How do you deal with difficult lane merges and stop sign crossings?

Sev

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I have this feeling the 1.5T is not so great in two very specific, but also extremely common scenarios: traffic jams and stop signs.

Imagine you want to change lanes and you want to be quick from the moment you intend to move, because a small window of opportunity just surged. You have to be quick. Otherwise the dude behind on the lane you want to merge to will fill the space before you do. Or else, even more common: you want to cross a stop sign in a busy day and you have to assess your car's capacity of safely doing so. The 1.5 T will let you down a little bit in these two situations for two simple reasons:

1 - The drive-by-wire system on the 1.5T has a very annoying delay. Sometimes it feels like the gas pedal doesn't seem to answer your requests with a decent response time. It feels kinda lazy. That can be partially mitigated by a Sprint Booster or something of the kind, tho. I installed one and I really recommend it.

2 - By the time the turbo kicks in, you have already crossed the road / reached your desired lane merging. It feels a bit clumsy, because you were about to stop when the turbo kicked in. To add to that turbo "incontinence", you also had to count only on your 1.5 liters to do all the heavy lifting.

But beside these two cases, I can't think of any other scenarios where the 2.0 trumps the 1.5T.
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Here is how I deal with 1 and 2
1: turn on indicator so that people behind you know "Hey, this guy wants to change lanes. Maybe I should let him do that". Once a gap opens, I squeeze in safely without mashing the gas pedal. If I can't get in safely, I take the next exit and make a detour to get back on the road to where I need to go. Rushing lane entry is asking for trouble.

2:I stop at the stop sign. Wait a second or two, then proceed and if I'm not moving fast enough to other people's standards, I flip them the bird.
 
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Sev

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Here is how I deal with 1 and 2
1: turn on indicator so that people behind you know "Hey, this guy wants to change lanes. Maybe I should let him do that". Once a gap opens, I squeeze in safely without mashing the gas pedal. If I can't get in safely, I take the next exit and make a detour to get back on the road to where I need to go. Rushing lane entry is asking for trouble.

2:I stop at the stop sign. Wait a second or two, then proceed and if I'm not moving fast enough to other people's standards, I flip them the bird.
Oh. You clearly never drove in a savage traffic like the ones I'm used to. Hahaha

I get it, tho. I have lived a couple years in the U.S. and driving there is surely much less stressing and insane.
 

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Oh. You clearly never drove in a savage traffic like the ones I'm used to. Hahaha
I live in Northern California, it's not as savage as the LA area, but with patience I've never had an issue making a lane change without mashing the pedal. I don't wait until I have to exit in a 1/4 mile, I get into the lane I need to be well in advance so I can try to avoid these things. Not trying to sound condescending but I do not take any chances because you never know what the cars behind or next to you are going to do even if you feel confident in your own abilities. So better to be safe than sorry imo.
 

DoctorC

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Oh. You clearly never drove in a savage traffic like the ones I'm used to. Hahaha

I get it, tho. I have lived a couple years in the U.S. and driving there is surely much less stressing and insane.
I see you reside in Brazil. I definitely can't attest to the traffic out there but I wish you the best because it sounds like a zoo if you need to mash the gas just to change lanes lol
 


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Haven’t experienced this yet in my 1.5, but my 2.0MT handled these situations much better than I expected.
 

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Traffic can be crappy everywhere - some worse than others. That said, I've never thought my Civic with the 1.5T was any better or worse than any other car I've had including vehicles with V6 motors, 2-liter turbos, straight 6 engines for lane changing or accelerating from a stop. But also like the Doc said, much of it also has to do with the driver and how he/she wishes to interact with traffic.

That said, I wish you safe driving in Brazil!
 
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Sev

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I live in Northern California, it's not as savage as the LA area, but with patience I've never had an issue making a lane change without mashing the pedal. I don't wait until I have to exit in a 1/4 mile, I get into the lane I need to be well in advance so I can try to avoid these things. Not trying to sound condescending but I do not take any chances because you never know what the cars behind or next to you are going to do even if you feel confident in your own abilities. So better to be safe than sorry imo.
Don't get me wrong. I lived in LA for a year and driving there was a breeze compared to the big, high density cities in Brazil. I live in an urban area with a population of 3 million, and, just so you have an idea of density, my apartment is on the 15th floor.

I didn't mean merging on the highway. You will usually have a couple miles before having to move to the right and leave. I'm talking about regular streets. Those with only two or three lanes, where you enter from the left and have to leave from the right in just a couple blocks.

Imagine yourself trying to merge lanes here:
Honda Civic 10th gen How do you deal with difficult lane merges and stop sign crossings? 21-08-13_transito01


Now imagine yourself trying to cross this 3 lanes road from a stop sign (speed limit 60 kmh) in the rush hour:
Honda Civic 10th gen How do you deal with difficult lane merges and stop sign crossings? curitiba-pr-velocidade-maxima-no-binario-mateus-leme-nilo-pecanha-agora-e-de-50-km-h-660x330
 
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Sev

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Traffic can be crappy everywhere - some worse than others. That said, I've never thought my Civic with the 1.5T was any better or worse than any other car I've had including vehicles with V6 motors, 2-liter turbos, straight 6 engines for lane changing or accelerating from a stop. But also like the Doc said, much of it also has to do with the driver and how he/she wishes to interact with traffic.

