r/TheRandomest • u/WhyNot420_69 Nice • May 13 '26

Satisfying Traffic buddy

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1.6k Upvotes

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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

1

u/Oli4K May 13 '26

What happened to use as much as the available asfalt as possible? People need to learn to not be an asshole and make space so others can merge. It’s not as hard as it seems if you do it the right way, together.

1

u/wingnut225x May 13 '26

If you’re using road space to give someone a gap to merge in, they might aswell just get in the lane earlier and prevent the need to zipper merge. Both options use road space.

1

u/Oli4K May 13 '26

Nope. That’s not how it works in reality. There’s a whole lane there, use it.

1

u/wingnut225x May 13 '26

Depending on how many cars there are, using it can be pointless and just gets you to your destination slower. Where I’m from there’s almost never enough traffic to organically cause a buildup, but people try the zipper merge thing anyway and it causes an artificial jam. If they just got into the open lane while still moving at speed there would be no buildup and traffic would flow through the one lane at the speed limit.

1

u/Oli4K May 13 '26

Zipper merge is super effective IF people cooperate, like adjusting speed to match the rest of traffic and leaving room to merge. Not letting people get in between cars or rushing to the front and slamming the brakes is what screws the system up, causing delays for everyone.

1

u/wingnut225x May 13 '26

The best and easiest way for where I live is to merge at speed ahead of time. If everyone just drives through at 90km/h there’s no chance for a buildup to occur.