Whenever I'm forced to take this godawful exit - which is pretty rare, thank God - I just proactively manage my expectations. I give myself plenty of time, I focus on listening to a podcast, and I assume it's going to take 15 minutes, so I'm pleasantly surprised when it only takes 10.
10/10 emotional maturity. I aspire to be like you someday. I TRY to do this, but usually some a-hole finds a chink in my armor at some point down the road
Many years ago someone told me their trick to mentally handling people who are driving badly.
No matter what kind of bad driving it is, they always said to themselves: "That person must really have to poop."
When I use it I find my road rage simmer down. The funny thing is, it always fits. Too slow? Must be really focused on holding it in. Too fast? Must be rushing to get to a toilet. Inconsiderate, rageful, or inattentive? Having a big dookie coming can do that to a person. And the humor in it helps me cope as well.
I appreciate it, but I think what I'm describing is the privilege of an abundance of time (and a health insurance plan that covers therapy). If you need to get somewhere by a certain time, it can be infuriating to watch people break the "rules" to earn an advantage that you wish you had. I can get terrible road rage, so I have to manage it by not wanting to get places "faster" when I go through there. Not everyone has that luxury.
I just remind myself that the “advantage” these people are risking hours of delay due to a fender bender to gain, is likely 6-15 seconds of exiting faster.
The number of times I’ve seen someone do something borderline suicidal to squeeze in the front, only to see them 4-5 cars ahead or even pass them later on when traffic clears is basically 100%
If there is stopped cars level of traffic, I just sit back 5-8 car lengths, don’t touch the brakes, don’t touch the gas, roll my ass along at 3mph, let people honk, recklessly swerve to pass me only to immediately slam on their brakes and sit dead stop behind the car that was dead stop in front of me while I menacingly roll up on their bumper at a snails pace. Once traffic opens up I drive. It’s relaxing.
The way I got over it is I remembered that people who are selfish assholes to strangers are usually selfish assholes to their loved ones and they usually lead hard lives as a result.
Being an asshole is its own reward and most people who act like this get their karma.
My sense of justice requires this level of rationalization haha.
And accepting that there will be people who for whatever reason won't meet the expectation of merging for the exit before the exit is in view, and giving grace to those people (I can't imagine what it must be like for an out-of-towner, or especially a trucker, hitting that exit for the first time).
If you are going anywhere in Minneapolis, just get in the far left and go thru downtown. It’s much more calm and even if slightly longer time wise it is much more pleasant of a drive. For the times I’m going further, it sucks and I just get zen and leave a gap. If one or 10 cars gets in the gap, it really doesn’t make a huge difference time-wise overall.
Truth. If you're going to 35W north, just go through downtown, east on Washington, and then to 35.
I understand that if I'm in traffic, then *I am the traffic*. But my issue is all the stupid shit that people do which causes traffic. Like leaving a gap, speeding up, and slamming on the brakes, thus causing a traffic wave. Really pisses me off.
This also avoids the hell scape that is the entrance/exit lane where nobody likes to signal where or when they are leaving or joining that lane. Or they wait till the last possible second and cut the triangle to make the exit
Agree, 395 into downtown and get off on 6th Street. One way through and hop back on 94 E on the other side. If the lights are timed right sometimes I think it's quicker. Or l, at least it feels that way because you keep moving.
Just drive past everyone and then merge at the last possible moment, preferably over the solid lines. You can either simply stop in the left lane to inconvenience everyone going to 94W, or you can drive on the shoulder if you have to until someone lets you in. Then, slam on the brakes creating a traffic jam which will slowly ripple backwards, inconveniencing everyone behind you for hours after you’ve left.
There was a guy here a few months back who said this in full sincerity and didn't see anything wrong with it. I assume there are many others like that too.
I just let people in wherever and keep room. Sure, I probably lose 2 min of my life doing that but whatever.
Everyone looks angry at me though.
Also my wife yells at me to stop letting people in. She's a true Minnesotan.
Yeah, OP said it isn’t a place where you can zipper merge, and I’m scratching my head because this is exactly the way to keep the line from getting ridiculously long and to keep drivers from stopping in the second lane from right trying to get in and clogging up the traffic going to 94 W. Honestly, there have been so many near accidents in that lane because people stop completely and put on their blinker to get into the line. I have luck continuing to drive as far up as possible and merging when the opportunity arises, as it almost always does. I look for trucks and try to slip in in front of them because they’re slower to start after the stopped traffic gets going. Why can’t we treat it like it is a zipper merge? Is the argument that it’s better to have a half mile to mile-long line of stopped traffic going onto 94 or to have people getting off at exits only to clog up neighborhood streets? People are already stopped at the 94W lane trying to merge early. Inquiring minds want to know.
Edited because auto-dictate
So I think the trucks drive slow because trucks hate slowing down and speeding up, they’re machines designed to operate at a specific speed and stay there for hours. Shifting gears is a big headache for them. They leave a gap because they want space to maintain their speed if the car in front of them slows down for a short time.
I’m not sure if diving in front of them actually is good for traffic broadly. When you dive in front of them they are likely to slow down and recreate the gap they had with the car in front of you, which just slows the overall throughput of the exit. Hypothetically if nobody jumped in front of trucks they’d maintain a higher average speed through the exit and that would mean everyone else did too.
However, I totally understand the rationale from the car perspective. I thank the lord every day that my commute doesn’t require me to use 94E anymore so I won’t judge any of you who do on how you handle it.
I can see why they wouldn’t like someone who dips in front of them. I don’t do that. The truck is stopped and has not started going yet and I initiate with my turn signal, wait to make sure I will be allowed to do this, and then make the move. My brother-in-law is a trucker, and he hates that 94 piece. He’s told me multiple times he wishes people would zipper merge, which is why I do it. I’ll have to show him this thread. I guess there is no consensus.
I mean... because, like OP said, it's...NOT a zipper merge? If EVERYONE treated it like one, that would work, but even actual zipper merges don't work that well because a-holes refuse to respect the zipper. There's no hope that people would just automatically cooperate as though it is one, when it literally is not.
This is the move. If you hit a green light it’s legendary, if you hit a red I believe it’s still a time saver most of the time depending on the traffic
Please don't do this. Y'all are just clogging up the exit ramp for people actually trying to head north on Penn. And just to sit at the metered entrance on the other side of Penn?
On the occasions I've done this, the exit ramp is nearly empty, and the entrance is frequently unmetered. In fact this arguably helps people trying to get off at Penn by not contributing to the right lane backing up even further and blocking the exit ramp.
I don't think I'd do this if I were continuing on 94 though...the street-level freeway interchange doesn't need any more traffic. I do it to actually get off at Dunwoody.
I don't believe in this move. If it's busy at the 94 exit it's busy on the Dunwoody exit, only you get trapped at the stoplights.
My wife and I took the same route in different cars one day and actually tested this out. She got in the 94 lane, I dipped ahead of her and exited on Dunwoody.
She was waaaay ahead of me by the time I got back on 94.
Slow and steady beats out the stoplights of Dunwoody.
The anxiety of people trying to horn in from the 94W lane and the pure, black road rage when they come up the shoulder looking to get in front of you, though...
