Fair enough point about traffic difference, but to call them “last minute assholes” is a bit pretentious. I travel a lot as I do for work, there are many work zones that have signs stating “use whole lane, zipper merge” when there’s a lane closure. Why merge early leaving an entire lane empty for 2 miles? Then you’ve got some asshat sitting or coasting halfway blocking said lane, guarding people from using the whole lane. I guess this is another one of those unsolved debates no one can seem to come to an agreement on.
Comment on That's a no
LurkingLuddite@piefed.social 20 hours agoNot really. The traffic has to squeeze through the same number of lanes at some point. That’s the whole damn point everyone is missing who’s defending these assholes.
You’re not helping by increasing traffic density beyond comfortable levels. Period. Ever.
That’s why rolling stops happen on freeways even without traffic accidents or lane closures. Density determines the speed people feel safe going. That is never bumper to bumper at highway speeds.
Not even the psychos in San Jose and LA go highway speeds when it’s as dense as these last-second merging assholes make it.
Soulphite@reddthat.com 19 hours ago
LurkingLuddite@piefed.social 16 hours ago
It is pretentious, because this is not a discussion about zipper merging in a vacuum. There’s a comic about someone leering at someone trying to push in.
Do you think there’s time to make faces at someone in properly flowing traffic where people aren’t trying to get right next to each other?
pjwestin@lemmy.world 19 hours ago
Not really. The traffic has to squeeze through the same number of lanes at some point.
Yeah, and the most efficient way to do that is for everyone to zipper merge at the same point. You can’t just have everyone decide over the course of two miles when they think it’s appropriate to start a zipper merge; that’s not a zipper merge, that’s just changing lanes, and it creates unpredictable traffic patterns that lead to congestion. The end of the lane is obviously the best fixed point for everyone to merge because A) you utilize both lanes as long as possible for optimal efficiency and B) even the most oblivious dumb-ass knows they need to change lanes when they run out of lane.
LurkingLuddite@piefed.social 15 hours ago
Yes, that’s most efficient, but you know what hurts efficiency?
Assholes running up an empty lane just to expect to be let into a lane that’s ALREADY full.
That’s not zipper merging. That’s being an asshole cutting in line. It ONLY slows down the queue that, sure, should have formed at the end of the closed lane in an ideal world.
Though that fact doesn’t make them a zipper merger. They’re still an asshole further slowing traffic.
pjwestin@lemmy.world 14 hours ago
If you’re talking about someone exiting their lane to enter a lane that’s about to close in order to get ahead, sure,.that’s kinda a dick move, but if you’re saying that someone should leave their lane early because the lane that’s ending isn’t very busy, no, that’s wrong. Even if the closing lane is going much faster, when that lane ends, the driver will have to slow down to match the speed of the other lane and wait to be let in. The driver behind him will catch up, and a zipper merge will develop. They’re not doing anything wrong, you just mad that they’re passing you.
Also, a lane can never be, “full,” just busy. You think they’re at fault because they’re trying to get into a lane that’ doesn’t have room for them, but actually you’re at fault because you’re not making room for them.
LurkingLuddite@piefed.social 12 hours ago
lol Good job imagining smoothly flowing traffic. You must not live near a major city, because lane closures on highways always devolve into the exact scenario you’re attempting to ignore.
I’ve been stop-and-go traffic probably literally hundreds of times and that’s EXACTLY how people merge: by blazing past the already stopped traffic and cram in right at the last second.
I’ve only been in smoothly flowing yet dense traffic caused by lane closures maybe a handful of times. It worked out ONLY because traffic wasn’t yet dense enough to induce a rolling stop that’d bottleneck at the closure point.
The assholes rushing up to the end of a closed lane when traffic is already slow ARE NOT ZIPPER MERGING. They’re cutting in line. They’re further increasing traffic density, which ALWAYS slows even unrestricted traffic after a certain point.
That is why rolling stops happen even without lane closures or traffic accidents: people WILL slow down once density reaches a certain point, and cramming a closed lane full is INCREASING DENSITY.
This isn’t rocket science, yet a lot of you fuckwits are clearly still playing with crayons.
EndlessNightmare@reddthat.com 6 hours ago
People that glaze zipper merging are ignoring that the real issue is the bottleneck caused by the lane reduction.