# Regularly upsetting other drivers, but I don't think I'm wrong.
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/regularly-upsetting-other-drivers-but-i-dont-think-im-wrong/699450
**Category:** In My Humble Opinion
**Created:** [September 24, 2014, 5:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/regularly-upsetting-other-drivers-but-i-dont-think-im-wrong/699450 "2014-09-24T17:34:42Z")
**Posts on this page:** 11
**Page:** 2
### Author:  [@ctnguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ctnguy)
#### Post date: [September 24, 2014, 11:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/regularly-upsetting-other-drivers-but-i-dont-think-im-wrong/699450/21 "2014-09-24T23:34:04Z")
> [@Gary\_T](#):
>
> Your Option 2 sounds like the zipper method of merging. This has been gaining advocacy recently as it has been shown to be the most efficient method of blending two lanes into one. People who aren’t aware of this don’t like it because they think they’re doing what they’re supposed to do – get in line and wait your turn – and you’re breaking the rules because you’re too self-important to wait. While that may be a reasonable perspective for various situations in life, it’s not a good one for moving traffic. So while you may be the ass from their point of view, traffic engineers would say your method is the preferred one.
IMHO the zipper merge is appropriate when there is an actual merger of lanes, i.e. two lanes going to the same destination that merge to become one lane. It’s not appropriate when there are two lanes that split, each going to a different destination - in that situation you’re usually being an ass if you rush up to the splitting point and then force your way in.
In the special case the OP presents, though, it sounds like they’re doing the best they can in that situation.
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### Author:  [@Heracles](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Heracles)
#### Post date: [September 25, 2014, 2:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/regularly-upsetting-other-drivers-but-i-dont-think-im-wrong/699450/22 "2014-09-25T02:40:07Z")
I’m usually waiting in lane E.
I’m voting for option 3 (use another exit), which is what I do when I’m in lane C or D.
I understand the zipper model, but I don’t believe that the people who have been cutting me off for 20 years were doing it because they knew it would be enshrined as an optimal solution in 2014.
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### Author:  [@Weedy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Weedy)
#### Post date: [September 25, 2014, 3:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/regularly-upsetting-other-drivers-but-i-dont-think-im-wrong/699450/23 "2014-09-25T03:16:45Z")
> [@DrCube](#):
>
> Grocery lanes aren’t like traffic lanes. Traffic lanes which are closed without some other outlet serve no one. A better analogy would be the first checker kept his light on for ten more minutes, but announced he was already done doing his job. And instead of waiting in the other line, whenever people in his line felt they could get away with it, they go cut in front of the other line of people who’d been waiting patiently the whole time in the only functioning lane. As soon as you can see your checker is no longer checking people out, you ought to go to the back of the other line, not cut to the front.
Around here, zipper merges are standard practice and you don’t get people cutting to the front, because both lanes fill up equally.
The problem with the OP’s option 2 is that people in lane E are just starting to speed up, and they have to brake again because someone is cutting in. That seems riskier to me. But if people won’t let him in earlier, then that is their own fault. I would expect to be able to drive slowly in lane D with an indicator on and someone would let me in.
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### Author:  [@Melbourne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Melbourne)
#### Post date: [September 25, 2014, 8:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/regularly-upsetting-other-drivers-but-i-dont-think-im-wrong/699450/24 "2014-09-25T08:10:11Z")
I don’t have that exact situation here to compare with, but I do have something similar, and here, Lane E will let you cut in at the point of merger. Down the road a bit, they are more likely to box me out, because they think I’m just trying to cut in front.
In your exact situation, what I would do is (1) try to merge into E at the point of merger, (2) drive down lane D at full speed, looking for an entry point, (3) try to cut in at the last moment if possible, and (4) go on to the next exit with good grace.
I would feel guilty about (3), but I’d do it anyway. What I wouldn’t do is drive down lane D slowly. I’ve had an unreasonable dislike to blocking traffic since I was a young man: I just hate doing it. I hate hate hate having cars line up behind me. It makes me feel like a failure as a person.
Of course, after I’d tried it a few times, I’d probably change to doing the same as whatever everyone else did.
