Pondering upon the patterns of a Boston commute

[mizarchivist]

In your opinion, is it ever appropriate to comandeer the breakdown lane as an exit lane?
What factors determine your decision: number of wheels on your transport, signage, condition of traffic, road/highway, lemming factor, other?

Comments

[awfief.livejournal.com]

I'll do it only if there's a lot of traffic and I'm exiting, and I can see the exit (meaning 'I can see my exitand I can see that there's nobody broken down between me and the exit'.) I don't drive in the breakdown lane for a mile, knowing I'm taking the next exit.

Other than that, only if it's a mess with people merging, might I do that. But never for more than a hundred feet or so.

[trystero.livejournal.com]

Yes, if by doing so you're helping reduce the traffic load on the highway, and as long as you're not interfering with the people who are sticking to the rules. (In other words, when you get to the exit, you need to yield to the people in the real exit lane.)

But I'm inconsistent, and it's sort of a lemming conformist thing: if one person uses the breakdown lane, I tend to think of them as being selfish, but if a bunch of people use it in orderly fashion, I tend to regard that as okay. So I guess it's okay, as long as you're not the first.  :-)

[lizzielizzie.livejournal.com]

If traffic is really bad and there isn't a bunch of debris in the breakdown lane, I'll drive in the breakdown lane once I can see my exit. The lemming factor is definitely there. I only drive a car (4 wheels), so I can't comment on other forms of transport.

[kazmat.livejournal.com]

If traffic is movin, I don't use the breakdown lane, but it traffic is at a stop and I can see my exit, then there's some likihood that I'll hop over into the breakdown lane to get the hell out of the way. And of course you yield to people who were actually patient enough to wait till the exit lane started.

Also, you have a responsibility to be extra alert when you're doing something unexpected like driving in the breakdown lane.

[marmota.livejournal.com]

Keep in mind that throughout the eighties and part of the nineties, it was legal in massachusetts to drive in breakdown lanes during rush hour on major highways such as 95 and 93. While I'm fairly sure that has since changed legally, the average driver is going on a decade or more of habit and may not know or care. That said, sure, I'll use the breakdown lane to exit when the highway is jammed, IF I have line-of-sight with the exit ramp to know the way is clear.

[lizzielizzie.livejournal.com]

It is still legal on parts of Route 93 during rush hour.

[sauergeek.livejournal.com]

It is legal during rush hour on 128 from Rt 9 south to the 93/3 split, which I think includes the section you mean.

Warning

[feste-sylvain.livejournal.com]

I have this nicely written citation from Officer "Sohw Adnm" (illegible), badge number 2814 (legible), warning me never to do that in an area which isn't posted permitting it.

There are (most famously) sections of 128 which are posted as allowing traffic to use the breakdown lane, usually between certain hours corresponding to standard commute times, as exit-lane extensions.

No part of I-495 has such postings.

When the officer pulled me over, I obtained my license from my wallet and my registration from my glove box, and before he reached my car I had the window rolled down and asked him, "I'm sorry officer; is that not allowed?" No pretense about innocence, I knew exactly why he pulled me over, and we had this little discussion about posted breakdown use and non-posted breakdown use. He ran my license to make sure that I hadn't been warned about this on record, recorded the warning, and saved me a moving violation and a buttload on insurance.

[qwrrty.livejournal.com]

Do you mean "as a travel lane" or "as an exit lane"?

If you're within sight of your exit and traffic is stopped or very slow, I don't have a problem with driving the rest of the way in the breakdown lane to the exit. People who pass the exit and continue driving in the breakdown lane should be summarily shot. :-)

There are, as feste_sylvain pointed out, occasional highway stretches where it is explicitly posted that the breakdown lane can be used as a travel lane during certain hours. I have done this once or twice but mostly find it a really bad idea even when the law allows, so I try to avoid it at all costs.

[keyne.livejournal.com]

What he said, though I want to add that the only place I do this is on Route 2 approaching Alewife, since the highway narrows suddenly to two lanes and there's usually such a jam that everybody uses the breakdown lane to get off at Alewife.

[mizarchivist]

That is exactly where I was wondering this. *grin*