Best traffic sign I ever saw was on a merge ramp access to a busy highway. “Leave a gap. Take a gap.” Worked like a charm.
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He missed the thing where people turn left a bit before turning right or vice versa. You’re driving a sedan not a big rig.
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Doing it the old way gets people killed when vehicles being “polite” clog one lane for a mile or more. A car traveling at speed tops a hill and unexpectedly meets the stopped traffic violently. The zipper move is being mandated by signage at most highway road construction zones now in my state.
Edited to add “in my state”.
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That’s right! Courtesy kills! Who knows how many lives I saved by cutting off that dipshit with the NRA sticker?
The point is that what you see as “courtesy” is actually selfish, dangerous, unhelpful behaviour that slows everyone down.
But you do you. May I suggest you refrain from sticking your fingers in your ears and singing “la la la, I can’t hear you” while driving?
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Same here, I’m of the opinion most people on the road have no depth perception and have no respect for physics. Also you gotta love his Prius hate-on with that remark about them in the video.
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Are you even reading the posts?
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You’re talking spherical cows here though, not human drivers. It matters that it’s ingrained that you get in line and wait your turn, and that that is the etiquette. I have more than a hearty suspicion that early adopters to the “zipper-merge” (euphamism for queue-jumper) were not doing it out of civic responsibility. The roads are not designed for ziper merge (half the “zipper” is gunning it down the breakdown lane…) and entire generarion were not taught this in driver’s ed. It’s most likely still going to come off, for now, as a dick move, and cause more negative road rage than positive highway efficiency. Sure, get the word out about the efficiency, but until cars are driverless, psychology matters
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I don’t disagree, and suspect you’re right about early adopters, before the studies and eventually laws and signage started showing up. I’m just disheartened that the debate still goes like this despite the evidence:
“Multiple studies show that the zipper merge makes things faster and safer for everyone!”
“Whatever. Will you just look at that asshole jumping the queue while I sit here waiting courteously, if not exactly patiently?”
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But i like parades! Who doesn’t like a parade?
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I’m afraid to watch just in case its me.
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Yes! Most annoying thing ever, particularly when you are passing them on a multi-lane road. I am often so tempted to just hit them.
A couple of these seem to stem from my pet peeve, which is drivers who make decisions based on where other cars are, not on how fast they actually want to go. Like the idiot who passes and then slows down - he didn’t pass because he wants to travel 5 mph faster than me - he passed me because I happened to wind up in the right lane and him in the left and he thinks “well I can’t very well pull in behind this guy, can I?”. Or the idiot who rides my bumper for 5 minutes, and I then speed up 5 mph, and sure enough he speeds up 5 mph and rides my bumper. Etc. etc. (shakes fist at traffic)
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Sorry, I don’t buy the zipper merge arguement. The only way it can work on a road at anything like its capacity, is by reducing the safety cushion for braking in front of each vehicle. Maintain speed, double the density, halve the braking room, that’s a recipe for disaster.
I’ve seen various highway departments plugging zipper feed, but never seen the NTSB propounding it. Highway departments are not unbiased bystanders. They don’t don’t need a zillion complaints from folks stuck in traffic with cell phones. Dead men tell no tales and dead motorists don’t complain to the state highway board.
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I don’t think it is. I saw neither moose nor squirrel.
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Camping the left lane: This is usual, legal, and customary in some states. The left lane is considered a through lane in these sates. It’s not intended to be exclusively for passing but also for traffic not exiting the road.
One I think he left out: Speeding up when someone in front and to the right or left of you signals a lane change to prevent them from changing lanes and getting in front of you. I’ve spoken to more than on cabbie who says they wont use a turn signal because that will just ensure that they wont be able to change lanes.
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A related mistake is changing lanes as you go turn onto a multi-lane road. You’re supposed to stay in the lane you started in all the way through the intersection.
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I wish they showed this video at the DMV to new drivers! As a motorcyclist I’ve seen all of this and more. From the complete distraction of drivers too preoccupied with something else to the aggro-centrics that do not want to see me pass, especially in traffic (in CA lane splitting is legal-ish) Understandably, everyone tries to drive at their comfort level. There will always be slow drivers, uncertain nervous drivers, reckless drivers, and just plain jerks. Awareness and common courtesy is something we could all use on the road.
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This one bothers me a lot. Just because you can physical insert your car into the space between traffic doesn’t mean you should. Speed of traffic matters, and when someone does this it’s usually because they are rolling up, see an opening and just go before assessing the speed. AAAAARGH. If everyone has to slow down, don’t pull out. Of course if traffic is a heavy stream and there’s just never going to be a big enough gap, that’s an obvious exception, I think right of ways always have to be tempered with the practical circumstances (In heavy pedestrian crossings I think it’s nice for the people to occasionally let a car take a turn to go through).
I’ve never observed this as much as in SoCal.
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It’s going to give me an early heart attack. At 4 way stops yelling at other drivers in my head is far lopsided for not going when they should as opposed to aggressively going ahead their of turn.
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