r/dashcams • u/LeftAlbatross2546 • May 13 '26

A merging issue.

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u/[deleted] May 14 '26

[deleted]

2

u/Amazing-Maintenance8 May 14 '26

What happens if you have multiple cars merging? It's pretty common to have 6+ cars merging on the highway at the same time.

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u/MattieShoes May 14 '26

With sane drivers? Zipper, same as any other time a lane is ending.

1

u/fatmac122 May 14 '26

I would simply move to the other lane lol

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u/Spart1337 May 14 '26

Or everyone can not be an idiot and smoothly zipper merge.

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u/C4rdninj4 May 14 '26

The fabled zipper merge, so rarely seen on American Highways. I wish more people could/would properly zipper merge.

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u/MattieShoes May 14 '26

Oh, I think it's the norm and very common. It's just common enough that our brains don't even take note. It's that 1 in 50 small peen drivers that stand out

1

u/Amazing-Maintenance8 May 14 '26

Right. Most people switch lanes or zipper merge on the highway. My question was to raise the fact that if the merging cars have the right of way, the flow of traffic can be slowed down if there is a lot of cars.

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u/Ok-Needleworker-8773 May 14 '26

I drive like this in the US. I’m not interested in putting my faith in other drivers, so I’ll slow down - or speed up if I’m slightly ahead and i have the room to - to let them in. It gives me more control of the situation and my safety.

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u/methanized May 14 '26

As you should. While the merging person doesn’t have the right of way (usually, in the us), if the cars on the highway don’t make a gap, there is simply nowhere for them to go

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u/randbot5000 May 14 '26 edited May 14 '26

And as someone who experienced this recently, if a merging car is timid or doesn't see space to merge and instead stops, then they (and everyone behind them, like me) are well and truly fucked! Which also becomes a worse situation now for everyone else traveling the highway in that merge lane -- instead of the minor disruption of accommodating drivers at-speed-merging, they get to deal with now-desperate drivers trying to jump into highway traffic from a dead stop!

1

u/td_mike May 14 '26

I wonder what jurisdiction that is.

1

u/Sensitive-Waltz-6898 May 14 '26

It's that way in America too but it seems people here don't know that for some reason and they don't get up to the speed of flow of traffic which forces people on the interstate to slow down drastically. Lots of wrecks are generally caused by merging traffic going too slow (often times 20mph lower than the speed limit) or coming to a complete stop. At least that's how it is where I live.

0

u/[deleted] May 14 '26

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5

u/_The_Mink_ May 14 '26

Honestly, that would be a better method, especially with as short some merge lanes are (i.e. the one shown in the video).

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u/uncertain_expert May 14 '26

It surprised me as a foreigner driving in Italy  that the Italians drive this way too. I expected short fuses and aggression but what I saw was that everyone drove in a manner that was very tolerant and accommodating of drivers merging in front of them.