# Do you move over when someone is merging onto the highway? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [November 17, 2014, 5:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-move-over-when-someone-is-merging-onto-the-highway/704869 "2014-11-17T17:43:25Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![Ethilrist](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ethilrist/32/4604_2.png) [@Ethilrist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ethilrist)\ **Post date:** [November 18, 2014, 6:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-move-over-when-someone-is-merging-onto-the-highway/704869/61 "2014-11-18T18:57:51Z")
Yeah, I do have to wonder about some of the freeways around the Twin Cities with a minimum speed posted of 35 mph. Who the hell gets on the freeway, winds it all the way up to 35, and says “Yep, that’s my speed! Cruisin’ down the highway!”? ---
**Author:** ![RTFirefly](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/c77e96/32.png) [@RTFirefly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RTFirefly)\ **Post date:** [November 18, 2014, 7:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-move-over-when-someone-is-merging-onto-the-highway/704869/62 "2014-11-18T19:05:48Z")
> [@The\_Second\_Stone](#): > > I object to the continued existence of fucking morons who drive in the right hand lane. It isn’t a FSM-damned “slow” lane, it is a lane for getting on and off. I wish intestinal discomfort on dipshits that think it is a lane for slow people. Slow people should live in group homes and ride on short buses. Each extra lane of highway costs a lot of money, so having a dedicated lane only for people entering and preparing to exit the highway is pretty costly. I’d go so far as to call it a luxury. But hey, if you like paying lots of taxes for extras like this, it’s fine with me. Back here in the northeast, we can think of better things to do with our tax dollars, and most of our limited-access highways tend to be 2 lanes in each direction, so if we used the right lane only for entering and leaving, there would be no passing lane. That’s why we call the right lane the ‘slow lane.’ ---
**Author:** ![The\_Second\_Stone](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/bbe5ce/32.png) [@The\_Second\_Stone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Second_Stone)\ **Post date:** [November 18, 2014, 8:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-move-over-when-someone-is-merging-onto-the-highway/704869/63 "2014-11-18T20:13:34Z")
> [@RTFirefly](#): > > Each extra lane of highway costs a lot of money, so having a dedicated lane only for people entering and preparing to exit the highway is pretty costly. I’d go so far as to call it a luxury. But hey, if you like paying lots of taxes for extras like this, it’s fine with me. > > Back here in the northeast, we can think of better things to do with our tax dollars, and most of our limited-access highways tend to be 2 lanes in each direction, so if we used the right lane only for entering and leaving, there would be no passing lane. That’s why we call the right lane the ‘slow lane.’ Huh. I thought north-easterners called it the “slow lane” to describe the intelligence of people who drove in it. And I’m pretty sure that Maryland is a net taker state and California is a net giver state. [Which States Are Givers and Which Are Takers? - The Atlantic](http://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2014/05/which-states-are-givers-and-which-are-takers/361668/) Freeways, as ugly as they are, are economic development. ---
**Author:** ![RTFirefly](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/c77e96/32.png) [@RTFirefly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RTFirefly)\ **Post date:** [November 18, 2014, 8:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-move-over-when-someone-is-merging-onto-the-highway/704869/64 "2014-11-18T20:43:11Z")
> [@The\_Second\_Stone](#): > > Huh. I thought north-easterners called it the “slow lane” to describe the intelligence of people who drove in it. And I’m pretty sure that Maryland is a net taker state and California is a net giver state. [Which States Are Givers and Which Are Takers? - The Atlantic](http://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2014/05/which-states-are-givers-and-which-are-takers/361668/) There’s a problem with that graph: it shows a whole lot more net taking than net giving. That’s kind of a problem. I guess you didn’t notice that, huh? > [@](#): > > Freeways, as ugly as they are, are economic development. A lot of things are economic development. The question is, is the payoff worth the cost? It’s hard to see how an extra lane just for entering and exiting the freeway will generate additional economic opportunity. I’m thinking you get a one-time bang from the construction costs, but you can get the same thing from the Digging Holes and Filling Them Back Up Again Project. ---
