One of my unsafe practices I keep referring back to is the Highway on Ramp. There are two bad habits I seem to revert back to on these.
1 Speed. I tend to enter the on ramp at too great a level of speed. Remember we can accelerate faster than most of the other vehicles we will encounter on the highway. When entering the on ramp keep your speed down and accelerate as you go through it. The on ramp is the most likely place you will encounter a decreasing radius turn forcing you to the outside or the traffic side of the on ramp.
2. Lane position. I always tend to get to the inside of the lane of the on ramp. This practice has bitten me before and when I am thinking I will want to be on the center of the lane possibly just a touch to the inside. Most recently and the event that generated this post was a on ramp I encountered in Arizona near Flagstaff. (the one with the Harley dealership). I was on the far inside of the ramp and again going a little faster than I needed to be going since I can accelerate after reaching the acceleration lane once I had cleared the ramp. As I was watching the guard rail pass by suddenly there was a hitch hiker sitting there on the ramp with his gear stacked on the ramp surface in front of him. I was able to vier left and continue through the decreasing radius turn but it sure was a reminder for me to not enter the ramp at a high speed and keep more to the center of the ramp while negotiating the turn.
In this Photo my lane position far to the right on the on ramp
possibly saved my life. Notice the skid marks coming across the
solid white lines separating the on ramp from the highway
surface. I was entering the highway very close to the far right
onto a highway that was at a stand still. A truck on the
highway failed to notice the stopped traffic in front of him and
locked up his brakes at the last moment. Swerving to avoid the
car in front of him he came over to the on ramp to the position
I was occupying at the time. Because I was to the far right he
was able to scrub off enough speed to minimize the impact to my
left leg. Had I been to the far left side of the on ramp the
collision would have occurred three or four feet sooner and at a
much greater rate of speed.
Ride Safe
Glen