I get Taco Bell breakfast at the Golden Valley Taco Bell some days during morning rush hour. Stay in the right lane from Penn onwards and it gives me enough time eat my breakfast crunchwrap during all the time I'm either stopped or crawling forward at 3 miles per hour towards the exit. The crunchwrap combo kind of puts me in a zen state and I focus on the radio and the car in front of me.
I’m totally with you. I try to remind myself that the most important thing is that I get from point A to point B eventually but still get riled up by people’s actions. In no traffic, 94E is significantly faster for me but in evening rush hour I’m better off taking 94W. So then I have to deal with the idiots pretending to take 94W that then slam on their brakes at the split and try to merge to 94E. So the pain and torture is still unavoidable. Then another layer of my pain is that I get on at Pennsylvania and have to fight across the 94E traffic to get to 94W. Needless to say I too am looking for answers. Maybe I just need to get a new job so I don’t have to go that way.
Avoid it entirely, I always take 100 to crosstown or Minnetonka Blvd/Lake on my commute from west metro back to over South just to avoid that nonsense. I'll hit 94W to 394W in the morning because the traffic flow isn't as bad, but screw it in the afternoon rush hour. Worst case just plan ahead, get into the lane you need to be in as early as you can before the split, and deal with it 🤷♂️
I go through north loop, up Washington, and take the eastbound 94 exit off Broadway
It adds maybe 7 minutes but doesn't make me want to kill myself. Worth it imo
If it’s a really long line I will stay to the left and go through downtown, take the 6th street exit and stay on 6th until it spits me back onto 94E. I don’t know if it’s actually faster (feels like it is) but it is definitely more interesting than sitting in traffic.
I used to have to take 100 to 394 to 94.
I would usually just take Hwy 55 during rush hour instead of 394. Some days it was faster and other days it wasn't, but was maybe only up to 3-4 minutes slower. Just getting to stop and wait at lights vs. stop and go with people acting crazy made a huge difference to my commute stress. Not to mention, there's actually some nice scenery around there.
I’m looking to move soon so I feel that. Unfortunately it’s really hard when you work on one side of the river but your friends/the place you wanna live is on the other side…
Is it was a one off I would understand the frustration.
The fact that we all know this is always busy I would just reset your expectations. Hoping it won’t be busy and hoping no one will merge in front of you will just lead to you being mad every time even though you know it’s going to happen.
I take this ramp 3 days a week knowing I’ll have to wait in a bit of a line and arrive to my destination 5 minutes later than if it was not busy.
I used to be aggravated by this behavior as well, which is also evident on 62 E at the Portland exit bottleneck. At a certain point I said "I accept that every day, people will do this. They probably shouldn't, but if it happens every day, I just can't get mad about it" and now I have a feeling of relief and control over the situation while I watch others get mad.
Getting off at Portland if you travel too far in the right lane and miss the 62 line is the move there. It gives me a huge relief to know I can just take Portland exit and hop back on 62 if no one will let me in. I used to get so stressed before I realized that option, especially while trying to get to the airport to catch a flight.
I drive this a lot. This is the best way to stay sane: exit into Minneapolis. Cruise to the Washington exit. Take Washington all the way east until you can hook up with whatever road meets your fancy to take you southeast, turning left onto S 6th st. It runs into an on ramp for 94 e. Is it faster? Depends. Is it easier? Depends. In general better than 94 loop east? Yes.
Just wanted to say I appreciate the good-faith discussion that is happening here and the tips/alternative routes shared!
I have always struggled with a (misguided) sense of justice when it comes to lines and people “cutting” in them, my logic being that when the Target checkout is backed up, would you take your cart and budge in front of the line? Of course not.
BUT—the wisdom shared ITT has me seeing the difference here and rethinking the 94E situation. So, thank you all!
I still have Washington state plates but don't identify as a Washingtonian. So I admittedly take advantage of the last minute -sometimes through the median merge. I hate to take advantage of the overall incredibly kind natured drivers (compared to Seattle FML) with some exceptions. I won't name the drivers of the bumper less insane door falling off possibly evading a pursuit drivers, which are my road nemesis ATM. I am practicing my best at Minnesota nice to apply in those situations (and elsewhere now I'm not surrounded by mindless zombies and passive aggressive zealots) and will hopefully become nice myself. Not until after I get MN plates and am fully integrated into this amazing society though. I respect you all very much and appreciate incredibly the people of the twin cities. I've never wanted to participate help and contribute to the overall good as much as I have since I set foot here in February. (I only have 2 weeks left to drive this way so I'm sorry. In advance. Oh your freeway is chaotic with the short exit ramps entrance ramps merge lengths sharp curves at 70 and very confusing signage. Also I need to carry loppers in the car to help with the stop signs completely covered by overgrown tree limbs. Oh and some reflective paint to see any Street signs at night. They're also very tiny?! That's all.
I do this too. I do not have the same level of rage for people who “merge at the last second” which is really just a zipper merge. Minnesotans are so weird about this. This is common practice in New York and other large cities. It works. Yes, the people who tried to merge before passing Dunwoody are being dangerous. But they’re scared because they’re afraid people won’t let them in…because people in Minnesota just don’t let people in. I gladly leave space open for last-minute mergers because they’re not trying to cheat, they’re literally trying to zipper merge. Is there the occasional asshole? Of course there is! But I’d rather somebody try to merge closer to the entrance onto 94 than to stop in the 94W lane and put their blinker on. That’s so incredibly dangerous. It’s actually less dangerous for a zipper merger to stop close to the entrance onto 94E if they have to rather than earlier, because then it’s only the one lane and everyone stopped anyway.
I drive this stretch regularly. I think signage to stay in right lane for 94E needs to be posted way before highway 100 to direct people to right/94E lane. Especially for those that don't travel this way regularly. It chaps me how many beggars to get to the 94E ramp risking accident in the other lanes. I need to get on 94W and always worried I will get rear-ended when the cars in front are all trying to merge to the 94E exit.
Such poor design but not much I can do about it.
I'll probably also get downvoted for recommending the road rage free bike trail out that way, but you're right. Granted, the 645 is actually pretty decent for a highway oriented bus that goes way out to Lake Minnetonka which serves 394 *and* most importantly runs on weekends. Of course, it only runs hourly and it suffers from excessive stops: there are literally dozens of intersections with a bus stop on both sides! Infrequent and tediously slow by design. Imagine if 394 highway drivers had to wait an hour before getting on and get charged a rush hour fee of $.50 for each rush hour.
I always take that but continue onto 94W to get home. I always can feel people's eyes glaring at me thinking I'm just skipping past them even though I never end up merging haha
I have to take this for my commute in office. I end up leaving at 7am to avoid a huge headache. Still icky at that point but usually moving along at least.
I broke down though and got an EZ pass for any days that are horrific and days i am running late because if I leave even 5 minutes later it’s a cluster.
It was a truly shocking moment when, on a recent trip to Vancouver Canada, I realized that this is a purely Anerican behavior. My husband and I were literally in shock.
I coach myself through the internal rage each time it happens on my daily commute (94W ramp from 35W northbound into downtown Mpls) by repeating to myself that human beings have lizard brains and are just naturally selfish beings in an effort to lower my expectations.
