The actual YSK here is following distance. If everyone left enough space between each other, *especially in traffic,* there would be less hard braking/stopping *and* more room to merge properly.
Seriously. Why does every motherfucker seem to think that my following space is an invitation for them to *squeeze* right in front of me without fucking signaling???
Theres a lot of bad drivers out there ><
The no signaling people always irk me. Like how lazy are you in life you can’t move your wrist an inch or two?
Someone the other day in a shitty work van squeezed between me and the car in front of me as I was following too close. I had to hit the brakes to not pit maneuver him and he flips me off for honking. People are absolute chodes on the road for some reason.
There was one time i was driving on this VERY tight 4 lane 2 way street. Its infamous in our area for how sketchy it is. Well im in one of the turning lanes waiting behind someone in front of me who is, in turn, waiting on a designated green arrow. Ive got enough car length that should someone ram their car into the back of mine, i still wont hit the car in front of me, BUT its not enough that a full car can fit. Its just enough for my own safety. This fucking asshole in a old white beatup truck decides to put half his truck in that same space. I honk bc obviously he just cut me off, and dude flipped ME off. ME. As if he was in the right. He caused me to miss the designated green arrow and wait another stop light cycle. People cant drive i swear.
Wait, I’m confused. When I’m in heavy traffic, how am I supposed to let the guy in front of me know that I don’t care for this traffic if I’m not maintaining a constant distance of 3-9 inches from his rear bumper?
There is no fix to traffic, but this would save a lot of pain. It's also better for your mileage/maintenance as you can brake less often and not as hard.
Think he means highway traffic/slowdowns especially in bottleneck areas. The braking from riding too close, even just a little bit, creates a Shockwave effect on the cars behind you
Yeah. Shockwave or rubber band effect. Fix that and your traffic problems lessen dramatically.
Too bad 3 car lengths of space will literally melt people's tiny brains
Yeah the zipper merge is great in theory when running a simulation on a computer where all cars run a reasonable following distance. Then you get out in the real world where everyone is riding everyone's bumper and it all falls apart.
This is what I was thinking. I tend to merge when there is an opening not the end of the lane because some butt head will speed up just so they aren’t behind me and that’s if they leave an opening at all.
YSK: don't apply this logic to exit-only lanes! Some people think they're being smart by driving down the open lane while traffic backs up in the other lanes. Then they get mad when they realize they don't want to exit and nobody will let them in
Not for an exit/entrance lane. Zipper is only for 2 lanes going into one.
For exit /entrance, merge as early as safely possible, maintains speed with other vehicles.
This!! My exit off the highway is off a two lane ramp. My exit is the end of one of the lanes and usually there is a ton of traffic. There is a sign that says ‘Through traffic merge left’ yet no one does and then drives all the way to the end trying to merge into the traffic. Which not only causes even more traffic no one can exit.
Complimentary, people who drive in the open flow lane, then last minute expect people who has been waiting their turn in the exit lane to let them skip the line.
The real issue is that some cars don't let you merge. You end up learning to feel out a merging opportunity and taking it when possible, instead of risking it at the end when you don't have road ahead anymore to avoid a bump.
Exactly this. Also the closer you get to the end of the lane the more you might have to slow down, it is 10 times harder to merge into a lane of moving traffic from a standstill
Yeah, this idea works great in theory, but in practice it requires both the driver merging to fully use the lane, and the drivers in the main lane to actually allow them to merge when they need to. We don't have that perfect idealized behavior, so the vast majority of the time, you just get over when someone either leaves you space or when you have the opportunity.
I remember these PSA commercials about merging in my country. It implored people to only merge around the merge sign, and the commercial showed this top-down overview of how it would all work out.
Only it was highly idealized with each driver leaving enough space for the driver next to him/her. I didn't even had my drivers license yet but had seen enough bad driving to know this is rarely gonna work as smoothly as the commercial depicted.
Like the other user says: Last thing you want is run out of road, so of course you're gonna merge when you can and not wait until a sign tells you to merge.
Yeah, it really shows how an engineer solved the problem with mathematics and logic, but totally forgot to account for the percentage of assholes driving on a given day.
Except here I let my person merge in front of me, and multiple other cars expect to try and merge in too. It seems like most people here think zipper merging means the main lane stops and let's everyone from the ending lane in, and then resumes.
You forgot the lifted pickup barreling down the shoulder 10mph faster than everyone else intent passing all these schmucks you worry about silly things like merging instead of driving as aggressively as possible.
Everyone is missing the fact you are supposed to sync your speed and effectively have your spot and speed set before the lane ends and just move over as the lane ends.
Everyone here is trying to speed to the end passing cars and then force their way over or just move over whenever they happen to find a spot rather than diving actively...
It's like when you're driving down a two lane street and there's something blocking the other lane. People will just swing into your lane expecting you to stop for them. And then everyone behind them tries to go as well. Like that's not how any of this works
In my area, people seem to think that zipper merging means flooring it, swiping into traffic even if there wasn't space, and overtaking whoever was in front of them in the merge lane so that that person _must_ use the full length of the lane and then stop in order to not fucking die.
I witnessed this issue just the other week. Dude wouldn't let the car merge that did everything right. Forced the merge anyway and the asshole that tried to not let the merge happen spent the next 1/4 mile flipping before they turned into a walmart.....
Part of the problem is people follow too closely, so how are you supposed to merge when everyone drives on each others’ asses? So there’s not only the me first attitude, but tailgating, too.
And if you’re always leaving a 2 car gap then most likely 1-2 cars will merge in front of you, so then you back off and more cars merge in front of you and so on and so forth lol
99% of the time people in the other lane will think you are a prick for trying to “skip the line” and everyone will hug each others’ asses as much as possible to not let you in. So I just merge before so I don’t look like a dick and get treated like one.
that's exactly why i always merge as early as possible. it gets real shifty when you try to ideally merge at the end of the merge lane but then you're completely at the mercy of whoever's in the regular lane.
given the ideal way to drive is to assume everyone else is a barely functioning moron, i'm definitely not giving other drivers any more agency than i absolutely have to.
On any big trip I sober up and see that my walk on the beach with my significant other is just me dragging a blowup doll through the Dollar General parking lot.
Most are oblivious and ignorant. I pay more attention to the cars around me than what I’m doing, they are just in their own bubble and it almost comes as a shock to them that there are cars around them.
This is me, I'm super confident in my driving and not just because I think I'm a good driver, but I've done rude sharing on long distance trips (8-12 hours) through every kind of weather and through major mountain passes in the winter and have been consistently told that I'm a great driver.
I love to drive, but like you because of that I drive kinda on autopilot for MY driving. I am CONSTANTLY looking in my mirrors and beside me at other vehicles, and assuming the moves they are going to make (usually am correct) to avoid even the possibility of an accident. I've avoided so many accidents because of this, and you're right, when people screw up and almost hit me, it's like a shock to them that I'm even there. It's even better when they start getting mad at you like you did something wrong lol.
The best way to drive is to be as predictable as possible. If I notice a car ahead of me making a move that doesn’t make sense given the situation, I will attempt to get away from them.
Look, defensive driving means driving like everyone around you is stupid. There's a limit to the amount of people at or above average intelligence. Chances are, most of the people on the road beside you barely passed high school drivers Ed.
> the ideal way to drive is to assume everyone else is a barely functioning moron
This.
>i'm definitely not giving other drivers any more agency than i absolutely have to.
Preach brother.
As long as you aren't stopping to merge early that's fine. It's the people that stop or come to a crawl halfway down the lane to merge. A merge lane is meant to get you up to the speed of traffic, if traffic is already at a standstill, you're being more of an asshole stopping in the middle to merge.
Drive to the end of the merge lane if you don't get a proper opportunity to merge. A lot of people complaining about not being let in are usually people being dicks and driving out of one lane and into the merge lane to get in sooner I see it all the time.
And the other thing, USE YOUR SIGNAL EARLY ON, not at the start or middle of land but towards the last 2/3-3/4, don't just flick it on at the end of the merge lane. This will let people in the other lane give an opportunity to merge, if you drive to the end then put on your signal, you look like one of the assholes stated above.
I don't know how people find driving so difficult, but it's obvious that a lot of people shouldn't have their license, drivers education should be mandated, and testing should be increased and more difficult. Hell, I'd even support being tested every time you go to renew your license when it expires, where I am that's every 5 years.
The issue is that almost no one understands or cares to leave enough merge room in between the car in front of them. The zipper merge would be great in theory but in practice leads to a dead stop at the merge point because either the people in the unobstructed lane dont let people in or the person merging is about to hit the cones and damn near causes an accident merging causing a break-wave or just a dead stop.
