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Comment by rootusrootus | Hacker News Reader

Yeah that merge sucks all around in both lanes. The left lane just merges directly into the freeway with no onramp space, while the right lane exits. Meanwhile you've got traffic on I5 which is still coming up on you at 75mph since that's the point where the limit drops, and some of them want off at Nyberg.

Not my favorite interchange, either. Not the worst in Portland by far, but definitely awkward at times.

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> Not the worst in Portland by far, but definitely awkward at times.

That's true. I could probably come up with a decent list of them.

This one in Portland is similar, and it's on a bridge. Everyone on the right wants to go left, everyone on the left wants to go right and all want to do it above 60MPH with as little space in-between as possible. Scares the shit out of me every time. https://www.google.com/maps/@45.5065751,-122.6714366,3a,60.7...

The solution here is to stay out of the merge lanes unless you need to merge.

And if you do need to merge, do so at the merge point, as per http://trafficwaves.org/seatraf.html

The merge point is as soon as the lanes touch. The dominant traffic flow is I5 to I84 and every last one of those cars has to switch lanes to get there, and some traffic will need to cross in front of them to get from I405 to I5. There's about a quarter mile to make it all happen, while on a bridge with narrow lanes 130 feet in the air, moving at speed. No, you will not be leaving large gaps to let people in, LOL. You will back off and leave exactly enough room for a car to get in front of you (assuming you are not just going to trade lanes). It works okay as long as everyone acts as expected and nobody wimps out. It can get dangerous when grandma goes through there and panics when it all gets really dense for a moment.

Which is a great solution if everybody complies, but when you have people unfamiliar with the area, bad drivers, and anxiety over Google Maps directions is when it spells trouble. I've lived in Oregon for over 30 years, so I don't typically have a problem but I get nervous over the unpredictable behavior of other drivers in those situations I outlined.

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