• LurkingLuddite@piefed.social
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      3 days ago

      I hate to break it to you, but you have to merge before the lane closes. If it’s 20 feet or 200 feet, you’re still merging before the lane is closed.

      Guess how fast you eat up hundreds of feet at highway speeds? In seconds.

      If you want traffic to stay at highway speeds, you ALWAYS merge before you HAVE to leave your lane.

      It’s the same principle with on ramps. The people racing up an on-ramp just to wedge into slower traffic are helping no one.

      • TheJesusaurus@piefed.ca
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        3 days ago

        Hate to break it to you but literally every other country on earth zipper merges and it’s far more efficient

        • LurkingLuddite@piefed.social
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          2 days ago

          Yes, they’re more efficient. They’re also more efficient than rushing up to the end of a closing lane and merging into an ALREADY FULL through-lane. That is NOT zipper merging. It is cutting in line. That will always, ALWAYS, reduce throughput. Period.

          You cannot cheat physics and human predictability. Rushing to the end of a closed lane WILL NEVER INCREASE THROUGHPUT. Period,

      • whotookkarl@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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        3 days ago

        zipper gif

        If you’re talking about doing it at 60 you can still use both lanes as long as you aren’t following the car in front of you dangerously close or jerks who don’t let merges in there’ll already be enough room to merge. Cutting to one lane early is like people who don’t use the on ramp to accelerate and slow everyone down when they merge then accelerate

        • LurkingLuddite@piefed.social
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          3 days ago

          The vast majority of situations where people are making faces at the assholes sitting at the end of the closed lane is when traffic is already over-dense and going slow.

          In those situations, which are often, racing to the end of the closing lane is just being a line-cutting shithead, and has nothing to do with zipper merging. At that point, they’re literally only butting in on through-traffic.

      • chuckleslord@lemmy.world
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        3 days ago

        No, it doesn’t. It never would, because NHTSA knows that utilizing all lanes during a lane closure reduces backups. Show me a sign where it tells drivers to merge now that isn’t at the actual merge and I will eat a hat

        • LurkingLuddite@piefed.social
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          3 days ago

          It does NOT reduce backups. You cannot magically increase throughput by cramming in before the bottleneck. It can reduce how physically long a backup gets, which can keep backups from growing off of the highway. Though you still cannot magically add throughput by cramming in ahead of a bottleneck. Ever. Period.

          • TheJesusaurus@piefed.ca
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            3 days ago

            You can add throughput by zipper merging predictably all day long instead of every car jockeying for position and feeling entitled to block other road users from legally merging and causing all kinds of road rage based holdups though

            • LurkingLuddite@piefed.social
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              2 days ago

              Yes, if people were able to drive like robots. Though once traffic is already slow in the through-lanes, rushing up to the end of the closed lane and cramming in HURTS THROUGHPUT. Always. For ever. Period.

              • TheJesusaurus@piefed.ca
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                2 days ago

                No it doesn’t. And people don’t every day, all over the world. Mostly without even needing signage.