I can foresee I situation where I’d be a line-cutter, sort of.
Around these parts, many people do not know how to wait in a line. Apparently they think it’s horribly rude to stand a couple of feet behind the person on line in front of them, so they leave a gap of 20 feet or more*, which invites line-cutters or confused people to edge in ahead of them (and you). This also creates sprawling lines which extend out the door of the establishment and into the cold (in winter). At some point I’m going to respond to egregious offenders by going around them and on up to the front part of the line, while saying “I’ll hold your spot for you”.
*this is only excusable if there’s a privacy issue, like picking up a prescription or waiting to check in at the clinic. You also don’t want to breathe down someone’s neck while they’re making a credit card purchase. But there’s no excuse for leaving a huge gap because it supposedly isn’t “nice”.
No, the time is wasted and the queue made longer by pointless bickering. In an even zippering system the cars go, in turn, at a nice pace. A steady drumbeat one after the the other and the optimum speed is maintained. People trying to close-off merging space or fighting to do it too early are not going to be as quick at merging as the “zipper”
Think about it. Everyone merging in turn is absolutely the fastest way of getting all the traffic on the road into one lane whilst minimising the amount of back-up that forms (which can then stretch back to previous junctions with knock-on effects). Plus if you have two equal lanes of traffic anyway there is no “last minute merger” backlash anyway.
There are strategies that would make traffic flow better if everyone were to follow them. The problem is getting everyone to follow anything. How do you get drivers to, say, perform a zipper merge when so many people can’t (or won’t) even change lanes properly, or even manage their shopping carts in a grocery store in a sensible way? Any strategy that requires people to pay attention to their surroundings and to sacrifice even a tiny bit of short-term advantage for the good of the whole is likely never to be successfully implemented.
Every time I come to this issue I find myself rethinking it from the other side.
Right now, I want to ask: Why is it worthy in its own right, if it has no effect on how quickly cars will, on average, make it through the whole mess and past the final choke?
Rick Kitchen wrote: “Oh, yes. Several years ago, an older woman was standing in line in front of me with a few things in her arms, and when it got to be time for her to be checked out, she called over her husband who was standing in a line with a completely full cart.”
Basically, they’re waiting in two line simultaneously and checking out on whichever one is quickest. That crap don’t fly. People try to estimate the lines by the number of people in them and the fullness of their carts and that kind of behavior really fucks with the system.
As do those jackholes who, at fast food joints, want to pay for two (or more)different orders as separate transactions. (Because they, and all their coworkers, are too stupid to figure out the change otherwise.)
I see this all the time at the pharmacy and it drives me wild. There is a place set back from the counter marked by a sign and velvet cord (wait here for privacy), and a sign on the floor (wait here for privacy) and people stand 30 feet behind that. Why? The person behind that person is 20 feet back and then the next is 10. It’s like some kind of weird math theorem. Just stand where you’re told to stand people. It ends up with lines down 3 different aisles because people can’t see the lines forming in the other aisles. Stupidity at its finest.
I also remember when I was stationed in Germany in the 70s, that the Germans never seemed to understand the concept of a “line”. It was always a free-for-all. Once I and some friends were waiting to get into a concert and the gates were shut, and the typical German crowd were piled up into a mass mob with no idea of waiting their turn, and suddenly, the people on the outside of the crowd started pushing the crowd, those on the right pushing the crowd to the left, those on the left pushing the crowd to the right, until there was a mass swaying of bodies. I expected somebody to be knocked off their feet and trampled.
Very occasionally someone at the supermarket will ask if they can get in line ahead of me. (I’m the next to start putting my items on the conveyor. I assume if the line is longer, the person will ask whoever’s in the batting box, so to speak.) They always give a reason, and I always let them.
Every time but one the reason given was that they were running late for an appointment or work or picking up their kid or something. Once though the woman said, “Can I get in front of you? I’m handicapped.”
I never have figured out why being handicapped means you can’t wait another few minutes for someone else to check out.
Is this when there is only you in line or also when others are behind you? If the latter then you shouldn’t be making that decision without a) clearing it with all of them as well or b) taking the interlopers place at the back of the line.
I find myself psychoanalyzing the cashier and the people in front of me: "Okay, clerk is old, but it’s a ‘Knows What She’s Doing’ Old, and the first guy in line looks like he might be chatty, but she’ll move him through. Better than that other line, with the lady who’ll look like a deer in the headlights when it comes time to pay: “Oh, dearie me, I suppose I have to start rummaging in my oversized naugahyde purse for my over-stuffed wallet now… I do hope I have the 87¢ in nickels and pennies…”
And while we’re on the general subject, should there be a legal penalty for slapping the jerks who get in the express lane with significantly more items than the posted maximum?
It is physically impossible for the cars to go in turn at a nice pace unless both lines are spaced out twice as far as they normally would be. The only way a car from lane two can get between two cars in lane one is for the second car to slow down, slowing down every car behind. And each time another car squeezes in the line has to slow even more. No, it’s not rocket science. Any kindergarten teacher can tell you from experience that single file is the fastest way to get a group of people through an opening only big enough for one at a time.
And if you’re going to claim that studies have been done it might be nice to link to some, instead of just someone else’s vague and uncited claim that “studies have been done”
I was on a freeway that was being diverted into a town because of road work that closed the entire section. Some people had decided to cut across the shoulder onto the unfenced frontage road because the freeway was so damn slow – which was partly because freeway traffic had to combine with traffic from the frontage road where it met the the overpass from the exit. In the end, no one came out ahead and everyone was more pissed off than if the skipper traffic had just stayed on the freeway.
It also notes that in freer traffic conditions, it is better to merge earlier (as I stated above.)
There’s plenty of cites out there. However, what we need to do is educate people to understand this is an acceptable and desired practice, as assholes who won’t let the left lane zipper can throw a spanner into the works. And, generally, around here, I find most drivers do actually understand the concept of a zipper merge.
But still claims without anything to back it up. Your last link doesn’t explain how it gets the 15% number. And still no one seems to have an answer as to how a car can squeeze in between two cars without the back one needing to slow down to let it in. If it were possible there would be no need for anyone to let them in, there would already be room.
I highly doubt this is even the majority of cases, but there’s a local store that has supervisor-level employees directing customers to the express lines, regardless of how many items they have. The only time I went along with it was because the dude seriously would not take “no thanks, I have way too many items” for an answer, and I didn’t want to keep arguing with him. When I started unloading my cart the people in front of me got super shitty about it, as well as the people that showed up behind me. I felt like an asshole and the poor cashier had to deal with the flak from the angry people around us.
No idea why they still keep directing customers that way.