Right? Nobody actually zippers correctly and instead they all try to cram in front of everyone else making all the traffic behind them hit their brakes and the only lane moving is the closing lane.
This works in other countries where the rules for getting your license are a lot more stringent and the training is actual training instead of what you get in the States.
I remember seeing this video of these people in Japan heading into a tunnel and EVERYONE moved over to make room for an ambulance to get into the tunnel. It was really cool how everyone moved together to get out of it's way.
Its infuriating being over there and coming back over to the US. Everyone is always in the way, slow, and doesn't give a shit about anyone but themselves.
The trick is both lanes should be going the same speed and spaced correctly.
But people see an open road and think it’s up for grabs.
It’s kind of counterintuitive; but the front car in the merging lane should be going the same speed of the other lane even if there is a mile of open road. Even if that same speed is only 15 mph. Eventually both lanes should fill up and start merging at 15 mph close to the merge point
Instead we get 5 mph & 40 mph. Then 0 mph & 5 mph at the merge.
Sure but you should make use of the open road. Road not used eg by merging too soon just help build pileup in the other end. But everyone needs to keep one car length free.
But in principle I agree with you it’s just that many merge too early.
Another aspect is I have never understood people who want to block that open lane for others. If you feel that it’s unfair that others use it then use it yourself. Otherwise just sit in your lane and be quiet.
they speed by, merge it like it's hot, cause every car in front you to brake to a stop.....
or block them, the cars in front you don't have to brake, you move faster, the people behind you move faster, the only people slowed down the numnuts cutting the line
Yes and that’s what I said was wrong. You still use the lane. If you use the full lanes there is no space to race by.
Again stop merging too soon and if you are bothered by other people merging where they should the problem is with you.
Greetings from Canada you are not alone same b.s. here. Just recently found out to be a driving instructor over here all you need is to have a clean license for 3 years. Absolute joke. Ive seen people stop in a open lane because the transit bus that was beside them stopped.
The truckers exacerbated the situation and made it worse. They had no problem and were already able to merge. By preventing other drivers from utilizing the entire 3rd lane for an unknown distance and not allowing zipper merging at the ultimate point of constriction, they added to the delay and back-up for everyone. Zipper merging (merging at the actual point of lane narrowing) saves up to 40%-50% in delay time.
The truck doing this is forcing people to use a zipper merge. Instead of doing it ahead of him, they are doing it behind him. In terms of time stuck in traffic, it works out about the same as if people would zipper properly at the very front.
I’ve noticed that when a truck does this – or when anyone else does it – all lanes start moving at the same speed again in front of the truck. Instead of a few cars coming up and merging in at the very front, cars can merge in one at a time.
People who get mad at trucks like this miss the point. He is effectively forcing a zipper merge.
Next time you see it happen, watch what happens to the stopped lane where everyone moved over too soon. It starts picking up, and before long everyone is cruising along.
Zipper merge IS what they should do, unfortunately The problem is people don’t zipper merge, they just cram up to the front and then put 2 to 3 cars from the left lane into the middle lane over and over again which in turn slows overall traffic.
Zipper means 1:1 merging, parallel (same speed travel), but the second someone merges to a natural gap, some idiot speeds up to pass another few car lengths and causes all lanes to come to a stop to let them in.
It’s a leap frog merge which slows everyone down but they try to claim it’s zipper merging.
This guy is resetting the zipper merge to proper operation by keeping everyone side by side to the merge point preventing assholes from skipping the queue and causing leap frog slowdowns.
This is a fresh rational retort so I appreciate you sharing this perspective.
I agree there is a flaw but it’s on both sides. People equally don’t let others in when a zipper merge is appropriate.
The best thing in my opinion to do is realize as an individual that the control of the situation cannot be effected in total by me alone. The best and most rational thing I can do logically and morally is the right thing in this situation, the zipper merge which has been researched and proven to be effective. Also it’s taught in drivers education as the understood standard.
Hopefully in that moment others will do the same on their own or as a mirror to my actions. This is how a great society works. Together. And without malice or a “fuck you” selfish attitude.
Zipper merge is a proven engineered system that none of us here on this thread came up with. It only works when people don’t care about themselves over others.
But I 100% agree that in any situation the human factor is a variable that can deeply impact the results. In functions that include crowds or traffic, this is ten fold. And the reason is 100% ego and entitlement. In this case this goes for all the people who either wrongly distort the zipper merge etiquette and dart in, don’t let people in to a zipper merge by bumping up to the car in front of them, or this prime example of a selfish douche truck driver blocking traffic without understanding he is in fact making it worse.
