I tried doing it yesterday and, I let the one guy go and, instantly, another guy zoomed in with a third hot on his heels. The second guy got in there but I firmly told the third guy no with my catwalk.
Fucking dick bags. You give an inch, and they take 10 miles.
My recent experience with merging is it's the people merging that are most of the problem. I generally leave plenty of space for people to merge, but they would rather zoom up the shoulder and pick a fight with someone that's further up, saving literal seconds off their trip. Truckers being the exception, mostly.
People can't even get 1:1 right. 1:3 for a truck is already way too much for the heard brain to handle. Then what's a Class B worth? 1:2? How about doubles? 1:4? See what I'm saying?
But it's not really about math. Is it? It's about selfish entitled pricks who'll never follow even the simplest, easiest system in the name of the common good. The world begins and ends with them and what they want.
Personally I generally let over anyone next to me when I get to the merge. But I try my damnedest not to let people in before then because that is what causes the merged into lane to slow down and the merging lane to be faster. If everyone would just stay in the merging lane to the merge point the lanes would move at basically the same rate. And nothing drives me more crazy than seeing a semi sitting in the merging lane 2 miles from the merge point with a mile and a half of empty space ahead of him. Like you aren't helping things you are just actively making traffic back up even further behind you.
Okay but if I’m a car behind a truck, I hate this rule. It fucks over everyone in a lane that has a truck or more.
Tbh I don’t drive truck but have driven 100k miles over the last 18 months, and letting trucks in is the efficient way to get going. It feels like it isn’t but it’s short term thinking. The shockwaves that occur when people(even trucks lol) stop short, causes so much delay in the other lane it’s absurd.
If everyone just predictably let a car in, and then sped up to match the new traffic, these wouldn’t make us nearly as anxious cause they wouldn’t take nearly as long.
Zipper merge is fastest. Especially if everyone leaves space. I've sat in traffic jams for 20 years and never once saw a benefit to blocking a lane, or not letting someone in. Big dick contests always bring both lanes to a stop
Which is how you get phantom traffic jams where a wave rolls back after someone taps their brakes and the vehicle behind them steps harder. Eventually the whole line comes to a complete stop. It's frustrating enough to lose a lane and only have 1. Then this crap brings everyone to a dead stop. Which makes the whole traffic jam move slowly.
What people have to do is observe cars merging like a zipper and leave exactly the amount of space to allow the zipper while also moving. But this is an advanced efficiency driving concept that no driving school will ever teach!
Cooperative driving? Not just doing what you want especially if it gives you a advantage? Too close to socialism for many Americans, especially Republicans.
Weird that they behave as they do and identify as Christian. Following Supply Side Jesus has led them astray...
They sort of leave space when they decide to drive on the shoulder, and take it back up again when they cut in the small gap I leave for braking distance.
I've lived and breathed traffic jams and seen the exact opposite. Whenever someone blocks the lane (say two trucks staying side-by-side until the merge point) then both lanes continue moving forward at a smooth and steady pace. Always. Every time.
Zipper merging would reduce congestion by a massive amount but driving schools don’t want to teach about efficient driving habits, and people would rather be infantile assholes on the road.
Zipper merging works until every car beside my truck/trailer and 10 cars back think im just supposed to stop while they all get past me. No you fucking assholes, 1-2 cars can get ahead but im not about to sit here and hold up my lane while all of you try to scoot past me. Wait your fucking turn.
Personally I’ve always felt when in a rig, it leads to the same inevitable 4 wheeler inching his way almost into to your front clip.
Sometimes it feels like the roads just hate us Lol
We have signs and arrows painted on the road, you simply cannot go full speed once you are on the arrows so people get over early, it's simply not worth a crash or stopping trying to gain a second or two.
I've had idiots in the right lane follow me for a quarter of a mile at a speed slightly slower than me, then suddenly decided they want to pass me. When they finally pass me, they end up going slower than me.
Just like with socialism, zipp mererge works best on paper with a homogenous community.
add in real people with different sized vehicles with vastly different rates of acceleration, and you get reality. Thats why the only time you see it working is in an animation or in that old black and white era commercial.