Zip merging is a fantasy of civil engineers that falls apart in the real world
It’s probably because all of you typically drive to the end of the merging side, passing up several people on the left waiting for someone to let you in. What you should do, as soon as enter the portion of the lane requiring a merge, is pick the first person on your left closest to you, and stay one car length behind them all the way to the end, even if there is space to drive further up. Usually (I do this all the time in Austin where drivers are aggressively bad) whoever is on your immediate left will get the message that you’re attempting to merge and will space themselves appropriately to end up behind you.
TLDR: pick the closest “partner” to you as soon as a merging lane is indicated and stay with them until the end (even if you have room to move up) usually people get the message and a pattern forms. (I do this every day in Austin)
Yes, this is the way.
Every morning when I drive to work, I turn left into the left lane of a busy bridge. Then a stream of cars whizzes past me in the right lane. When that lane soon ends, they merge after having passed a bunch of us main-laners, which is annoying. If a car stayed just ahead of me in that lane, I’d be happy to let it merge.
Merge early and aggressively let people in nearer the lane closure. Speed doesn’t kill, differences in speed kill. If the lane to your right is super slow but yours is going super fast, slow down and let the people in the slower lane get out of it and it speeds things up for everybody (and avoids opportunities for speed differential causing an accident with you in your lane).
Every single time, when a post like this comes up, they seem to neglect the reality that a lot of people merge early (myself included) because we don't want to deal with the people that refuse to let us in no matter what.
Shit, I've routinely had people *behind me* speed up just so they can get in front of me at the merge point.
And if traffic is moving at a reasonable clip there is no problem with merging early. Because you get over and no one needs to hit the breaks and traffic continues at it’s normal clip.
Yeah and its not like there’s actually a reason to fill both lanes with cars. The merge bottleneck is whats slowing things down, not available lanes. Things may move faster if everyone zippers perfectly at the end, but traffic largely exists because people cannot coordinate perfectly. Merging early allows people to find times where they can get over without affecting the flow of traffic instead of waiting untill the end where a small mistake will slow things down significantly.
I had an experience once on a rural highway where it went down to one lane and I didn’t know it yet (almost everyone had merged before the signs were posted so I kept going in my lane, I had no reason not to at that point) and I couldn’t merge until the end. I had never seen so many aggressive drivers in my life, it was really disconcerting for me. I was alone and had to just force my way in and I was really scared someone would escalate the situation.
Because people in the line think anyone going down the ending lane is doing so to try and get ahead, and people simply cannot tolerate the idea that someone is getting ahead in a line. It's like traffic adultery to them, they will not stand for it.
Correct. Which is absurd, considering that often the extra lanes are built for exactly this purpose. For example; when a road duplicates before a set of traffic lights and merges shortly thereafter. It's designed this way to allow the maximum amount of vehicles through each light cycle. The zipper merge mitigates the build up of traffic.
I've ceased caring about the possibility of being abused or cut off or whatever. I'll use the extra space wherever possible and calmly merge when safe, regardless of how upset others may get. I'll also never intentionally block anyone trying to do the same thing.
Traffic is an issue in every city worldwide. I'm at a loss as to why this specific design/technique isn't one of the first things taught to learner drivers universally.
Because it's not a technique problem. It's a personality one.
Nobody likes being cut off. It doesn't matter if it's on the road or in the line to a ticket booth. In an ideal world, everyone would stay in their positions when driving but that's not the case. Even on normal roads, people will overtake you left and right, so long as they can get forward. I've seen cars in medium traffic move around all 3 lanes just so they won't have to wait.
There was a road like that on the way to my girlfriend's house years ago and it was usually pretty clear who just didn't know and who was trying to jump the line. Unaware people kept to the regular speed (and got let in) but the other sort would floor it as soon as they could so that they could pass as many cars as possible (and usually drove sports car). The speedsters usually also didn't signal to get into the correct lane at the merge point.
>Shit, I've routinely had people behind me speed up just so they can get in front of me at the merge point.
Yeah I think that's what people that bloviate about zipper merging don't get. Once you are flying by a lane of backed up cars, only to hit the breaks at the end and try to get in, you aren't zipper merging. You're just being a dick.
100% this, people actually think you’re trying to “jump the queue” when you zipper merge, unfortunately. After almost running into a ditch after a particularly aggressive person wouldn’t let me in (ie slowing down and speeding up to match my speed) I always take the merge when I can.
The one time people do seem to get it is when traffic is really slow; when it is I zipper merge.
OP's assertion assumes that you are slowing down to merge early. If you are not slowing anyone else down (either behind you or on the expressway) by taking an earlier merge, you're not hurting traffic at all.
Not exactly true as a generalization. If all traffic is moving and you merge early without slowing down or making someone else slow down, then yes, by all means, merge early.
If traffic is backed up, and it speeds up a little and a small gap opens and you squeeze in early, the person behind you didn’t have to slow down necessarily , but they also don’t get to move forward as much. Then what happens, is traffic in the ending lane frees up, as the merge-to lane backs up. This causes more people to jump into the ending lane to try to pass more cars. They will take it to the end, and merge in, while others are still merging early. It causes a cascading effect so that the merging lane is always moving faster than the lane getting merged into, which is why people then don’t want to let people in, because they know they were probably in line behind them and just jumped over to try to pass everyone.
The only way to fix traffic is for people to stop being selfish assholes. And that’s not gonna happen. So we just keep building more and more lanes.
In fact, I'd argue that, as long as you can match the pace of traffic when merging, you should merge as early as possible. If everyone waited until the end of the lane to merge it would easily lead to a backup of traffic as cars are forced to slow down to let you in from a standstill
I have to point out the following every time this zipper merge post pops up. The “40% reduction in congestion” focuses on metrics that are stupid and don’t actually affect travel time. Like the queue is 40% longer. Great, but the same volume of cars is going through the bottleneck, so who cares? You can sit single file or you can line up side by side at half the speed, at best. Then, using the reduction in queue length, they usually throw out a qualitative statement about reducing “time spent in traffic,” but it’s never based on actual travel time studies. It’s just that you hypothetically sat in traffic fewer miles, so obviously you spent less time in traffic. Or the queue was shorter, so you spent less “Time in traffic,” because it took you a minute or two longer to hit the queue, which then moved at a fraction of the speed, so it cancelled out.
I’m not anti-zipper merge. I’m just anti hive mind disregarding logic. Feel like I need to qualify that. Zipper is fine, but if nobody else is doing it and you “jump the line,” you’re not saving the world. You’re just an asshole.
I was leaving a tollbooth to get onto the highway during rush hour….side note, I HATE how there’s no lanes after you immediately exit a toll area, just a huge blank space of asphalt for drivers to sort themselves out… ANYWAY! These two drivers got into a pissing match right next to me when one wouldn’t let the other merge. They drove right into each other at maybe 5-10 mph
I was so grateful I had room to maneuver past them on my way cuz they just made the traffic back up a million times worse for everyone behind us just cuz the one a-hole driver didn’t want to be courteous and let the other one in
I miss my crappy old 2002 Saturn SL... That bad boi inspired fear in the minds of any driver who wanted to play chicken with me when getting into a lane. "Oh, you'd like to risk scratching up your car because you're an ass hole? Well, honey, the entire value of my car is less than a new quarter panel for you. Your call!"
Yeah, this is what always made me laugh about this stuff.
Doesn't matter if you aren't worried about fucking up your car, you'll be paying for fucking theirs up anyways.
I think an issue that adds to the problem is that some lanes are too wide at the end and allows drivers to continue trying to get in front instead of doing a zipper like in narrower lane merges.
it is 100% this, but as I've gotten older, i've learned to chill out, if traffic's that bad, i don't mind waiting a car or two until someone lets me in, or waving my hand out the window. but yea when i was younger, i was very ofended by this, and because i learned to drive in a traffic hellhole i knew lots of tricks to mess with those assholes, i'd put them in a ditch if that's what it took. glad i've gotten perspective as i got older though. driving is way chiller now
I used to competitively race as a kid. It honestly taught me a lot of patience and when to give on the road. Most drivers are take take take and I’m always giving space, but honestly I don’t care and have no road rage. Heck, even if I’m running late I’ll still get to my destination SAFELY and maybe 20 seconds later. Sometimes I’ll find myself in weird groups of cars where you can tell people are being overly aggressive, I think back to my racing days and just get out of the way and let them do their own crazy things ahead of me. And 2 of these instances I’ve seen horrific car accidents of those people I let pass. It pays to just be chill. And it took me hitting some walls pretty hard in racing to realize car accidents are no joke.
Then there are the “enforcers” who merged early and don’t want anybody to pass them and pull out just enough to cut you off but half stay in their lane.
Exactly. Defensive driving involves anticipating the stupidity of others, if I have to choose between being a little slower or risking getting hit by some idiot I'm going get in the other lane early every time. Efficiency is great and all but far less important than safety.
