BY TANYA ALBERT
The Cincinnati Enquirer
Boy, there's a lot of pent-up frustration on the roads out there. Based on the nearly 100 faxes, e-mails and letters I received last week, there are plenty of white-knuckled drivers with veins ready to pop.
Radio traffic reports don't give enough information. Darn rubberneckers. Sneaky speed traps. Construction. Backups at overcrowded interchanges such as Interstate 275 and Fields Ertel Road.
People drive too fast. People drive too slow.
People can't seem to find their turn signals.
Rain. Snow. The first flake halts traffic from Covington to Mason.
I share your frustrations.
These are the kind of blood-pressure raising subjects this column will deal with in coming weeks.
Today, let's talk about merging on the freeway, or rather our inability to do so.
Lori Neidich of West Chester said what drives her nuts are people "on entrance ramps trying to merge into 65 mph traffic going 45. Get a grip."
The daily backups around freeway entrance ramps also frustrate Paul Green of Northside. "I like to call them, moron delays. Why is it that Cincinnatians cannot seem to understand they need to be going the same speed as traffic before they attempt to enter the freeway?"
The problem, according to Linda Roll, is Cincinnati drivers "don't know how to merge." We're too polite.
Ms. Roll is operations supervisor for SmarTraveler, the ARTIMIS service that provides traffic updates by telephone (211) and Internet.
Every weekday, Ms. Roll sits at a wall of TV monitors watching live feeds from cameras along the interstates. During morning and evening rush hour, her screens are jam-packed with Cincinnati drivers braking into merges, bringing traffic to a crawl in an attempt to let each other into traffic.
The result: Traffic snarls all around our freeways.
"You can almost put a stop watch to it," Ms. Roll said:
Between 3 and 4 p.m., northbound Interstate 75 backs up from General Electric north to Interstate 275.
In the morning rush hour, I-275 comes to a halt near Wards Corner. In the evening rush hour, northbound Interstate 71 is stop and go from Ronald Reagan Highway to Fields Ertel Road.
More clogs in the evening, on westbound I-275 toward Ohio 4 and from Blue Rock Road to the Interstate 74 merge.
And that's just Ms. Roll's highlights reel.
Excuse my aggressive driving tendencies here, but Ms. Roll agrees with me. Merging means blending into traffic at freeway speed, not parking lot speed.
Entering a freeway means accelerating down the ramp. Glance in the mirror for an opening. Cut in when you see a spot. If you're on the freeway, pull over to the left lane or slightly speed up or slow down to let the merging car enter at freeway speed.
Think of it this way: Merging is not valet parking.
Merging properly keeps traffic moving and prevents some fender-benders. It also prevents briefcases from flying off the seat and that big slurp of coffee from going into your lap.
So, sick of ramp backups?
Be a little daring this morning.
Tanya Albert's "Commuting" column appears each Monday in the Metro section. Contact her by e-mail at tmalbert@enquirer.com Phone: 768-8389; FAX: 768-8340; mail at 312 Elm St., Cincinnati 45202.
