I drive through a construction site daily.4 lanes of traffic channeled into a quarter mile of barricaded 2 way traffic.

There are of course 2 transitions all laid out correctly, reduced speed.

Yet drivers refuse to slow down and merge, going way over the speed limit and cutting in narrowly missing my left front fender. Mostly out of state drivers. I've ran on the shoulder several times avoiding a bump up.

But lately, when they do it, I lay down on the horn. I'm doing nothing wrong, driving the speed limit and merging way ahead of the transition zone.

I've grown to hate driving that section of Road due to this.

Would this bother you ?

Until someone steps out of their car and does something, it's not road rage.

I’m very careful about using my horn around here. That shit can get you shot.

You snooze, you lose. It’s up to you to protect the space around your car. Leave enough room in front of you to let someone slip in? That’s your fault. You allow someone to come up beside you and crowd you out of what was your lane? If you don’t prevent them then learn how to take it.

How long have you lived on God’s green earth and not know the world is full of selfish people especially on the roads?

And it’s not like I’m always on the taking part of the equation especially since gas hit $5 a gallon. But if I want to keep my place in the road queue, I do what it takes like having my wheels ride the line on the merging lane and I lock in my spot behind the car on the merging lane ahead of me. That way, it’s clear that no one can squeeze in. Cars have body English the same way people do.

quote:

Originally posted by Rey HRH:
You snooze, you lose. It’s up to you to protect the space around your car. Leave enough room in front of you to let someone slip in? That’s your fault. You allow someone to come up beside you and crowd you out of what was your lane? If you don’t prevent them then learn how to take it.

How long have you lived on God’s green earth and not know the world is full of selfish people especially on the roads?

And it’s not like I’m always on the taking part of the equation especially since gas hit $5 a gallon. But if I want to keep my place in the road queue, I do what it takes like having my wheels ride the line on the merging lane and I lock in my spot behind the car on the merging lane ahead of me. That way, it’s clear that no one can squeeze in. Cars have body English the same way people do.

Not sure what to reply to you.

quote:

Originally posted by Sunset_Va:


Not sure what to reply to you.

Here's what you said, "I'm doing nothing wrong, driving the speed limit and merging way ahead of the transition zone."

Merging way ahead of the transition zone has been discussed here before and it's definitely inefficient.

Consider the extreme example: a three lane lane highway is choking down to two lanes. Everybody does the "right" thing as you and merges way ahead of the transition zone. As a matter of fact, as soon as they get on the street, the leave the third lane empty and everyone drives in just the two remaining lanes.

You can see this is clearly inefficient, right? The capacity of the road is 3 lanes and everyone is voluntarily using only 2 lanes. Less capacity means less flow rate meaning everyone goes through slower.

But you'll protest by saying you're not advocating that no one use the third lane, just merge way ahead of the transition point. But capacity is capacity. Whether you're not using the third lane for 5 miles or just the last 500 feet, that's still capacity not being used.

So you've merged ahead of the transition point causing the cars behind you to slow down and adjust to your merge which they would have had to do anyway if you waited to merge at the transition point. But now that you left the third lane, that allows another car that was behind you to now go up the queue ahead of you allowing him to merge ahead of you which makes you slow down and adjust. It's okay to you but everybody else behind you has to slow down and adjust as a result of the drivers that you allowed to go up the queue ahead of you. If you had stayed in your lane and merged at the transition point, you wouldn't be causing the people in the next lane to slow down and adjust to your merging along with the additional mergers of cars that took your spot.

quote:

Originally posted by Sunset_Va:


I'm doing nothing wrong, driving the speed limit and merging way ahead of the transition zone

If you are merging way ahead and not doing zipper merging, then you’re actually doing it wrong here.

People still cannot figure this out, around here they’ll have construction and 2 lanes will merge down to 1 but people will merge 2-3 miles early into one solid line that doesn’t move instead of zipper merging at the point of the merge. I blame the road crews that put the “Merge Ahead” signs up back way too far.

I'm very happy now knowing I'm driving improperly according to responses.

