I see so many YouTube videos of people running blatantly red lights and getting in accidents or other videos of people stopped and gunning it backwards, hitting something, then they put it in drive and launch full speed forwards and hit something else. What is going through these peoples mind? I just don’t get how there is such a high quantity of these videos.
A tunnel near me used to always have traffic backed up behind it because the number of lanes reduced. Most people would merge early and just get through it. Some assholes would merge at the last possible second to get as far ahead of everyone as possible. But the true shit-eaters would use the last exit before the tunnel and its companion on-ramp to jump I dunno maybe 15 cars ahead? A constant line of people would be doing that, adding one more merge to slow everyone down.
If you ask people like that what they’re thinking, you’ll get some mishmash of the following:
“You don’t get that much ahead but take what you can get, you know?”
“Everyone’s doing it, not just me.”
“What? Did I do something wrong?”
“It’s not against the law so what’s the problem?”
“I’m supposed to get to my destination slower for the sake of other people? Why?”
“If I don’t do it, someone else just will anyway. “
Shit eaters, all of them.
Not trying to argue because I see some dumb merging every day, but you’re supposed to use the whole merge lane to form a zipper or traffic starts to back up behind you unnecessarily. It’s as much about not blocking the intersection/ramp/merge that you just left as it is about merging the traffic onto the highway or whatever.
Ah right, I forgot:
“It’s actually better for traffic this way, no, really.”
;D
I mean, yeah. I’m not saying to drive like an asshole and cut people off to get one car ahead but merging prematurely is counterproductive to the movement of traffic.
Let’s say it this way: you should merge at the time that disrupts traffic the least. Not at the last second. And anyway I’m not talking about people who just use the whole lane, I’m talking about people who use every last inch before they are striking the barrier.
I fail to see how merging early is necessarily bad for traffic. I don’t think it makes much difference to net throughput if you merge now or 500 feet before now. As long as you do it smoothly and safely with as little disruption to other cars as possible.
You should always merge at the choke point.
You should also let people in at the chokepoint.
Here’s a layman’s article on the topic:
https://www.usatoday.com/story/money/cars/2019/07/23/zipper-merge-merging-late-recommended-states-experts/1748026001/
Driving north out of Lincoln City, OR had a car come up the shoulder and nose in front of me. Then the police showed up and gave the car a ticket. One of the only times I was happy to see a cop.
Google maps also likes routing this way