Quote:
Originally Posted by p1l0t
Lots of people do it, it's just inefficient and a waste of open space. People who drive on the shoulder is a whole other special type. That's the emergency lane you are really asking for trouble doing that. (Although some states like New Hampshire allow it in construction zones but NH also has like a population of 3 and even interstates are only two lanes so maybe it works there but scary if an ambulance needs to get through). I'm just saying people should merge, at the merge, and zipper in. If everyone lets one person go it works really well. If you let zero people go or a bunch of people than that's inefficient too because it jams up the lanes. Merging miles too early just wastes a bunch of real estate making the backup longer.
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Everyone trying to merge at the same point in the road actually slows down traffic on average. The most efficient merge happens when both lanes are moving at the same speed. The most efficient traffic flow occurs when acceleration (+ and -) is minimized. The "right" thing to do is to gradually decrease speed until both lanes match and then merge to the through lane, rather than blast up to the merge then cut in like an ass.
The point isn't to optimize the space taken by the cars. That's called gridlock in some places.
The point is to optimize the average rate of passage.