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Rubber Necking in Columbus

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Started 5 years ago by Darkflash
Latest reply from Trixie

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Darkflash

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I have either lived in or visited most of the big cities in US.
Lived in or near: San Francisco, Portland, Columbus
Visited: Los Angeles, New York, Seattle, Los Vegas, Denver, St Louis, Etc.
BUT, I have never seen rubber necking as bad as I have seen in Columbus. I understand that people like to slow down a little for the safety sake of the Police/Fireman, BUT. I used to be a volunteer fireman and I can tell you that they go through months of training on how to stay out of the street, or redirect traffic if needed to. If they get hit by a car they werent where they were suposed to be.
ALSO, there is absolutely no reason for traffic on the other side of the freeway going the oposite direction to slow down. I have seen this almost every time there is anything from a true accident on the side of the road down to someone changing a flat tire.
Please give some input on if any of you get the same annoyance or if you are the looking type. Just trying to figure out why Columbus.

Posted 5 years ago #
Schoolboy
Columbus
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It is very annoying.
Perhaps you have had to drive on 71 S these past two mornings as well. Two traffic jams created by 1 pulled over or broken down vehicle, and another caused by two men loading a broken down motorcycle onto the back of a pickup... with flashing lights behind them for protection.
No flashing lights in either circumstance would have resulted in nobody caring... or coming to nearly a complete stop.
Very very annoying. Especially because you know it was a chain reaction caused by just a couple of complete idiots.

Posted 5 years ago #
Darkflash

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People always seem to talk about the traffic conditions in L.A. I honestly believe that because they have had traffic problems very early on in the age of automobiles, and the fact that they built roads much later than Columbus. Might have given them a chance to learn how to drive with traffic on large enough roads that can handle it. They have sections of highway that are ten(10) lanes across, on each side. Their traffic in L.A. is one of the best in the US now considering there population.
Where are Columbus's carpool lanes anyway?

Posted 5 years ago #
bonniefide
NE Side
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Schoolboy wrote It is very annoying.
Perhaps you have had to drive on 71 S these past two mornings as well. Two traffic jams created by 1 pulled over or broken down vehicle, and another caused by two men loading a broken down motorcycle onto the back of a pickup... with flashing lights behind them for protection.
YES. This morning was ridiculous. There was a stinking tow truck and a motorcycle.
People around here like to stop just to see someone getting a ticket! If a cop pulls over to give someone a ticket, they are trained in how to park their car behind the person they are pulling over to give themselves room to approach the drivers window. There is no reason for passing drivers to stop & look!

Posted 5 years ago #
Tigertree
771 N. High St.
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LA used to have a rail system called the red-car. Some (brilliant) asshole that owned a tire company bought it and shut it down so he could sell more tires. Unfortunately the city had been built up, largely, around this really successful mass-transporation system and there was no way to put in a decent highway infrastructure. That compiled with an ocean preventing a bypass loop are LA's problems in short. Earthquakes prevent a fully functioning subway system and putting in a decent aboveground or mono-rail isn't really possible anymore either.
Also. Rubbernecking on LA highway's general slows down the opposing sides traffic as much the direction that has the accident.
Traffic is not good there. People's talking about it is merited.

Posted 5 years ago #
Coremodels
Really close to Explorer's Club.
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Could be connected to Ohio's love of NASCAR?

Posted 5 years ago #
Darkflash

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LA must have gotten worse since last I was there which was about 4 years ago. Who knows maybe traffic is getting bad nationwide and I just didn't notice it until I got to Columbus.
All I know is that I dont slow down when there are lights on the side of the freeway. unless of course someone in front of me is slamming on their breaks.

Posted 5 years ago #
Roscoe

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I first recognized that rubber-necking was out of control when I saw the planes flying advertising banners at rush-hour. In don't know how often, but I've often seem then on the West side of 270 in the afternoon. I honestly wish that the highway patrol would stop them, clearly they're going beyond taking advantage of a situation and actually making traffic worse.

Posted 5 years ago #
Walker
The KLD / Downtown / Gay Street
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Rubbernecking is a problem everywhere. I've heard people all over the us utter the phrase "oh my god the drivers here are the worst". The truth is... traffic is traffic. And it sucks no matter where you're stuck in it.
Also, many times people mistake "rubbernecking" for traffic wave patterns that commonly occur after a highway accident:
http://www.amasci.com/amateur/traffic/traffic1.html

Posted 5 years ago #
ChrisD28
Short North
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To tie 2 current threads together, I must admit that I am often guilty of rubbernecking. Said rubbernecking usually takes place at the Olentangy River Rd. Target.

Posted 5 years ago #
Tigertree
771 N. High St.
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Columbus does not have a traffic problem.
Or parking.