In NH I've seen State Troopers working the construction details deploy signs that say USE ALL LANES UNTIL MERGE. Unfortunately they don't always put the signs out, and I regularly drive in other states throughout the northeast too. Of course at many of the road construction lane closures/merges (traffic jams!), there's always the 'do-gooders' that merge WAY ahead of the transition, as well as those that consider themselves the 'enforcers' that try to ride both lanes a half mile ahead of the merge and swerve at you to cut you off (especially truck drivers lately!), when the traffic lane isn't actually closed yet!

I disagree with most on the “transition zone”. I’m sorry but a you buggers merging way before the lane ends, you are the problem. Instead of one spot where a zipper merge can take place, you folks are slowing down in all different places, creating a damn mess. There is a reason the cones slowly move over to block the construction lane. Merge where directed and do tho zipper and this will all go smoothly.

Of course my idea unfortunately goes against the apparent human nature of not letting anyone get ahead of you. If I do indeed try to merge early some asshole always makes it a moral imperative to keep me out of his lane (Rey HR?).

Zipper merge is the correct method, but it doesn’t work correctly because a large percentage of drivers don’t know how to do it and merge too early. I don’t ever recall running into one where it was actually working as it should for any length of time. When everyone is in self-driving cars you might see merging points working as designed.

Dealing with close to the house. A 3 lane each way street is down to one lane due to construction. Mother fucking pieces of shit will speed up in the 2nd lane before it goes away then try to cut. Like you I lay on the horn the whole time, maintain almost a zero gap and will make them hit me before I let them in. There is sign after sign of what is going on, caution gates, everything in the book and every time the narcisssists will try to cheat and cut and I’m not having it anymore. My DD is almost 9 years old so if they hit it they are at fault. All the reasonable people know what’s up, and merge. The assholes speed up, try to cheat, and cut. Fuck em.

If someone wants to bully in after I allow a zipper merge, I just keep going and don't allow them over and if they want to swap paint, I can crush into a door like a pro and it's ALWAYS their fault for improper merging.


I've turned this into a hobby.

They cut in because their time is more important than yours. Some drivers are comatose & just barge in upon awakening.

“we’re back to green flag racin’!

I’ve never heard the term “zipper-merge” until now, but I recognize the action and it makes sense to me.

The only place I believe I’ve ever seen it properly executed: the Chick-Fil-A drive-through. Once through the extended drive-through reception area at local CFAs (a lingering and useful by-product of the pandemic era, IMO), drivers are to zipper-merge as they move around the building to pick up their goods from the window. It always works. Of course, CFA is said to be selling “God’s chicken” and “God’s waffle-fries” and the like, so maybe that has something to do with it…

Zipper merge usually works ok at car washes that have multiple lanes, but speeding along at 1 mph or less just doesn’t cause the adrenaline rush that 60+ mph does!

quote:

Originally posted by frayedends:

Of course my idea unfortunately goes against the apparent human nature of not letting anyone get ahead of you. If I do indeed try to merge early some asshole always makes it a moral imperative to keep me out of his lane (Rey HR?).

You have the wrong picture. When I'm merging, I don't jump to the other lane completely to prevent any cars behind me from slipping ahead. I ride the queue just like a zipper literally.

When I know there's a lane merge ahead, I take the lane that's being closed because of the issue with drivers not knowing how to merge. If everyone ahead of me knows how to merge, then I'm not delayed. If someone doesn't know how to merge and merges early, I can use that space they left behind and not let it go to waste.

I drive a ragtop manual transmission. I always leave room in front of me and if a moron tries take it I’m happy to honk/move.

If they hit me - they get a real nice $200,000 bill. In the meeting with my huge attorney.


The good news is I quit worrying about theft. I realized with a chopped fly wheel and a GT3 RS racing clutch, no one is ever gonna be able to drive that thing but me.

My Strategy:

I drive a nearly antique car, I dress like 1950, and look half drunk and hollow-eyed.

So I'm the guy that other cars try to avoid.

quote:

Originally posted by Prefontaine:
Mother fucking pieces of shit will speed up in the 2nd lane before it goes away then try to cut.

...All the reasonable people know what’s up, and merge.

The thing is that folks who speed up in the open lane are using the lane correctly...and they aren't "cutting", they are zipper merging.

If you block another car from zipper merging, you're the one being an asshole...and a major part of the problem.

The signs aren't meant to tell people to merge early, they are to prepare drivers to let cars in at the merge point