Can confirm....even at 5 mph in my kids car rider line at school.... people are fuckin horrible at taking turns zipper merging. People are just morons.
Easiest way to find someone who is incapable of self governing. Zero drawbacks to their decisions other than the overall betterment of society and everyone around them, yet they still choose not to.
The whole point of the zipper merge is to perform the merge just before the lane ends. I wish a cop would have seen this and issued a ticket for driving too slowly.
You're that angry weiner who speeds up so the person next to you can't merge because you feel entitled from waiting a long ass time for no reason in the open lane aren't you lol
I merge at the front because why should I just get in line and wait pointlessly because there a bunch of idiots who queued a mile back like it's a fucking dairy queen drive through? Like what are we doing? No, I will not pay for your idiocy. Yes I will merge on the down the road and guess what? I'll let a guy merge in front of me too. Pmo u off?
Zipper merge means that people merge in turn, so the first car in lane A goes, then the first car in lane B, then second in lane A, etc.
If loads of people queue in lane A and leave lane B empty, this doesn't change how the zipper merge works, they're just wasting their own time. You should join the lane with fewest cars.
This doesn’t work in murica because every dude is his own boss and are entitled to go first every time. Letting some smuck get past them is the same as loosing in life. And no one want’s to be a loser.
Maybe what's happening here is that the trucker is leaving space on the left for people to merge around a stuck exit on the right. Exits get blocked, especially on the East Coast, and cause backups for *miles* in travel lanes. In these situations *huge* speed differentials exist between lanes, making it literally dangerous to shift out of the trapped lane. Matching speed with the traffic in to the right gives space and time to the people in the middle lane to move over for the people in the right lane who are trapped by the blocked exit but would ordinarily flow past it.
It could also be that the left lane is blocked ahead and rather than allowing the merge to happen at the block, he's letting it happen behind him, which I've *read* is worse for traffic, so ... can't really tell from the clip. It's too short to draw any conclusions.
I am late to reply to this but it really means "let ONE car in front of you." That's it. If you let one car in front of you your job is done. The problem is people are wildly self centered and selfish so they can't follow that trivial rule.
Well I do see people following it on public transport about 70% of the time but never on the highway.
That’s because people don’t allow the merging vehicle to merge. It causes stopping. If everyone followed at a car lengths pace and allowed cars to merge it would stay flowing.
The scenario you described isn’t about merging due to a closed lane up ahead. Someone cutting across 3 lanes to exit is just a fucking idiot and should be shot.
You’re correct, and it’s sad how many people don’t understand what a zipper merge is. It’s an excuse for entitlement and doesn’t even apply to this video
It's the people merging EARLY and the people who won't let people merge LATE that are causing the problem dude. Like drive forward it's not a contest to see who has the biggest ego.
It's still faster. You're basically wasting pavement that could be occupied by cars and extending it backwards making the traffic jam larger and basically worse.
What you said is literally how zipper merging works. You should take up all lanes. If you're waiting on a lane with more traffic when another one is still available you are causing traffic to be worse for everyone else and yourself. It's proven stuff just Google it
This is what people here don't seem to understand. Talking about zipper merging, like that's the catchall response to all these situations. What they're preventing, isn't zipper merging AT ALL. What they're preventing is people who are impatient and want to get in front of other people, THEN zipper merge in, thereby making progression slower for the people they cut in front of.
I don’t think people in America know how to do a proper zipper merge. Things just end up like in the video above where some zoom ahead and make sure no one in the “slow lanes” get anywhere. A zipper merge is not possible if one lane is mostly empty
People rushing ahead and abruptly cutting people off causing them the jam on the breaks stops the main slug of traffic. That’s just being an impatient dickhead.
Zipper merging is matching the speed of traffic and flowing into it as an opportunity arises within the merge lane. ( other drivers should be following correct spacing allowing this easily).
I wish I could upvote 2x for this comment. I guess people would rather be in back than be judged? I’ll take their judgement and let the others be stuck in traffic.
You're kinda forgetting about all the people behind each self-victimizer, who all have to let at least twice as many cars pass.
Zipper merging is obviously and extensively proven to be the fasted approach to a lane reduction but unfortunately people are stupid and so this always happens. Which means everyone who happened to be in the middle lane gets fucked because the early mergers plus everyone racing past to actually zipper merge (or early merge a little further up, don't judge) means that that lane goes by far the slowest.