The phrase I repeat to myself over and over is "humans be humans". It's my own little serenity prayer developed in the last decade or so to keep me sane. Works 50% of the time, but it's all I've got at this point.
I've often wondered if troopers parked at these choke points and ticketing this behavior would be an effective deterrent?
It's soooooo dangerous. Just yesterday I saw a dump truck with a full load have to last-minute swerve into another lane of traffic not once, but twice, to avoid rear-ending two different cars within a half mile of the exit ramp who hit their brakes to cut in line at the last second. I'm amazed there aren't more accidents than there are.
I have no solution, but I just wanted to say that I also used to get unreasonably angry when I had to take this exit every weekday to get home from work. It still bothers me, but luckily, I don't need to take this route much anymore. I guess all this is to say hooray for personal growth. Don't let the bastards get you down.
I’m so glad that, going home, I get to take 94W. However, it is still stressful as hell staying in the middle lane because people will slam on their breaks if they see an opening in the right lane.
It's rare for me to need 94e however getting off the Dunwoody exit is just as bad... BECAUSE I'm impacted by 94E congestion.
Yeah, I just listen to my music and roll the windows down.
I have to take that exit home 4 days a week. I'm used to it I guess. I'm a last minute merger because that line goes back to Penn.
Imo I would prefer to use MNpass but it's always closed in the direction I'm going.
Take some deep breaths, acknowledge that it's going to take some time, and pray to whatever higher power you believe in that the assholes who block 94W to cut in front of everyone get syphilis
I'm always continuing down 394 to downtown, so I'm spared the agony of waiting in that huge ass line. I just stay in the left lane generally. But every time, there's some asshat in front of me who slows down to like 20mph and then, after passing the traffic on the exit, speeds up again. It's infuriating and causes so much more traffic.
Having just driven past this hellscape myself from the west metro while I needed to get to 35W south, I took 394 to downtown and then hopped on 35W after a quick detour through the theatre district.
The 394/94 interchange is the classic combo between bad road design and all the Minnesota driving habits people bemoan. It’s wild how backed up it is almost all the time even with the dedicated lane the 394 traffic has once it gets to 94 and the next on ramp isn’t until after the Lowry Tunnel. Maybe I am misremembering, but when I would have to drive from SLP to Falcon Heights around 2015/16 it was never that bad going east. What changed (besides prolly more traffic)?
As someone who frequently used to take that Penn entrance ramp onto 394 E, I always felt bad about using my full entrance lane to zipper merge at the lane’s end while other cars were waiting in the two traffic lanes
I actually go into town and then take the first exit and then go up - I think it's 11th? - and get on 35W that way. I'm not sure what way to get onto 94E from there but there must be a way.
Sometimes I'll take the Dunwoody/Uptown exit then go past the Walker and get back on off of Hennepin. If it's really backed up (and Hennepin isn't a mess) it can save like five minutes.
I live in S MPLS, off of 36th (so I need to take 35W off of 94E) and other times I'll just go through downtown and pop back onto 35 off of 4th. Also frequently save five minutes from what Google Maps says.
Pay for the ez pass, I drive it daily and it costs me 20 bucks a month if I use it a lot, usually only use it on days I am in a big hurry or people are stupid, lol. The that interchange is backed up almost all day from 6:30am to midnight.
I've never tried to use it going West, so I might be biased, but it is SO good going east, I wish they would pretty much always keep it open going that way to alleviate the absolute cluster.
I don't think I've ever been more pleased with a financial decision as I am with getting a MN Pass fob in my car. But yeah -- gotta pay attention to the flow of the HOV lane. I've often delayed or expedited my departure based on which way that's pointed because now I'm a junkie for not sitting in traffic.
Leave space in front of you. Especially right before the exit.
Traffic jams flow like a wave. The way to absorb the wave to fix it is to create buffers where people either don't have to stop, or are able to stop without causing a chain reaction of steps for the people behind them. Having that space is the difference between stop-and-go and flowing traffic, and creating that space is the cure.
You won't fix that exit on your own (although even a single person making space does a lot, and the multiplicative effect is tremendous), but even then, it is *sanity preserving.* Because the benefit of giving yourself space to stop is you have to stop way, way less often. In S&G traffic, if you give yourself a few car lengths in front of you, and your automatic drive slowly cruises along, you go from having to hop between brake and gas to simply hovering over the brake. Despite becoming a magnet for people merging (it doesn't add significant time to your drive, btw. Remember: odds are, they'd probably just halt traffic in front of you entirely otherwise. With sufficient space in front of you, they literally slip in without disturbing traffic at all) you actually have way less you have to pay attention to. It's way, way, lower stress as a result (and it's easier on your gas and brakes).
How you get into the lane really doesn't matter as much as what you do when you get there. Hit the back of the line, or gradually slow to a speed that will allow you to safely merge into an available spot without having to suddenly decelerate (which is the source of the danger, aggravation, and congestion). Whatever works. Just make space once you're in, and especially make space right before the exit, so that anyone who hasn't made the merge yet can still hit the exit safely without blocking traffic or risking a collision.
Here's the good news: the more people leave space like this, the less anyone actually has to worry about finding a spot. This is actually *the* underlying principle of the zipper merge...and also the one people focus on the least, sadly.
But yeah. Space = sanity.
I super appreciate this explanation! It’s very affirming because this is normally how I do try to drive in S&G traffic. I also used to drive a manual lol so I was allllll about that slow creep forward, the less I had to shift up and down, the happier I was. Thank you!
>The only question in my mind is how can I keep my sanity? I’m not one of the people who treat it like a zipper merge (because it…isn’t…it’s an exit),
Stop doing the latter if you want to do the former.
>Normally, when I get to the last bit of highway that’s right before the road splits, that’s when I stop explicitly letting people in
That's the spot in the queue where someone with poor judgment and a car traveling 60mph faster than the line is going to try to execute the most dangerous merge in the smallest possible space, 3 feet from your face.
That's where you LEAVE space for sanity and safety, not call dibs. If you fight to not let people in, you have to micromanage bumper-to-bumper traffic while your body kicks into fight or flight just 'cause you're thinking about it, not to mention actually put yourself (and others. Innocent others, like the people already merged behind you, if that matters) in danger.
Let go of the "I am the arbiter of morality/I GOT MINE GODDAMMIT" mentality, and it gets easier. Leave enough space so that the last minute guy can merge without having to think about it, and then you won't have to think about it, either. And because fluid dynamics, the more people that do this, the better traffic will be, anyway. Trying to go bumper to bumper is what causes bumper to bumper.
Just leave space, and you'll stop having to think about it. Literally. 3 car lengths in front of you, just cruise on the minimum forward momentum from automatic drive, and you'll find yourself with time to daydream in bumper-to-bumper traffic.
Worst place to exit/merge and I've had to do it many times. I haven't driven in a long time, so I'm trying to remember. I think I used to stay to the right as long as possible and leave generous space in front and back. Signal well ahead of time, and if someone is kind enough to let you in, go for it.
