
Those jerks who wait until the last second to merge are actually right - apress
http://www.bostonglobe.com/news/nation/2016/10/13/those-jerks-who-wait-until-last-second-merge-are-actually-right/V1qlF4VgdFYVIPnHXg77FP/story.html
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endswapper
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](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.

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GregBuchholz
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?

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JeffreyKaine
Let me know if you need design or product help on this, I'd love to help :)

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GregBuchholz
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..

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jrs235
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.

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kbutler
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](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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Bud
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.

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Jtsummers
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).

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zenzen
Did this get flagged? It no longer shows up anywhere on the first 3 pages.

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whamlastxmas
Page wouldn't scroll at all for me so I flagged it. Maybe others having same
issue.