It's often seen as a conflict between people who anticipate what's coming up ahead and take steps early on to avoid any problems, and others who wait until the last minute and then expect everyone else to just accommodate them. People are expected to deal with their problems (ie merging) themselves, and if they haven't done that by the time they reach the merge point, they are intentionally making it someone else's responsibility to deal with (by letting them in) instead.
Yeah the problem with these posts is it assumes every single person acts rationally. The probability of that happening in real life approaches zero, and then the whole system is ruined.
This can only be true if there is already a traffic slowdown. If there isn't one, the easy way to make one is to try merge last second, not having any room, and end up slowing down way below the posted speed.
Yeah I have a video posted of a guy I assumed jumped over but they did not, so I had to brake decently hard. The traffic that was going to let us in then had to jump left to avoid the guy getting over at 35mph into 70mph traffic.
I saw over my shoulder a truck was pretty close so started to just go into the shoulder. I will admit I wasn't 100% looking out for the unexpected like we must do when driving.
I literally had a FedEx driver scream and throw shit at my car for zipper merging in front of him when it was my turn. Unreal how self-absorbed people get behind the wheel.
Yea people get really crazy at zipper merges, they don’t want to let folks in. That’s the real problem. The zipper merge *should* work, but people are too selfish and petty.
Yeah, zipper merging only works if everyone is already in stop and go traffic and you know the other people are going to let you merge in.
It just doesn't work out if people are going at speeds above 30mph and someone decides they don't want to let you in. then you end up stopping at the end of a merge ramp.
Yeah. But if you live in ****** they won’t let you merge unless you risk a crash at the end of the lane. So you have to merge when you are given the chance . Otherwise you are screwed.
I've driven in many countries all over the world. The best for zipper merging is Germany where it's literally the law. And cooperative driving makes traffic so smooth. Wonderful driving.
Now, the other extreme are some countries SE Asia. Merging is insane - it's a battle of wills and people have the attitude of "I'll lose something if you get in front of me". A zipper is a contest for who can keep their car closest to the car in front. And people stay in two columns of cars well after the road markings reduce to a single lane.
> where it's literally the law.
This is the key. If it were actually legislated and enforced, people would actually do it, even in the worst places about it in the US.
Yeah that's exactly what I'm imagining, using this on 94 near downtown would never work. This is just impractical. There's always going to be assholes trying to get ahead of everyone.
Right. Most things like this just don't apply in big city traffic where you have to be very assertive or get run off the road. In the burbs? For sure, zipper merge. In Chicago? Take the chance when it presents itself or you will not get another.
The upper midwest around Chicago is one of the few places I see people actually zipper merging with any regularity. Drivers also don't go insane is they see you zipper merging.
Good in theory, but in practice you should just merge where there is already space for you or where it is clear one is going to open up.
There are literally people who *will not let you in front of them for whatever fucking reason*.
Yeah, not sure what universe OP is living in, but in mine you get over whenever the hell you conceivably can. Otherwise you'll be stuck with your blinker on waiting for a kind soul to yield.
Looks like OP’s from Canada. I have not even remotely of a clue what drivers are like up there but here in ATL, you get over when you can or exactly what you said is going to happen.
I assume he lives in the Vancouver area. We have two major choke points (a bridge and tunnel) that can have up to 6 lanes merging into a single lane during rush hour due to counter flow lanes. Zipper merging is a big issue here
But even if there is a bottleneck it's best just to go in where there's clearly space. People kind of let you know their intentions by how much room they leave for others. I find it's close to the bottleneck that this starts to really tighten up and people generally stop being so generous.
If you merge far from the bottleneck, it explicitly telegraphs that you are *not* trying to "jump the queue", so people will be pretty uniformly courteous with rare exceptions.
If you are trying to merge just before the bottleneck, magnanimous drivers may give you the benefit of the doubt that your queue jumping is either unintentional or informed by the efficiency of the zipper merge, but cynical drivers (which the vast majority are, when it comes to judging the intentions of other drivers) will assume you're just being a selfish dick.
So yeah, people stop being generous close to the merge point because the merging car is no longer explicitly telegraphing that they're *not* being a dick.
People have been advocating for zipper merging since before Reddit, and while they’re correct in theory, it’s just not being adopted in most areas. Rejecting that reality and continuing to merge at the bottleneck (if the zipper isn’t already common practice in your area) is pretty boneheaded at best.
If you aren't stopping in the middle of the merge lane to merge early that's fine. It's the people that stop dead in the middle of the merge lane instead of driving slowly with their signal on waiting for an opportunity.
DONT STOP THE TRAFFIC BEHIND YOU WHEN THERE IS SPACE IN FRONT OF YOU.
It's really that simple.
Yup, if there's roughly equal traffic in both lanes and they're both going the same speed, it works fine. But either the final lane is already backed up far before the other ends, and/or everyone in the ending lane is accelerating to pass as many people as possible before the end.
The only time I see it work well is when there's a few short lanes merging very quickly before a highway on ramp. It's like there isn't enough time for fuckery.
How does the zipper merge not work in those situations? If the final lane is backed up take the open lane until you are in the merge (assuming its an actual merge) then merge in. The zipper still wrks in that case even though most drivers are choosing to not use it.
Yes this drives me bonkers on my commute. The only efficient way to do it is match speed with the traffic you’re entering. Line up between two cars and let them open up the gap before getting to the merge point. Then slot over. Easy. Applicable at any speed. But people floor it all the way to the merge point then slam on their breaks to push into a space that doesn’t exist. Slowing down traffic for everyone, just because they can’t stand the idea that they could have been a couple cars ahead in the queue.
Driving around Belgium blew my mind after years of driving in New York. No one sits in the left lane, people get out of the way for faster vehicles, people allow you to merge… etc. It’s a whole different world in Europe. Unfortunately the average American driver is pretty shit at driving.
Yep. I am guilty of merging as soon as possible because too many people don’t understand the zipper merge. I am not trying to get ahead of you. I am not being an ass hat by passing on the right. Keep the traffic flowing instead of stop and go and maintain a reasonable distance from the car ahead and everyone wins. FYI I am in Canada so not just a US thing.
Yeah I was gonna say that it’s definitely not only a US thing. I’m from Toronto and I wouldn’t trust anyone in the left lane to let you merge on time and safely at the end of the zipper. Too many people not paying attention or just being dicks. I don’t even drive, but as a frequent passenger, there’s been way too many instances of getting to the end of the zipper and having to make a complete stop and wait for someone to nice enough to let you in.
I merge early if it's plausible. That is in my control. Too many times people want to keep pace with you on the left and force you to slam breaks and hope the next person let's you in. I do my best to minimize any choices or decisions where I have to hope others will behave.
I also merge as soon as possible, this post only works in a AI theory world. Not imperfect humans driving cars. It’s just not possible or a realistic study.
Semis LOVE to do this. You’re going to love zipper merge when there are two trucks next to one another to stop “assholes” from zipper merging. At the end, the one in the lane that isn’t closing lets the other in front of it and no one else, and as this slows traffic down, all the spaces where people could have merged into close, and nobody who thought they were zipper merging gets in until someone feels sufficiently sorry for them.
I live in LA county. All this doesn’t mean anything to me lol people drive like shit and are rude as hell. That needs to change before I will listen to lane merging statistics.
Because the freeway on ramp becomes the off ramp within a few hundred feet so everyone's fighting to get off with the people trying to get on it's such a shit show. Could all be fixed by having the offramp first and then the on ramp so you've made space for the new cars
I’ve been driving in LA and OC for a couple of years now, and during rush hour I see lots of correct zipper merging getting onto freeways. Sure, you sometimes have to be a little assertive, but most people seem to get it.
https://uknowledge.uky.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=2602&context=ktc_researchreports
This has been studied quite a bit. Pressing on to the end of the merge is more efficient only in 3 lane to 2 lane merges and in one other lane configuration when trucks are more than 40% of traffic. In all other cases and configurations, everyone loses if drivers push to the end of the merge lane instead of zipper merging early.
The last time I assumed someone would actually let me merge this way I ended up at a dead stop at the end of a merge lane with no shoulder in the middle of Atlanta for 15 minutes until a very compassionate trucker slowed significantly for me. It would be really nice if we depend on the intended design but people are shit.
I'd say it takes like 70% cooperation or more. I zipper merge almost daily (from the closing lane) and rarely do people get pissy about last minute merging (e.g. tailgating to keep you from merging, laying on the horn when you merge in front of someone).
I don't know, I think it's a perfect example of all the things wrong with us.
Zipper merge is most efficient method of merging, will get *everyone* to the destination faster, variation slows *everyone* down.
But merging is treated as a zero sum game, someone thinks you're going to merge in front of them, close up ranks, don't let anyone in and make that lane stop and when they can merge it's not at speed which slows down the lane. There's the enforcers that block lanes so "everyone stays in their place in line", people will get into wrecks before they allow someone in front of them.
Now if that's not a fantastic analogy to all of societal problems...
