One of the areas that we often see crashes during the morning rush hour is on 93 SB in Medford on the approach to the car pool lane. There is a lot of jockeying for position as people move out of the left lane, which is shortly going to become the car pool lane. Most people are very good about getting into their lane in an orderly fashion. They know the left lane is becoming the car pool lane and that with traffic jammed, they had better get out of that lane well in advance.
What I find troublesome is that there are A LOT of people who wait until the very last minute to get out of the left lane and push into the main line. During the average morning rush, traffic is jammed in this stretch. To merge in at this point means forcing yourself into bumper to bumper traffic. So what happens? Cars have to come to a full stop in the free flowing left lane and wait until they can squeeze into the main line.
This morning I saw 6 cars come to a full stop trying this move, two cars were so late to make the move that they had to cross the solid white line and one car come across the rumble strip.
Not only is this dangerous, but it’s rude. It always feels to me like people are cutting in line. Everyone else has done the right thing by getting into the correct lane without dangerously disturbing the flow of traffic, without cutting people off, and without forcing a merge.
I’m pretty sure it’s illegal to cross the solid white line and the rumble strip to make this move. I don’t know what the law says about stopping traffic to merge in a circumstance such as this. I do know that it’s dangerous. We spend a lot of time reporting accidents in this area.
