I like the title of this because I think it captures the way a lot of people feel when someone passes them in a lane that is ending, or pops in front of them as the lane is ending, while making the point that it's the proper behavior in the context of efficiency.
I live in Los Angeles and the two behaviors I notice most frequently working against the greater good are the inability to merge properly and keep right, pass left.
All too often I see people reach a merge and arbitrarily stop, put their blinker on and wait for an opening. Stopping makes it much harder to exploit an opening and merge safely. Or, someone going well under the speed limit in the far left lane creating a barrier to faster moving traffic.
I have all sorts of hypotheses about people's territorial and juvenile behaviors while driving. Ultimately, I think it comes down to ignorance resulting from less than adequate driver's education.
Driving in parts of Europe gives you an appreciation for better driver's education. This recent post is perhaps tangential(https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12674533), but it's in the spirit of my point about adequate driver's education. Similarly driving in some Central American countries is better in my experience.
I've been sitting on zippermerging.com for a while hoping to do something useful with it, since I'm a believer in the cause. What else can we do to get the word out?
Well, I am currently not doing anything with this. Would you like to take it over? I was thinking of something like zippermerging.com bumper stickers to raise awareness. That's the only bumper sticker I'd ever put on one of my vehicles. I was working on a bunch of clever sayings to put on the bumper stickers. And have links to informational videos at the site, along with some animations to show the advantages. Eventually I'd try to get the local Department of Transportation on board, and maybe get the legislature involved. I could envision public service type billboards, etc..
Even just a simple single page webpage right now with a fake quote like "75% of people know the benefits of zipper merging but are afraid to do it for fear of getting nasty looks. Next time you see someone who gets it let them in and give them a smile" and then a few simple videos explaining what it is, how it works, and why it's better.
P.S. or rather than starting with a fake stat throw up a simple survey and collect real stats.
No, they're not right. They theoretically WOULD be right, if drivers behaved and zipper-merging without jerk behavior actually took place. But it doesn't. So this is bullshit.
This could theoretically work, if and when we all let computers drive our cars. But not until then.
Per the article, it does work (or works better) when the desired (more optimal) behavior is communicated to the drivers. One of the major issues (as one of your sibling posts points out) is a low quality or absent driver education. It's not just enough to know to use the brake, signals, shifter, and throttle. Drivers need to understand how traffic flow works as well. Absent this awareness, they need to be taught rules/heuristics of behavior (like the signs attempt to communicate).
The problem is that those instructions (wait to merge, then take turns) don't produce a zipper merge, they produce a "stop and start take turns" merge - the left-hand antipattern on http://trafficwaves.org/seatraf.html
They need the additional "keep lots of space ahead of you to allow cars to move in at traffic speed".
Given a stop-and-go merge, I think the best you can do is keep that left lane from forcing stop-and-go merging. if you can get a gap in the merging lane, the target lane can begin flowing more freely, thus opening space for the merging lane.
The problem is that those instructions (wait to merge, then take turns) don't produce a zipper merge, they produce a "stop and start take turns" merge - the left-hand antipattern on http://trafficwaves.org/seatraf.html
They need the additional "keep lots of space ahead of you to allow cars to move in at traffic speed".
Given a stop-and-go merge, I think the best you can do is keep that left lane from forcing stop-and-go merging. if you can get a gap in the merging lane, the target lane can begin flowing more freely, thus opening space for the merging lane.
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[ 2.2 ms ] story [ 33.7 ms ] threadI live in Los Angeles and the two behaviors I notice most frequently working against the greater good are the inability to merge properly and keep right, pass left.
All too often I see people reach a merge and arbitrarily stop, put their blinker on and wait for an opening. Stopping makes it much harder to exploit an opening and merge safely. Or, someone going well under the speed limit in the far left lane creating a barrier to faster moving traffic.
I have all sorts of hypotheses about people's territorial and juvenile behaviors while driving. Ultimately, I think it comes down to ignorance resulting from less than adequate driver's education.
Driving in parts of Europe gives you an appreciation for better driver's education. This recent post is perhaps tangential(https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12674533), but it's in the spirit of my point about adequate driver's education. Similarly driving in some Central American countries is better in my experience.
P.S. or rather than starting with a fake stat throw up a simple survey and collect real stats.
This could theoretically work, if and when we all let computers drive our cars. But not until then.
They need the additional "keep lots of space ahead of you to allow cars to move in at traffic speed".
Given a stop-and-go merge, I think the best you can do is keep that left lane from forcing stop-and-go merging. if you can get a gap in the merging lane, the target lane can begin flowing more freely, thus opening space for the merging lane.
They need the additional "keep lots of space ahead of you to allow cars to move in at traffic speed".
Given a stop-and-go merge, I think the best you can do is keep that left lane from forcing stop-and-go merging. if you can get a gap in the merging lane, the target lane can begin flowing more freely, thus opening space for the merging lane.