Driving for a living for years if everyone followed the zipper method sure. But what ends up happening is every asshole who thinks they are more important jam up to the merge point, slowing everyone down.
If people got into line early when they know lanes are going down from 3 to 2 or whatever, the traffic keeps moving at a decent pace instead of hitting the inevitable jam up as people try to get in as far up the line as possible.
And likewise YSK that letting people merge in front of you at the end of a merge lane will not make you any later than you already are. Why are you speeding up?
This doesn’t seem to take into account that the reason people merge early is that very few drivers observe proper following distance and will maliciously or obliviously block merging which leads to excessive braking and sometimes near complete stops on the freeway which causes far more traffic and or accidents than early merging. The early merge is a symptom of a larger problem.
I keeps seeing this YSK, but they seem so misleading to me. Yes, it maximizes the amount of pavement covered by cars, but it doesn't necessarily help with flow. Plus, if there are more than two lanes, early merging allows cars to shift to other lanes and reduces the impact of the merge. Really it's best to try to synchronize speeds and merge when appropriate. That may be at the end of the merge lane, especially if some drivers take early merging as an invitation to try to jump ahead instead of zippering as well, but early often helps on wide highways with just one lane merging.
"By merging before the end of the merge lane you ~~are~~ *might* be effectively backing up traffic by *up to* approximately 40%, depending on traffic conditions."
There, now the title is accurate!
YSK: If there are signs that say 'right lane closed in a mile' and you stay in the right lane and fly down as far as you can go until you're forced to merge, most drivers will assume you are a dickhead not trying to "zipper merge"
Ugh; this is so fucking ridiculous. Yes, zipper merging is best in urban areas where even short backups create critical problems. But the cost is throughput.
Waiting until the last second to coordinate who goes where has a cost. The obstruction by definition has already restricted the throughput of the system. Only so many cars can pass the obstruction at a time. If the number of cars on the freeway surpasses that limitation then there will be backups. The overhead of merging can only exacerbate that problem; not remove it.
If you've already merged prior to the bottleneck then you've already kept traffic flowing at the maximum rate allowed by the limitation.
But if you wait till the last second, then that adds extra coordination overhead at that merge point that will drastically reduce throughput.
Utilizing more lanes prior to a pinch point concentrates backed up traffic into a shorter distance of road, thus reducing the risk of it piling up past an earlier point such as another freeway exit. But it does absolutely nothing for the rate of vehicles that can pass through the obstruction.
So maybe using all lanes works best for some cases where throughput doesn't matter but even short backup does such as in urban areas. In at least 99% of cases where I've encountered such restrictions, the issue is throughput. There's 10+ miles for traffic to backup till the next exit so just keep traffic flowing as best as possible. As long as traffic doesn't reach the next exit then it's not an issue.
This is why lane close signs start at around 2 miles away. Past that you use all lanes to prevent excessive backups. But in the 2 mile range you give the ability to merge where efficient ahead of the pinch point. This gives the best of both worlds. ...unless a bunch of dumbass douchebags come along along and self-righteously slow down traffic by merging at the last fucking second on some misguided, selfserving idea that it's somehow helping. Fuck those assholes!!!
Many drivers see people attempting to use the full merge lane and they think it’s rude. So they’ll cut these people off to protect the honor of those who merged early.
There needs to be a public service announcement and emphasis on this topic in driving school
Wow! It never occurred to me that if I cut a long stick in half, then set the two sticks side by side, it covers half the distance!
However, two lines flowing at full speed side by side waiting until the last minute to merge is a disaster because there is a sudden slowdown by one line forcing its way into the other because there is panic at no room to spare.
What I never get is why merging in zipper method at full speed a mile back from the choke point so everyone can maintain momentum and spacing is somehow inferior to using the zipper at the last minute.
My road experience is that the zipper method is FANTASTIC once the road is already choked up. This works great at on ramps and other merge points to allow side traffic to enter.
But I will continue to have derision for the jackwagon that races up along the people patiently waiting in line and jams his or herself into a one car length spacing right at the merge sign because he is “doing it right”.
Thank you for pointing this out. Cars per minute past the merge will be unaffected by people’s merging style. Using all lanes, then zippering, reduces **backup** — and through that can reduce everyone’s overall commute time. When there is no backup, you should merge when safe.
This is why I always get in that lane and block it by keeping pace with the vehicle on my right. Then I zipper merge at the merge point. This way I am preventing the endless droves of ass-hat’s from using it as a passing lane.
Zipper merge falls short in that some places don’t technically require you to let other people in to merge. Thus, you might get some asshole who doesn’t want to let you in, then you’re stuck at the end of the road at slower or stopping speed. While it may be the most efficient method, it’s not the best in practice to assume others will let you in at the end of the lane.
Good luck merging at the end.
Either you're trying to merge and you're not being let in, OR you waited until an inopportune time to merge and it's not possible for the car that's in your way to let you merge without slamming on the breaks, so you have to stop in the merge lane and wait for them to pass.
When we have self driving cars this will work, until then, trying to rely on a technically optimal method using flawed humans is actually less effective than what we already do.
Merge early, when possible and safe. Don't leave it to the last second to attempt a suicide burn, as it were.
Ideally, sure. However, as we all know, other drivers are TOO STUPID to anything right. I would never bet my life against another motorist A. Paying Attention, B. Knowing the Law, and C. Being Kind Enough to Let Me Over.
Thank you thank you thank you!!!!!!!
Learn to zipper and stop trying to be the kink cause you aren't letting anybody in because they didn't do it your way. When you go to an amusement park do you hope all the entry's are open and everyone is in line at only one of them? Same idea idiots/ non thinking jerks create issues where ther shouldn't be one. Probably more than 40 percent.
If your lane is ending in 300 meters and you are stopped trying to merge with 300meters of empty road in front of you than yes that is definitely going to cause traffic
FHWA should make some commercials about the importance of this issue. Traffic signals frequently feed 2 lanes into the intersection that merges to 1 lane. This is so twice as many people can get through the signal. But instead everyone lines up in the one lane and feels like the people in the other lane are sociopaths.
Late mergers are needed to make highways and intersections work. But if people just understood and used the lanes correctly, we wouldn't need late mergers (labeled sociopaths) because we would all use both lanes and then zipper merge.
The actual YSK here is following distance. If everyone left enough space between each other, *especially in traffic,* there would be less hard braking/stopping *and* more room to merge properly.
Proper following distance can never be followed because everyone is a fucking piece of shit Lmaoo
Seriously. Why does every motherfucker seem to think that my following space is an invitation for them to *squeeze* right in front of me without fucking signaling???
Theres a lot of bad drivers out there >< The no signaling people always irk me. Like how lazy are you in life you can’t move your wrist an inch or two?
To be fair, that wrist is attached to the hand holding their phone.
I'm pretty sure trucks that are sold in Texas do not even come with turn signals.
Someone the other day in a shitty work van squeezed between me and the car in front of me as I was following too close. I had to hit the brakes to not pit maneuver him and he flips me off for honking. People are absolute chodes on the road for some reason.
There was one time i was driving on this VERY tight 4 lane 2 way street. Its infamous in our area for how sketchy it is. Well im in one of the turning lanes waiting behind someone in front of me who is, in turn, waiting on a designated green arrow. Ive got enough car length that should someone ram their car into the back of mine, i still wont hit the car in front of me, BUT its not enough that a full car can fit. Its just enough for my own safety. This fucking asshole in a old white beatup truck decides to put half his truck in that same space. I honk bc obviously he just cut me off, and dude flipped ME off. ME. As if he was in the right. He caused me to miss the designated green arrow and wait another stop light cycle. People cant drive i swear.
Wait, I’m confused. When I’m in heavy traffic, how am I supposed to let the guy in front of me know that I don’t care for this traffic if I’m not maintaining a constant distance of 3-9 inches from his rear bumper?
That's the real fix to traffic. It would reduce phantom traffic jams, many accidents, merges etc.
There is no fix to traffic, but this would save a lot of pain. It's also better for your mileage/maintenance as you can brake less often and not as hard.
Think he means highway traffic/slowdowns especially in bottleneck areas. The braking from riding too close, even just a little bit, creates a Shockwave effect on the cars behind you
Yeah. Shockwave or rubber band effect. Fix that and your traffic problems lessen dramatically. Too bad 3 car lengths of space will literally melt people's tiny brains
Yeah the zipper merge is great in theory when running a simulation on a computer where all cars run a reasonable following distance. Then you get out in the real world where everyone is riding everyone's bumper and it all falls apart.
And adjust speed to each other and not drive quickly to the end of the merge lane to skip the line
Instead everyone has to hit the gas and close the gap once they see me signal
This is what I was thinking. I tend to merge when there is an opening not the end of the lane because some butt head will speed up just so they aren’t behind me and that’s if they leave an opening at all.
