Agreed KC. People butt in especially in expensive vehicles like they own the front of the line. These people would never attempt to cut in front of you in a lineup of people at Tim Hortons or at a movie. Put them behind the wheel of an Audi or BMW and they do it all the time. The other week I was in Toronto and a guy in a Mercedes 560 AMG tried to squeeze past me as I merged our of a left lane that was ending in heavy traffic moving at a crawl. He was driving right beside me and squeezed closer and closer expecting me to yield to him on my left. He was on the shoulder that was disappearing and could not squeeze forward anymore because of the curb. I glared at him as I laid on my horn as his fender was just inches from mine. He finally stopped when his mirror folded back after it hit mine. He rolled down the passenger window and yelled some obscenities that he had the right and I told him he should call a cop.
He was forced to fall behind me and then I let an 18 wheeler with a 53 ft trailer in from my right and moved into his void and around him. The Mercedes ended up stuck behind the semi for quite some time.
I think the main problem is all the rubber neckers who act like sheep, some texting while driving in a construction zone, others looking at the accident or construction, anything other than looking ahead. I see it all the time. The guy ahead of you just going slow even past the restriction with the car ahead of him already gone far ahead. You get pass these sloths and a you look in your rear view mirror, all the half asleep drivers are slowly getting up to speed hundreds of meters behind you. When I go through such areas I am focused on what is ahead of me, I don't speed and defensively drive. Once past the narrows I try to get back up to speed ASAP.
You see in places like when they close one lane of a two lane road for repaving for a kilometer or more. The stream of cars now past the merge point are all in a construction zone with only one lane but the line of traffic is wildly separated. Groups of cars properly separated and then big gaps where some timid or rubber necking driver is going much slower than all the rest, backing up traffic well behind them and affecting the merge area.
http://techcrunch.com/2011/05/12/the...lass-hands-on/
Proper merging is important but whether it happens well back or at the pinch point has little effect because the real issue is how much traffic passes at what cycle rate through the narrows. This is the proverbial bottle neck. No more sand can get through the hourglass unless more sand travels through the pinch point. It is true that the longer the pinch point, one slow car creates a ripple effect that lasts longer so merging late has the advantage of shortening the effective length of the pinch point. I always watch for the opening with a slow moving truck, a distracted driver who leaves an opening or a timid driver and fill the gap.
http://blog.nj.com/ledgerupdates/200...ay_30_for.html
http://www.theyeshivaworld.com/news/...el-closed.html
Studies done in the 1960's that were published at the time in Scientific American that were done on the Lincoln Tunnel in NYC of traffic delays and mediation concluded the problems occurred in the tunnel, not in the merge area. That merge was from 4 lanes to 8 toll booths down to two lanes. Studies revealed that a stalled car or sudden stop for even a moment in the tunnel created a ripple effect that worked its way backward and grew larger and longer as drivers were slow to respond to the changes of speed and over reacted and then did not recover. Studies found that if they held cars back momentarily at the tunnel entrance, creating artificial breaks, the ripple effect could be broken and allowed more cars to transit through the tunnel.
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