**Author:** ![ZenBeam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/3ab097/32.png) [@ZenBeam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ZenBeam)\ **Post date:** [November 18, 2014, 10:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-move-over-when-someone-is-merging-onto-the-highway/704869/65 "2014-11-18T22:25:32Z")
> [@RTFirefly](#): > > There’s a problem with that graph: it shows a whole lot more net taking than net giving. That’s kind of a problem. I guess you didn’t notice that, huh? You’d have to weight those bars by the total dollars given and received per state to tell if they don’t balance. Perhaps you’ve done that? ---
**Author:** ![elfkin477](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/a9a28c/32.png) [@elfkin477](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elfkin477)\ **Post date:** [November 19, 2014, 1:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-move-over-when-someone-is-merging-onto-the-highway/704869/66 "2014-11-19T01:42:32Z")
> [@gigi](#): > > Just to expand a little, it’s nice if they do but the burden is on the enterer: > > [http://www.nh.gov/safety/divisions/dmv/forms/documents/nhdm.pdf](http://www.nh.gov/safety/divisions/dmv/forms/documents/nhdm.pdf) pp 70-71, bolding mine: > > You enter an expressway on an entrance ramp. These are short, one-way ramps that allow for safe and easy entry onto the freeway. The entrance will take you to the acceleration lane. As you approach and enter the acceleration lane, increase your speed to match that of vehicles on the expressway, if possible. > > Watch for an opening, turn on your signal light and merge smoothly with the other traffic. **Drivers already on the expressway should allow room for those entering, but the driver entering the expressway must yield to them if they do not.** DO NOT come to a full stop in the acceleration lane unless traffic conditions are such that you have no other choice. Ah, that makes more sense. We sure as hell weren’t taught that it’s a law that you to make room for people merging in driver’s ed - merging is your problem as a driver, not the other drivers’. ---
**Author:** ![jimbuff314](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/c57346/32.png) [@jimbuff314](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jimbuff314)\ **Post date:** [November 19, 2014, 2:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-move-over-when-someone-is-merging-onto-the-highway/704869/67 "2014-11-19T02:13:51Z")
Here (between the coasts), most entrance ramps to freeways and interstates have YIELD signs on the entrance ramps. I leave it as an exercise to the reader to draw the correct conclusion. _Hint :_ the rightmost lane of an interstate highway is not a “merge” lane. ---
**Author:** ![Count\_Blucher](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/c5a1d2/32.png) [@Count\_Blucher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Count_Blucher)\ **Post date:** [November 19, 2014, 2:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-move-over-when-someone-is-merging-onto-the-highway/704869/68 "2014-11-19T02:26:08Z")
> [@The\_Second\_Stone](#): > > In my family, when one of us has a heart attack, we drive to the emergency room, we do not fucking block traffic whining and wondering if our time has come. We get off the fucking freeway and don’t interfere with 400,000 of our neighbors trying to get home. We pull fully off to the shoulder and then die. Well, if you and yours be like to die, its courteous of you do so & decrease the surplus traffic congestion. 😛 Merry Christmas, Mr Stone, in keeping with the situation… 😃 ---
**Author:** ![usedtobe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/ec9cab/32.png) [@usedtobe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/usedtobe)\ **Post date:** [November 19, 2014, 7:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-move-over-when-someone-is-merging-onto-the-highway/704869/69 "2014-11-19T07:01:15Z")
It never ceases to amaze me how many people have to come to full, complete stop every 20’ while the morons at the point-where-that-lane-disappears-really once again discover that two objects cannot occupy the same space at the same time. In that traffic, I stay stopped until I have about 100’ empty in front of me - and they drive a constant 5 to 20 mph - it creates a buffer, and the folks behind me don’t need to burn up their brakes the way the idiots ahead of me are doing. ---
**Author:** ![usedtobe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/ec9cab/32.png) [@usedtobe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/usedtobe)\ **Post date:** [November 19, 2014, 7:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-move-over-when-someone-is-merging-onto-the-highway/704869/70 "2014-11-19T07:10:40Z")
> [@jimbuff314](#): > > Here (between the coasts), most entrance ramps to freeways and interstates have YIELD signs on the entrance ramps. I leave it as an exercise to the reader to draw the correct conclusion. _Hint :_ the rightmost lane of an interstate highway is not a “merge” lane. CA is now to the point of using “metering lights” to limit the access to on ramps. That’s right - the nice, high-speed, limited access highway is now reduced to stop lights. If the lane is into which the on-ramp is NOT a merge lane, where do you propose those wanting to join the party do so? Let me guess - yo make damned sure NOBODY gets to go ahead of you - you are going to ride the bumper ahead of you. I got fed up with morons - one pulled into the intersection of 4 lanes of off ramp on yellow and got stuck - and then tried to pull around when I (adjacent lane) held back on green. Just as they were starting to pull into my lane, I exercised my right of way and drove through the intersection. His nice shiny new van now has a bit of my paint and I have a bit of his. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Second\_Stone](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/bbe5ce/32.png) [@The\_Second\_Stone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Second_Stone)\ **Post date:** [November 19, 2014, 7:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-move-over-when-someone-is-merging-onto-the-highway/704869/71 "2014-11-19T07:18:18Z")