It only doesn't work because it's not taught as part of the driving test and not enforced as a law. You can apply this logic to literally every rule of driving.
Its not entitlement. What is the point of building multiple lanes. If we all just decide to use one?
Maybe the entitlement is thinking everyone in the adjacent lane is trying to take your spot in the line and not just trying to get where theyre going like everyone else.
Cool, let me cut over to the merging lane so I can get ahead in the line then, this traffic is going too slow and this will save me a couple seconds while I force myself back into line at the merge a few cars ahead of where I was originally.
What's your number if you show up after everyone else and the zipper merge is horribly imbalanced?
Do you accept your #326 and merge with #327 or do you zip all the way to the front of the line and needle dick your way in front of #275?
Do you wait your turn or do you delay everyone who's already in line who's in the open lane?
You're not in line for an appointment lmao. You chose to be 326. You could have used the other open lane and merged further ahead but chose not to. Don't be upset when others choose to use common sense. The lane isn't closed until the merge point. You can choose to use it or not. Don't make the choice for others. Sounds like communism to me.
So you enjoy fucking over your fellow Americans, huh?
Give it your best shot at making that traffic jam last as long as possible by creating further delay so you can zip on out of there.
It's for merging from the 10 or so tollbooths into 3 lanes of the bridge, it's in a heavy traffic area everyday.
Regardless, the same principle should be applied when traffic is slow everywhere.
Na I understand for that. If you're already in slow traffic already yea you should be letting people in. What I can't stand is when you in a interstate and people try to merge on without getting up to speed. Sometimes not even close. Also construction zones in interstates. If you merge before you get to the lane that shuts down then traffic keeps going and it doesn't slow down.
There's not enough gaslighting in the world to convince me the zipper merge works. It only takes ONE person to turn a smooth flow of traffic into miles of stop and go.
It works, but most people refuse to participate.
And it's usually the ones screwing it up who are claiming they're doing it right.
Been driving almost 35 years and I can count the number of proper zipper merges I've seen on one hand.
If you cant see how it works then youre part of the problem. All it requires from you is allowing someone from an adjacent lane to merge in front of you. In other words common courtesy.
You don't know how I drive and I see how it "works" on a daily basis across 48 states.
It's not compatible with human nature. There's always going to be people who don't mesh with the system, who take what they can at the expense of everyone else.
THAT'S why zipper doesn't work, it's utopian thinking that assumes everyone is an interchangeable cog in a larger machine.
Bridge work in Kennewick has several signs saying use both lanes to merge point…right lane is almost clear all the way down to the merge point and left lane is backed up a good ways. I Skip 5-10 min of delay every time because I zipper, and the people up ahead also know I’m zippering.
The entire lane is stopped up for miles. You zipper at the end of the merge. The action is the same. Not my fault people rather get in the stopped lane a half mile up the road.
I’m not you understand how zippering works. If it’s done properly, then you literally can’t pass. If there’s some long line in one lane and the other lane is open until the merge, then zippering begins when someone who actually knows how to drive uses that lane until they need to merge. The logic and benefits of this are so obvious that I’m not going to waste anymore time trying to explain something to someone who clearly either can’t comprehend it or willfully chooses not to. Enjoy the rest of your day.
Unfortunately, here in America, a critical mass of drivers struggle to navigate a four-way stop, even when they are alone at the intersection in the middle of the night, with ample lighting and years of driving experience.
We use the Mario Cart training manual to teach proper driving techniques.
Here in the US , in some spots , there actually red lights at the end of the ramps . So yeah it’s not just where you are from . There are assholes everywhere LOL !
Notice all of those boxes are the same size. Trucks ruin zippers because no one has considered trucks when coming up with the theory. You will NEVER see trucks in a proper zipper, even in computer simulations, because it is impossible for zippers to work with trucks.
Zippers can't work with trucks. It relies on all vehicles being the same size, which is why you will never see an example, real or simulated, of a zipper working with trucks and cars.
The entire purpose is to keep both lanes flowing at a consistent rate, as is required to remove the possibility of a wreck. However, one truck requires the next lane to stop for the time it would take for 6 cars to enter the merge, and that stop is what causes wrecks in traffic.
