Quote:
Originally Posted by justatroll
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Where did you get the idea for the third picture from? Here I see mostly picture 1, with too many drivers trying to do it "picture 2" way, leaving "buffer zones" of 600 ft, wasting valuable road space.
Most reasonable drivers, by the way, don't drive around those early mergers on the shoulder. We wait until they finish merging, even if it takes ages - because they try to merge in an unexpected spot and drivers in the through lane are not prepared yet to let them in, and because early merge is usually done by people who do not understand driving well, so they tend to do it clumsily. We drive to the right merging spot after they are done merging.
Maybe one in 30 or 50 people does it in actual asshole-way, driving beyond the end of the merge and merging from the shoulder. But that's very rare, so we never get even close to picture 3. Maybe your experience is different, maybe in your area there is a lot of assholes who drive on shoulders, or people in the through lanes are assholes and don't allow to merge, or drivers just don't get the concept, and you guys end up with picture 3 situation.
But it's so easy, you just go to the point where the merge lane starts to narrow and/or the broken line disappears or changes to dotted line. Turn your blinker on, adjust your speed to align with a gap, and in 98% of cases the car behind you in the through lane slows down just a bit to allow you to merge. Everything goes smoothly, nobody has to stop (unless traffic is already stopped anyway).
You emphasize flow rate, but I said before that flow rate is barely improved (or not at all) with late merge. The benefits are: signifcantly shorter backup, and the fact that the process is smooth and orderly and does not make drivers angry.