The main reason I almost always have adaptive cruise control on is so that it keeps me at a safe braking distance from cars in front of me but I've found that most people do not care.
Just yesterday there was a corolla that was following a school bus so closely i'm sure it could sniff the bus' ass. That driver was one hard brake away from being decapitated by the school bus bumper.
They were rightly annoyed. It’s also a hefty fine if you’re caught doing this.
This usually happens when you are approaching a city and are going to get a new lane or two pretty soon anyways.
I was the last in line, going at the exact same speed as the cars in front of me, just leaving enough space. Why would I switch lanes?
Plus it was leading to an exit anyway…
Also: there was someone in front of me going the same speed, I just left a big gap
And it can be very confusing to the vehicle behind you.
With the full map and destination time in front me, I don't feel the urge to game the system (or maybe I'm just getting old).
>> The majority of the roads that aren't highways do not have lanes.
> I fail to see the relevance of this comment?
... you don't see how roads lacking lanes applies to the efficiency of merges and lane changes?
1. As traffic builds and distance between cars decreases, the flow becomes susceptible to "shock waves". (Just search Youtube for "traffic shockwave" for an example. I think it happens when someone taps their brakes and the next car behind them has to brake a little harder ans so on down the line until traffic comes to a complete stop.
2. As a commuter and occasional weekend driver I recognized two traffic patterns. During normal commutes, the same drivers drive the same routes every day and most settle into a pattern of maintaining speed, remaining in lane, moving to merge and so on in harmony with other drivers. There is the occasional outlier, driving slower than everyone else or weaving in and out and trying to get ahead by weaving and passing in whatever lane momentarily has space. On weekends I see drivers who are unaccustomed to the driving situation and simply don't mesh well with other traffic. Even though there is generally less traffic, it does not flow as well. There is more lane changing and stuff like crossing three lanes to get to an exit because they forgot where they needed to exit.
Excess traffic is a problem and unfortunately we seem to be able to overfill the available capacity any time it is increased.
When I worked in downtown Chicago I was very happy to be able to take commuter rail to work rather than to have to drive, but those options seem to be more the exception than a regular option. That's a different discussion.