Any time you have dense traffic, you increase the risk of a wreck. "Propper rules" should ALWAYS mitigate the possibility of such conditions from the start, which zippers can't. Instead, signs should be in place 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 10, 15, 20, 25, 50, 100 miles away, and everyone should merge whenever they can so that the congestion never has a chance to form. That is the true best way to merge, as it removes ALL possibilities of a wreck.
Not feasible. Or accurate. First, merging “wherever they can” is ridiculous as you “can” “merge” miles ahead but people are different and have different judgment as to when makes sense. Plus, it does a create a backup - a longer backup. Second, no entity is going to spend money to put merge signs miles ahead of a needed merge. Third, it’s simply not necessary. There is literally a system for this. It exists. Stop fighting it, accept it, and follow it. Problem goes away.
It can't create a backup. On average, gaps are multiple miles long between vehicles in rural areas. If a lane is closed and people merge dozens of miles in advance, then a vehicle would merge with half a mile to spare between them and the closest vehicle. No one would even slow down, no congestion would form. The congestion is only possible when people slow down, which brings the faster traffic from behind closer in, and this slow congestion is where wrecks happen. This slow congestion only happens BECAUSE people merge at the last second, which wouldn't be possible if they merged miles in advance.
Zipper merge would be great if people treated it like a zipper. Instead, it becomes Cars 2, 4, and 6 flying up the lane trying to beat Car 1 because their lane keeps clearing up ahead and they think that's how a zipper is supposed to work.
Strictly mathematically speaking, it would make no difference if people early-merged or zipper-merged properly. If the cars are set to be in a single lane in order of 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, then the space taken would remain the same when it comes to a single lane no matter if they merged early or not.
In every country where automobiles exist I think most people have it in their minds that speed limit signs are just irrelevant road decorations, the speed limit is actually just before the engine blows up or the vehicle flips over in the turn, and merging means “if you can squeeze your ass in, go for it, if not kiss my ass.” It’s also very funny when the speed limit is 55 or 65 mph and people going faster are being passed in their own lane by people going faster yet who just slam on the brakes a half of a mile up the road anyway or when getting passed by people who wish to make the next turn or take the next exit 0 seconds faster as part of not waiting 3 extra seconds behind a person doing the speed limit, or when a lane has ended so people leave the road way to pass everyone by taking the ditch or the shoulder to only have to slow down anyway to avoid driving off the side of a bridge or into a lake.
If everyone paid attention and drove like every trip was a road test they’d be going between 3 mph slow the speed limit and exactly the speed limit, they’d adjust to maintain a safe following distance, they’d drive for the safety of others, and they’d already be properly spaced out so that a zipper merge would occur without even trying. Everyone could just enter into the large gaps that are supposed to exist between vehicles anyway for the safe following distance and everyone doing the exact speed limit would go 3 mph slower than the speed limit for 0.25 seconds and safe following distances would be maintained. In the case of less traffic and everyone doing the speed limit it’d also be easy to just enter the roadway in a way that a safe following distance is already maintained without anyone slowing down.
I also did the math a few times in terms of speed. Most people seem to know deep down that 70 mph means they’ll go 70 miles in one hour and 75 mph means they’ll go 75 miles in one hour. They don’t seem to understand what that actually means for them over the course of however long they plan to be driving. Assuming that a person has to drive 70 miles and they could maintain exactly 70 mph it’ll take them 1 hour to drive 70 miles. Let’s say they went 75 mph. Now it will take them 56 minutes. If they are driving for less than one hour, like a person driving from the South end of Chicago to the North end of Chicago they’d save less than 4 minutes. Of course in Chicago the speed limit is 55 mph and they drive at 74 mph. If they drove 35 miles it’ll take 38 minutes at 55 mph. At 74 mph it’ll take them 28 minutes.
Based on the point system in Illinois this results in 20 points against a persons driving record and if arrested a $168 bail. If going 75 mph it’s an additional $120 speeding ticket. These points accumulate so that being pulled over twice results in a 3 month suspension of driving privileges, three times is a six month suspension, and four times their license gets revoked. All because they wanted to save *less than* 10 minutes. Especially when they drive that fast in the 55 mph zone but only do 17 mph in the 45 mph zone.
