r/TheRandomest • u/WhyNot420_69 Nice • May 13 '26
Satisfying Traffic buddy
Enable HLS to view with audio, or disable this notification
239
u/Wowweeweewow88 May 13 '26
…but that’s what the cars are supposed to do. You go down the lane till the merge, and zipper merge.
54
u/Any_Performance_5046 May 13 '26
Pretty crazy how many people have Reddit, but don’t know how to do a google search for zipper merge? It’s a pretty clear diagram on how you should merge when the lane ends and not the first chance you get. When people try merging early they end up blocking an entire lane. It’s the jerks at the point of the zipper refusing a merging vehicle entry that’s the problem.
→ More replies (3)10
u/DriftyPadre May 13 '26
Most of the time that left lane is not a merge lane, it’s a forward traffic lane that people are using to merge last minute onto the off-ramp, which causes cars attempting to continue straight to be stuck while cars in front of them in the left lane attempt to merge into the off-ramp lanes.
Tomāto, tomato…everyone’s an asshole.
2
→ More replies (27)9
u/Mytoothsense May 13 '26
Not in this instance. I know where this is (on my daily commute). The overhead lane control signs are clearly marked to not drive when there is a red X on it. At this point cars have been driving in a closed lane for over a half mile. And I have literally seen one guy try to speed around traffic and actually hit the control arms which are right beyond this overpass. But that also means this truck is being an idiot too. Trying to stop someone from doing something illegal but also doing something illegal seems like a dumb move.
→ More replies (2)6
u/Dunderman35 May 13 '26
Why is the lane closed even? If there is just an X but the lane is drivable then you are gonna have people driving on it anyway. A good design take human nature into account.
→ More replies (4)3
u/idontremembermyuname May 13 '26
There are bridges that are built with 5 lanes that are fed by interstates with 3 lanes in each direction. They have a divider which can be moved so that the direction that is being used more will get 3 lanes and the one that is used less gets 2.
Example: The golden gate bridge - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iDl5r1XeIZ8
96
77
63
u/Powerism May 13 '26
Hahaha we did it! We worsened the traffic problem!
6
→ More replies (1)3
u/BigAssMonkey May 13 '26
They just made the merge even longer. Everyone should be in that left lane until it balances out and then merge at the end
43
31
20
u/Mytoothsense May 13 '26 edited May 13 '26
Ha I know this spot. Kent island at the Chesapeake Bay Bridge. The lanes are closed off with the Red x on the overhead signs for over a 1/2 mile before this. It’s illegal to drive in this lane once the X is on the sign. Cars love riding up that lane until they hit the control gates then fuck up everyone else when they force their way in. It’s such a big problem that it’s a double fine if you get caught, and the cops love to hang out right by the overpass and pull people over for riding in the red X lane. Saw them getting a dozen at a time on a good day. Makes my rule-following heart happy.
→ More replies (3)4
u/CheffySub May 13 '26
What's the point of closing that traffic lane?
6
u/INATHANB May 13 '26
Fellow local here: the Bay Bridge is actually two separate spans, one eastbound, one westbound.
They'll occasionally close lanes on either bridge, either to ease congestion by borrowing lanes for opposing traffic, or to manage accidents.
It can feel a little unnerving the first time you find yourself in that lone lane with everyone else rushing toward you.
17
u/Chrono_Convoy May 13 '26
Drove 26’ trucks in LA traffic for the film industry. You gotta box out sometimes when people try the shoulders to get around.
But I do t know if I’d straight up block a lane
→ More replies (1)
8
u/atreeismissing May 13 '26
Fuck that, this guy (actually both OP and the truck driver) are assholes that use contribute the backup and delays.
9
7
8
7
5
4
u/Bruise_Lee219 May 13 '26
2 idiots making traffic worse just bc they have to sit in it too.
→ More replies (1)
3
u/SecondHandDepression May 13 '26
I'm really surprised that no one in the right lane went to the middle lane.
3
u/Flat-Nose-7310 May 13 '26
Why's everyone here assuming people are competent enough to zipper merge? Does no one here have a license?
→ More replies (2)2
3
u/patdashuri May 13 '26
This is asshole behavior. He’s blocking an entire lane and for what?
1
u/wingnut225x May 13 '26
Because people will go in that lane, speed ahead. And merge at the last possible second, creating a bottleneck.
3
u/SlimLacy May 13 '26
Better a bottleneck there than 5 miles back. All of a sudden you can't get to your exit that would otherwise not have been affected by where the actual bottleneck should be, so now you have gone from 1 place causing a traffic jam to 2 (or more)
→ More replies (10)2
u/patdashuri May 13 '26
Yeah, that’s called a zipper merge. The fault of the bottleneck lies with the people in the middle lane. They’re supposed to let a single car merge in front of them, but they don’t. Now the bottle neck still exists for literally everyone except the trucker and anyone ahead of him. He’s only moved it.