Posted 5 years ago #
Darkflash

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The problem is traffic = problem. So if there is traffic, its a problem. Hence Columbus has a traffic problem. Sorry if I am jumping all over your probable sarcasm. :)
As for tipical traffic patterns, I understand that every day people leave work at the same time causing a mad rush for the freeway. But what I am talking about is traffic that leads up to an ocurence on the side of the road, then miraculously returns to normal speeds just after passing. Which would make me believe that the only reason people were going slow is because of what is happening on the side.

Posted 5 years ago #
Roscoe

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Walker wrote
Also, many times people mistake "rubbernecking" for traffic wave patterns that commonly occur after a highway accident
That's a great point, there's a lot of anxious drivers that don't look down the road to see what's happening, but only react to what's right around them.

Posted 5 years ago #
Tigertree
771 N. High St.
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I'm just saying for a city of its size we really don't have any traffic. I've been in what I would loosely define as gridlock maybe twice here, but for like 10 minutes. Our "rush-hour" lasts like a half hour and if you can't do anything but drive in it, you still get up to about 30 mph with the exception of interchanges.
We have it good here.

Posted 5 years ago #
Darkflash

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True, I remember when I used to live in Cali. Going to work in San Francisco, which was a 30min drive on the un traffic effected weekend, became a 3 hour ordeal. But, that traffic was purely from over population coming together at the same time. I just get iritated with the insane reasons that even the minor traffic gets started that I have seen here in Columbus. Not saying that it isnt happening everywhere else.
I guess it comes down to, traffic is everywhere and it will only get worse with all this baby making. But thats a whole other thread waiting to explode.

Posted 5 years ago #
Walker
The KLD / Downtown / Gay Street
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Darkflash wrote But what I am talking about is traffic that leads up to an ocurence on the side of the road, then miraculously returns to normal speeds just after passing. Which would make me believe that the only reason people were going slow is because of what is happening on the side.
I think you missed my link the first time:
http://www.amasci.com/amateur/traffic/traffic1.html
This isn't rubbernecking. It's how traffic jams work.

Posted 5 years ago #
somertimeoh
Harrison West
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People are just naturally curious, i.e. nosy. Rubbernecking is human nature.
People that haven't lived in cities where traffic really is an issue are going to complain about the traffic here. Hell, people who've lived in said cities will still complain because traffic sucks when you're in it. When it affects people's quality of life enough, they will change it, until then it's just listening to people whine and complain for the sake of whining and complaining.

Posted 5 years ago #
Tigertree
771 N. High St.
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I think we should be paying more attention to where columbus is supposed to be and stay ahead of the curve. Maybe our lack of traffic is actually part of what keeps away the "city feeling" but sometimes when I am driving around 270 at 5:30 I honestly think to myself "I cannot believe our population is so big and this is rush hour."

Posted 5 years ago #
Darkflash

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Sorry Walker, I did miss it the first time. I have studdied traffic like him just not to the scale that he took it. I always understood that it could take one person to start the wave of red lights floating backwards amongst the cars.
And I am sorry everybody, I am just trying to make a point without sounding like I am attacking anybody.
I usualy dont even think about the fact that I am in traffic when I am in it. Sometimes I see traffic as relaxing in the way that its a break after work and before I get home to do chores.
All I am trying to say is that even with flowing motion of stopping cars moving backwards away from an incident. There always still seem to me people starting the next wave, at the incident, by rubbernecking. Of which in my personal experiance have not seen as much as I do here.

Posted 5 years ago #
Schoolboy
Columbus
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bonniefide wrote
Schoolboy wrote It is very annoying.
Perhaps you have had to drive on 71 S these past two mornings as well. Two traffic jams created by 1 pulled over or broken down vehicle, and another caused by two men loading a broken down motorcycle onto the back of a pickup... with flashing lights behind them for protection.
YES. This morning was ridiculous. There was a stinking tow truck and a motorcycle.
People around here like to stop just to see someone getting a ticket! If a cop pulls over to give someone a ticket, they are trained in how to park their car behind the person they are pulling over to give themselves room to approach the drivers window. There is no reason for passing drivers to stop & look!
yesterday was 1 million times worse than today.
i was so pissed to see that it was just a pulled over car that was well off to the side of the road just past the 670 area. the traffic was stop and go all the way from at least hudson to there. which meant i was around 45 mins late for work that day!!!!!!!!
it is true that it's unpreventable and happens everywhere though. it's a very strange phenom when it happens for absolutely no reason on highways. i have myself witnessed this happening once. about 1 month ago actually. from around buckeye lake to columbus the traffic was backed up to a crawl. no reason. nobody pulled over, and no accidents. combine that with it being 9pm on a sunday night... and you have yourself a very strange happening.

Posted 5 years ago #