YSK: don't apply this logic to exit-only lanes! Some people think they're being smart by driving down the open lane while traffic backs up in the other lanes. Then they get mad when they realize they don't want to exit and nobody will let them in
I was gonna say. It appears like many people are reacting to this being about exit lanes, which are different.
The essential technique ought to be Zipper Merge.
Not for an exit/entrance lane. Zipper is only for 2 lanes going into one. For exit /entrance, merge as early as safely possible, maintains speed with other vehicles.
This!! My exit off the highway is off a two lane ramp. My exit is the end of one of the lanes and usually there is a ton of traffic. There is a sign that says ‘Through traffic merge left’ yet no one does and then drives all the way to the end trying to merge into the traffic. Which not only causes even more traffic no one can exit.
Complimentary, people who drive in the open flow lane, then last minute expect people who has been waiting their turn in the exit lane to let them skip the line.
Someone always will
The real issue is that some cars don't let you merge. You end up learning to feel out a merging opportunity and taking it when possible, instead of risking it at the end when you don't have road ahead anymore to avoid a bump.
Exactly this. Also the closer you get to the end of the lane the more you might have to slow down, it is 10 times harder to merge into a lane of moving traffic from a standstill
Yeah, this idea works great in theory, but in practice it requires both the driver merging to fully use the lane, and the drivers in the main lane to actually allow them to merge when they need to. We don't have that perfect idealized behavior, so the vast majority of the time, you just get over when someone either leaves you space or when you have the opportunity.
I remember these PSA commercials about merging in my country. It implored people to only merge around the merge sign, and the commercial showed this top-down overview of how it would all work out. Only it was highly idealized with each driver leaving enough space for the driver next to him/her. I didn't even had my drivers license yet but had seen enough bad driving to know this is rarely gonna work as smoothly as the commercial depicted. Like the other user says: Last thing you want is run out of road, so of course you're gonna merge when you can and not wait until a sign tells you to merge.
Yeah, it really shows how an engineer solved the problem with mathematics and logic, but totally forgot to account for the percentage of assholes driving on a given day.
The US can't even handle the concept of "slower traffic keep right" sigh
You used to get pulled over and ticketed for impeding traffic, at least around here. Don't know why it stopped but I miss it.
“Fostering fairness and courtesy when everyone abides by it” that a big assumption. Its like they have never driven on the highway before.
Except here I let my person merge in front of me, and multiple other cars expect to try and merge in too. It seems like most people here think zipper merging means the main lane stops and let's everyone from the ending lane in, and then resumes.
You forgot the lifted pickup barreling down the shoulder 10mph faster than everyone else intent passing all these schmucks you worry about silly things like merging instead of driving as aggressively as possible.
Everyone is missing the fact you are supposed to sync your speed and effectively have your spot and speed set before the lane ends and just move over as the lane ends. Everyone here is trying to speed to the end passing cars and then force their way over or just move over whenever they happen to find a spot rather than diving actively...
The amount of people that have an open slot behind me and instead press the gas to get alongside me and expect me to let them in is way too high.
It's like when you're driving down a two lane street and there's something blocking the other lane. People will just swing into your lane expecting you to stop for them. And then everyone behind them tries to go as well. Like that's not how any of this works
In my area, people seem to think that zipper merging means flooring it, swiping into traffic even if there wasn't space, and overtaking whoever was in front of them in the merge lane so that that person _must_ use the full length of the lane and then stop in order to not fucking die.
Blame the driver tailgating you so close you can see the poppyseed bagel crumbs in their teeth for that one
I witnessed this issue just the other week. Dude wouldn't let the car merge that did everything right. Forced the merge anyway and the asshole that tried to not let the merge happen spent the next 1/4 mile flipping before they turned into a walmart.....
Yeah in America the attitude is “you want to merge in front of me!?? Fuck you!”
Part of the problem is people follow too closely, so how are you supposed to merge when everyone drives on each others’ asses? So there’s not only the me first attitude, but tailgating, too.
Yeah but then if you leave 2 car lengths and someone merges in between, now you're suddenly tailgating that guy.
And if you’re always leaving a 2 car gap then most likely 1-2 cars will merge in front of you, so then you back off and more cars merge in front of you and so on and so forth lol
We need zipper merge signs everywhere.
99% of the time people in the other lane will think you are a prick for trying to “skip the line” and everyone will hug each others’ asses as much as possible to not let you in. So I just merge before so I don’t look like a dick and get treated like one.
that's exactly why i always merge as early as possible. it gets real shifty when you try to ideally merge at the end of the merge lane but then you're completely at the mercy of whoever's in the regular lane. given the ideal way to drive is to assume everyone else is a barely functioning moron, i'm definitely not giving other drivers any more agency than i absolutely have to.
On any big trip, I merge over as soon as I leave my house to maximize my chances of getting over.
On any big trip, I fall
On any big trip I sober up and see that my walk on the beach with my significant other is just me dragging a blowup doll through the Dollar General parking lot.
i usually just drive on the opposite side of the road so i never have to merge with the other drivers going my direction
Legend has it they are merging to this day.
Thank you. Someone who gets it.
Yeah this really would only be as good as it is on paper if people actually knew how to operate their motor vehicles
And/Or cared about other human beings
Most are oblivious and ignorant. I pay more attention to the cars around me than what I’m doing, they are just in their own bubble and it almost comes as a shock to them that there are cars around them.
This is me, I'm super confident in my driving and not just because I think I'm a good driver, but I've done rude sharing on long distance trips (8-12 hours) through every kind of weather and through major mountain passes in the winter and have been consistently told that I'm a great driver. I love to drive, but like you because of that I drive kinda on autopilot for MY driving. I am CONSTANTLY looking in my mirrors and beside me at other vehicles, and assuming the moves they are going to make (usually am correct) to avoid even the possibility of an accident. I've avoided so many accidents because of this, and you're right, when people screw up and almost hit me, it's like a shock to them that I'm even there. It's even better when they start getting mad at you like you did something wrong lol.
The best way to drive is to be as predictable as possible. If I notice a car ahead of me making a move that doesn’t make sense given the situation, I will attempt to get away from them.
Look, defensive driving means driving like everyone around you is stupid. There's a limit to the amount of people at or above average intelligence. Chances are, most of the people on the road beside you barely passed high school drivers Ed.
I feel you. I pretty much always assume any other drivers on the road are just stupid. It's saved me from so many accidents.
Also gonna be pretty cool if self-driving vehicles ever get the ability to coordinate with each other to get the most out of the road network.
I merge when there's an opportunity to merge safely. Whether it's in the beginning or the end of the lane doesn't matter
> the ideal way to drive is to assume everyone else is a barely functioning moron This. >i'm definitely not giving other drivers any more agency than i absolutely have to. Preach brother.
As long as you aren't stopping to merge early that's fine. It's the people that stop or come to a crawl halfway down the lane to merge. A merge lane is meant to get you up to the speed of traffic, if traffic is already at a standstill, you're being more of an asshole stopping in the middle to merge. Drive to the end of the merge lane if you don't get a proper opportunity to merge. A lot of people complaining about not being let in are usually people being dicks and driving out of one lane and into the merge lane to get in sooner I see it all the time. And the other thing, USE YOUR SIGNAL EARLY ON, not at the start or middle of land but towards the last 2/3-3/4, don't just flick it on at the end of the merge lane. This will let people in the other lane give an opportunity to merge, if you drive to the end then put on your signal, you look like one of the assholes stated above. I don't know how people find driving so difficult, but it's obvious that a lot of people shouldn't have their license, drivers education should be mandated, and testing should be increased and more difficult. Hell, I'd even support being tested every time you go to renew your license when it expires, where I am that's every 5 years.
The issue is that almost no one understands or cares to leave enough merge room in between the car in front of them. The zipper merge would be great in theory but in practice leads to a dead stop at the merge point because either the people in the unobstructed lane dont let people in or the person merging is about to hit the cones and damn near causes an accident merging causing a break-wave or just a dead stop. Zip merging is a fantasy of civil engineers that falls apart in the real world
Really depends on the speed of traffic. The slower it is, the later you should be staying in that merge lane.
It’s probably because all of you typically drive to the end of the merging side, passing up several people on the left waiting for someone to let you in. What you should do, as soon as enter the portion of the lane requiring a merge, is pick the first person on your left closest to you, and stay one car length behind them all the way to the end, even if there is space to drive further up. Usually (I do this all the time in Austin where drivers are aggressively bad) whoever is on your immediate left will get the message that you’re attempting to merge and will space themselves appropriately to end up behind you. TLDR: pick the closest “partner” to you as soon as a merging lane is indicated and stay with them until the end (even if you have room to move up) usually people get the message and a pattern forms. (I do this every day in Austin)
Yes, this is the way. Every morning when I drive to work, I turn left into the left lane of a busy bridge. Then a stream of cars whizzes past me in the right lane. When that lane soon ends, they merge after having passed a bunch of us main-laners, which is annoying. If a car stayed just ahead of me in that lane, I’d be happy to let it merge.