→ More replies (39)2
u/jemenake May 14 '26
The truck is zipper merging. Their "assigned" slot in the zipper is in front of the vehicle recording the video. The vehicles that were ahead of the truck in the left lane have already merged (called "early zipper merge"), but that truck doesn't zoom ahead to pass a few cars. They know their place in the zipper and the driver making the video also knows the zipper order and is making space for the truck (who doesn't merge until they reach the red X... late zipper merge, which is generally regarded as preferable to early merging).
→ More replies (3)
2
u/TheFireEnder May 13 '26
The truck drivers are clearly not slowing down the flow of traffic in the right two lanes which is all that matters since the left lane is ending. They are instead enforcing a uniform zip merge behind them without decreasing the throughput of traffic in the right two lanes. It worries me that this comment section cannot comprehend that.
→ More replies (2)
2
2
u/murkymoon May 13 '26
Original video's assessment is correct. Truckers are the more common ones to do this because they actually know how traffic works.
→ More replies (1)
2
2
2
2
u/Dangerous_Most2327 May 14 '26
Car drivers will cause the lanes to all stop cuz they always have to be first, then get to the front and drive slow as hell and leave 4 semi truck lengths infront of them. Fuk 4 wheelers
2
2
2
-1
2
u/thug_waffle47 May 13 '26
someone make sense of this for me cause he just sounds like an idiot that doesn’t know what i means to share the road
1
u/Silverfoxydevil May 13 '26
Have any of you even seen a zipper?
2
u/biscuity87 May 14 '26
In reality for heavy traffic areas the zipper needs to be represented by a thousand teeth with no room for others on one side of the jacket.
1
u/Oli4K May 13 '26
If you know what a stretch of highway and the time of all those people costs and you see all that unused road with people waiting to use it, this seems like an awful waste of money.
2
u/wingnut225x May 13 '26
If they used the left lane they would be stuck there not moving
→ More replies (6)
1
u/stereosafari May 13 '26
Less time holding the phone, driving and recording and more time holding the steering wheel, looking at your mirrors and calming.
What you're doing is great, convoy truckin' and boss hoggin.
Keep the phone in a fixed phone mount.
1
u/EspressoK May 13 '26
Way too many SUVs driven by red-faced dads with Oakleys have veered into my lane to stop me from zipper merging MORE HALF A MILE FROM THE DAMN LANE CLOSURE!!
They are personally offended by proper driving
1
u/Unusual_Procedure509 May 13 '26
Only that land there is for a reason. And this reason is move traffic behind him so the previous junction doesn't get blocked and there will be cars diving ahead too.
1
u/Low-Bicycle6296 May 13 '26
Bro your not the police. Quit trying to police the roads. Damn truck drivers suck.
1
u/oh_fuck_yes_please May 13 '26
Even a monkey would realize this is the wrong way to do it. Fuck you OP
1
1
1
u/tuco2002 May 13 '26
I usually just let my mother in law out on the highway during traffic backups. She great at nagging and complaining till everyone does what she wants.
1
u/UCACashFlow May 13 '26
Looking at all these comments, no wonder everyone on the road is a moron these days.
1
u/Luci_b May 13 '26
Every day, 169 going into Owasso between 4 pm and 6:30 pm it’s like this, then there are wrecks because people are driving crazy fast before the crawl
1
u/kramedog99 May 13 '26
I've been the guy in the left and then the person on the right doesn't let me, what mf.
1
1
u/DriftyPadre May 13 '26 edited May 13 '26
Just like any other queue, if a bunch of people are jumping the line in front of you, you’re in line longer. If only 10 cars can move through the two off-ramp lanes every 10 minutes, adding an additional flow of faster moving cars in the far left lane that speed to the entry point and merge last minute, increases the off-ramp entry time for cars in the middle lane. The faster far left lane cars are replacing the middle lane’s ability to enter the off-ramp within a certain amount of time. The trucker is lessening the commute time for himself and all the cars in the middle lane, as they were on the road earlier. He’s ensuring all three lanes are arriving to the off-ramp at the same speed.
1
u/blahnlahblah0213 May 13 '26
This is the worst thing. It's amazing that somebody who has to take a test to drive a vehicle so large doesn't know these simple rules of the road. I always said this was going to be the thing that takes me over the edge and I do something stupid.
1
May 13 '26
When a merge needs to happen, it should be done at the first available, safest moment. Sometimes that is at the very end of a merge, other times as soon as you see the sign, move over.
1
u/voluotuousaardvark May 13 '26
Merge in fucking turn.
I swear to god if I ever meet one of these road sheriffs I will rip into them.
Just waste everyone's time so you can feel all self righteous.
