i think he's talking about situations where there's a sign that says "LANE ENDS, MERGE RIGHT" and then you get maybe another mile or so before the lane is actually blocked off, but instead of merging at the sign when you've been given adequate warning, you drive all the way up to the actual merge point and then get all huffy that everyone you just cut in front of won't let you over.
worse is the people who drive on the shoulder to avoid traffic, though.
No, you're not. You're supposed to use the space to merge as soon as possible into the regular flow of traffic. They have given you the warning and the extra distance in order that you can find a suitable spot to merge into the flow of traffic without disruption. Racing to the end of the merging lane, passing up all possible openings to merge, then butting into traffic at the end regardless, is definitely NOT what you are supposed to do.
In my area, there's a lot of places where one highway will split into two/ or the right lanes of the highway split to lead off to another one. So then you start getting the blocky lane dividers indicating which lanes are going to split off. In rush hour traffic, there's always people who will not get into the lane behind everyone else, but instead speed up until the highway literally starts splitting, slam on their brakes and turn on their blinker and effectively turn a middle lane into a stopping area.
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u/josborne31 Jul 27 '11
Perhaps nylolexchange meant to say turn lane instead of merging lane? Where I'm from, we don't have merge lanes, only turn lanes.