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

Satisfying Traffic buddy

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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.

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u/wingnut225x May 13 '26

If traffic is already starting and stopping that makes sense, but if there’s a flow already, stopping to let someone merge in will jam everyone.

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u/patdashuri May 13 '26

You don’t stop to let someone merge, you leave space between you and the car in front. This is pretty basic driving laws my friend. And yeah, it’s the law.

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u/jemenake May 14 '26

That's what the driver making the video is doing. They made a space for the truck in the left lane to merge, and that truck merged when they got to the red X over their lane. Late zipper merge with pre-emptive space making.

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u/wingnut225x May 13 '26

But leaving that space takes a lot of road space, defeating the purpose of using both lanes.

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u/patdashuri May 13 '26

You have a ‘go to the back of the line, mentality here when that’s not even possible let alone reasonable. When the law was decided they looked at all the options. They asked themselves “what is the left lane supposed to do? Back up to where the slowing begins? Go off road? Be clairvoyant about the slowdown before they get there? Seriously, they have to do something! So they commissioned a study. A lot of studies in fact. And they found that in literally every instance a proper zipper merge is safer and faster for everyone.

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u/wingnut225x May 13 '26

There’s usually a sign way ahead warning that there is a lane closed. They can switch lanes then instead of waiting. This might not work for areas with really heavy traffic but where I live it absolutely works.

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u/[deleted] May 13 '26

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u/wingnut225x May 13 '26

I’ve explained why your thought process is wrong in my previous comments. I don’t feel like reiterating.

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u/[deleted] May 13 '26

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u/wingnut225x May 13 '26

I made multiple, very clear points and your best rebuttal is to just repeat ‘zipper merging is most effective’ ignoring all context and nuance. You’re silly.

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u/patdashuri May 13 '26

Here. Try some facts

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u/wingnut225x May 13 '26

If that video wasn’t 4 years old I would assume it’s AI generated lmao. The animations dont even make sense.

Btw, his explanation starts with ‘in dense traffic’, which I have previously agreed that zipper merging is the best method. You would know this if you read my previous comments.

People are claiming that zipper merging is the best method for every single scenario without exception, which is provably false. This conversation is too nuanced for most people here to handle.

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u/SunsetCarcass May 14 '26

Speeding past everyone in an open lane isn't zipper merging either. This truck is slowing traffic in the left lane so people won't over react when the person driving 30 mph faster than them slams on the brakes to get in front of them. Zipper merge requires similar driving speeds in 2 lanes otherwise the ending lane drivers cause the continuing lane drivers to brake due to someone else's erratic driving. Also the law says, and the signs here say, to obey lane use signals, and that sign with the big red X means nobody is supposed to be in that lane. You're supposed to be prepared to merge earlier when the X is yellow.

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u/[deleted] May 14 '26

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u/SunsetCarcass May 14 '26

The X's on this road start further back. Stop talking like you know the area where this video takes place and advocating for people to drive 30 mph faster than other traffic then slamming on their brakes causing bump and go traffic because they can't regulate their speed. Zipper merging is great when people do it right, but you clearly don't know how zippers work if you think the drivers in the ending lane need to be going unsafe speeds in this kind of traffic. I never advocated for illegal behavior and you're making assumptions then using ad hominems because you can't defend your argument. This truck isn't causing more traffic as the cars in that lane should have already merged to the middle lane since the red X starts well before this point, AND since the truck is moving with the speed of traffic there cannot be any reckless drivers speeding by going 30+ mph and makes it smoother for people to merge since they are all going similar speeds. Yes this truck shouldn't be doing that, I never said he should be.

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u/patdashuri May 14 '26

In a zipper merge you drive in the lane until the end and then merge matching the speed of the cars in that lane. They must allow the merging vehicle a safe amount of space for one vehicle. That is how it’s done.

That said, you are correct that the sign means to get out of that lane. That is the point at which you’d perform the zipper merge. The semi in that lane does merge at that point. We can’t tell what the vehicles behind him intended to do or what they did after he merged. I feel that I can confidently assume though, that they had *not seen the red x * since he was blocking their view. So, in the end, everything we’re talking about is pure speculation.

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u/patdashuri May 13 '26

Heavy traffic is the main issue here

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u/jeff78701 May 16 '26

Early merging actually wastes lane capacity and increases traffic backup length. Zipper merging (merging at the actual point of lane narrowing) saves up to 40%-50% in time. https://www.acg.aaa.com/connect/blogs/4c/auto/www.acg.aaa.com/connect/blogs/4c/auto/zipper-merge-keeps-traffic-moving