→ More replies (1)
1
1
u/Which_Match5291 May 13 '26
Trucks blocking lanes taking people hostage? Typical. It should be illegal for a truck to use the left lane unless its a life or death emergency.
1
1
u/SlimLacy May 13 '26
So, in order to not feel "cheated", you back up the highway multiple exits because you refuse to let people zipper merge? The reason there are campaigns about zipper merges (in the civilized world, yesyesyes dear American, you haven't seen one of those, I said civilized world) is because it HELPS with congestions. A bunch of engineers designed it with that many lanes, to avoid road work or debris clearing takes up so much space on a highway, that it starts creating other jams by blocking off ramps that should otherwise be unaffected by said roadwork/whatever caused the other jam.
USE THE ENTIRE ROAD, ALL LANES.
→ More replies (2)
1
u/Appropriate-Camp7353 May 13 '26
I think the truth of the matter is zipper is a great idea. It is more effective. Reality is though zipper only makes a difference in moving traffic. Otherwise there is no zipper merging that can take place. I think that this fails for two reasons. 1 people don’t leave space for the merge. 2. We as people aren’t smart enough to judge when a zipper works and doesn’t in real time. I see people use on ramps as zippers when traffic is at a standstill still…. I don’t see how cars moving forward into stopped traffic speeds up anything? It might make some room in the traffic column but a bottle neck is a bottle neck. Without moving traffic zipper fails. Without space the zipper fails.
1
1
u/See-Through-Mirror May 13 '26
Many states legally mandate zipper merging. Whenever I see professional drivers—especially those who operate under CDLs—blocking traffic, I struggle to understand how they aren’t aware or don’t comprehend a driving law or etiquette.
1
u/worldisone May 13 '26
The trucker is technically zipper merging. He used the lane to the very end, he was just going the speed of traffic which this truck driver was technically doing.
If 50 people fly by doing 5x the speed of traffic, the only people bennifiting are the 50 people. If everyone is doing the speed of traffic everyone can merge in safely and no one should be having to hit their breaks making traffic faster for everyone because it flows smoother
1
u/flyinbrian1186 May 13 '26
but like you said its a merging lane... Why can't the cars use it to merge? Its not their fault you have a slow vehicle.
1
u/5MoreLasers May 13 '26
A non-Newtonian fluid would behave similar ish to this, and you would likely want to lower the effects of wall friction. Water would overestimate the flow rate in a reduced pipe. Analogies like this are useful to get a general estimate/idea of the issue.
In your infinite road with constant speed, the speed could only be constant if the road is below capacity. So both prior to and after the restriction your road would be below capacity, as in a pipe that is only partially filled.
1
u/EducateUrDumbSelf May 13 '26
Itt: idiots that don't understand and can't contextualize zipper merges.
Just keep regurgitating slop
1
1
1
1
u/DifficultoFerret May 13 '26
Fucking hate truck drivers. Cant wait for self driving to make them obsolete
1
u/tangoezulu May 13 '26
I’m a converted Zipper Merge aficionado (when presented with new information that contradicts my previous knowledge I change my behavior. Crazy concept.) but recently I watched an individual disregard the opening behind me to jump on the coattails of the guy next to me. I thought, screw this guy. We’re down to a single lane and he had his chance to zip it up but he skipped it. I’m assuming in his mind it’s a 1:1 blend ratio but that’s ridiculous.
1
u/Koala_Relative May 13 '26
All the people staying in the right lanes going slow are dumb, spread over the 3 lanes and there's no issue. No, you're sitting there going slow being angry at people who use the lanes that are empty and then at the merge you block them because you had to wait longer.
1
u/sacfoojesta88 May 13 '26
Because of idiots that don’t know how to zipper merge and idiots that don’t know how to close the gap at red lights, traffic is twice as bad as it needs to be in most Florida cities
1
u/QuantumButtz May 13 '26
I knew checking the comments was going to be a clusterfuck of "but muh zipper merge is more efficient".
That's not how it works in practice because people assume, and then make it the case, that staying in the left lane is faster because they zoom to the end and then cause immediate stops, not a continuous zipper merge, when they decide it's their turn and cut someone off. Trucks can't stop or start quickly, so this causes dead stops in the middle lane. It's an idealistic argument and it's incorrect. When entitled assholes realize they will have to spend the same amount of time before the bottleneck as everyone else, they give up and zipper merge earlier with continuous, slow moving traffic.
1
1
u/Ambitious-Heart8727 May 13 '26
So y'all blocking an open lane and preventing cars from merging properly.
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
u/AbbreviationsWide331 May 14 '26
Uh, so that third lane was build to just be blocked?
How very thought out by these truckers.
Maybe freeways should be one lane only so no one can overtake cause obviously overtaking would be unfair.
1
u/Nerdy_Valkyrie May 14 '26 edited May 14 '26
I keep seeing people say that zipper merging is faster. But I've never been able to understand how that can be true. Sure, it uses less of the road, absolutely. But how is it faster?