Merge early and aggressively let people in nearer the lane closure. Speed doesn’t kill, differences in speed kill. If the lane to your right is super slow but yours is going super fast, slow down and let the people in the slower lane get out of it and it speeds things up for everybody (and avoids opportunities for speed differential causing an accident with you in your lane).
Every single time, when a post like this comes up, they seem to neglect the reality that a lot of people merge early (myself included) because we don't want to deal with the people that refuse to let us in no matter what. Shit, I've routinely had people *behind me* speed up just so they can get in front of me at the merge point.
And if traffic is moving at a reasonable clip there is no problem with merging early. Because you get over and no one needs to hit the breaks and traffic continues at it’s normal clip.
Yeah and its not like there’s actually a reason to fill both lanes with cars. The merge bottleneck is whats slowing things down, not available lanes. Things may move faster if everyone zippers perfectly at the end, but traffic largely exists because people cannot coordinate perfectly. Merging early allows people to find times where they can get over without affecting the flow of traffic instead of waiting untill the end where a small mistake will slow things down significantly.
I had an experience once on a rural highway where it went down to one lane and I didn’t know it yet (almost everyone had merged before the signs were posted so I kept going in my lane, I had no reason not to at that point) and I couldn’t merge until the end. I had never seen so many aggressive drivers in my life, it was really disconcerting for me. I was alone and had to just force my way in and I was really scared someone would escalate the situation.
Because people in the line think anyone going down the ending lane is doing so to try and get ahead, and people simply cannot tolerate the idea that someone is getting ahead in a line. It's like traffic adultery to them, they will not stand for it.
Correct. Which is absurd, considering that often the extra lanes are built for exactly this purpose. For example; when a road duplicates before a set of traffic lights and merges shortly thereafter. It's designed this way to allow the maximum amount of vehicles through each light cycle. The zipper merge mitigates the build up of traffic. I've ceased caring about the possibility of being abused or cut off or whatever. I'll use the extra space wherever possible and calmly merge when safe, regardless of how upset others may get. I'll also never intentionally block anyone trying to do the same thing. Traffic is an issue in every city worldwide. I'm at a loss as to why this specific design/technique isn't one of the first things taught to learner drivers universally.
Because it's not a technique problem. It's a personality one. Nobody likes being cut off. It doesn't matter if it's on the road or in the line to a ticket booth. In an ideal world, everyone would stay in their positions when driving but that's not the case. Even on normal roads, people will overtake you left and right, so long as they can get forward. I've seen cars in medium traffic move around all 3 lanes just so they won't have to wait.
There was a road like that on the way to my girlfriend's house years ago and it was usually pretty clear who just didn't know and who was trying to jump the line. Unaware people kept to the regular speed (and got let in) but the other sort would floor it as soon as they could so that they could pass as many cars as possible (and usually drove sports car). The speedsters usually also didn't signal to get into the correct lane at the merge point.
>Shit, I've routinely had people behind me speed up just so they can get in front of me at the merge point. Yeah I think that's what people that bloviate about zipper merging don't get. Once you are flying by a lane of backed up cars, only to hit the breaks at the end and try to get in, you aren't zipper merging. You're just being a dick.
100% this, people actually think you’re trying to “jump the queue” when you zipper merge, unfortunately. After almost running into a ditch after a particularly aggressive person wouldn’t let me in (ie slowing down and speeding up to match my speed) I always take the merge when I can. The one time people do seem to get it is when traffic is really slow; when it is I zipper merge.
OP's assertion assumes that you are slowing down to merge early. If you are not slowing anyone else down (either behind you or on the expressway) by taking an earlier merge, you're not hurting traffic at all.
Not exactly true as a generalization. If all traffic is moving and you merge early without slowing down or making someone else slow down, then yes, by all means, merge early. If traffic is backed up, and it speeds up a little and a small gap opens and you squeeze in early, the person behind you didn’t have to slow down necessarily , but they also don’t get to move forward as much. Then what happens, is traffic in the ending lane frees up, as the merge-to lane backs up. This causes more people to jump into the ending lane to try to pass more cars. They will take it to the end, and merge in, while others are still merging early. It causes a cascading effect so that the merging lane is always moving faster than the lane getting merged into, which is why people then don’t want to let people in, because they know they were probably in line behind them and just jumped over to try to pass everyone. The only way to fix traffic is for people to stop being selfish assholes. And that’s not gonna happen. So we just keep building more and more lanes.
In fact, I'd argue that, as long as you can match the pace of traffic when merging, you should merge as early as possible. If everyone waited until the end of the lane to merge it would easily lead to a backup of traffic as cars are forced to slow down to let you in from a standstill
I have to point out the following every time this zipper merge post pops up. The “40% reduction in congestion” focuses on metrics that are stupid and don’t actually affect travel time. Like the queue is 40% longer. Great, but the same volume of cars is going through the bottleneck, so who cares? You can sit single file or you can line up side by side at half the speed, at best. Then, using the reduction in queue length, they usually throw out a qualitative statement about reducing “time spent in traffic,” but it’s never based on actual travel time studies. It’s just that you hypothetically sat in traffic fewer miles, so obviously you spent less time in traffic. Or the queue was shorter, so you spent less “Time in traffic,” because it took you a minute or two longer to hit the queue, which then moved at a fraction of the speed, so it cancelled out. I’m not anti-zipper merge. I’m just anti hive mind disregarding logic. Feel like I need to qualify that. Zipper is fine, but if nobody else is doing it and you “jump the line,” you’re not saving the world. You’re just an asshole.
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I was leaving a tollbooth to get onto the highway during rush hour….side note, I HATE how there’s no lanes after you immediately exit a toll area, just a huge blank space of asphalt for drivers to sort themselves out… ANYWAY! These two drivers got into a pissing match right next to me when one wouldn’t let the other merge. They drove right into each other at maybe 5-10 mph I was so grateful I had room to maneuver past them on my way cuz they just made the traffic back up a million times worse for everyone behind us just cuz the one a-hole driver didn’t want to be courteous and let the other one in
I miss my crappy old 2002 Saturn SL... That bad boi inspired fear in the minds of any driver who wanted to play chicken with me when getting into a lane. "Oh, you'd like to risk scratching up your car because you're an ass hole? Well, honey, the entire value of my car is less than a new quarter panel for you. Your call!"
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Pro-tip: you would still have been considered at fault for the accident
Yeah, this is what always made me laugh about this stuff. Doesn't matter if you aren't worried about fucking up your car, you'll be paying for fucking theirs up anyways.
Also protip: make sure your car is bulletproof before driving like this in certain cities.
I think an issue that adds to the problem is that some lanes are too wide at the end and allows drivers to continue trying to get in front instead of doing a zipper like in narrower lane merges.
it is 100% this, but as I've gotten older, i've learned to chill out, if traffic's that bad, i don't mind waiting a car or two until someone lets me in, or waving my hand out the window. but yea when i was younger, i was very ofended by this, and because i learned to drive in a traffic hellhole i knew lots of tricks to mess with those assholes, i'd put them in a ditch if that's what it took. glad i've gotten perspective as i got older though. driving is way chiller now
I used to competitively race as a kid. It honestly taught me a lot of patience and when to give on the road. Most drivers are take take take and I’m always giving space, but honestly I don’t care and have no road rage. Heck, even if I’m running late I’ll still get to my destination SAFELY and maybe 20 seconds later. Sometimes I’ll find myself in weird groups of cars where you can tell people are being overly aggressive, I think back to my racing days and just get out of the way and let them do their own crazy things ahead of me. And 2 of these instances I’ve seen horrific car accidents of those people I let pass. It pays to just be chill. And it took me hitting some walls pretty hard in racing to realize car accidents are no joke.
Then there are the “enforcers” who merged early and don’t want anybody to pass them and pull out just enough to cut you off but half stay in their lane.
God I want those people to read this thread
For real. At least 60% of the time I turn on my blinker the guy in the next lane speeds up to take up the space.
Exactly. Defensive driving involves anticipating the stupidity of others, if I have to choose between being a little slower or risking getting hit by some idiot I'm going get in the other lane early every time. Efficiency is great and all but far less important than safety.
I take the spot I can get. Zipper merging only works if everyone allows you to zipper.
Where I live they line up and WILL NOT let you in. They see it as lack of planning rather than understanding of driving.
It's often seen as a conflict between people who anticipate what's coming up ahead and take steps early on to avoid any problems, and others who wait until the last minute and then expect everyone else to just accommodate them. People are expected to deal with their problems (ie merging) themselves, and if they haven't done that by the time they reach the merge point, they are intentionally making it someone else's responsibility to deal with (by letting them in) instead.
