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re Is there a name for such ramps?
There's an off ramp known as a "Trumpet"
You'll know why when you try to get off it
Many horns will blare
And it'll give you a scare
so bad you'll never forget it.
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There's an off ramp known as "Volleyball"
It's an exit you won't want to recall
You will fly in a curve
That will test every nerve
And you'll be lucky to exit at all.
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There's an off ramp known as "the Stack"
Once in it, there's no going back
You start in a file
And you end in a pile
As each car in the stack takes a "whack".
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Carpal Tunnel
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So what makes this merge different from any other merge?
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So what makes this merge different from any other merge?This merge ends up in Emergency. 
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Clever, plutarch.
Faldage, I wasn't interested in learning about what made this merge different from any other merge. I was wondering if there is a name for this particular category of merges. I imagine that merges must be categorized by civil engineers. This particular one that is so difficult is difficult in part because it is so hard to see the oncoming traffic that drives underneath the interstate bridge; it is also difficult because I'm not completely trusting of those coming from underneath the interestate to yield as they're supposed to do, but don't. Those in the northernmost merge lane have great difficulty in seeing back at the angle you can see on the map. There are other merges about town that are not close to being as difficult as this one, and, as of troy pointed out, there are contrary directions: slow down, speed up, slow down and stop all by the time you get to the light at the end of the merge access road.
I'd just like to know the name of such a merge that requires the right-of-way drivers to hold their breath and hope that the yielders will yield, especially when line of sight is extremely difficult for the right-of-way drivers.
This part of 95 has numerous traffic accidents, not only because of this precarious merge, but also because of a terrible bottleneck where 85 branches off from 95, especially when travelers are moving north on 85 into 95 north. Whoever were the team that designed the roadways and merges around the Colonial Heights/Petersburg area failed in many ways. And our accidents in the area are proof of the problem.
Oh, well. Thanks a lot for taking a look at all this. I suppose I'd have to talk to an engineer with special expertise in highway design...and I don't know anyone.
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Oh, well. Thanks a lot for taking a look at all this. I suppose I'd have to talk to an engineer with special expertise in highway design...and I don't know anyone. I do! I do, Wordwind, and I called him. His name is "Major Hate" Autin and he works for the Alabama State Highway Department in Guntersville. Major said that that type of an exit was usually found on Interstates that are designed for all exits to exit to the right (so as to avoid crossing lanes to exit) and are called Teapots, because all exits are shaped like teapot handles. "But Major," I said "Wordwind wants a name for the occasion when the right exit ramp in one direction joins the right exit ramp from the other direction and requires the outside laners to merge to the inside lane in order to continue in the single lane that goes in that direction." Major said nothing for a full minute then he said... "Tell her that that type of ramp is called "Twin Teapots" and tell her to be careful, those ramps are dangerous." And Major oughta know. He's been sitting behind the same desk at the Highway Department for twenty five years now and is counting.
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Wordward,
I've been sitting here, bemused by all of these word pictures, for long enough; so now I'm going to add my own, which most likely will cloak somebody else(s) here with the mantle of invisibility, but that's of little import to me in my current state of mind (bemused, as you'll recall).
to wit, how does your example of two exit ramps differ (if at all) from the classic (at least around here it's classic) accelerating-to-merge-into-traffic-from-an-entrance-ramp-while-someone-else-is-speeding-by-you so that he (or she) can cut-in-front-of-you-and-brake-so-as-to-flow-into-the-exit-ramp-traffic, all with the two ramps in question being separated by 50 feet or less (or fewer)?
in my situation, this is called the classic-entrance-exit-two-ramp-poor-planning-bad-driver-conundrum.
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Thanks, Milo. Teapot/Twin Teapot. It's all a matter of batrachomyomachian determination in civil engineers.
Thanks, tsuwm, too, for adding to visual term palette. Maybe I should just print out this thread and send it to the Va. Dept. of Transportation.
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you know, the Plutarchian linkage was quite extensive.
formerly known as etaoin...
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