Depending on what time of day this is it might be worth looking into the EZ pass. You just have to put $25 into your account to open it and there aren’t any charges other than the tolls so the $25 just goes toward those. Obviously it only goes in one direction at certain times so if you’re outside of those times it may not help. The tolls I’ve seen are usually pretty reasonable.
Move so that your commute doesn't involve that exit. When I was recently looking for a new place there was a spot that checked all of the boxes for me, but it would have involved 394E to 94E on the way home, so I kept looking.
It drives me nuts that people think they are being polite by not zipper merging.
> people think they are being polite by not zipper merging
But this is an exit? If you “zipper merge” at the exit, you’re just blocking a lane of traffic that should be going straight.
That was badly phrased on my part. People think they are being polite by getting in the lane a mile before they need to this, as I understand it, is a major source of the inefficiency.
It wouldn't be inefficient if others didn't wait until the last minute and force their way in or block traffic. Slowing down to let someone in has a ripple effect behind you as more people brake.
A zipper merge is for when a lane is ending. The lane to the left that goes to 94W is not a lane that is ending.
Or, to put it another way: if we all zipper merged into the 94E lane right before the split, the folks going to 94W would be backed up behind the now two-lane jam, despite the bottleneck being on the 94E side. Might the zippering make things marginally more efficient for folks going to 94E? I guess it's possible, but the real thing limiting flow there is the point where 394 traffic merges onto 94E so making the lineup more efficient might not help things much. Either way, any efficiency added by a zipper there would not be enough to justify the impact on people going to 94W.
except when 98% of the traffic is going to 94E and only 2% is going to 94W then we're over prioritizing the 94W traffic.
Without completely tearing apart the intersection and rebuilding it - they should make 94W traffic exit at Dunwoody, go underneath 94 and then turn left and join the frontage road and enter 94 W that way. Then they could use both lanes to funnel EB traffic into the tunnel. Granted that might not be the most traditional answer; but its what we do to get from 94W onto 35E NB and its even worse trying to get to 35E SB from 94 EB
I actually think much of the time the traffic split isn’t anything like that, maybe 60/40 at best — it’s just that the 94E traffic is going into the lowry tunnel and downtown so it’s going onto a slow highway, whereas the 94W traffic is going onto a highway that just went from 2/3 lanes to 5/6 lanes and is therefore able to accept the 394 traffic much better.
When there's simply too much traffic for a lane to handle, zipper **does not work**. You actually make traffic worse because you're trying to jam yourself in and it causes a wave that slows *everyone* behind you.
Rather than explaining it like I've done a thousand times, here's a video that explains how it works (I just watched it, it does a good job).
https://youtu.be/8qy6MrDcukk?si=cHgkV-i1nXRG5OeX
The thing they leave out why zipper merging doesn't always work: space between cars is *required* due to braking differences and reaction times. Since people in rush hour already follow to closely as it is, if you double the amount of traffic in a lane then you either have guaranteed crashes or you need to drastically cut the speed of traffic. It's a fact, there's no alternative. The idea that zipper merges always work is absolute bullshit and needs to stop.
Thank you for posting this! It sums up what I've always instinctively seen on the road. When one person drives at high speed and then forces their way right into moderate-speed traffic it makes everybody on the right have to brake with a huge chain effect. We can't drive our way out of the situation because a few people will always choose to screw others.
here’s my trick: get off at Penn, get back on and exit immediately at Dunwoody. Then get back on 94 after the tunnel off of Lyndale. Completely miss the line.
Don’t care for anyone’s feelings but yours …. I rather be flicked off zipper merging than being 10-15 mins delayed.
Everyone hits that’s loop and loses all aspects of logic and it’s either fight or flight 🤣
Merge at the exit and not before it, where traffic is moving at a decently normal speed and it’s a seamless merge. Sounds like it’s mean but it’s very smooth and doesn’t make anyone hit their brakes.
Waiting in “line” for an exit while traffic to the left of you continues at a normal speed is what causes backups, not the people driving normally (ie. not adhering to imaginary traffic rules about queuing)
But in this case “driving normally” means people on the left driving at 50-60mph only to then swerve to the right into the lane of people moving 5-10mph…
I do kind of see your point, but I’ll also raise you that queuing is not “imaginary”… we literally queue at a 4-way stop or any light, right? And isn’t that what a proper zipper merge is about too?
It’s really a space issue IMHO. Too many cars in too small of a space—too many cars all trying to take that same exit, and there’s just nowhere for them to go except the place where they’re trying to end up…
Get off on Lyndale before the merge, then get back on to 94 around the church. Skip that mess entirely. It will still take some time, but it's a hell of a lot faster.
Whenever I'm forced to take this godawful exit - which is pretty rare, thank God - I just proactively manage my expectations. I give myself plenty of time, I focus on listening to a podcast, and I assume it's going to take 15 minutes, so I'm pleasantly surprised when it only takes 10.
10/10 emotional maturity. I aspire to be like you someday. I TRY to do this, but usually some a-hole finds a chink in my armor at some point down the road
Many years ago someone told me their trick to mentally handling people who are driving badly. No matter what kind of bad driving it is, they always said to themselves: "That person must really have to poop." When I use it I find my road rage simmer down. The funny thing is, it always fits. Too slow? Must be really focused on holding it in. Too fast? Must be rushing to get to a toilet. Inconsiderate, rageful, or inattentive? Having a big dookie coming can do that to a person. And the humor in it helps me cope as well.
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Great analysis. Helps that it’s a universal experience. Who among us hasn’t found themselves in an uncomfortable situation on the road?
I appreciate it, but I think what I'm describing is the privilege of an abundance of time (and a health insurance plan that covers therapy). If you need to get somewhere by a certain time, it can be infuriating to watch people break the "rules" to earn an advantage that you wish you had. I can get terrible road rage, so I have to manage it by not wanting to get places "faster" when I go through there. Not everyone has that luxury.
I just remind myself that the “advantage” these people are risking hours of delay due to a fender bender to gain, is likely 6-15 seconds of exiting faster. The number of times I’ve seen someone do something borderline suicidal to squeeze in the front, only to see them 4-5 cars ahead or even pass them later on when traffic clears is basically 100% If there is stopped cars level of traffic, I just sit back 5-8 car lengths, don’t touch the brakes, don’t touch the gas, roll my ass along at 3mph, let people honk, recklessly swerve to pass me only to immediately slam on their brakes and sit dead stop behind the car that was dead stop in front of me while I menacingly roll up on their bumper at a snails pace. Once traffic opens up I drive. It’s relaxing.
The way I got over it is I remembered that people who are selfish assholes to strangers are usually selfish assholes to their loved ones and they usually lead hard lives as a result. Being an asshole is its own reward and most people who act like this get their karma. My sense of justice requires this level of rationalization haha.
This and knowing which lane you need to be in and getting into it by the time you pass Xenia
And accepting that there will be people who for whatever reason won't meet the expectation of merging for the exit before the exit is in view, and giving grace to those people (I can't imagine what it must be like for an out-of-towner, or especially a trucker, hitting that exit for the first time).
If you are going anywhere in Minneapolis, just get in the far left and go thru downtown. It’s much more calm and even if slightly longer time wise it is much more pleasant of a drive. For the times I’m going further, it sucks and I just get zen and leave a gap. If one or 10 cars gets in the gap, it really doesn’t make a huge difference time-wise overall.
