An essay on selfish driving – The Cauldron

I-90 traffic- pictured along Dead man’s Curve- is some of the worst in Northeast Ohio. Photo courtesy of Cleveland.com

An aspect of my day on-campus is the drive home. With in-person learning in full swing, there are thousands of people making the same commute as me. While this was not lost on me prior to the start of the semester, I did not expect such a cluster-****. For anyone who has to drive through the I-90/I-71 west/south exchange home, you know exactly what I’m talking about.

The on-ramp closest to campus is on Chester Avenue by the Langston apartments. This ramp does not have a flawed design, per se. People merging onto the highway from the east turn left, then right to join people merging from the west, who enter the ramp earlier. However, this design is thwarted by every impatient person driving west on Chester.

Both sides of the ramp get a bit backed up. When people driving west on Chester see that the on-ramp is getting congested, they choose to drive to the light at the intersection where the cars coming from the east need to turn to get onto the highway. For them, this cuts their wait-time in half. The issue, however, is that these cars turn right to get to the ramp even when oncoming traffic has the right of way (designated by a green arrow that allows them to turn). When the cars approaching from the west turn right, they block the oncoming traffic from being able to turn. This leads to a major back up on Chester Avenue as a whole, all because the cars on west Chester did not want to wait their turn.

In my opinion, the cars on west Chester should not even have the opportunity to screw over the oncoming cars. They should be forced to continue on the ramp, so oncoming cars can merge from Chester onto the ramp. This will prevent many future back ups and even possible fights. In fact, I witness a west Chester driver get out of his van because he was so angry that an east Chester driver “cut him off,” even though the east Chester driver had the green arrow and had already waited through three light cycles because of people like the west Chester driver.

If your commute features a drive down West Chester to the I-90/I-71 west/south ramp, please do not be selfish and skip the ramp line.

Sincerely,

east Chester Drivers.