<p>Didn’t think I found the drivers noticeably ruder when we flew in to SFO and dropped my son off in Palo Alto for his internship in May, and did some sightseeing.</p>
<p>The thing that spooked me about CA driving were the red light cameras. We don’t have any of those in my part of PA, and while I don’t think I really crash through red lights on a regular basis, I was extra aware/conscious about it there, doing a couple of yellow stops that I wouldn’t have done here. The rental didn’t send me any tickets yet, and I didn’t cause anyone to rear-end me, but I was wondering how much leeway one has. </p>
<p>Following OP’s main discussion point, I think I will send PennDOT a letter thanking them for signs directing to merge late. I don’t know of the amount it saves in minutes is of any real consequence, but if it keeps the drivers less upset, it’s worth it. I don’t ever recall a driver tailgating in the main lane to prevent me from merging in on my turn, and I’ve never thought twice about letting a car ahead of me at the merge point.</p>
<p>That’s because you can actually get a ticket for “lingering in the left lane.” I.e. driving in the left when not passing. Rare, but definitely real – my ex wire got a ticket for it.</p>
<p>A) Related to this:
Let’s say you are in line at a supermarket, and there are 3 people in line. You are #3. #1 is being waited on at that moment.</p>
<p>Now another lane opens up and the cashier signals for people to come over. Do you:
Go over and become her first customer, since you can get there quicker than #2.
Let #2 go in front of you.</p>
<p>I admit it, I’d go over and become the first customer in the new lane.</p>
<p>B) If we’re talking traffic, nothing bugs me so much as people who interrupt the flow of traffic to “let” you take a left hand turn across 2 lanes (where now you can’t see if the person in the other lane is going to stop for you). They think they are doing you a favor by waving you through, and they are so very wrong.</p>
<p>I optimize my commuting route for the least amount of stress, left turns, merges and time. In Southern NH, it’s fortunate that we have way more highway capacity than traffic - they way overbuilt the highway. It’s a lot trickier driving in MA which I have to do from time to time but a little experimentation can shave a minute here and there off the travel time.</p>
<p>On solution is to drive a 25-year-old pickup truck loaded with dents and scratches - other drivers usually give you a little more room.</p>
<p>Interesting thread. I’m an early merger DH is a late merger. He is an engineer so that makes sense and now I will have to admit that he has been right on this one. But I get stressed by late merging so I would rather be early. I would disagree with the OP who mentioned motorcycles though. I drive a large Escalade and more than once have been “surprised” by a motorcycle who was driving alongside and completely not visible to me. Too dangerous even if it is efficient.</p>
<p>The highway that I took to work before it was rebuilt had routine accidents at merges at on-ramps and off-ramps. Things aren’t more efficient when there’s an accident and the highway is a parking lot for 40 minutes.</p>
<p>pizzagirl, what should happen in that situation, and will happen if the cashier has been well-trained, is that she’ll come over and get the person waiting in line in front of you.</p>
<p>At the grocery store I go to, cashiers come and lead #2 when opening up a new line. I love that practice. It saves me an internal struggle, to run or not to run.</p>
<p>I still don’t understand how the zipper method saves time in heavy traffic. How could it save time slowing down at the bottleneck alternating? If they merge earlier, drivers will be able to pick up speed moving through the bottle neck.</p>
<p>I think that the theory is that the single-lane backup will cause upstream problems. If upstream isn’t an issue, then single file is more efficient.</p>
<p>Not trying to be contentious, just trying to understand; Occupying both lanes all the way frees up about 1000 feet. Is that enough to offset the slow down of alternating? I am thinking the zipper method is like trying to push small rocks through a bordeax wine bottle. It narrows abruptly. Don’t you think it would be easier if the bottle had a funnel neck?</p>
<p>On the traffic, some will say I’m seeing it wrong, but if there are 2 lanes, and 1 will soon be closing then those in the closing lane need to merge into the lane that will continue. Everybody isn’t merging.</p>
<p>If there is enough traffic to need courtesy from the traffic in the good lane, then doesn’t it make sense that it’s easier to get such a courtesy sooner rather than later? And aren’t there more likely to be gaps in traffic, making mergers easier, sooner, rather than right at the last cone?
Personally, I’d prefer to slow from 55 to 50 to permit a driver to merge in my lane of travel in advance, than slow to 25 to permit a guy just creeping along because he chose to stay to the last cone- and he now has to count on a car slowing WAY down to let him in.
