It's called an acceleration ramp

[blas]

That's exactly my problem with people merging too slow, putzing around in decent weather on the road, but I usually get told "Just pass them!" and "It's not illegal to go 50 in a 65!" or "But is it really that big of a problem?" by others, even a few here.

It only takes one or two assholes refusing to merge at speed, or putzing around with a line of traffic behind them to bog up an entire stretch of road! This is how almost every SINGLE weekday evening I am on the freeway to work for 40-50 mph the first few miles on the freeway because NO ONE does it right!

[ADoyle90815]

Yeah, but even with the flow control lights, they're still back up the ramp, so you have time to get up to speed (during rush hour traffic jams? what speed is this?) before merging. The idiot I saw the other day got to the very end of the on ramp, and STOPPED. Same with the guy I almost rear ended.

People need to learn the difference between a stop sign and a yield sign. Learn it. Love it. Embrace it!

That's true, the freeway ramps here have those lights, and even when they're on, you still have plenty of time to reach freeway speed in order to merge. This is also a major pet peeve of mine, as someone is just asking to be rear ended if they stop or try to get on the freeway at 40mph. Even worse is at an exit ramp with a crosswalk at the bottom and no light or stop sign, some idiot stopped even though there was nobody even close to the crosswalk. As most drivers go down that ramp at freeway speeds, if that person were rear ended, it would have been more serious. With so many people getting off that ramp at freeway speeds, the police often love to set up a speed trap as the ramp ends at a street with a 35mph limit.