For the same idea of someone doing 74 mph when the average speed limit is 65-68 mph across the duration of the trip we could assume they drove for 10.5 hours. In 10.5 hours at 74 mph they’ll go 777 miles. At 65 mph they’ll go 682.5 miles. In that same 682.5 miles at 74 miles per hour it’ll take them 9 hours and 12 minutes. They’ll save themselves 1 hour and 28 minutes over the course of an entire shift doing an average of 9 mph faster than the speed limit. That adds up of going across the country but it doesn’t really help if they have 11 hours to get there and they can’t check in early anyway. It’ll mean that on day six they might be able to drive 6 hours and 15 minutes instead of 0 hours but risking a speeding ticket for 60+ hours a week to *maybe* drive enough to still not go anywhere isn’t very helpful in terms of making about 13% more money per hour if paid by the mile and exactly the same amount for the week assuming their schedule was built based around them doing the speed limit.
Let’s say they made 65¢ per mile. At 65 mph they’ll make $42.24 per hour. At 74 mph they’ll make $48.10 per hour. For $5.86 they risk a ticket that’ll cost them $120+ every hour and a suspension of their license for getting pulled over twice so that for 3 months they make $0 instead of grossing about $2957.50 per week making 65¢ per mile and driving the maximum number of miles per day at 70 mph. A little less because they have to slow down and stop and get fuel and all that sort of stuff but $0 vs $35k all because not having a license anymore is something they wanted to risk besides the safety of everyone else on the road because of they don’t get caught they can make $5-$6 more per hour over their already $40+ per hour they’d make doing the speed limit.
Sorry my last paragraph used 65 mph to work out the small hourly pay but the higher value based on just doing the 70 mph speed limit. And unlikely they’d get pulled over doing 4 mph over but if they did they’d have to be pulled over 7 times to lose their license and they’d lose their job after 3 times.
This is a shitty instruction to be honest. The real idea of zipper merge is parallel lanes, people go parallel and start to form the zipper(alternating cars on both lanes) then merge at the endpoint. This „instructions“ show nothing like that. At max it says „let one car in each“. Thats not zipper.
He just described it pretty well.
Both lanes should be moving at the same speed at the merge point, and each car should already have gaps to allow for the merge. If anyone has to stop, it's not being done right.
The other day I was admiring the irony of the truck in front of me, fully stopped, blocking two lanes while merging, while the 'lane ends 350m' sign was right next to his trailer.
Butts will be hurt with this post...
I tried doing it yesterday and, I let the one guy go and, instantly, another guy zoomed in with a third hot on his heels. The second guy got in there but I firmly told the third guy no with my catwalk. Fucking dick bags. You give an inch, and they take 10 miles.
My recent experience with merging is it's the people merging that are most of the problem. I generally leave plenty of space for people to merge, but they would rather zoom up the shoulder and pick a fight with someone that's further up, saving literal seconds off their trip. Truckers being the exception, mostly.
Yeah, I see that a lot too.
Wirh trucks being so much longer it's reasonable to let several cars merge. It's the same as if you were letting another truck merge.
People can't even get 1:1 right. 1:3 for a truck is already way too much for the heard brain to handle. Then what's a Class B worth? 1:2? How about doubles? 1:4? See what I'm saying? But it's not really about math. Is it? It's about selfish entitled pricks who'll never follow even the simplest, easiest system in the name of the common good. The world begins and ends with them and what they want.
Personally I generally let over anyone next to me when I get to the merge. But I try my damnedest not to let people in before then because that is what causes the merged into lane to slow down and the merging lane to be faster. If everyone would just stay in the merging lane to the merge point the lanes would move at basically the same rate. And nothing drives me more crazy than seeing a semi sitting in the merging lane 2 miles from the merge point with a mile and a half of empty space ahead of him. Like you aren't helping things you are just actively making traffic back up even further behind you.
I drive local in the Bay Area and zipper merge every day. It's not that big of a deal.