> [@Count\_Blucher](#): > > Well, if you and yours be like to die, its courteous of you do so & decrease the surplus traffic congestion. 😛 > Merry Christmas, Mr Stone, in keeping with the situation… 😃 And we stay dead too! None of this being found showering in the morning by a spouse as if nothing had happened. No zombie shit. No vampires. When a Stone family member ™ dies, we stay down and wait out the end of the world in Colma like any respectable San Franciscan. ---
**Author:** ![Krouget](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/b38774/32.png) [@Krouget](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Krouget)\ **Post date:** [November 19, 2014, 4:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-move-over-when-someone-is-merging-onto-the-highway/704869/72 "2014-11-19T16:10:02Z")
It depends on a variety of factors, ranging from the amount of traffic, the speed of traffic, conditions, number of lanes, my mood (lol), etc. Overall, I do what is most safe, so I’m rarely in the far right lanes, anyway. In the event that I am, I first expect the person to match the highway speed, but I won’t try to pace or force them behind me. To any experienced driver, it should be an intuitive process…use the actual lane to accelerate into a gap (which I naturally leave), and keep it smooth. Of course, we also have the occasional left-lane highway merge, here. Those are more interesting. ---
**Author:** ![RTFirefly](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/c77e96/32.png) [@RTFirefly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RTFirefly)\ **Post date:** [November 19, 2014, 6:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-move-over-when-someone-is-merging-onto-the-highway/704869/73 "2014-11-19T18:15:09Z")
> [@ZenBeam](#): > > You’d have to weight those bars by the total dollars given and received per state to tell if they don’t balance. It’s a per-capita thing, so you’d weight by population. > [@](#): > > Perhaps you’ve done that? Yes. If anything, it’s more striking when you take that into account. The quick-and-dirty version: of the four states that way outrank the others in terms of population (CA, TX, NY, and FL), CA is under by just a hair, NY by a little bit more, TX is over by more than NY is under, and FL is in the stratosphere. If we let TX cancel out NY, FL cancels out pretty much everyone else that’s under. And then you’ve got 34 more states that are over, with no remaining ‘under’ states to balance them out. ---
**Author:** ![Count\_Blucher](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/c5a1d2/32.png) [@Count\_Blucher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Count_Blucher)\ **Post date:** [November 19, 2014, 6:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-move-over-when-someone-is-merging-onto-the-highway/704869/74 "2014-11-19T18:25:09Z")
> [@The\_Second\_Stone](#): > > And we stay dead too! None of this being found showering in the morning by a spouse as if nothing had happened. No zombie shit. No vampires. When a Stone family member ™ dies, we stay down and wait out the end of the world in Colma like any respectable San Franciscan. I’m not sure why, but its interesting to note that RDS can stand for: \*Respectable Dead SanFranciscan \*Respiratory Distress Syndrome as well as \*Royal Dutch Shell (in case you’re low on gas) 😉 ---
**Author:** ![ZenBeam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/3ab097/32.png) [@ZenBeam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ZenBeam)\ **Post date:** [November 20, 2014, 4:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-move-over-when-someone-is-merging-onto-the-highway/704869/75 "2014-11-20T04:15:09Z")
> [@RTFirefly](#): > > It’s a per-capita thing, so you’d weight by population. It’s not per-capita, it’s per dollar paid in Federal taxes. So you’d need to weight by total Federal taxes paid by each state, not by state population. ---