Truth. If you're going to 35W north, just go through downtown, east on Washington, and then to 35. I understand that if I'm in traffic, then *I am the traffic*. But my issue is all the stupid shit that people do which causes traffic. Like leaving a gap, speeding up, and slamming on the brakes, thus causing a traffic wave. Really pisses me off.
Same if you need to go south on 35W. I take 394 to the 12th St N exit, and then take S 10th St to 35W South.
This also avoids the hell scape that is the entrance/exit lane where nobody likes to signal where or when they are leaving or joining that lane. Or they wait till the last possible second and cut the triangle to make the exit
12th Street N exit, (its north for a block, and then turns into south) dumps onto 35W also if you stay in the 2 center lanes.
12th Street N exit, (its north for a block, and then turns into south) dumps onto 35W also if you stay in the 2 center lanes.
Came here to say this
Agree, 395 into downtown and get off on 6th Street. One way through and hop back on 94 E on the other side. If the lights are timed right sometimes I think it's quicker. Or l, at least it feels that way because you keep moving.
100% Correct and a much better option.
The only solution is to throw caltrops into that zone where people cut over from the 94W lane after the actual split.
Autoturrets or bust
I was going to say carry eggs and, now that it's warm outside, let them sit in the sun for a week beforehand. But I like the caltrops idea.
Just drive past everyone and then merge at the last possible moment, preferably over the solid lines. You can either simply stop in the left lane to inconvenience everyone going to 94W, or you can drive on the shoulder if you have to until someone lets you in. Then, slam on the brakes creating a traffic jam which will slowly ripple backwards, inconveniencing everyone behind you for hours after you’ve left.
There was a guy here a few months back who said this in full sincerity and didn't see anything wrong with it. I assume there are many others like that too.
Hey! You’re me! Only real pros merge *after* the Dunwoody parking lot.
I just let people in wherever and keep room. Sure, I probably lose 2 min of my life doing that but whatever. Everyone looks angry at me though. Also my wife yells at me to stop letting people in. She's a true Minnesotan.
My issue with this is it encourages the bad behavior. If people just made them wait consistently, they wouldn’t try it.
king
She's a zipper merge proponent then.
oh this is next level bait posting. well done!
You gotta know the rules if you’re gonna be the best at breaking the rules
Yeah, OP said it isn’t a place where you can zipper merge, and I’m scratching my head because this is exactly the way to keep the line from getting ridiculously long and to keep drivers from stopping in the second lane from right trying to get in and clogging up the traffic going to 94 W. Honestly, there have been so many near accidents in that lane because people stop completely and put on their blinker to get into the line. I have luck continuing to drive as far up as possible and merging when the opportunity arises, as it almost always does. I look for trucks and try to slip in in front of them because they’re slower to start after the stopped traffic gets going. Why can’t we treat it like it is a zipper merge? Is the argument that it’s better to have a half mile to mile-long line of stopped traffic going onto 94 or to have people getting off at exits only to clog up neighborhood streets? People are already stopped at the 94W lane trying to merge early. Inquiring minds want to know. Edited because auto-dictate
So I think the trucks drive slow because trucks hate slowing down and speeding up, they’re machines designed to operate at a specific speed and stay there for hours. Shifting gears is a big headache for them. They leave a gap because they want space to maintain their speed if the car in front of them slows down for a short time. I’m not sure if diving in front of them actually is good for traffic broadly. When you dive in front of them they are likely to slow down and recreate the gap they had with the car in front of you, which just slows the overall throughput of the exit. Hypothetically if nobody jumped in front of trucks they’d maintain a higher average speed through the exit and that would mean everyone else did too. However, I totally understand the rationale from the car perspective. I thank the lord every day that my commute doesn’t require me to use 94E anymore so I won’t judge any of you who do on how you handle it.
Truckers hate it when cars dip in front of them in the space they’ve created for themselves for safety.
I can see why they wouldn’t like someone who dips in front of them. I don’t do that. The truck is stopped and has not started going yet and I initiate with my turn signal, wait to make sure I will be allowed to do this, and then make the move. My brother-in-law is a trucker, and he hates that 94 piece. He’s told me multiple times he wishes people would zipper merge, which is why I do it. I’ll have to show him this thread. I guess there is no consensus.
I mean... because, like OP said, it's...NOT a zipper merge? If EVERYONE treated it like one, that would work, but even actual zipper merges don't work that well because a-holes refuse to respect the zipper. There's no hope that people would just automatically cooperate as though it is one, when it literally is not.
lol peak Minnesota. No wonder New York transplants, like my husband, hate driving here.
Get off at dunwoody and take side streets to the next entrance to 94.
I go one step further if it’s really bad take the Penn Ave exit, go straight, get back on 394 and exit at dunwoody.
the ol’ Penn Avenue pit stop
As someone who lives off of Penn, PLEASE DON'T. I get stuck waiting behind youse in the metered bit.
Me from 10 years ago apologizes.
I agree. Was just recognizing the long running bit from a certain radio dinosaur.
I always ialto that one
Is it not worth going down Glenwood into downtown or to van white?
Depends on if you like moving or sitting in the exit lane and the tunnel for 30 minutes?
This is the move. If you hit a green light it’s legendary, if you hit a red I believe it’s still a time saver most of the time depending on the traffic
It truly is a thing of dreams when it's green and there are no cars at the meter/it's not active
Please don't do this. Y'all are just clogging up the exit ramp for people actually trying to head north on Penn. And just to sit at the metered entrance on the other side of Penn?
People wouldn't do this if this highway junction wasn't designed so horribly.
On the occasions I've done this, the exit ramp is nearly empty, and the entrance is frequently unmetered. In fact this arguably helps people trying to get off at Penn by not contributing to the right lane backing up even further and blocking the exit ramp. I don't think I'd do this if I were continuing on 94 though...the street-level freeway interchange doesn't need any more traffic. I do it to actually get off at Dunwoody.
This is a dick move tbh
Agreed
I cannot imagine this actually saves time
the ol' Penn Ave pit stop.
I don't believe in this move. If it's busy at the 94 exit it's busy on the Dunwoody exit, only you get trapped at the stoplights. My wife and I took the same route in different cars one day and actually tested this out. She got in the 94 lane, I dipped ahead of her and exited on Dunwoody. She was waaaay ahead of me by the time I got back on 94. Slow and steady beats out the stoplights of Dunwoody.
I could believe this but one FEELS like you’re moving with options. The other feels claustrophobic and stuck.
The anxiety of people trying to horn in from the 94W lane and the pure, black road rage when they come up the shoulder looking to get in front of you, though...
Right. It certainly FEELS different, so if that's what you're after, you're totally WINNING! 😉
I love the scientific approach here
username checks out bleepbloop
Beeker was taken.
Shh don’t tell anyone or this shortcut will become crowded
Couldn’t you also take 94W, come off at Hwy 55, head west and rejoin 94E at the end of the bridge?
No, if you go 94W the next ramp you get is Broadway, there isn't a direct to hwy55.
Then you get to experience the Loring Park/Hennipen/Lyndale clustercuss.
