Otherwise if there's a sign that says "Left Lane Closed 10 Miles Ahead" everyone will get in the right lane for ten miles.
In practice drivers treat the "zipper merge" as acceptable when the left lane is closed ahead, there is 500 ft of road remaining and traffic in the right lane is already dead stopped. It isn't uncommon to see people approaching at 1.5x - 2x the posted speed limit and trying to "merge" then.
And have 10 miles to get up to speed. As opposed to the zipper merge where everyone waits til the last minute, and everyone has to come to a complete stop.
Supposing of course your observations are true. From what I can tell with the "lane closed in 10 miles", is some asshole invariably sees it as a chance to get ahead of everyone else, zooms through the left lane, almost causes an accident, and then other idiots who think he's being successful in zooming ahead imitate his behavior. You get your "zipper merge" anyway, where everyone has to come to a dead stop at the chokepoint anyway. We're not all one gigantic robotic hivemind, preparing early makes for a smoother experience for all and fewer hostile feelings.
For those who use the shoulder on the interstate who do not have genuine medical emergencies (why didn't you call the ambulance?) I propose that they bring in mobile car crushers. I'm even generous enough to let them exit the vehicle first.
If people all zip merge, there is no zooming possible on the closed lane and both lanes that merge get down to around 20mph at the choke point.
This only works in countries with civilized traffic participants as mentioned by OP. I have personally only seen 2 countries out of maybe 30 where that was the case. In cars many people behave like animals for some reason
But when it comes to freeway on ramps, even in busy interchanges, there s usually no issues, which is odd because they are more or less the same maneuver.
There must be some psychological factors at play.
It's more efficient to develop traffic rules that work in how people are not how they should ideally be.
Where do you draw the line though when catering to the uniformed? There is a reason we hire SME's.
Its no different than how a freeway entry works.
The general rule is, no, they are not. Unfortunately there is really no penalty in the US if you're following to close unless you get in an accident. I quite often drive on I-35 and so often it's in conditions I call a fast moving traffic jam. People are traveling nearly 80MPH with 2 car distances between each other. Quite often this turns into multi car pileups because someone has to emergency break.
Allegedly there are three cities with worse drivers, but I find that highly implausible
You also are supposed to maintain a "safe distance" (where the law might be literally "safe distance" or might give a specific units) which at freeway speeds would mean leaving enough room for zippers but I don't know anyone who has ever been cited for following too closely, except after an accident caused by following too closely.
Regardless Columbus has a great lack of turn signals and understanding of basic intersection rules.
It is a mistake to think that one of the two input lanes is more entitled to the output lane than the other. 2 lanes go down to 1, neither is more privileged than the other, cars should merge in turn.
Your comment makes less sense when the merging lane has no one else it as well. That means the car in it that is merging over has plenty of opportunities to merge safely without causing traffic congestion however they don't.
i do my best to avoid forcing anyone to brake, ever
usually the people flipping me off are speeding ahead of me from the other lane as soon as they see my signal go on
when they see my signal they are behind me so making it much more difficult to merge cleanly - i can either hop over as soon as i signal (not safe) or brake so i can merge behind them, where if they hadn't sped up i'd just move over naturally in the flow of traffic
it really feels to me like your comments are meant to needle my complaint re: folks not understanding the zipper merge, am i misreading you? do you think the zipper merge should not be used?
This is how you're supposed to merge. When you get on the freeway you don't expect the current flow of traffic to accommodate for you, instead you accommodate for them.
"it really feels to me like your comments are meant to needle my complaint re: folks not understanding the zipper merge, am i misreading you? do you think the zipper merge should not be used?"
I am not sure you're understanding how it's supposed to work... People in the flowing lane aren't meant to stop or slow down to let you over.
The zipper action is meant when it's backed up. The zipper lane isn't designed for you to disrupt the current flow of traffic.
Edit: here's a video, maybe it will help you understand better
> This is how you're supposed to merge. When you get on the freeway you don't expect the current flow of traffic to accommodate for you, instead you accommodate for them.
Specifically, you should read the rest of the line you are replying to here.
I mentioned people behind me speeding up to make it impossible for me to merge without braking, after I signal. At no point did I say they should "stop" or "slow down".
I was pointing out that people deliberately speeding up to make it harder to merge without braking are causing problems. It was a light-hearted comment about the failure of many drivers in my town to properly zipper merge.
Here is a video demonstration of zipper merge to help you better understand appropriate driving behavior: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cX0I8OdK7Tk
We want the throughput of the road to be as high as possible. Broadly, that means maintaining the optimal (minimum) spacing to make the merge safely without changing speed, while maximizing speed.
You may get larger areas where speeds are disrupted, but on the average be going faster. Stop-and-go traffic introduces tons of inefficiencies since drivers need to be much more cautious than in a consistent traffic flow.
The big challenge is that it’s basically impossible to know what the optimal speed is, since it relies on knowing the detailed state of the road and traffic volume miles ahead of what you can see.
Self-driving cars are interesting here since they will open up new opportunities for all the vehicles on the road to co-regulate their speed near to the optimum.
What I tend to see instead is hard braking ripple back down the line to a half-dozen cars or more for each car trying to merge right at the end because suddenly there are two cars right next to each other and one lane of car width left. Every time it appears that the lane-ending driver is like "oh wow, my lane went away!"
Duh.
The goal is to have both lanes move slowly, but constantly. To basically have a "1 and 1" progression through the chokepoint: 1 from the left, 1 from the right.
It is a rough balance because you have those who don't want to let others merge at all. And there are those who want to merge at all costs. Both of which violate the "1 and 1" guideline which gives everyone at least the illusion of progress.
Another way to think of it: if you merge early, then the actual correct time to merge becomes indeterminate. Do you merge when you see the sign? Wait till you see a good gap? What if the person behind you doesn't have a gap, and they drive right past to keep looking? It becomes chaotic, and everyone thinks they are getting picked on when someone decides to merge in front of them or passes them. So much wasted anxiety and anger. It's a lot easier (in congestion) to wait until you need to merge, then merge.
In free-flowing traffic, it's a bit different, but the Minnesota page on zipper merging acknowledges that at the end of the article.
I never thought of it as a moral thing, but I merge as early as possible (ideally, I set myself up in the lane I need for the entire trip and avoid merging at all) simply because it's the safest thing to do.
When I don't do this, I will either miss the exit I want, or I'll get stuck at a standstill waiting for the rare kind soul in the lane next to me to let me in.
One reason for this is that it only takes one person "policing" from the right lane (i.e. driving down the middle of the road, or worse: swerving out in front of the left lane) to shut down zipper merging.