That is the key of the zipper merge theory- the 2 combine while traveling the same speed. But as a practical matter, in my experience, most congestion is at that last cone, so its a smaller gap between cars, and the same speed theory is rarely the case when someone waits to the last minute to merge.</p>
<p>At the grocery, I have heard a newly-opened cashier saying - I’ll take who was next…
and that helps.
Most cashiers merely open and serve the first one to the line.</p>
<p>I surmise the situation, merge conditions, amount of traffic, what the other drivers are doing, and proceed accordingly. There are times virtually everyone has already merged and in that case, 9 times out of 10, I will merge early too. Other times traffic merges quite efficiently at the point the lane ends. It depends on the situation. I take my cue from the established traffic pattern. When you make your choice, live with it.</p>
<p>Sign me as another who is annoyed by people who deliberately drive past a long line of merged cars and insert themselves at the head of the line. As for those who drive up the breakdown lane to do this: incredibly dangerous behavior. Years ago, when commuting through long term major construction on the Tappan Zee Bridge, we were delighted to see that unmarked police cars would position themselves in the breakdown lane with the hood up, then nab and ticket those jerks. </p>
<p>The merging behavior I really hate is when entering a highway via a merging lane in an orderly fashion, someone BEHIND me in the merging lane pulls out to the left across the marked off triangular area in order to “beat” me onto the highway and accelerate off sooner. In doing so, of course, they block my view of the traffic into which I am attempting to merge, and startle everyone already on the highway, and generally cause disruption.</p>
<p>The other thing that is extremely annoying are the mergers who don’t seem to realize that they are supposed to yield right of way to those already traveling at full speed on the highway, even though there are big “yield right of way” signs right there. Most people already on a highway will speed up or slow down or mover over to accommodate a merger, but when traffic is heavy one occasionally encounters a person who seems oblivious and bent on merging into the side of one’s car. </p>
<p>It doesn’t surprise me to learn that merging is the most stressful driving situation.</p>
<p>BTW, in the supermarket, I ALWAYS defer to those who were in front of me in the old line, and often to those who have just a few items if I have a full cart.</p>
I think what is true in theory only really works if the majority of the traffic is complying with the theory. In other words, if most of the cars in the merging lane waited to merge at the end, and the merge-into lane complied with zippering them in alternatingly, then it would work better than if everyone tries to merge early and only a few stay in the closing lane and have to wait for someone willing to let them enter.</p>
When my best friend was a beginning driver she was waiting too long for the guy behind her so he did just this. It was a horrific accident - they coudn’t get him out because the front of the car had trapped his legs.</p>
Nanny State!! Nanny State!!
As is evidence from the plethora of opinions and observations in this thread, the problem is that one answer isn’t always “right.” With a permanent merge situation and consistent traffic patterns it would be possible to tell people where to merge and help things. Where traffic speed and congestion vary, such signage might just make things worse half the time. I’m okay with letting drivers make their assessments in real time, and trying not to get my knickers in a twist if somebody else is “too aggressive” unless they actually cause a hazard.</p>
<p>I’m intrigued by the earlier comparison of drivers in PA & CA.</p>
<p>When I go to Calif., I’m struck by the decorum of drivers there. They drive at or near the speed limit; they yield to pedestrians in crosswalks; they stop for red lights, and they don’t block the box. These are behaviors I don’t see in the East.</p>
<p>Thanks to those of you who have explained to me the “rational” reasoning of late mergers but it still doesn’t change my “emotional” response. I guess that’s just human nature. </p>
<p>However, I still have a moronic question. A clothing zipper is two sides closing at the same time. If the DOTs want traffic to continue to travel in both lanes until the merger, then why even tell motorists which lane is closing ahead? Why not have the two lanes merge/funnel into a wide-coned, single MIDDLE lane and then direct the single file traffic to the left of right afterward? Wouldn’t signs like ‘Center Merger Ahead 1 mile’, .5 mile, 1000 yards, etc. with an increasing reduction in the speed limit work?</p>
<p>For the record though, my biggest irritation is those who ‘ride’ in passing lane and refuse to move over to the other lane when there’s ample space available! I wish I could yell “Citizen’s Arrest, Citizen’s Arrest” like Gomer Pyle!</p>
<p>In a better world you’d be able to buy yourself a beater for a couple hundred bucks and let the demo derby begin. Sideswipe one a day. Their fault to boot!</p>
<p>Merrywidow, there are signs that say “alternate merge” sometimes. There are also some highway lane merge situations that are handled that way, although I can’t remember what exactly the signs say. NJ turnpike near exit 8 where half the lanes disappear, and also on the Belt Parkway in NY.</p>
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