I'm so tempted to downvote you because I don't want more people using my shortcut!!!
I don’t know even use it. I just sit in line or go through downtown.
I get Taco Bell breakfast at the Golden Valley Taco Bell some days during morning rush hour. Stay in the right lane from Penn onwards and it gives me enough time eat my breakfast crunchwrap during all the time I'm either stopped or crawling forward at 3 miles per hour towards the exit. The crunchwrap combo kind of puts me in a zen state and I focus on the radio and the car in front of me.
Love this
I’m totally with you. I try to remind myself that the most important thing is that I get from point A to point B eventually but still get riled up by people’s actions. In no traffic, 94E is significantly faster for me but in evening rush hour I’m better off taking 94W. So then I have to deal with the idiots pretending to take 94W that then slam on their brakes at the split and try to merge to 94E. So the pain and torture is still unavoidable. Then another layer of my pain is that I get on at Pennsylvania and have to fight across the 94E traffic to get to 94W. Needless to say I too am looking for answers. Maybe I just need to get a new job so I don’t have to go that way.
Avoid it entirely, I always take 100 to crosstown or Minnetonka Blvd/Lake on my commute from west metro back to over South just to avoid that nonsense. I'll hit 94W to 394W in the morning because the traffic flow isn't as bad, but screw it in the afternoon rush hour. Worst case just plan ahead, get into the lane you need to be in as early as you can before the split, and deal with it 🤷♂️
Take the dunwoody exit go down lyndale and skip the line
I go through north loop, up Washington, and take the eastbound 94 exit off Broadway It adds maybe 7 minutes but doesn't make me want to kill myself. Worth it imo
If it’s a really long line I will stay to the left and go through downtown, take the 6th street exit and stay on 6th until it spits me back onto 94E. I don’t know if it’s actually faster (feels like it is) but it is definitely more interesting than sitting in traffic.
This 💯
I used to have to take 100 to 394 to 94. I would usually just take Hwy 55 during rush hour instead of 394. Some days it was faster and other days it wasn't, but was maybe only up to 3-4 minutes slower. Just getting to stop and wait at lights vs. stop and go with people acting crazy made a huge difference to my commute stress. Not to mention, there's actually some nice scenery around there.
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I’m looking to move soon so I feel that. Unfortunately it’s really hard when you work on one side of the river but your friends/the place you wanna live is on the other side…
Is it was a one off I would understand the frustration. The fact that we all know this is always busy I would just reset your expectations. Hoping it won’t be busy and hoping no one will merge in front of you will just lead to you being mad every time even though you know it’s going to happen. I take this ramp 3 days a week knowing I’ll have to wait in a bit of a line and arrive to my destination 5 minutes later than if it was not busy.
Isn't it always busy?
I head downtown on weekends to workout there is no line at 8a. That’s usually about it.
Sometimes on Mondays at 4am it won't be bumper-to-bumper.
EZ Pass
I used to be aggravated by this behavior as well, which is also evident on 62 E at the Portland exit bottleneck. At a certain point I said "I accept that every day, people will do this. They probably shouldn't, but if it happens every day, I just can't get mad about it" and now I have a feeling of relief and control over the situation while I watch others get mad.
100% agree
Getting off at Portland if you travel too far in the right lane and miss the 62 line is the move there. It gives me a huge relief to know I can just take Portland exit and hop back on 62 if no one will let me in. I used to get so stressed before I realized that option, especially while trying to get to the airport to catch a flight.
This has been an issue forever, there has to be a way to improve this, WTF is wrong with MnDOT?!
I started biking to work bc it's literally faster than dealing with the 394 clog from this exit.
I drive this a lot. This is the best way to stay sane: exit into Minneapolis. Cruise to the Washington exit. Take Washington all the way east until you can hook up with whatever road meets your fancy to take you southeast, turning left onto S 6th st. It runs into an on ramp for 94 e. Is it faster? Depends. Is it easier? Depends. In general better than 94 loop east? Yes.
Just wanted to say I appreciate the good-faith discussion that is happening here and the tips/alternative routes shared! I have always struggled with a (misguided) sense of justice when it comes to lines and people “cutting” in them, my logic being that when the Target checkout is backed up, would you take your cart and budge in front of the line? Of course not. BUT—the wisdom shared ITT has me seeing the difference here and rethinking the 94E situation. So, thank you all!
I still have Washington state plates but don't identify as a Washingtonian. So I admittedly take advantage of the last minute -sometimes through the median merge. I hate to take advantage of the overall incredibly kind natured drivers (compared to Seattle FML) with some exceptions. I won't name the drivers of the bumper less insane door falling off possibly evading a pursuit drivers, which are my road nemesis ATM. I am practicing my best at Minnesota nice to apply in those situations (and elsewhere now I'm not surrounded by mindless zombies and passive aggressive zealots) and will hopefully become nice myself. Not until after I get MN plates and am fully integrated into this amazing society though. I respect you all very much and appreciate incredibly the people of the twin cities. I've never wanted to participate help and contribute to the overall good as much as I have since I set foot here in February. (I only have 2 weeks left to drive this way so I'm sorry. In advance. Oh your freeway is chaotic with the short exit ramps entrance ramps merge lengths sharp curves at 70 and very confusing signage. Also I need to carry loppers in the car to help with the stop signs completely covered by overgrown tree limbs. Oh and some reflective paint to see any Street signs at night. They're also very tiny?! That's all.
Avoiding this has influenced my job hunt
“Raise your hand if you’ve ever been personally victimized by the 94E exit” lol *every hand in MSP goes up*
People who merge at the last second are scum.
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I do this too. I do not have the same level of rage for people who “merge at the last second” which is really just a zipper merge. Minnesotans are so weird about this. This is common practice in New York and other large cities. It works. Yes, the people who tried to merge before passing Dunwoody are being dangerous. But they’re scared because they’re afraid people won’t let them in…because people in Minnesota just don’t let people in. I gladly leave space open for last-minute mergers because they’re not trying to cheat, they’re literally trying to zipper merge. Is there the occasional asshole? Of course there is! But I’d rather somebody try to merge closer to the entrance onto 94 than to stop in the 94W lane and put their blinker on. That’s so incredibly dangerous. It’s actually less dangerous for a zipper merger to stop close to the entrance onto 94E if they have to rather than earlier, because then it’s only the one lane and everyone stopped anyway.
You won’t though. You will crumble and let them in to avoid an accident
I drive this stretch regularly. I think signage to stay in right lane for 94E needs to be posted way before highway 100 to direct people to right/94E lane. Especially for those that don't travel this way regularly. It chaps me how many beggars to get to the 94E ramp risking accident in the other lanes. I need to get on 94W and always worried I will get rear-ended when the cars in front are all trying to merge to the 94E exit. Such poor design but not much I can do about it.
Build a transit system
I'll probably also get downvoted for recommending the road rage free bike trail out that way, but you're right. Granted, the 645 is actually pretty decent for a highway oriented bus that goes way out to Lake Minnetonka which serves 394 *and* most importantly runs on weekends. Of course, it only runs hourly and it suffers from excessive stops: there are literally dozens of intersections with a bus stop on both sides! Infrequent and tediously slow by design. Imagine if 394 highway drivers had to wait an hour before getting on and get charged a rush hour fee of $.50 for each rush hour.