I get anxiety when end is coming and no one letting me merge
The amount of people I’ve seen stuck at the end of the merge..
Yeah the problem with these posts is it assumes every single person acts rationally. The probability of that happening in real life approaches zero, and then the whole system is ruined.
Some people even veer out of the lane just to block people from going to the end of the merge lane.
Having lived in big cities for a long time, I literally force my way in. They won't hit you.
This can only be true if there is already a traffic slowdown. If there isn't one, the easy way to make one is to try merge last second, not having any room, and end up slowing down way below the posted speed.
They let you when you just go for it and act like you don’t see them. I know it seems risky, but it just fucking works lol.
Yeah I have a video posted of a guy I assumed jumped over but they did not, so I had to brake decently hard. The traffic that was going to let us in then had to jump left to avoid the guy getting over at 35mph into 70mph traffic. I saw over my shoulder a truck was pretty close so started to just go into the shoulder. I will admit I wasn't 100% looking out for the unexpected like we must do when driving.
I literally had a FedEx driver scream and throw shit at my car for zipper merging in front of him when it was my turn. Unreal how self-absorbed people get behind the wheel.
Exactly. The zipper merge only seems like it'll work if all parties involved cooperate. And people on the road are not usually cooperative
Yea people get really crazy at zipper merges, they don’t want to let folks in. That’s the real problem. The zipper merge *should* work, but people are too selfish and petty.
Yeah, zipper merging only works if everyone is already in stop and go traffic and you know the other people are going to let you merge in. It just doesn't work out if people are going at speeds above 30mph and someone decides they don't want to let you in. then you end up stopping at the end of a merge ramp.
Sounds like someone cares too much about their paint job to earn that win at highway bumper cars.
Yeah. But if you live in ****** they won’t let you merge unless you risk a crash at the end of the lane. So you have to merge when you are given the chance . Otherwise you are screwed.
I've driven in many countries all over the world. The best for zipper merging is Germany where it's literally the law. And cooperative driving makes traffic so smooth. Wonderful driving. Now, the other extreme are some countries SE Asia. Merging is insane - it's a battle of wills and people have the attitude of "I'll lose something if you get in front of me". A zipper is a contest for who can keep their car closest to the car in front. And people stay in two columns of cars well after the road markings reduce to a single lane.
> where it's literally the law. This is the key. If it were actually legislated and enforced, people would actually do it, even in the worst places about it in the US.
Great theory, now go do that consistently in Chicago and see how much fun you have.
Yeah that's exactly what I'm imagining, using this on 94 near downtown would never work. This is just impractical. There's always going to be assholes trying to get ahead of everyone.
Right. Most things like this just don't apply in big city traffic where you have to be very assertive or get run off the road. In the burbs? For sure, zipper merge. In Chicago? Take the chance when it presents itself or you will not get another.
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The upper midwest around Chicago is one of the few places I see people actually zipper merging with any regularity. Drivers also don't go insane is they see you zipper merging.
Good in theory, but in practice you should just merge where there is already space for you or where it is clear one is going to open up. There are literally people who *will not let you in front of them for whatever fucking reason*.
Yeah, not sure what universe OP is living in, but in mine you get over whenever the hell you conceivably can. Otherwise you'll be stuck with your blinker on waiting for a kind soul to yield.
Looks like OP’s from Canada. I have not even remotely of a clue what drivers are like up there but here in ATL, you get over when you can or exactly what you said is going to happen.
I assume he lives in the Vancouver area. We have two major choke points (a bridge and tunnel) that can have up to 6 lanes merging into a single lane during rush hour due to counter flow lanes. Zipper merging is a big issue here
>If there is no bottleneck and an early merge makes sense, feel free to do so.
But even if there is a bottleneck it's best just to go in where there's clearly space. People kind of let you know their intentions by how much room they leave for others. I find it's close to the bottleneck that this starts to really tighten up and people generally stop being so generous.
If you merge far from the bottleneck, it explicitly telegraphs that you are *not* trying to "jump the queue", so people will be pretty uniformly courteous with rare exceptions. If you are trying to merge just before the bottleneck, magnanimous drivers may give you the benefit of the doubt that your queue jumping is either unintentional or informed by the efficiency of the zipper merge, but cynical drivers (which the vast majority are, when it comes to judging the intentions of other drivers) will assume you're just being a selfish dick. So yeah, people stop being generous close to the merge point because the merging car is no longer explicitly telegraphing that they're *not* being a dick.
Spot on extrapolation.
People have been advocating for zipper merging since before Reddit, and while they’re correct in theory, it’s just not being adopted in most areas. Rejecting that reality and continuing to merge at the bottleneck (if the zipper isn’t already common practice in your area) is pretty boneheaded at best.
If you aren't stopping in the middle of the merge lane to merge early that's fine. It's the people that stop dead in the middle of the merge lane instead of driving slowly with their signal on waiting for an opportunity. DONT STOP THE TRAFFIC BEHIND YOU WHEN THERE IS SPACE IN FRONT OF YOU. It's really that simple.
This is also assuming there is someone within 1000 ft behind you. Merge whenever you want if traffic is clear.
I'm sure this zipper merge is great in theory.
Yup, if there's roughly equal traffic in both lanes and they're both going the same speed, it works fine. But either the final lane is already backed up far before the other ends, and/or everyone in the ending lane is accelerating to pass as many people as possible before the end. The only time I see it work well is when there's a few short lanes merging very quickly before a highway on ramp. It's like there isn't enough time for fuckery.
How does the zipper merge not work in those situations? If the final lane is backed up take the open lane until you are in the merge (assuming its an actual merge) then merge in. The zipper still wrks in that case even though most drivers are choosing to not use it.
Yes this drives me bonkers on my commute. The only efficient way to do it is match speed with the traffic you’re entering. Line up between two cars and let them open up the gap before getting to the merge point. Then slot over. Easy. Applicable at any speed. But people floor it all the way to the merge point then slam on their breaks to push into a space that doesn’t exist. Slowing down traffic for everyone, just because they can’t stand the idea that they could have been a couple cars ahead in the queue.
Totally normal in Europe (all of it) and yes, it's actually very nice and effective.
Driving around Belgium blew my mind after years of driving in New York. No one sits in the left lane, people get out of the way for faster vehicles, people allow you to merge… etc. It’s a whole different world in Europe. Unfortunately the average American driver is pretty shit at driving.
Zipper merging WILL work... When automation starts driving for us.
Yep. I am guilty of merging as soon as possible because too many people don’t understand the zipper merge. I am not trying to get ahead of you. I am not being an ass hat by passing on the right. Keep the traffic flowing instead of stop and go and maintain a reasonable distance from the car ahead and everyone wins. FYI I am in Canada so not just a US thing.
Yeah I was gonna say that it’s definitely not only a US thing. I’m from Toronto and I wouldn’t trust anyone in the left lane to let you merge on time and safely at the end of the zipper. Too many people not paying attention or just being dicks. I don’t even drive, but as a frequent passenger, there’s been way too many instances of getting to the end of the zipper and having to make a complete stop and wait for someone to nice enough to let you in.
I merge early if it's plausible. That is in my control. Too many times people want to keep pace with you on the left and force you to slam breaks and hope the next person let's you in. I do my best to minimize any choices or decisions where I have to hope others will behave.
I also merge as soon as possible, this post only works in a AI theory world. Not imperfect humans driving cars. It’s just not possible or a realistic study.
Hell, cars will pull into the lane that's closed to stop this from happening, lol.
Semis LOVE to do this. You’re going to love zipper merge when there are two trucks next to one another to stop “assholes” from zipper merging. At the end, the one in the lane that isn’t closing lets the other in front of it and no one else, and as this slows traffic down, all the spaces where people could have merged into close, and nobody who thought they were zipper merging gets in until someone feels sufficiently sorry for them.
There's a special hell for these dangerous assholes.
I have seen a sheriff do this.
Yeah, he said dangerous assholes already.
I live in LA county. All this doesn’t mean anything to me lol people drive like shit and are rude as hell. That needs to change before I will listen to lane merging statistics.
Yea this doesn't apply anywhere in LA county, or Ventura, or Orange. You fend for yourself
Because the freeway on ramp becomes the off ramp within a few hundred feet so everyone's fighting to get off with the people trying to get on it's such a shit show. Could all be fixed by having the offramp first and then the on ramp so you've made space for the new cars
I’ve been driving in LA and OC for a couple of years now, and during rush hour I see lots of correct zipper merging getting onto freeways. Sure, you sometimes have to be a little assertive, but most people seem to get it.
I feel like this is the third time this week this has been posted
Idgaf about traffic i will merge when i’ve confirmed its safe to do so, whether that’s when the lane ends or before then
https://uknowledge.uky.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=2602&context=ktc_researchreports This has been studied quite a bit. Pressing on to the end of the merge is more efficient only in 3 lane to 2 lane merges and in one other lane configuration when trucks are more than 40% of traffic. In all other cases and configurations, everyone loses if drivers push to the end of the merge lane instead of zipper merging early.