That said, I wish you safe driving in Brazil!
Interesting... is that maybe a drive-by-wire thing then? I didn't have any problem with this type of situation back then when I drove a fully mechanic GM Omega 4.1 Liters. I would push the gas and the car would immediately respond.
 
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Sev

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I see you reside in Brazil. I definitely can't attest to the traffic out there but I wish you the best because it sounds like a zoo if you need to mash the gas just to change lanes lol
Yep. I lived in many towns in America. LA, Sao Paulo, San Jose (Costa Rica), and my hometown.

Interestingly enough, the roads here are not the worst I have dealt with, but people here, specifically in my hometown, are peculiar. They are not exactly uneducated, they just never feel like you deserve to merge in front of them. LOL
 


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I have this feeling the 1.5T is not so great in two very specific, but also extremely common scenarios: traffic jams and stop signs.

Imagine you want to change lanes and you want to be quick from the moment you intend to move, because a small window of opportunity just surged. You have to be quick. Otherwise the dude behind on the lane you want to merge to will fill the space before you do. Or else, even more common: you want to cross a stop sign in a busy day and you have to assess your car's capacity of safely doing so. The 1.5 T will let you down a little bit in these two situations for two simple reasons:

1 - The drive-by-wire system on the 1.5T has a very annoying delay. Sometimes it feels like the gas pedal doesn't seem to answer your requests with a decent response time. It feels kinda lazy. That can be partially mitigated by a Sprint Booster or something of the kind, tho. I installed one and I really recommend it.

2 - By the time the turbo kicks in, you have already crossed the road / reached your desired lane merging. It feels a bit clumsy, because you were about to stop when the turbo kicked in. To add to that turbo "incontinence", you also had to count only on your 1.5 liters to do all the heavy lifting.

But beside these two cases, I can't think of any other scenarios where the 2.0 trumps the 1.5T.
I have this feeling the 1.5T is not so great in two very specific, but also extremely common scenarios: traffic jams and stop signs.

Imagine you want to change lanes and you want to be quick from the moment you intend to move, because a small window of opportunity just surged. You have to be quick. Otherwise the dude behind on the lane you want to merge to will fill the space before you do. Or else, even more common: you want to cross a stop sign in a busy day and you have to assess your car's capacity of safely doing so. The 1.5 T will let you down a little bit in these two situations for two simple reasons:

1 - The drive-by-wire system on the 1.5T has a very annoying delay. Sometimes it feels like the gas pedal doesn't seem to answer your requests with a decent response time. It feels kinda lazy. That can be partially mitigated by a Sprint Booster or something of the kind, tho. I installed one and I really recommend it.

2 - By the time the turbo kicks in, you have already crossed the road / reached your desired lane merging. It feels a bit clumsy, because you were about to stop when the turbo kicked in. To add to that turbo "incontinence", you also had to count only on your 1.5 liters to do all the heavy lifting.

But beside these two cases, I can't think of any other scenarios where the 2.0 trumps the 1.5T.
If you have the paddle shifters, just use them to lower the virtual "gear" once or better twice (depends on the situation though) as you press the gas pedal. Makes a really big difference.

Without the shifters, it's only the S mode, which is also laggy. I never use it.
 

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Interesting... is that maybe a drive-by-wire thing then? I didn't have any problem with this type of situation back then when I drove a fully mechanic GM Omega 4.1 Liters. I would push the gas and the car would immediately respond.
I'm not sure about the older cars I drove if they had DBW.
 

ebbtide

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Don't get me wrong. I lived in LA for a year and driving there was a breeze compared to the big, high density cities in Brazil. I live in an urban area with a population of 3 million, and, just so you have an idea of density, my apartment is on the 15th floor.

I didn't mean merging on the highway. You will usually have a couple miles before having to move to the right and leave. I'm talking about regular streets. Those with only two or three lanes, where you enter from the left and have to leave from the right in just a couple blocks.

Imagine yourself trying to merge lanes here:
21-08-13_transito01.jpg


Now imagine yourself trying to cross this 3 lanes road from a stop sign (speed limit 60 kmh) in the rush hour:
Sheesh sounds like a rat race every day lol. Cant say I would do much different but I would certainly be leaving way earlier to make time for all of the slowdowns and failures to change lanes that would like come with living in that city. Just be careful and at least always use your turn signals. You may get lucky :) or you may just be late.
 
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Sev

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If you have the paddle shifters, just use them to lower the virtual "gear" once or better twice (depends on the situation though) as you press the gas pedal. Makes a really big difference.

Without the shifters, it's only the S mode, which is also laggy. I never use it.
I noticed when I'm driving in the highway that sometimes my car will simulate gears and sometimes it won't. This seems at random. Any idea?
 

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I noticed when I'm driving in the highway that sometimes my car will simulate gears and sometimes it won't. This seems at random. Any idea?
Honda has programmed the transmission to simulate gear changes. It's most noticeable when your WOT and really pushing it. It's nearly imperceptible when your cruising along.
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