung!
yIELD MEANS GIVE UP THE RIGHT OF WAY
Merge means to blend together, neither has the right of way.CG brings up a big problem. If people are suposed to blend togehter in a merge, it helps if they are going the same speed with a few car lengths between them and the person they are following. If cars can arrange to “zipper’ together into one lane, traffic can flow. But when traffic slows at the end of the entrance ramp, this messes it all up. Likewise, when people tailgate to try to prevent the legal merge. it fouls things all up.
I’ve said it before but…
I’ve never understood how you can YIELD while trying to enter an interstate with any amount of traffic on it.
Since our ramps are way to short, and highways are so congested, we have to have Merge signs. If they were yield signs, nobody would be able to enter the road way until after 7:00 pm.
In a sense, Yield signs are redundant, since entering vehicles are required to yield to mainline traffic at ALL on-ramps.
In practical terms, where you see a Yield sign it means “we’re not giving you enough space to get fully up to speed, so make sure there’s nobody in the traffic lane before you slide into it”. If you don’t see a Yield sign, it means “accelerate up to the speed of the main traffic flow and then merge into an open space”.
Why is this so hard for people to understand?
It’s hard to understand because a yield sign means you must yield to all traffic that is already on the interstate. When there is significant traffic (6am - 9pm every day in most places), there is no way to actually yield to traffic - someone on the interstate will have to move, slow down, speed up, or make other adjustments in order to make room for me to enter. Therefore, to have a yield sign to enter the interstate causes people to oddly interpret the definition of yield, which you just did Coelacanth.
Brad Says: “Likewise, when people tailgate to try to prevent the legal merge. it fouls things all up. ”
Is that what you call it tailgating?
They say leave 1 car length for every 10 mph. Well, when our poorly designed freeways carry traffic at 5 mph, how much stopping distance does one need?
Accelerating up to the speed of the main traffic is about 5 mph. Good Luck with your scenario!
Here’s mine - look in the rearview mirror - look for a big truck, the kind that takes a while to accelerate, or spot some timid/uncertain driver, then accelerate to about 20 mph, then cut into the lane, hit the brakes.
Unfortunately this is the scenario we have been forced into by MnDot, and their lack of design, planning, care.
You know, it is possible to merge into tight traffic. You find which car whose bumper you want to kiss; drive slower than that vehicle, but faster than the car in back of it and glide right in.
The entrance ramp to Eastbound 62 off of Portland is a very short ramp. You have to be going the speed limit by the time you get down to Hwy 62. Traffic in the right line is getting off at the next exit to go to the Mall of America. Don’t expect them to make room for you as they need to exit soon.
Driving is a skill. Backing up a vehicle is a skill: so is driving forward a skill. Learn how to drive and enjoy the ride. I’ve been doing it for years. I love merging onto highways.
Remember: Driving is like playing the piano. Make one mistake and everyone finds out.
lovetodrivegirl: You are limited, very limited!
Roadguy, I think you should ask Heather Lott about the signs along 312. On my way in this morning on 312 (eastbound), I noticed the “added lane” sign at the end of the ramp from Dell Road. However, that “added lane” did not stick around. It left at the next exit (Eden Prairie Rd). No “Exit Only” sign, either. The same thing happens after merging with highway 5. The ramp from Mitchell Road shows the “added lane” sign, but it exits very soon at Prairie Center Drive, again with no “Exit Only” sign.
Brian,
This is typical MnDot construction. One guy’s entrance ramp, is another person’s exit ramp. You need to do two merges: one for the people who are exiting, and another to enter the freeway. The exit from 394 East to 100 South - you gotta merge about 5 times just to get on to 100. Another MnDot mess.
DGB, I understand that. My point was that the signs didn’t agree with the information Roadguy got from Heather Lott. According to the info posted here, both of those signs should have been “merge” signs to indicate that the auxiliary lane was not going to stay.
Brian,
The signs are 1% of the problem!
Let’s suppose I’m not familiar with the area and that I’m eastbound on 394 approaching Louisiana Ave. I got on 394 from 169 so I was in the separated auxilary lane until past General Mills Blvd. I enter a lane that is NOT separated from the rest of the lanes with “dotted” striping, the overhead sign doesn’t say exit only (not anymore, anyway), and there’s no sign that says the lane is ending. No indication at all that it’s just an auxiliary lane.
Instead, it’s a surprise as soon as the car in front of me exits and I find myself almost driving onto the shoulder with about 100 feet left to merge. How’s that for the quick merge?
AND, I’m quite sure the sign at the end of the ramp from 169/General Mills is not a merge sign, nor should it be. The lane continues for a half mile, and traffic destined for Louisiana Avenue shouldn’t be induced to merge left, then right again within that half mile.
So Mn/DOT prefers to induce traffic to merge when they don’t all have to, and wants to put up a ground-mounted sign (if anything) that says “right lane must exit”, which is less effective, and they now have to replace it every time someone leaves the road and hits it.
Hmmmm… Great policy.