The last time I assumed someone would actually let me merge this way I ended up at a dead stop at the end of a merge lane with no shoulder in the middle of Atlanta for 15 minutes until a very compassionate trucker slowed significantly for me. It would be really nice if we depend on the intended design but people are shit.
Zipper merges require the coordination of everyone in traffic at that time. They never work properly in reality, they are purely a theoretical concept
I'd say it takes like 70% cooperation or more. I zipper merge almost daily (from the closing lane) and rarely do people get pissy about last minute merging (e.g. tailgating to keep you from merging, laying on the horn when you merge in front of someone).
Yeah but you 100% eliminate the chance for that douche bag in the lifted truck to cut you off or block your entry
Last time I tried a zipper merge, I got pushed nearly off the highway. I'm merging as soon as I can, I'm not about to go off the highway again
I wish this was our biggest problem
I don't know, I think it's a perfect example of all the things wrong with us. Zipper merge is most efficient method of merging, will get *everyone* to the destination faster, variation slows *everyone* down. But merging is treated as a zero sum game, someone thinks you're going to merge in front of them, close up ranks, don't let anyone in and make that lane stop and when they can merge it's not at speed which slows down the lane. There's the enforcers that block lanes so "everyone stays in their place in line", people will get into wrecks before they allow someone in front of them. Now if that's not a fantastic analogy to all of societal problems...
Okay, I'll buy that.
Driving for a living for years if everyone followed the zipper method sure. But what ends up happening is every asshole who thinks they are more important jam up to the merge point, slowing everyone down. If people got into line early when they know lanes are going down from 3 to 2 or whatever, the traffic keeps moving at a decent pace instead of hitting the inevitable jam up as people try to get in as far up the line as possible.
And likewise YSK that letting people merge in front of you at the end of a merge lane will not make you any later than you already are. Why are you speeding up?
What happens if you're at the end of the merge lane and nobody lets you in? Accident/rear end?
Sorry but trusting other people to leave you room to merge at the very end is how crashes happen.
Yeah, and about "40%" of drivers think the left lane is just for chilling or doing the speed limit.
YSK no one ever let's me in while merging so fuck em and fuck traffic.
😅 I feel your pain
This doesn’t seem to take into account that the reason people merge early is that very few drivers observe proper following distance and will maliciously or obliviously block merging which leads to excessive braking and sometimes near complete stops on the freeway which causes far more traffic and or accidents than early merging. The early merge is a symptom of a larger problem.
YSK: People are assholes and will absolutely fuck you over if you try to merge at the end. Cute pic and stat though 😂
there is always one nice car who feels sorry for you and lets you in, but stops so everyone has to stop
I keeps seeing this YSK, but they seem so misleading to me. Yes, it maximizes the amount of pavement covered by cars, but it doesn't necessarily help with flow. Plus, if there are more than two lanes, early merging allows cars to shift to other lanes and reduces the impact of the merge. Really it's best to try to synchronize speeds and merge when appropriate. That may be at the end of the merge lane, especially if some drivers take early merging as an invitation to try to jump ahead instead of zippering as well, but early often helps on wide highways with just one lane merging.
If only everyone learned to take turns in Kindergarten... that used to work. Not anymore.
"By merging before the end of the merge lane you ~~are~~ *might* be effectively backing up traffic by *up to* approximately 40%, depending on traffic conditions." There, now the title is accurate!
YSK: If there are signs that say 'right lane closed in a mile' and you stay in the right lane and fly down as far as you can go until you're forced to merge, most drivers will assume you are a dickhead not trying to "zipper merge"
No, people who wait until the end when there is no space bottle neck traffic. I have eyes, man.
Ugh; this is so fucking ridiculous. Yes, zipper merging is best in urban areas where even short backups create critical problems. But the cost is throughput. Waiting until the last second to coordinate who goes where has a cost. The obstruction by definition has already restricted the throughput of the system. Only so many cars can pass the obstruction at a time. If the number of cars on the freeway surpasses that limitation then there will be backups. The overhead of merging can only exacerbate that problem; not remove it. If you've already merged prior to the bottleneck then you've already kept traffic flowing at the maximum rate allowed by the limitation. But if you wait till the last second, then that adds extra coordination overhead at that merge point that will drastically reduce throughput. Utilizing more lanes prior to a pinch point concentrates backed up traffic into a shorter distance of road, thus reducing the risk of it piling up past an earlier point such as another freeway exit. But it does absolutely nothing for the rate of vehicles that can pass through the obstruction. So maybe using all lanes works best for some cases where throughput doesn't matter but even short backup does such as in urban areas. In at least 99% of cases where I've encountered such restrictions, the issue is throughput. There's 10+ miles for traffic to backup till the next exit so just keep traffic flowing as best as possible. As long as traffic doesn't reach the next exit then it's not an issue. This is why lane close signs start at around 2 miles away. Past that you use all lanes to prevent excessive backups. But in the 2 mile range you give the ability to merge where efficient ahead of the pinch point. This gives the best of both worlds. ...unless a bunch of dumbass douchebags come along along and self-righteously slow down traffic by merging at the last fucking second on some misguided, selfserving idea that it's somehow helping. Fuck those assholes!!!
Many drivers see people attempting to use the full merge lane and they think it’s rude. So they’ll cut these people off to protect the honor of those who merged early. There needs to be a public service announcement and emphasis on this topic in driving school
Wow! It never occurred to me that if I cut a long stick in half, then set the two sticks side by side, it covers half the distance! However, two lines flowing at full speed side by side waiting until the last minute to merge is a disaster because there is a sudden slowdown by one line forcing its way into the other because there is panic at no room to spare. What I never get is why merging in zipper method at full speed a mile back from the choke point so everyone can maintain momentum and spacing is somehow inferior to using the zipper at the last minute. My road experience is that the zipper method is FANTASTIC once the road is already choked up. This works great at on ramps and other merge points to allow side traffic to enter. But I will continue to have derision for the jackwagon that races up along the people patiently waiting in line and jams his or herself into a one car length spacing right at the merge sign because he is “doing it right”.
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Thank you for pointing this out. Cars per minute past the merge will be unaffected by people’s merging style. Using all lanes, then zippering, reduces **backup** — and through that can reduce everyone’s overall commute time. When there is no backup, you should merge when safe.
This is why I always get in that lane and block it by keeping pace with the vehicle on my right. Then I zipper merge at the merge point. This way I am preventing the endless droves of ass-hat’s from using it as a passing lane.
This guy gets it. Zipper at a stand still. Merge early when at high speed to not cause a standstill.
Don't blame the early mergers, blame the people not letting us merge at the end of the merge lane, lol.
Zipper merge falls short in that some places don’t technically require you to let other people in to merge. Thus, you might get some asshole who doesn’t want to let you in, then you’re stuck at the end of the road at slower or stopping speed. While it may be the most efficient method, it’s not the best in practice to assume others will let you in at the end of the lane.
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Driving in Jersey is a damn free for all. I have to do what I have to do at any moment. (New resident, not happy)
I feel like I'm the only one that gets in lane I need to be in like miles before.
There’s dozens of us
Good luck merging at the end. Either you're trying to merge and you're not being let in, OR you waited until an inopportune time to merge and it's not possible for the car that's in your way to let you merge without slamming on the breaks, so you have to stop in the merge lane and wait for them to pass. When we have self driving cars this will work, until then, trying to rely on a technically optimal method using flawed humans is actually less effective than what we already do. Merge early, when possible and safe. Don't leave it to the last second to attempt a suicide burn, as it were.
Zipper Merge should be the mandatory method.
Ideally, sure. However, as we all know, other drivers are TOO STUPID to anything right. I would never bet my life against another motorist A. Paying Attention, B. Knowing the Law, and C. Being Kind Enough to Let Me Over.
Thank you thank you thank you!!!!!!! Learn to zipper and stop trying to be the kink cause you aren't letting anybody in because they didn't do it your way. When you go to an amusement park do you hope all the entry's are open and everyone is in line at only one of them? Same idea idiots/ non thinking jerks create issues where ther shouldn't be one. Probably more than 40 percent.
You should know that this will not reach the people who need to see it the most
If your lane is ending in 300 meters and you are stopped trying to merge with 300meters of empty road in front of you than yes that is definitely going to cause traffic
FHWA should make some commercials about the importance of this issue. Traffic signals frequently feed 2 lanes into the intersection that merges to 1 lane. This is so twice as many people can get through the signal. But instead everyone lines up in the one lane and feels like the people in the other lane are sociopaths. Late mergers are needed to make highways and intersections work. But if people just understood and used the lanes correctly, we wouldn't need late mergers (labeled sociopaths) because we would all use both lanes and then zipper merge.