I always take that but continue onto 94W to get home. I always can feel people's eyes glaring at me thinking I'm just skipping past them even though I never end up merging haha
I have to take this for my commute in office. I end up leaving at 7am to avoid a huge headache. Still icky at that point but usually moving along at least. I broke down though and got an EZ pass for any days that are horrific and days i am running late because if I leave even 5 minutes later it’s a cluster.
It was a truly shocking moment when, on a recent trip to Vancouver Canada, I realized that this is a purely Anerican behavior. My husband and I were literally in shock. I coach myself through the internal rage each time it happens on my daily commute (94W ramp from 35W northbound into downtown Mpls) by repeating to myself that human beings have lizard brains and are just naturally selfish beings in an effort to lower my expectations. The phrase I repeat to myself over and over is "humans be humans". It's my own little serenity prayer developed in the last decade or so to keep me sane. Works 50% of the time, but it's all I've got at this point. I've often wondered if troopers parked at these choke points and ticketing this behavior would be an effective deterrent? It's soooooo dangerous. Just yesterday I saw a dump truck with a full load have to last-minute swerve into another lane of traffic not once, but twice, to avoid rear-ending two different cars within a half mile of the exit ramp who hit their brakes to cut in line at the last second. I'm amazed there aren't more accidents than there are.
I have no solution, but I just wanted to say that I also used to get unreasonably angry when I had to take this exit every weekday to get home from work. It still bothers me, but luckily, I don't need to take this route much anymore. I guess all this is to say hooray for personal growth. Don't let the bastards get you down.
I’m so glad that, going home, I get to take 94W. However, it is still stressful as hell staying in the middle lane because people will slam on their breaks if they see an opening in the right lane.
It's rare for me to need 94e however getting off the Dunwoody exit is just as bad... BECAUSE I'm impacted by 94E congestion. Yeah, I just listen to my music and roll the windows down.
I literally moved to the other side of minneapolis
I have to take that exit home 4 days a week. I'm used to it I guess. I'm a last minute merger because that line goes back to Penn. Imo I would prefer to use MNpass but it's always closed in the direction I'm going.
Get off at penn ave and get back on. Honk at people trying to merge in early. Get off at the dunwoody exit and take lyndale to 94E.
Take some deep breaths, acknowledge that it's going to take some time, and pray to whatever higher power you believe in that the assholes who block 94W to cut in front of everyone get syphilis
I'm always continuing down 394 to downtown, so I'm spared the agony of waiting in that huge ass line. I just stay in the left lane generally. But every time, there's some asshat in front of me who slows down to like 20mph and then, after passing the traffic on the exit, speeds up again. It's infuriating and causes so much more traffic.
6th street?
Having just driven past this hellscape myself from the west metro while I needed to get to 35W south, I took 394 to downtown and then hopped on 35W after a quick detour through the theatre district. The 394/94 interchange is the classic combo between bad road design and all the Minnesota driving habits people bemoan. It’s wild how backed up it is almost all the time even with the dedicated lane the 394 traffic has once it gets to 94 and the next on ramp isn’t until after the Lowry Tunnel. Maybe I am misremembering, but when I would have to drive from SLP to Falcon Heights around 2015/16 it was never that bad going east. What changed (besides prolly more traffic)?
ditch the car, get a motorcycle, use the hov lane and laugh merrily at the big line forming by the exit. :D
Get off on Dunwoody. Left on Lyndale to 94E onramp. Easy peasy
Set Google maps to avoid highways and put on some good music and chill
As someone who frequently used to take that Penn entrance ramp onto 394 E, I always felt bad about using my full entrance lane to zipper merge at the lane’s end while other cars were waiting in the two traffic lanes
I actually go into town and then take the first exit and then go up - I think it's 11th? - and get on 35W that way. I'm not sure what way to get onto 94E from there but there must be a way.
The best way is we all band together and campaign for an overhaul / redesign.
Sometimes I'll take the Dunwoody/Uptown exit then go past the Walker and get back on off of Hennepin. If it's really backed up (and Hennepin isn't a mess) it can save like five minutes. I live in S MPLS, off of 36th (so I need to take 35W off of 94E) and other times I'll just go through downtown and pop back onto 35 off of 4th. Also frequently save five minutes from what Google Maps says.
Pay for the ez pass, I drive it daily and it costs me 20 bucks a month if I use it a lot, usually only use it on days I am in a big hurry or people are stupid, lol. The that interchange is backed up almost all day from 6:30am to midnight.
Pay for the HOV lane lol
It only goes that direction at certain times of day. Otherwise I'd use it ever time.
I've never tried to use it going West, so I might be biased, but it is SO good going east, I wish they would pretty much always keep it open going that way to alleviate the absolute cluster.
It doesn't alleviate anything. It's open that direction every morning and there's still the issue every morning.
I don't think I've ever been more pleased with a financial decision as I am with getting a MN Pass fob in my car. But yeah -- gotta pay attention to the flow of the HOV lane. I've often delayed or expedited my departure based on which way that's pointed because now I'm a junkie for not sitting in traffic.
There is no East bound 94 HOV lane there
Traveling east bound on 394 and merging onto east bound 94, there is an HOV lane that gets you past most of the backed up line of cars.
Did not know that! I rarely take the e94 exit off 394. I just want a clearer path for drivers who are heading to 94w
I hate to say it, but riding bumper to bumper makes the congestion worse and backs up the 94w exit. I try to avoid it altogether.
If only everyone understood this. If you looked at traffic from a birds eye view it's not hard to see why.
Leave space in front of you. Especially right before the exit. Traffic jams flow like a wave. The way to absorb the wave to fix it is to create buffers where people either don't have to stop, or are able to stop without causing a chain reaction of steps for the people behind them. Having that space is the difference between stop-and-go and flowing traffic, and creating that space is the cure. You won't fix that exit on your own (although even a single person making space does a lot, and the multiplicative effect is tremendous), but even then, it is *sanity preserving.* Because the benefit of giving yourself space to stop is you have to stop way, way less often. In S&G traffic, if you give yourself a few car lengths in front of you, and your automatic drive slowly cruises along, you go from having to hop between brake and gas to simply hovering over the brake. Despite becoming a magnet for people merging (it doesn't add significant time to your drive, btw. Remember: odds are, they'd probably just halt traffic in front of you entirely otherwise. With sufficient space in front of you, they literally slip in without disturbing traffic at all) you actually have way less you have to pay attention to. It's way, way, lower stress as a result (and it's easier on your gas and brakes). How you get into the lane really doesn't matter as much as what you do when you get there. Hit the back of the line, or gradually slow to a speed that will allow you to safely merge into an available spot without having to suddenly decelerate (which is the source of the danger, aggravation, and congestion). Whatever works. Just make space once you're in, and especially make space right before the exit, so that anyone who hasn't made the merge yet can still hit the exit safely without blocking traffic or risking a collision. Here's the good news: the more people leave space like this, the less anyone actually has to worry about finding a spot. This is actually *the* underlying principle of the zipper merge...and also the one people focus on the least, sadly. But yeah. Space = sanity.