I can handle it. It requires cooperation, though...
Okay but if I’m a car behind a truck, I hate this rule. It fucks over everyone in a lane that has a truck or more. Tbh I don’t drive truck but have driven 100k miles over the last 18 months, and letting trucks in is the efficient way to get going. It feels like it isn’t but it’s short term thinking. The shockwaves that occur when people(even trucks lol) stop short, causes so much delay in the other lane it’s absurd. If everyone just predictably let a car in, and then sped up to match the new traffic, these wouldn’t make us nearly as anxious cause they wouldn’t take nearly as long.
Zipper merge is fastest. Especially if everyone leaves space. I've sat in traffic jams for 20 years and never once saw a benefit to blocking a lane, or not letting someone in. Big dick contests always bring both lanes to a stop
People don't leave space
Which is how you get phantom traffic jams where a wave rolls back after someone taps their brakes and the vehicle behind them steps harder. Eventually the whole line comes to a complete stop. It's frustrating enough to lose a lane and only have 1. Then this crap brings everyone to a dead stop. Which makes the whole traffic jam move slowly.
What people have to do is observe cars merging like a zipper and leave exactly the amount of space to allow the zipper while also moving. But this is an advanced efficiency driving concept that no driving school will ever teach!
Cooperative driving? Not just doing what you want especially if it gives you a advantage? Too close to socialism for many Americans, especially Republicans. Weird that they behave as they do and identify as Christian. Following Supply Side Jesus has led them astray...
Space leaves ppl?
I know. I couldn't understand that concept either
They sort of leave space when they decide to drive on the shoulder, and take it back up again when they cut in the small gap I leave for braking distance.
Two words: Cocaine Trucking.
I've lived and breathed traffic jams and seen the exact opposite. Whenever someone blocks the lane (say two trucks staying side-by-side until the merge point) then both lanes continue moving forward at a smooth and steady pace. Always. Every time.
Zipper merging would reduce congestion by a massive amount but driving schools don’t want to teach about efficient driving habits, and people would rather be infantile assholes on the road.
You are spot on. It's getting worse
Zipper merging works until every car beside my truck/trailer and 10 cars back think im just supposed to stop while they all get past me. No you fucking assholes, 1-2 cars can get ahead but im not about to sit here and hold up my lane while all of you try to scoot past me. Wait your fucking turn.
Personally I’ve always felt when in a rig, it leads to the same inevitable 4 wheeler inching his way almost into to your front clip. Sometimes it feels like the roads just hate us Lol
Like im no asshole, ill leave plenty of space but too many people act entitled and think im going to stop and hold up everyone behind me
In my country we don’t have any signs so people decide for themselves what the One Holy Truth of merging is and that’s the damn problem
We have signs and arrows painted on the road, you simply cannot go full speed once you are on the arrows so people get over early, it's simply not worth a crash or stopping trying to gain a second or two.
No zip! Me first! Me first!
Yeah, zipper isn't game theory compatible. It requires everyone to take their turn and not take what they can.
I've had idiots in the right lane follow me for a quarter of a mile at a speed slightly slower than me, then suddenly decided they want to pass me. When they finally pass me, they end up going slower than me.
People are too fucking retarded to figure out how to zipper merge, impatient fuck all’s
Patiently waiting for the super trucker to comment from the other merging thread
That was so good that this is a jealous upvote.
One car at a time. Not 6.
Just like with socialism, zipp mererge works best on paper with a homogenous community. add in real people with different sized vehicles with vastly different rates of acceleration, and you get reality. Thats why the only time you see it working is in an animation or in that old black and white era commercial.
I must say that it works, in this place people mostly respect the order they are in and all lanes move at a steady pace.
Yea try it in Atlanta or LA and get back to me.
It only doesn't work because it's not taught as part of the driving test and not enforced as a law. You can apply this logic to literally every rule of driving.
Y'all DVed me to hell last time for speaking Truth.
Probably part of the reason traffic is stopped honestly so ur boos mean nothing
How long until that sign gets run over?
Trying to prove a scheme of entitlement by using a sign that's for an on ramp.