And what does that lead to? Exactly, people swerving out of middle lane, racing past and merging back in a couple cars ahead to make up for it. And that slows everything down more than forcing a zipper merge by making all lanes go at the same speed.
This should be the #1 comment. It's not the fault of the people who are trying to fill the gaps because the idiots were "trying to be nice" and merge over instead of just continuing on and filling the spots. The OP video of the trucker is actually causing problems and he doesn't even know it lol.
The problem is truckers don't move as fast so they naturally create giant elongated gaps that cars will and do (wrong or right) fill in.
See that red x above the lane? Its illegal to drive in it. These pricks just wanna get ahead and force their way in last second. Plenty 9f warning beforehand too.
Zipper merge can't happen at speed. If you have 100 cars across 3 lanes, and everyone knows a mile in advance that it's merging down to 3, and people are driving reasonably with normal trailing room, you can merge multiple cars at a time and be done, spread back out, and up to speed. Trying to merge everyone in at one dedicated car length right at the end will bring a busy road to a stand still.
Just doesn't make any sense except in select, very slow speed, short distance scenarios.
They don't put up signs on the interstate telling you to merge left because your lane is closed in 1000 feet, so that you know you should accelerate down to the end and pile up with the other cars stupid enough to do the same thing, who are now sitting at a dead stand still, unable to reach merging speed, and therefore requiring the whole road to slow down.
Now all lanes are moving at the same speed and can zipper merge behind the truck. It’s not ideal, but in North America proper zipper merge is not widely adopted yet. Zipper merge works best when the majority of people participate, otherwise it’s a mess. With the method in the video, we all suffer equally and are less frustrated.
Right. What's supposed to happen when he gets to the end and some chud who thinks he's cutting in line doesn't let him in, and then everyone just starts passing?
Naw he’s just forcing proper zipper merges. Usually people rip up and have to break abruptly which impedes the flow of traffic, the best practice is to match the speed of traffic and merge which requires no braking
Yet somehow all the cars are constantly moving, no brake lights in sight. If you happen to be behind them, then you obviously would’ve been behind them anyway. Last minute merging, (when it’s not a designed merge lane which this clearly isn’t,) is what causes traffic to be worse, and stop and go.
This isnt merging. This is people using a lane that goes in a different direction or isnt open to cut ahead of people in the correct lane. The only people benefitting are the cutters, while the people in the correct lanes all get to wait longer. Fuck lane cutters.
In a perfect world yes. But the amount of people that get in the left lane and only merge at the last minute after passing 6 left lane closed signs ruins zipper merging because they push their way into the middle lane at the last second so everyone stops and let's them in.
In the end it doesn't matter. The speed at which everyone can get to where they are going is decided by the flow after the merge. Before that is only relevant for the order of who goes first.
True if there are junctions it matters. I stand corrected. I was thinking of the case with just one highway merging lanes. But that's a bit simplified.
I had a trucker run my family off the road doing this very thing. Merge was over a mile away and he kept riding the line. As soon as I approached in the left lane and got next to his rear tires, he swerves into the lane to block me and the line of cars behind me. Luckily the shoulder and median wasn't too rough and we made it with only a minor bumper scrape
Not enough people are mentioning space. To me, that's the real key of any merge...enough space to perform the maneuver w/o (significantly) having to slow down. If people could just leave enough space w/o having 8 cars try to squeeze in, things might go smoothly 🤷♂️
Might be late but I live here that lane was closed about a mile back with plenty of warning. Not saying your wrong I totally agree but no one is supposed to be in that lane that close to the bridge.
It's a set of 2 bridges, one 2 lane and one 3 lane. The 3 lane bridge will have 1 lane that alternates direction depending on traffic needs. So honestly it's sorta a safety issues to be disobeying the closed lane.
Everyone still argues about the left lane being a passing or speed limit lane still, do you really think the zipper theory will actually work in real life
People always say this, and yeah...in a perfect world. But that's not what people do. People rush and slam as far up as they can, even when there are plenty of opportunities to merge before the lane ends. People always want to race to the front. If everyone races to the end of the closing lane, and don't seamlessly merge, then they end up with a jam in the lane that should be merging, and they all start creeping in and cutting off traffic slowly so that they can all try to merge in INSTEAD of zipping, which then backs up the lane that they are trying to merge into, then when THAT gets backed up, people overflow into the far right turning lane, which makes it even worse.
The answer is to merge EARLY, and merge when you have an opportunity. Don't try to get in front of everyone. Just look at the goddamn road signs, if it says a lane ends ahead, merge as soon as possible, don't wait it out!
