We're headed out to an interstate and we're going to do some merging! This is
an interstate where the traffic is going 70 miles an hour, 65 to 70. And sometimes
when you enter an on-ramp, you're going 30-40 miles an hour, but other times you
might be entering the roadway from almost a dead stop. In this case, I'm
going about 25 miles an hour.
First thing you need to do is put on your left turn
signal. Alert the traffic that you're coming. Accelerate. Find a spot. And to do that,
use your mirrors, use your body position. And I've got a wide open spot
here right now. And enter the roadway. Now that one was easy. This is a time of day
when the traffic is light. It's about 9:30 in the morning. If you're going to
be practicing this, it's a good idea to find a time of day when the road's not
that busy. That way, you can work on your skills under less stress, you can build
up your confidence, and it's going to make it easier as you learn to safely
and comfortably merge.
Here we go again. We're going to enter the same interstate.
And the on-ramp speed here is 25 miles an hour. So you need to accelerate up to
the speed limit of the road you're entering or the rate of the traffic.
So after I get around this corner, got my signal on.
I'm gonna have to really accelerate. Sometimes you have to put the pedal
down to get up to the rate of speed of the traffic. I can see from my mirrors,
and looking over my shoulder, that I've got a big opening. So I can get up to highway
speed's pretty quick. But when you're merging, you go through the same
procedures that you would if you were just changing lanes. You put on your
signal, you check your mirrors, and do a head check over your shoulder. Be sure
the opening is there and it's sufficient for your vehicle. And then
make your entry.
And remember the word SAFE. The letters stand for Signal,
Accelerate, Find your spot, and Enter the roadway.
So we're on a slow ramp here.
About to enter the interstate. Can't go very fast here, but it's starting to
straighten out. So it's time to signal and accelerate.
Check for gaps. It's a little wall there dividing our on-ramp and the
acceleration lane.
So using my mirrors, looking over my shoulder, I can see that I've got a gap there.
Keep checking your mirrors in case something changes, but I've got a good
gap there. I've accelerated. I'm up to 70. And I'm in the roadway.
So I'm not having too much trouble today merging.
I've found some pretty big gaps,
and that's made it easy to get up to highway speed and just move right over
it into my spot.
Of course that's not always the case!
Sometimes traffic is heavy, and you've got to and maneuver a little more to
find the spot.
Now you've got some tools that help with that.
You've got your
accelerator, your brake pedal, your mirrors.
The acceleration ramp is
actually the last part of the on-ramp, where you really need to accelerate up
to highway speed. It's usually a little bit straighter. But if you're on the
on-ramp, or the acceleration ramp, and you see a spot that's coming, but there's
vehicles behind it, you might need to use your accelerator to speed up so you can
match your vehicle and time it so that you can enter right at that gap.
But if you see one behind a line of trucks or cars, then ease off the accelerator or
even apply the brakes lightly to slow down so you can fit into that gap when
it comes up.
Always use your mirrors when you're going to enter a roadway. They can
tell you a lot. You can see what's behind you, beside you. And when it comes to mirrors,
you can also adjust your body position to see more with those mirrors.
Like if I lean forward a little bit and to the left, I can see a little more
straight behind me with that mirror. So body position is a tool too. Don't feel
like you're frozen in place behind this wheel.
And to that word SAFE, I might also
add an R on the end. And that's for Respect. If you're driving on the
interstate, and you see vehicles approaching from the on-ramp,
Then respect them and pull over if you can into another lane to make a gap for them.
You could even speed up a little or slow down a little if that helps, but you can
help them out. It's basically the Golden Rule...do unto others as you would have
them do unto you.
As soon as you can when you're on the on-ramp or acceleration
lane, turn on that signal. That's your way of communicating with the traffic that
you're going to enter the roadway. It gets their attention and that gives them
a chance to let you in.
So we're going from a dead stop
this time basically, onto a 70 mile an hour speed roadway. The left turn signals on,
I'm accelerating, I'm checking for gaps, it doesn't look too difficult. I see a
gap coming. There's a vehicle there. He actually moved over a little bit
which was great. And now I can enter the roadway. And I'm at
70 miles an hour.
So that was a courteous driver. That driver there actually
changed lanes, so he opened the lane for me.
I'm stopped again. So I'm going from a
total standstill up to 70 miles an hour. I turned my signal on. Already checking
the roadway. Several trucks coming here in a row.
And I think I can get in behind this set of ABF doubles on this truck.
I can accelerate. There's a car there...couldn't see him for the block.
If I slow down a little bit,
that makes room for me. I could see that in my mirrors,
and that was an easy transition really.
And because of the speed of the traffic,
I actually only entered the roadway at 60 miles an hour. But for whatever reason
right now, that's the speed of the traffic.
So you have to adjust your speed
to whatever it takes.
We're going to enter again. Signal is on. I see some vehicles
coming. Big motor home there. Checking my mirrors. There's a gap right behind
this RV and this car that he's pulling. I'm gonna ease over there.
And again, traffic is only going about sixty miles an hour right now through here.
So don't have it in your head that I've got to get up to 70 miles an hour
if that's the speed of the roadway. It's the speed of the roadway or the speed of
the traffic that you have to match the speed of your vehicle with.
This is the
same ramp as before just 25 miles an hour. So I can't do much about
accelerating right now on this part of the on-ramp. But when it straightens
out and runs alongside of the main roadway, that's the acceleration ramp,
that's when you have to take off.
Luckily there's kind of a long acceleration ramp.
I've got plenty of room.
Sometimes if you're getting to the very end of the
acceleration ramp, you might have to really floor it to hit
your gap.
It's just a case of being flexible. And that's what practice will teach you.
I would advise entering the roadway as soon as possible. Don't wait till the
very end of the acceleration ramp if you don't have to. Find your gap and speed up
or slow down, and enter the roadway before you get near the end of that
acceleration ramp.
This makes it a lot simpler and less stressful for you.
If at all possible, never come to a total stop on an acceleration lane. That just
causes problems for you and any traffic that might be behind you.
I'm not going
to say that there's never a time when you might have to stop. That's possible,
but very rare, and to be avoided.
But if you have to stop because of just a solid
line of traffic that you can't get over, pull as far over to the right as possible.
And then don't try to enter the roadway until you see a large gap with
plenty of time for you to accelerate, because you'll be going from zero miles
an hour into a roadway where everybody's going to be going 70.
But if you practice
merging, you do the procedures right, you find your gap, speed up or slow down as
necessary, then you won't have to worry about ever stopping on an acceleration lane.
So let's go over those steps again.
The word to remember is SAFE.
Signal...
do that as soon as possible after you enter the on-ramp.
A is Accelerate. Your target
speed is the speed limit of the roadway you're entering, or the speed of the
traffic that you're entering.
F- is Find your spot. Find that spot that your
vehicle will fit in.
E- make your Entry into the roadway when it's safe to do so.
You can also add an R on to the end and make it SAFER, meaning show respect to
the other drivers that are attempting to merge onto the roadway that you're already on.
Thanks for watching, have a great day!
Happy merging and drive safe!
Time to get off again.
I've been going
around in circles today.