I find it curious that as a society we’ve mostly decided to bend a knee to the most unruly and inconsiderate among us. The zipper merge is bad because a handful of Americans can’t stand to give up their “spot” in line and so the rest of us have no choice but to spend a lot of unnecessary hours in traffic every year. I’m going to say that as a nation we’ve struck a bad bargain —and this comment extends well beyond a simple traffic merge.
Think of the driver who, upon seeing the sign saying “left lane closed ahead merge right,” waits until the last possible point, thereby causing an even greater traffic jam. Think of the zipper merge as the most efficient means of reducing two lanes of traffic into on. We utilize all the asphalt by filling it up with cars and blending the lines together at one fixed point at the very end instead of chaotically and haphazardly. It works poorly in most parts of the U.S. because people can’t fathom that there are two lines and get bent out of shape when one line moves faster than the other.
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I find it curious that as a society we’ve mostly decided to bend a knee to the most unruly and inconsiderate among us. The zipper merge is bad because a handful of Americans can’t stand to give up their “spot” in line and so the rest of us have no choice but to spend a lot of unnecessary hours in traffic every year. I’m going to say that as a nation we’ve struck a bad bargain —and this comment extends well beyond a simple traffic merge.
Post: Who’s Responsible?
Link to comment from April 7, 2023
Think of the driver who, upon seeing the sign saying “left lane closed ahead merge right,” waits until the last possible point, thereby causing an even greater traffic jam. Think of the zipper merge as the most efficient means of reducing two lanes of traffic into on. We utilize all the asphalt by filling it up with cars and blending the lines together at one fixed point at the very end instead of chaotically and haphazardly. It works poorly in most parts of the U.S. because people can’t fathom that there are two lines and get bent out of shape when one line moves faster than the other.
Post: Who’s Responsible?
Link to comment from April 7, 2023