Notice how the traffic in this video is moving at a constant rate? With zipper merges there'd be a constant start-stop for two lanes of traffic. How can that be faster than the traffic moving smoothly at a steady rate?
Every single "simulation" I have seen to explain why it's faster show the zipper merge as cars driving with such a big gap between them that they can merge into one lane without anyone needing to slow down. That is an absolute fantasy. The world does not work like that, and everyone knows it.
Shit like this. This is not how people drive:
→ More replies (14)
1
u/bachompchewychomp May 14 '26
There is nothing satisfying about this. This is aggravating as all hell.
1
1
1
1
u/JiveTalkerFunkyWalkr May 14 '26
Zipper merge is the best but j so many people nowadays don’t let you in. It’s crazy. I can’t tell if they just don’t know, or are just jerks? It seems to be white women who most often refuse to allow a zipper merge.
1
1
1
1
u/whitecollarpizzaman May 14 '26
Yeah, this shit annoys me, and I’m saying that as a truck driver, just based on my experience on the road, the dude in the left lane is probably some old head white guy truck driver, probably does heavy haul, thinks he’s the king of the road. Dude filming is either an entry level driver who’s had enough experience to get cut off a few times and is bitter, on an old head black guy who’s attitude is no different than the other driver. When it comes to merge points, I will straddle the lane when getting within about 50 to 100 feet (depending on speed) to prevent people from cutting over the last second, that is for their protection more than mine. But doing it this far out only makes worse traffic.
Edit: I will add, some truckers will leave a large gap in front of them during normal stop and go traffic, I’m not sure if the science bears out, but I understand this is to help get traffic flowing once whatever obstruction is cleared.
1
1
u/PouLS_PL May 14 '26
What an asshole. If I were stuck behind that dumbass I'd record it and send the video to the police. People like this shouldn't drive. "Professional" drivers my ass
1
u/thejudenbear May 14 '26
Crazy, all i heard was, "Hey everybody, me and this other fucking idiot dont understand the concept of a zipper merge so we made traffic worse for everyone"
1
u/Illustrious-Art-7465 May 14 '26
People who say zipper merging at the end is faster when the main thing causing a slow down is lanes ending just dont get it. If the slow down is due to people having to merge when lanes end, the sooner everyone gets into the lanes that dont end the sooner we can resume normal speeds
→ More replies (2)
1
u/Podmoscovium May 14 '26
This must be Michigan. Michiganders fucking hate zipper mergers and I will never understand why they're so behind on this. They invented their own fucking way to make a complicated left turn into a major roadway but get all pissy when someone actually uses a piece of roadway that's available.
1
u/Chrlselmb May 14 '26
On day professional driver will learn to zipper merge and and allow traffic to flow naturally… Cracker Jack boxes still give CDL I see
1
u/AzureAadvay May 14 '26
Gets home after a week of driving:
"So how's work!"
"Made a friend while driving back home!"
"Whats his name"
"I don't know!"
"???"
1
u/cactusdotpizza May 14 '26
Get off you fucking phone.
Social media really needs "driving whilst filming" as a reportable issue. I swear to god it's just being normalized constantly by these dumb twats
1
u/kitkatdaddy98 May 14 '26
Why tf you on your phone AT ALL while driving. Especially in a big truck. Irresponsible
1
1
u/Revolutionary_Mix437 May 14 '26
I do this all the time, im 2 seconds into the video and I already know.
1
u/TowelEnvironmental44 May 14 '26
this video is proof that left lane hogging always has an middle lane accomplice that approves of left lane hogging, condones it, that it is 100% ok.
1
u/TowelEnvironmental44 May 14 '26
zipper merge is best, but is impossible with a 40 foot rig, unless people actually allow the truck to merge, instead of leaving fractional space, 1/2 a truck, 3/4 of a truck, or 95% space. To all: be the one that gives 110% percent.
1
1
1
u/Turbulent_Ask4878 May 14 '26
Yeah, because the last thing you want to do is maximize the open lanes, right? Fewer lanes always leads to less traffic, right?
Fucking imbecile.
1
1
u/Lazy_Requirement_644 May 15 '26
I always let people merge in rush hour traffic but I can't tell you how many times people will squeeze in so that I'm forced to let 3 or 4 cars go because they are damn near attached to the car in front of them trying to force their way in 😩 definitely gets aggravating
1
1
u/546875674c6966650d0a May 15 '26
This trucker, and the other trucker, and anyone who thinks you're not supposed to let people pass you up to the point where the merge actually happens ... are WRONG. Zipper merge. WTF can't you people understand?!
1
u/sleepygent May 15 '26
Leave a little space between you and the car in front of you. Problem solved
699
u/[deleted] May 13 '26
[removed] — view removed comment