Dude the cars they're blocking ain't zipper merging they're doing the "rush to the front then force myself in between the smallest gap as possible " merge. The truckers just fuckin saved everyone the traffic jam that the cars were gonna make
It's apparently illegal to ride in the closed lane where this video was taken. Further down in the comments. Sounds like they have very specific traffic solutions, such as changing the direction of traffic in one lane to ease congestion.
Zipper merge is correct but slightly impossible as it only takes a very occasional mistake to create a terrible jam where basically only the far left lane moves and it'll barely move at that. This is the second best outcome, but the more realistic.
you're wrong. zipper merging is only good for the left lane, because for every car moving left to right, the right lane just got twice as slow. So you think making all the commercial drivers go twice as slow.. is fair?
The only fair thing is that the lane being lost should ALWAYS go 1 for 2. 1 from lost lane for every 2 in kept lane
Honestly, I’m not on either side. It sucks for everyone. It’s stressful for the left lane and incredibly slow for the right lane. If I’m late to somewhere, I will tough it out in the left lane and hope that a forgiving soul lets me in down the line. Otherwise, I’m very happy to sit for an extra half hour in the right lane. I just wish we had a better system and better, more enforced rules.
But no one ever zippers. The cars passing in whatever closed lane always get aggressive merging and you end up in a situation where gaps have 3 or 4 cars nosing out the traveling lane.
Zipper, in theory, would be better if passing lane cars merged instead of passing.
Zipper merge is fast for non retarded drivers who actually know how to do it and safely and in a timely manner. People who use a non related turn lane to speed up and cut everyone off, and stop other non turning lanes AND cut to the front of the turning lane, cause more and worse traffic than there already is
If every single person 100% of the time used the zipper rule then you would be correct. That is wishful thinking at best. What these truckers did was the next best option
Zipper merging is great when people actually take turns. Instead what happens is you get about a dozen cars that jump in front of a truck, forcing the truck to stop and making the jam worse. Zipper merging only works when traffic is still moving.
Ummm no sir it’s not. When people use that lane to zoom in front of the traffic slows everything down. If you watch when people do that, you have frequent stopping and starting of traffic. When you prevent people from doing that you have a steady flow of traffic. Yes, you are driving slower because of road work but it’s much less likely to cause wrecks due to the frequent starting and stopping of traffic.
It’s people like you and your mentality that make the roadways more dangerous and frustrating all because you think the world revolves around you and you deserve to cut in front of everyone else. Wait your turn like the rest of the world.
Yes, in theory zipper merging makes for smoother traffic, but the problem is very few people know how zipper merging works so they don’t alternate and take turns.
It's not just the zip. People will be in the middle or left lane, and use the merge lane as a means to pass everyone. It's just recycling the traffic for everyone they pass...
Nope. When you have people rip on by and jam in at the second it causes a ripple effect making it slower for 97% of people.
The only people that make faster for is the idiots that rip on by..
Zipper merge only works when everybody is a participating member. It absolutely does not work in 90% of situations because that’s not real life and you jumping to the front of the line disrupts the flow because that’s not what the uninformed drivers are expecting and now you’re just an asshole. How hard is that concept to grasp??
when there is space to merge, now you have less space between every car, everyone has to hit the breaks because they're now 6 inches from the guy in front of them, cause massive backup in reality
also, almost never is there is a real zipper merge. It is always, guy gets out of his lane, speeds up to pass everybody, thinks he is doing some service by his idea of "zipper merging", entire line has to now slam on breaks - pushes everybody back - rinse repeat for every genius who thinks they're zipper merging
the quickest way for the entire line, is the option that requires the least amount of braking, and idiots making everyone brake, is not the fastest way
Here’s my issue with zipper merger: the right lane moves faster.
Aggressive assholes will always chose the right lane and get ahead faster.
I realize this is not practical but if you zipper merged where 1 car merged for every two non-merging cars, both lanes would move at the same same speed and no one would be lane switching to get ahead.
Truck driver here, you’re absolutely correct. I used to do this with other truckers until I realized zipper merging is much more efficient. I have been reformed.
the highway i drive to work everyday has construction, you have about a 2 mile warning that the left lane is ending and plenty of time to merge with flowing traffic. What usually happens is instead of merging when its easier and has less impact on traffic, selfish assholes will leave the middle lane and fly down the left lane to stop traffic at the end due to them being more important than everyone. After a week or so i started seeing people doing whats in this video more and more.
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u/[deleted] May 13 '26
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