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### Author:  [@Jackmannii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jackmannii)
#### Post date: [September 25, 2014, 12:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/regularly-upsetting-other-drivers-but-i-dont-think-im-wrong/699450/25 "2014-09-25T12:56:59Z")
I suppose the option that will result in less middle-finger wagging and other confrontational behavior is taking another exit, but I sympathize with anyone stuck in this situation due to bad highway design.
We have an city multilane loop “interstate” where many of the exit lanes cross merge lanes onto the highway, so you have to keep an eagle eye out for cars entering at speed, at the same time as you’re trying to exit.
The person(s) who devised this system to save money should be drawn and quartered, then admonished severely.
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### Author:  [@control-z](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/control-z)
#### Post date: [September 25, 2014, 2:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/regularly-upsetting-other-drivers-but-i-dont-think-im-wrong/699450/26 "2014-09-25T14:45:45Z")
That sounds terrible, I hate situations like that. OP, sounds like even if you look like a dick you are causing the least traffic disruption.
Makes me really appreciate commuting on a rural 2-lane road.
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### Author:  [@Fiveyearlurker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fiveyearlurker)
#### Post date: [September 25, 2014, 2:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/regularly-upsetting-other-drivers-but-i-dont-think-im-wrong/699450/27 "2014-09-25T14:58:21Z")
> [@Heracles](#):
>
> I’m usually waiting in lane E.
>
> I’m voting for option 3 (use another exit), which is what I do when I’m in lane C or D.
>
> I understand the zipper model, but I don’t believe that the people who have been cutting me off for 20 years were doing it because they knew it would be enshrined as an optimal solution in 2014.
Like I said, option 3 adds about half an hour to my commute. That seems like an unreasonable solution
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### Author:  [@WOOKINPANUB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WOOKINPANUB)
#### Post date: [September 25, 2014, 7:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/regularly-upsetting-other-drivers-but-i-dont-think-im-wrong/699450/28 "2014-09-25T19:48:20Z")
As one of the lane E drivers that you’re regularly upsetting (general “you”) I really needed to read this. I can easily say the worst part of my day is the last 1/2 mile of my morning drive when the cars are all backed up in the far right lane waiting to get into our office park and inevitably a stream of cars comes cruising up with their turn signals on trying to cut in. I never considered the people that might have been on the main road before the end lane starts. I think I’ll \*try \*to be a little more charitable, if only to relieve my own stress, not to mention my clutch.
Never heard of this “zip merging” that some of you have been mentioning but I don’t believe for a minute that anyone does it with any other intention but to cut ahead.
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### Author:  [@Voyager](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Voyager)
#### Post date: [September 26, 2014, 12:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/regularly-upsetting-other-drivers-but-i-dont-think-im-wrong/699450/29 "2014-09-26T00:06:04Z")
> [@Fiveyearlurker](#):
>
> Like I said, option 3 adds about half an hour to my commute. That seems like an unreasonable solution
If the roads hadn’t joined, and lanes A - E went in parallel for miles, then someone choosing not to wait in E and trying to cut in deserves to go to the next exit. But you couldn’t get to the end of the E line no matter what you did. If I were in E I’d let you in.
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### Author:  [@Alan\_Smithee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alan_Smithee)
#### Post date: [September 26, 2014, 3:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/regularly-upsetting-other-drivers-but-i-dont-think-im-wrong/699450/30 "2014-09-26T03:55:25Z")
[Duplicate post.]
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### Author:  [@Alan\_Smithee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alan_Smithee)
#### Post date: [September 26, 2014, 3:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/regularly-upsetting-other-drivers-but-i-dont-think-im-wrong/699450/31 "2014-09-26T03:57:40Z")
For everyone complaining that zipper mergers are really just doing it to cut in line and not because it is the most efficient, I have two points. One, I avoid zipper merging because it pisses people off, but it’s been obvious to me since I started driving that it would be more efficient than early merging. It just makes sense that you want to use both lanes as far as possible. Two, what different does it make what their motivation is, as long as they’re making the whole system move more quickly? Do you really want them to slow _everyone_ down just to ensure they don’t get somewhere before you? It’s the opposite of people who slow down to let on-ramps merge, or who wave people ahead at four-way stops: _their_ motivation is pure, but they end up making things more dangerous and less efficient for everybody.
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