You’re in a four-lane highway (two lanes each direction) and up ahead, a mile or so, you see that both lanes in your direction are being into a single lane (the one on the left), and there are plain signs advising you to merge.
Are you
the kind of driver who stays in the (relatively open) right lane as long as possible and, only when you can’t go any further, turn on your left blinker and wedge your way in, ahead of the other drivers who
were either in the left lane to begin with or got into the left lane as soon as they realized the two lanes were being merged, and even though the left lane was more crowded, inched ahead more slowly than those in the right lane.
This is really a question about whether you’d rather be the person who thinks well of himself, enduring inconveniences for the society’s general welfare or the kind of person who thinks society is an idiotic abstraction, and each of us must do whatever is best for himself and assumes everyone else will do likewise.
I just think answering this question about what your actual practice is gives the real answer, as opposed to what you believe in theory.
I get over as soon as I get a chance (usually right away).
I try to let one car go ahead of me, but I refuse to let in those jerks (Yeah, that’s right! I said it!:)) who drive all the way up to the flashing sign and expect to cut in.
And If the person in front of me lets them in, I yell at them for making the line-cutters think they’re in the right.
What foxymoron said. I would be willing to bet that you will not get a response from the other kind of driver because they will not admit that they even do it.
I’m with both foxymoron and trandallt. I’ll get over as soon as I can.
But I disagree on trandallt’s second point. I do think the overwhelming majority of responses will be like ours (get over as soon as possible), but I also think there will be plenty of posters who will defend to the death the practice of waiting till the last minute. I know there was a thread about this once before, and they all had their reasons for waiting.
I may not get over a full mile ahead of time, but I do get over at a good opportunity when there’s still plenty of room in the right lane.
I hate to say it, but it’s not because of any noble intentions or views of my obligations to society. Nope. It’s because I’m a coward, pure and simple. I’m afraid of getting stuck out there in the right lane with no available space to merge and sitting there forever like a dork with my blinker on.
How much difference does it make in the traffic flow if people merge a mile away from the obstruction or closer to it? If they merge just before the obstruction, traffic backs up from that point. However, if they all try to merge a mile before the obstruction, wouldn’t traffic just back up from that point? It would seem to best approach would be to merge where you have to opportunity to do so without causing traffic behind you to hit their brakes. That may be at the initial warning sign or further up the road, depending on the flow.
Generally, it doesn’t bother me all that much. However, there is one type of driver that I hate: the driver who is in the left lane already, realizes it is going too slow, then pulls into the right lane and merges again later on. I hate those guys.
I think the point is that someone stopped at the obstruction forces someone else to stop to let him in, or at least slow to a crawl, which forces the person behind him to do the same, creating a logjam. If the merging begins farther back the traffic can flow. Everyone will have to slow some but no one will have to stop. The jerks who race to the front don’t care if anyone behind them is inconvenienced, all they care about is that they get thruogh as fast as possible.
I usually will get into the line with the shortest wait (usually the lane that is about to end), look for an opening, then drive next to the opening, at the speed of the ‘backed up lane’* till the merge point, but won’t merge till I have to.
conditions permitting, if not practical I will go down the ‘short wait’ lane sort of slow and try to find an opening near the merge point.
If I merge into the ‘long wait line’ early others will drive ahead in the short wait line and cause the shockwave which hurts everyone.
Another person who tries to be considerate checking in. I hate, hate, hate the idiot horrible mean people (keeping this out of the pit) who try to jump the line.
I try to get into the open lane as soon as reasonable. I do think the people who zoom up and then cut in at the last moments deserve all of my thoughts and mutterings, for a number of reasons…such as creating a danger to themselves and others, self-centered behavior at the expense of others, etc.
Among my fond memories of driving in England was a situation described in the OP; however, all of the drivers in the “correct” lane somehow managed to shorten the intervals between their cars so that the interloper (who had zoomed up to cut in) couldn’t get in…and gave him a smile and wave as they all went by. Other memories were not so fond…Yikes! Wrong side of road…
I also try to get in to the open lane as early as possible.
I am originally from England so I remember examples of what sunstone describes. People will pull up as close to the car in front of them as possible so that no one can push in.
I posted a question about this in GQ because this very thing happened to me.
RickQ I read your link to your previous post, and have heard a NYC cop’s reply, no ticket can be issues because the lane is totally open and free to use up to the actual point where it is closed (coned off).
There may be certain circumstances where this may be invalid, i.e. a bridge which has overhead lights indicating a lane is closed, or when the markings on a road shows a solid white line on your side (you are not permitted to change lanes).
This is why I will always choose the lane that has the shortest line and drive it to the end, but make it a point (as pointed out above) to merge smoothly and to slow down traffic in the ‘short wait’ line.
I really think those drivers who merge early (who think they are doing good) are actually the ones who should spend eternity in the hottest spot in hell, because they are more likely to regulate the flow between the 2 lanes, if they have the onions to actually stay in the short line lane, and move at the speed at the ‘long line lane’, and also are the a’holes who try to prevent the merge where it’s suppose to be and CAUSE THE F-CK-N SHOCKWAVE by not allowing a safe following distance!!!
During traffic, it seems everyone merges at the last minute. The cars just sort of shuffle together at the end of the merging lane. The end result is a right lane with a line of cars that goes: merger, car that was already in the right lane, meger, car that was already in the right lane, merger, and so on.
Never giving it much thought, I do the same thing when there isn’t much traffic – merge near where the merging lane ends. It’s just sort of a habit I guess. I always assumed everyone did this, and if they didn’t, it’s just because they wanted to get the merge out of the way sooner.
I never imagined this would make me a “person who thinks society is an idiotic abstraction”.
I will stay in the open lane and follow the crowd through the bottleneck. Before this one bridge on a busy thoroughfare was widened, there was a bottleneck on each side of it. Every time I approached the bottleneck there would always be some idiot trying to race ahead of everyone and cut in at the last minute, making himself look like a complete ass. In my younger, more agressive driving days I used to do this, but after I realized what a jackass I was making of myself in traffic I abandoned this behavior.
We had a similar problem when a vital bridge near home was being rebuilt. Normally it’s two lanes, undivided, in each direction but the reconstruction closed one of the westbound lanes. This resulted in a 2-mile backup during the afternoon rush and, of course, there were always the fools who had to zoom all the way up to the end and bully their way in. Even though every half-mile was a big LANE CLOSED AHEAD - MERGE! sign.
I stayed in the open lane the whole way, though I did prefer to avoid the area altogether.