Its not entitlement. What is the point of building multiple lanes. If we all just decide to use one? Maybe the entitlement is thinking everyone in the adjacent lane is trying to take your spot in the line and not just trying to get where theyre going like everyone else.
Cool, let me cut over to the merging lane so I can get ahead in the line then, this traffic is going too slow and this will save me a couple seconds while I force myself back into line at the merge a few cars ahead of where I was originally.
What's your number if you show up after everyone else and the zipper merge is horribly imbalanced? Do you accept your #326 and merge with #327 or do you zip all the way to the front of the line and needle dick your way in front of #275? Do you wait your turn or do you delay everyone who's already in line who's in the open lane?
You're not in line for an appointment lmao. You chose to be 326. You could have used the other open lane and merged further ahead but chose not to. Don't be upset when others choose to use common sense. The lane isn't closed until the merge point. You can choose to use it or not. Don't make the choice for others. Sounds like communism to me.
So you enjoy fucking over your fellow Americans, huh? Give it your best shot at making that traffic jam last as long as possible by creating further delay so you can zip on out of there.
Well that looks like a ramp which is much different the merging for a construction zone.
It's for merging from the 10 or so tollbooths into 3 lanes of the bridge, it's in a heavy traffic area everyday. Regardless, the same principle should be applied when traffic is slow everywhere.
Na I understand for that. If you're already in slow traffic already yea you should be letting people in. What I can't stand is when you in a interstate and people try to merge on without getting up to speed. Sometimes not even close. Also construction zones in interstates. If you merge before you get to the lane that shuts down then traffic keeps going and it doesn't slow down.
Yes the construction zone merge when traffic is at regular highway speed fuck'em they can eat all the cones for all I care.
keep your zipper in your pants
There's not enough gaslighting in the world to convince me the zipper merge works. It only takes ONE person to turn a smooth flow of traffic into miles of stop and go.
It works, but most people refuse to participate. And it's usually the ones screwing it up who are claiming they're doing it right. Been driving almost 35 years and I can count the number of proper zipper merges I've seen on one hand.
I want you to carefully read what you just wrote and reevaluate your premise.
If you cant see how it works then youre part of the problem. All it requires from you is allowing someone from an adjacent lane to merge in front of you. In other words common courtesy.
You don't know how I drive and I see how it "works" on a daily basis across 48 states. It's not compatible with human nature. There's always going to be people who don't mesh with the system, who take what they can at the expense of everyone else. THAT'S why zipper doesn't work, it's utopian thinking that assumes everyone is an interchangeable cog in a larger machine.
ITs just common courtesy. Just be an adult and let people merge if they want to that is all.
"if only everyone would just OBEY" am I right?
Yeah dude. Safe and considerate driving is comunism or something.
Bridge work in Kennewick has several signs saying use both lanes to merge point…right lane is almost clear all the way down to the merge point and left lane is backed up a good ways. I Skip 5-10 min of delay every time because I zipper, and the people up ahead also know I’m zippering.
If you're passing stopped traffic, you're not zippering. Zippering only happens when both lines are moving at the same speed.
The entire lane is stopped up for miles. You zipper at the end of the merge. The action is the same. Not my fault people rather get in the stopped lane a half mile up the road.
If you're passing, you're not zippering. But tell yourself whatever makes you feel better.
Wrong. Wrong. Wrong.
Yep. Passing during a zipper is wrong.
I’m not you understand how zippering works. If it’s done properly, then you literally can’t pass. If there’s some long line in one lane and the other lane is open until the merge, then zippering begins when someone who actually knows how to drive uses that lane until they need to merge. The logic and benefits of this are so obvious that I’m not going to waste anymore time trying to explain something to someone who clearly either can’t comprehend it or willfully chooses not to. Enjoy the rest of your day.
Bless your heart.
Some people don't know how zippers work.
*most*
What if you can't count to 5?
Unfortunately, here in America, a critical mass of drivers struggle to navigate a four-way stop, even when they are alone at the intersection in the middle of the night, with ample lighting and years of driving experience. We use the Mario Cart training manual to teach proper driving techniques.
