Despite the traffic calming curb extensions, heavy traffic means that the narrow residential street is still appealing to motorists looking to take a shortcut.
Rat running or cut-through driving refer to the use of secondary roads or residential side streets as opposed to the intended main roads in urban or suburban areas in order to avoid heavy traffic, lengthy traffic signals, or other obstacles lengthening a travel. Rat runs are frequently taken by motorists who are familiar with the local geography. They will often take such short cuts to avoid busy main roads and junctions, even at the expense having to negotiate traffic calming measures that may be in place to discourage them or even laws that are enacted against certain moves.
The associations with “beating the crowd”, the rush hour, and the rat race likely gave rise to the term. However, it literally derives from the habit of rats in finding and maintaining covert foraging routes.
Rat running is a controversial practice in driving. Though prevention or enforcement of legal restriction on public roadways, even residential side streets, is difficult, the practice is widely opposed by homeowners on the affected streets, as it is viewed as a disturbance to their peace, and has been known to affect real estate values in some markets.
In some neighborhoods, rat running has been fought by installing various traffic calming devices, including all-way stops, speed humps, traffic circles, and rumble strips, making some neighborhood streets one way, or by blocking off certain intersections. Other places, including Montgomery County, Maryland, have altogether banned turning on certain streets during rush hour in order to prevent legal rat running.
Some motorists are protective of their own rat runs, keeping them secret in order to prevent others from learning their tricks and clogging up the roads they routinely use.
Contents
//
Common rat run moves
Side street usage
Motorists familiar with an area sometimes use side streets or other smaller roads the run in the same direction as the main road along a parallel route. These locals generally know the streets on which they are traveling and the pros and cons of making use of these streets as an alternative to the main road.
Red light avoidance
In some cases, motorists avoid stopping at a red light by turning right onto a side street or into a parking lot before reaching the red light, continuing down the parking lot or side street, and turning left at the cross street the motorist is approaching (typically, this turn is controlled only by a stop or yield sign). Since the light was red on the main road, it is now green facing the cross street, allowing a right again and continuing the trip.
Waiting at other red lights can be avoided by turning right on red, making a U-turn, and then turning right again back onto the street in which the motorist was traveling. A motorist who was planning a left turn may be able to proceed sooner by making this right and U-turn, and then going straight through a green light.
With right turns being allowed on red at many intersections in most places, many rat runs are possible by taking advantage of this ability. Though a right turn on red may be difficult onto a busy street that has a green light even where permitted, an unobstructed right turn can be made when traffic making the opposing left turn has a green arrow. Motorists familiar with the intersection’s light cycle order may be able to time their moves.
Traffic jam avoidance
Some motorists exit and enter a freeway at the same exit to “cut in front of” other vehicles in a jam, or use temporary lanes designated for exiting and merging to pass stalled traffic.
Some large streets have parallel small residential streets separated only by a small median, where homeowners park their vehicles. These sections may be used to bypass traffic jams.
Preventing rat running
Some motorists refrain from rat running as a matter of general courtesy. Others feel it is their right to drive anywhere in the public domain, even on a street intended only for residents and their visitors. Often, when a major event that draws a large volume of traffic takes place, local police have been known to monitor or block such secondary roads to prevent motorists from the event crowd from using such streets to avoid the traffic.
During rush hour, right turns onto the side street shown here are prohibited in order to prevent rat running
Since the 2000s, a number of U.S. states, including the states of Georgia and Maryland. Though signs clearly mark areas where rat-running is prohibited, law enforcement in these areas have reported difficulty in enforcing such laws, and there have been no notable court cases to date.
Other places have installed physical measures to prevent rat running, such as traffic calming devices and barriers that completely block traffic along routes where rat running is tempting. The city of Berkeley, CA has one of the more extensive efforts in this regard, with dozens of concrete barriers set up citywide to block rat run shortcuts (while still allowing bicycle travel) .
In Northern Virginia, rat running is discouraged by the construction of dead end streets, communities with no outlet, and confusing winding roads, thereby making navigation through the neighborhoods by outsiders more difficult and lengthy.
See also
- Shunpiking
- Hypermiling
References
- ^ http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/07/25/AR2008072503528.html?sub=new
- ^ http://transport2000.com/news/maintainNewsArticles.asp?NewsArticleID=132
- ^ http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/07/25/AR2008072503528.html?sub=new
- ^ BILL INFO-2004 Regular Session-SB 508
- ^ Derbyshire County Council – Barriers to stop rat running motorists
- ^ City of Berkeley Traffic Calming History
- ^ http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/07/25/AR2008072503528.html?sub=new
Retrieved from “http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rat_running”
Categories: Road transport | Driving techniques