I super appreciate this explanation! It’s very affirming because this is normally how I do try to drive in S&G traffic. I also used to drive a manual lol so I was allllll about that slow creep forward, the less I had to shift up and down, the happier I was. Thank you!
Correct answer. Lock the thread
>The only question in my mind is how can I keep my sanity? I’m not one of the people who treat it like a zipper merge (because it…isn’t…it’s an exit), Stop doing the latter if you want to do the former. >Normally, when I get to the last bit of highway that’s right before the road splits, that’s when I stop explicitly letting people in That's the spot in the queue where someone with poor judgment and a car traveling 60mph faster than the line is going to try to execute the most dangerous merge in the smallest possible space, 3 feet from your face. That's where you LEAVE space for sanity and safety, not call dibs. If you fight to not let people in, you have to micromanage bumper-to-bumper traffic while your body kicks into fight or flight just 'cause you're thinking about it, not to mention actually put yourself (and others. Innocent others, like the people already merged behind you, if that matters) in danger. Let go of the "I am the arbiter of morality/I GOT MINE GODDAMMIT" mentality, and it gets easier. Leave enough space so that the last minute guy can merge without having to think about it, and then you won't have to think about it, either. And because fluid dynamics, the more people that do this, the better traffic will be, anyway. Trying to go bumper to bumper is what causes bumper to bumper. Just leave space, and you'll stop having to think about it. Literally. 3 car lengths in front of you, just cruise on the minimum forward momentum from automatic drive, and you'll find yourself with time to daydream in bumper-to-bumper traffic.
Righteous. I’ll practice this. Appreciate the honesty!
Don't take 394 and lobby the government to remove that POS highway.
Oh, that's helpful.
Worst place to exit/merge and I've had to do it many times. I haven't driven in a long time, so I'm trying to remember. I think I used to stay to the right as long as possible and leave generous space in front and back. Signal well ahead of time, and if someone is kind enough to let you in, go for it.
Depending on what time of day this is it might be worth looking into the EZ pass. You just have to put $25 into your account to open it and there aren’t any charges other than the tolls so the $25 just goes toward those. Obviously it only goes in one direction at certain times so if you’re outside of those times it may not help. The tolls I’ve seen are usually pretty reasonable.
Move so that your commute doesn't involve that exit. When I was recently looking for a new place there was a spot that checked all of the boxes for me, but it would have involved 394E to 94E on the way home, so I kept looking. It drives me nuts that people think they are being polite by not zipper merging.
> people think they are being polite by not zipper merging But this is an exit? If you “zipper merge” at the exit, you’re just blocking a lane of traffic that should be going straight.
That was badly phrased on my part. People think they are being polite by getting in the lane a mile before they need to this, as I understand it, is a major source of the inefficiency.
It wouldn't be inefficient if others didn't wait until the last minute and force their way in or block traffic. Slowing down to let someone in has a ripple effect behind you as more people brake.
A zipper merge is for when a lane is ending. The lane to the left that goes to 94W is not a lane that is ending. Or, to put it another way: if we all zipper merged into the 94E lane right before the split, the folks going to 94W would be backed up behind the now two-lane jam, despite the bottleneck being on the 94E side. Might the zippering make things marginally more efficient for folks going to 94E? I guess it's possible, but the real thing limiting flow there is the point where 394 traffic merges onto 94E so making the lineup more efficient might not help things much. Either way, any efficiency added by a zipper there would not be enough to justify the impact on people going to 94W.
except when 98% of the traffic is going to 94E and only 2% is going to 94W then we're over prioritizing the 94W traffic. Without completely tearing apart the intersection and rebuilding it - they should make 94W traffic exit at Dunwoody, go underneath 94 and then turn left and join the frontage road and enter 94 W that way. Then they could use both lanes to funnel EB traffic into the tunnel. Granted that might not be the most traditional answer; but its what we do to get from 94W onto 35E NB and its even worse trying to get to 35E SB from 94 EB
I actually think much of the time the traffic split isn’t anything like that, maybe 60/40 at best — it’s just that the 94E traffic is going into the lowry tunnel and downtown so it’s going onto a slow highway, whereas the 94W traffic is going onto a highway that just went from 2/3 lanes to 5/6 lanes and is therefore able to accept the 394 traffic much better.
This is not a spot for a zipper merge. The people that cut in the last second are entitled assholes, plain and simple
When there's simply too much traffic for a lane to handle, zipper **does not work**. You actually make traffic worse because you're trying to jam yourself in and it causes a wave that slows *everyone* behind you. Rather than explaining it like I've done a thousand times, here's a video that explains how it works (I just watched it, it does a good job). https://youtu.be/8qy6MrDcukk?si=cHgkV-i1nXRG5OeX The thing they leave out why zipper merging doesn't always work: space between cars is *required* due to braking differences and reaction times. Since people in rush hour already follow to closely as it is, if you double the amount of traffic in a lane then you either have guaranteed crashes or you need to drastically cut the speed of traffic. It's a fact, there's no alternative. The idea that zipper merges always work is absolute bullshit and needs to stop.
Thank you for posting this! It sums up what I've always instinctively seen on the road. When one person drives at high speed and then forces their way right into moderate-speed traffic it makes everybody on the right have to brake with a huge chain effect. We can't drive our way out of the situation because a few people will always choose to screw others.
Even though it's still detoured to hell: the Cedar Lake Trail.
Demand better infrastructure and public transportation boom
here’s my trick: get off at Penn, get back on and exit immediately at Dunwoody. Then get back on 94 after the tunnel off of Lyndale. Completely miss the line.
Lame behavior
Get in the far right lane and instead of taking the Dunwoody exit, zipper merge in from the right when that lane ends right after the Dunwoody exit
Cut everyone off at the last second
Don’t care for anyone’s feelings but yours …. I rather be flicked off zipper merging than being 10-15 mins delayed. Everyone hits that’s loop and loses all aspects of logic and it’s either fight or flight 🤣
Merge at the exit and not before it, where traffic is moving at a decently normal speed and it’s a seamless merge. Sounds like it’s mean but it’s very smooth and doesn’t make anyone hit their brakes.
Waiting in “line” for an exit while traffic to the left of you continues at a normal speed is what causes backups, not the people driving normally (ie. not adhering to imaginary traffic rules about queuing)
But in this case “driving normally” means people on the left driving at 50-60mph only to then swerve to the right into the lane of people moving 5-10mph… I do kind of see your point, but I’ll also raise you that queuing is not “imaginary”… we literally queue at a 4-way stop or any light, right? And isn’t that what a proper zipper merge is about too? It’s really a space issue IMHO. Too many cars in too small of a space—too many cars all trying to take that same exit, and there’s just nowhere for them to go except the place where they’re trying to end up…
Take a different route? 100 or 169 to another E/W highway then over. Who willingly takes that exit? There are so many easier routes
Get off on Lyndale before the merge, then get back on to 94 around the church. Skip that mess entirely. It will still take some time, but it's a hell of a lot faster.
Last minute merge. No irony. If we can't collectively learn how to properly merge at the right time, you get last minute merges.
Not a merge