Do you merge sooner, or later?

[5030]

Does happen, but IMO, it depends on where you drive. Around here, I seem to encounter more of the really aggressive idiots who just stick their fender in front of you and dare you to hit them.

I suppose I might if I were driving a junker but the time, $$ and inconvenience involved with getting in an accident isn't worth it. Especially true if you're driving a decent vehicle.

Dick heads are everywhere. Just slow down and merge behind the DH, then accelerate in the fast lane and get around the DH and go about your business. Life is way too short to be confrontational. besides, if you hit his vehicle you get the ticket for failure to yield.

Being retired, I'm never in a hurry and I always leave for anything with time to spare and I always drive a couple miles per under the posted limit, sometimes more than a few under but always faster than the posted minimum speed. Amazing how good a fuel mileage you can get by driving under the posted limit as well and driving under the posted limit on a multi lane highway keeps you out of wadded up screamers and tailgators and your own space with room to spare.

 

[Jstpssng]

Several years ago I took an 18 year old army buddy home from Ft Sill to his family home in Nebraska. Was out one night at a party while staying with his parents and was talking to one of his high school friends that was 16 at that time. She was complaining that her dad had sold her car. I asked her why her dad had sold her car and she said that she was late getting home and was going to miss her curfew and her dad clocked her at 102. He was a Nebraska Highway Patrol.

lived in Fulton, Ms. and the parties were usually in Tupelo, Ms, about 20 miles away. Connected by one prime rural road. Her father, a Doctor, had a strict curfew. So one night after a ball game she was late getting home and drove a "wee fast". The local constabulary knew the car and her father and her well. So when they clocked the car going like a bat out of Hades across the river bottoms they just let her continue on without stopping her. But they did call her father.
The reports were that the muffler was red when she got home. Her father put the car up on cement blocks for about a month

It seems like the Beach Boys sang a song about them...

 

[Jstpssng]

When it comes to entering the highway, we don't have merge signs. They say "Yield"

 

[Oaktree]

2) Never seen a sign that say use both lanes until merge point.
4) Maybe its just this state but I'm assuming no one has ever heard of the zipper merge. I asked 10 of my close friends all in their mid to late 70's and they never heard of it. I never heard of it till this thread.

Same here. I figured a "zipper merge" must mean alternating lanes, but no one I know ever uses that term. Ditto on the "use both lanes" sign. Doesn't really make much sense to me.

Driving a truck helps, especially an older/uglier one, at least some smarter commuters are less likely to jam their tiny Altima or Corolla dangerously in front of it.

In the early 80s I had a job that required me to fly in and out of Boston. In those pre-big dig days getting to the airport was even more of a zoo than it is now. I had this ratty old Dodge Dart...almost no one challenged me...guess they figured one more dent wouldn't even faze me.

 

[newbury]

In the early 80s I had a job that required me to fly in and out of Boston. In those pre-big dig days getting to the airport was even more of a zoo than it is now. I had this ratty old Dodge Dart...almost no one challenged me...guess they figured one more dent wouldn't even faze me.

Same here in the 80's and 90's. There was a group of 3 of us who frequently flew from DC to Boston and rented a car to drive to the Cold Regions Research and Engineering Laboratory (Army Corps of Engineers, Engineer Research and Development Center research facility) headquartered in Hanover, New Hampshire. It became a game to find a car WITHOUT dents.

 

[RandyT]

On ramp signage plainly states 'Yield'. That don't mean surrender.

On ramps are meant for accelerating up to the speed the traffic is going at and then applying your turn indicator and SMOOTHLY merging into the flow of traffic which, is, exactly what I always do and if I'm proceeding along in the granny lane on a double lane highway and someone wants to merge on, if I can, I always move inti the faster lane and allow them to merge on. Has to do with being a courteous driver and being aware of what is going on around you.

Actually moving over if possible to allow vehicles to enter from the entrance ramp is actually the law in IL.. The law is written in such a way that basically gives drivers implied right of way when entering from the entrance ramp on divided highways.

 

[JasperFrank]

"resist merging early, as that leads to more backups"

You can only get zipper to work if people give the space to zip into. They do not: Not in the USA. Even if I open up an area for a Semi, that I know has to zip, some clown will jump in, pass and mess it up. Then I have to slow more to reopen that space for the Semi. ;(

 

[steve tym]

The zipper method does not mean you get to fly to the end of the closed lane then expect someone to slam on their brakes to let you in. The zipper method means when they post a lane closure, you look for a hole, or make a hole (if you're in the thru lane) and start to merge.

 

[Farmer495]

It's all about mutual respect. Too many think driving is a race or competition.

Zipper merge works perfect for those who know how to drive.

If you are the type that gets mad because someone passes you or merges ahead of you, then you are the problem.

 

[Farmer495]

Yes but (there's always a but LOL) you still would have the same amount of backed up cars just divided by two lanes, right? The cars would not get thru the neck any faster.

In an urban setting maybe, not on a 100 series (or interstate if you're US) You could have a gap 100ft long, if there's no gap directly at the neck, then the gaps aren't making any difference at all to traffic flow.
I like a good, civil disagreement

Have you been stuck in the fiasco that was on the 102 near Truro? One single file lane of cars backed up blocking two exits at times. If both lanes were full and people zipper merged properly it wouldn't be several km of block up.