r/bergencounty • u/Intelligent-Park6723 • 8h ago
Traffic Rt 17 chaos
I am able to spend very little time navigating Rt 17 on the regular (THANK GOD), but today I needed to pick up something at the store West Elm. All good getting there, but getting out of the parking lot and back on 17 was near impossible! There was NEVER a break in traffic! I would probably still be sitting there if some other driver hadn't pulled off and blocked the shoulder right before the parking lot exit long enough for me to edge out and then go kamikaze style merge into the right lane. Horns were blown, accidents nearly occurred. Total CHAOS! It was absolutely ridiculous and I never do anything like that normally but I had no other choice. I was literally sitting there for at least 10 minutes before I did that, as was the person before me who basically did the same thing. What do others do? How is that supposed to be handled? Should I still be sitting there waiting my turn?? Not that I plan on venturing over there again any time soon lol
ETA - Sorry, I wasn't clear in my original post that the shoulder was basically being used as an exit lane by oncoming traffic for the exit that was coming up. I couldn't even get on the shoulder until the other driver happened to block the shoulder/lane. But drivers were flying around him so it was a very brief break and basically no room to merge bc of the exit traffic.
Anyway, thank you to those who were being kind and helpful. I appreciate you š