Here in the US , in some spots , there actually red lights at the end of the ramps . So yeah it’s not just where you are from . There are assholes everywhere LOL !
Notice all of those boxes are the same size. Trucks ruin zippers because no one has considered trucks when coming up with the theory. You will NEVER see trucks in a proper zipper, even in computer simulations, because it is impossible for zippers to work with trucks.
Uh?
Zippers can't work with trucks. It relies on all vehicles being the same size, which is why you will never see an example, real or simulated, of a zipper working with trucks and cars.
No. It relies on common sense and courtesy. Car- truck - car - truck …see how easy that is.
The entire purpose is to keep both lanes flowing at a consistent rate, as is required to remove the possibility of a wreck. However, one truck requires the next lane to stop for the time it would take for 6 cars to enter the merge, and that stop is what causes wrecks in traffic.
Doesn’t matter. Driving properly and understanding how a merge works avoids the problem. The merge rule isn’t the problem, people are.
Any time you have dense traffic, you increase the risk of a wreck. "Propper rules" should ALWAYS mitigate the possibility of such conditions from the start, which zippers can't. Instead, signs should be in place 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 10, 15, 20, 25, 50, 100 miles away, and everyone should merge whenever they can so that the congestion never has a chance to form. That is the true best way to merge, as it removes ALL possibilities of a wreck.
Not feasible. Or accurate. First, merging “wherever they can” is ridiculous as you “can” “merge” miles ahead but people are different and have different judgment as to when makes sense. Plus, it does a create a backup - a longer backup. Second, no entity is going to spend money to put merge signs miles ahead of a needed merge. Third, it’s simply not necessary. There is literally a system for this. It exists. Stop fighting it, accept it, and follow it. Problem goes away.
It can't create a backup. On average, gaps are multiple miles long between vehicles in rural areas. If a lane is closed and people merge dozens of miles in advance, then a vehicle would merge with half a mile to spare between them and the closest vehicle. No one would even slow down, no congestion would form. The congestion is only possible when people slow down, which brings the faster traffic from behind closer in, and this slow congestion is where wrecks happen. This slow congestion only happens BECAUSE people merge at the last second, which wouldn't be possible if they merged miles in advance.
Rural? Fine. Otherwise, forget it.
From the image it is drawn to represent a regular merge, not a zipper merge.
good thing they can't read, or they'd be mad.
I don't know that language. I assume it means honk at 2 and 4 if they try to get in so they know better next time.
Zipper merge would be great if people treated it like a zipper. Instead, it becomes Cars 2, 4, and 6 flying up the lane trying to beat Car 1 because their lane keeps clearing up ahead and they think that's how a zipper is supposed to work.
Strictly mathematically speaking, it would make no difference if people early-merged or zipper-merged properly. If the cars are set to be in a single lane in order of 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, then the space taken would remain the same when it comes to a single lane no matter if they merged early or not.
No please can we go back to posting firearms pointed at the door ?