**Author:** ![Dante](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dante/32/9673_2.png) [@Dante](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dante)\ **Post date:** [November 20, 2014, 5:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-move-over-when-someone-is-merging-onto-the-highway/704869/76 "2014-11-20T17:05:25Z")
> [@The\_Second\_Stone](#): > > No, “dude”, I’m the one with cruise control set at 66 mph driving in the second or third lane. Ah, you’re a “middle lane camper”. Where I live (southern Ontario), there are plenty of three lane highways. Some four lane highways as well. I’ll stay as far to the right as traffic dictates. Generally I won’t drive over 110 kph (or 67 mph), but I’ll amend that as required by congestion, weather, etc. Mostly, I find myself in the far right lane, with faster traffic passing me on my left, and even faster traffic passing them on their left. I’ve never had a problem allowing traffic to merge. Occasionally, I’ll pass someone like you, a “camper” who has decided that their speed and lane is “correct”, everyone else be damned. I suspect we use the same hand gestures to communicate… ---
**Author:** ![RTFirefly](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/c77e96/32.png) [@RTFirefly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RTFirefly)\ **Post date:** [November 20, 2014, 5:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-move-over-when-someone-is-merging-onto-the-highway/704869/77 "2014-11-20T17:26:04Z")
> [@ZenBeam](#): > > It’s not per-capita, it’s per dollar paid in Federal taxes. So you’d need to weight by total Federal taxes paid by each state, not by state population. “how much the federal government spends **per person** in each state compared with the amount its citizens pay in federal income taxes” - yep, per freakin’ capita. Sheesh. ---
**Author:** ![ZenBeam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/3ab097/32.png) [@ZenBeam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ZenBeam)\ **Post date:** [November 20, 2014, 5:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-move-over-when-someone-is-merging-onto-the-highway/704869/78 "2014-11-20T17:52:22Z")
No, not per capita. Read further: > [@](#): > > […] particularly South Carolina: The Palmetto State receives $7.87 back from Washington for every $1 its citizens pay in federal tax. It’s dollars back per dollar paid. I’m not even sure how per-capita would even make sense, other than “per-capita dollar back” per “per-capita dollar paid”. But the population just cancels out in that case. If you just multiply that “dollar back per dollar paid” number by population, your units aren’t even correct. Let me ask about an example: Say a state’s residents pay a total of $2 billion in taxes, and the state receives $4 billion back. That would be $2 back per dollar paid on that chart. Where does population even come into play? If the state population was 7 million, what do you think that number would be? Would that number be different if the number of citizens was 10 million instead? ---
**Author:** ![ZenBeam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/3ab097/32.png) [@ZenBeam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ZenBeam)\ **Post date:** [November 20, 2014, 6:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-move-over-when-someone-is-merging-onto-the-highway/704869/79 "2014-11-20T18:17:07Z")
Just to use per-capita numbers in my example from the previous post, if the state’s population is 7 million, the per-capita payment is $285.71, and the per-capita return for the state is $571.43. If the state’s population were 10 million, their per-capita payment would be $200 and their per-capita return would be $400. If you want to get the total dollars received by the state, you can take the total dollars paid ($2 billion) and multiply by the $2-per-dollar figure, to get $4 billion. If you really want to multiply by population, you’d have to multiply $2-per-dollar by population and _also_ multiply by the per-capita payment. For the case where the population is 7 million, you would have 2 \* $285.71 \* 7 million = $4 billion. You can’t _only_ multiply by population. $2-per-dollar \* 7 million people = 14 million people, which makes no sense at all when you are expecting a value in dollars for your answer. ---
**Author:** ![Lukeinva](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lukeinva/32/17872_2.png) [@Lukeinva](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lukeinva)\ **Post date:** [November 20, 2014, 6:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-move-over-when-someone-is-merging-onto-the-highway/704869/80 "2014-11-20T18:48:54Z")
> [@gigi](#): > > Around here, there are two lanes on the highway each way and not much traffic. I head to work after the busiest time so there are rarely more than a few cars on the road with me. Yet, drivers still insist on staying in their lane when I am entering the highway. I don’t want to say they’re all Massholes but it tends to be them. I wonder if they don’t do it at home because of crowded roads so it doesn’t occur to them to do it at all? > > So, do you move over if there is no one in the passing lane? Excuse me but when you are entering the highway from the ramp it is _you_ who has the merge sign, not me. That means it’s _your_ responsibility to accelerate into traffic at the speed of the traffic. It’s not up to the drivers already on the highway to slow down to let you in. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-move-over-when-someone-is-merging-onto-the-highway/704869.md?page=3) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-move-over-when-someone-is-merging-onto-the-highway/704869.md?page=5)