Comment on That's a no
pjwestin@lemmy.world 17 hours agoNot 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 14 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 13 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 11 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.
pjwestin@lemmy.world 8 hours ago
Buddy, I live in fucking Boston. They shut down a land going into the Sumner every morning, and yeah, it’s slow, but it doesn’t get backed up unless some dipshit decides he doesn’t want to let anyone in.
If someone is trying to merge into another lane while traveling 20 mph faster than the lane they’re merging into, sure, that’s unsafe. But doing that a mile before the lane ends is also unsafe. The problem you describing is just speeding.
This is what you fundamentally don’t understand about the situation; you two are not in the same line. You are in line to move forward. They are in line to enter your line. When traffic in the lane that’s closing is light, it might feel unfair they go in front of you, but that’s just how it works. The fastest way to resolve the situation is for everyone in the open lane to let one car from the closing lane go in front of them when the lane ends.
No they aren’t. Traffic density is increasing because the number of cars is remaining the same while the volume of road is reducing. Density is going to increase no matter what, but if you handle that increased density in an organized manner, like having all the cars merge at the same time (AKA a fucking zipper merge), you can reduce the slowdowns the increased density causes.
Traffic waves (I assume thats what you mean, since rolling stops make no sense in this context) happen when someone experiences an unexpected traffic pattern and has to stop short, causing the person behind them to stop short, and so on. If you want to reduce rolling stops, the best thing you can do is behave as predictably as possible. Having everyone merge at a predictable time, (like, for example, at the end of a lane) is one of the best things you can do to prevent traffic waves.
Literally the opposite is true; the same number of cars spread over two lanes have a lower density than those cars spread over one lane. That’s what density means; a rock has a higher density than air because it has more matter crammed into the same volume. The density of the traffic will eventually increase no matter what when the second lane ends, you’re just advocating for that to happen sooner and in a more chaotic manner because you feel like you’re getting cut in line.
Let ye who understands the concept of density cast the first stone.