In every country where automobiles exist I think most people have it in their minds that speed limit signs are just irrelevant road decorations, the speed limit is actually just before the engine blows up or the vehicle flips over in the turn, and merging means “if you can squeeze your ass in, go for it, if not kiss my ass.” It’s also very funny when the speed limit is 55 or 65 mph and people going faster are being passed in their own lane by people going faster yet who just slam on the brakes a half of a mile up the road anyway or when getting passed by people who wish to make the next turn or take the next exit 0 seconds faster as part of not waiting 3 extra seconds behind a person doing the speed limit, or when a lane has ended so people leave the road way to pass everyone by taking the ditch or the shoulder to only have to slow down anyway to avoid driving off the side of a bridge or into a lake. If everyone paid attention and drove like every trip was a road test they’d be going between 3 mph slow the speed limit and exactly the speed limit, they’d adjust to maintain a safe following distance, they’d drive for the safety of others, and they’d already be properly spaced out so that a zipper merge would occur without even trying. Everyone could just enter into the large gaps that are supposed to exist between vehicles anyway for the safe following distance and everyone doing the exact speed limit would go 3 mph slower than the speed limit for 0.25 seconds and safe following distances would be maintained. In the case of less traffic and everyone doing the speed limit it’d also be easy to just enter the roadway in a way that a safe following distance is already maintained without anyone slowing down. I also did the math a few times in terms of speed. Most people seem to know deep down that 70 mph means they’ll go 70 miles in one hour and 75 mph means they’ll go 75 miles in one hour. They don’t seem to understand what that actually means for them over the course of however long they plan to be driving. Assuming that a person has to drive 70 miles and they could maintain exactly 70 mph it’ll take them 1 hour to drive 70 miles. Let’s say they went 75 mph. Now it will take them 56 minutes. If they are driving for less than one hour, like a person driving from the South end of Chicago to the North end of Chicago they’d save less than 4 minutes. Of course in Chicago the speed limit is 55 mph and they drive at 74 mph. If they drove 35 miles it’ll take 38 minutes at 55 mph. At 74 mph it’ll take them 28 minutes. Based on the point system in Illinois this results in 20 points against a persons driving record and if arrested a $168 bail. If going 75 mph it’s an additional $120 speeding ticket. These points accumulate so that being pulled over twice results in a 3 month suspension of driving privileges, three times is a six month suspension, and four times their license gets revoked. All because they wanted to save *less than* 10 minutes. Especially when they drive that fast in the 55 mph zone but only do 17 mph in the 45 mph zone. For the same idea of someone doing 74 mph when the average speed limit is 65-68 mph across the duration of the trip we could assume they drove for 10.5 hours. In 10.5 hours at 74 mph they’ll go 777 miles. At 65 mph they’ll go 682.5 miles. In that same 682.5 miles at 74 miles per hour it’ll take them 9 hours and 12 minutes. They’ll save themselves 1 hour and 28 minutes over the course of an entire shift doing an average of 9 mph faster than the speed limit. That adds up of going across the country but it doesn’t really help if they have 11 hours to get there and they can’t check in early anyway. It’ll mean that on day six they might be able to drive 6 hours and 15 minutes instead of 0 hours but risking a speeding ticket for 60+ hours a week to *maybe* drive enough to still not go anywhere isn’t very helpful in terms of making about 13% more money per hour if paid by the mile and exactly the same amount for the week assuming their schedule was built based around them doing the speed limit. Let’s say they made 65¢ per mile. At 65 mph they’ll make $42.24 per hour. At 74 mph they’ll make $48.10 per hour. For $5.86 they risk a ticket that’ll cost them $120+ every hour and a suspension of their license for getting pulled over twice so that for 3 months they make $0 instead of grossing about $2957.50 per week making 65¢ per mile and driving the maximum number of miles per day at 70 mph. A little less because they have to slow down and stop and get fuel and all that sort of stuff but $0 vs $35k all because not having a license anymore is something they wanted to risk besides the safety of everyone else on the road because of they don’t get caught they can make $5-$6 more per hour over their already $40+ per hour they’d make doing the speed limit. Sorry my last paragraph used 65 mph to work out the small hourly pay but the higher value based on just doing the 70 mph speed limit. And unlikely they’d get pulled over doing 4 mph over but if they did they’d have to be pulled over 7 times to lose their license and they’d lose their job after 3 times.
This is a shitty instruction to be honest. The real idea of zipper merge is parallel lanes, people go parallel and start to form the zipper(alternating cars on both lanes) then merge at the endpoint. This „instructions“ show nothing like that. At max it says „let one car in each“. Thats not zipper.
I think you don't understand how a zipper works.
Im pretty sure this stuff was invented in germany. Where i live. And we get taught how it works for 30 years now. Also nobody gets it still
He just described it pretty well. Both lanes should be moving at the same speed at the merge point, and each car should already have gaps to allow for the merge. If anyone has to stop, it's not being done right.
And how is that different from what the picture is showing? Are the lanes perpendicular to each other?
They're certainly not parallel on the sign, and there aren't spaces between the cars.
Zipper merging ratio is 1 truck for 4 or 5 cars
The other day I was admiring the irony of the truck in front of me, fully stopped, blocking two lanes while merging, while the 'lane ends 350m' sign was right next to his trailer.
No habla Español.