There are two kinds of people on the road,
those who see that the right lane is ahead and immediately move into the left lane,
and those who keep driving along in the right lane until the last second.
We'll call those folks late mergers.
Though, if you're an early merger you probably have more colorful names for them.
So, you might be surprised to know the late mergers have been right all along,
and there is a scientifically sound reason why we should all start doing that.
It's the two words that commuters dread,
it's called the zipper merge.
The late merge is also called the zipper merge.
It's the most efficient way to funnel a high volume of
cars from two lanes into one according to science.
If the zipper merge is so great,
how come you've either never heard of it,
or you get the finger when you do try it.
It's very hard sometimes.
People just try to keep like they are really
going to go but see you trap with back door they still will not let you win.
A bunch of states and cities have tried to spread the word.
North Carolina's Department of Transportation is trying to encourage
drivers to work together and take turns merging.
Take a look at this sign called a zipper merge.
Here's how the Minnesota Department of Transportation illustrates zipper merging.
This was just part of their publicity campaign for the zipper merge in 2011.
They also had billboards and they registered the domain dothezippermerge.org.
Kansas DoT joined in a few years later in 2014.
Here's the Missouri DoT.
The move works because it's a more efficient use of space.
The cars are using all available lanes right until the choke point.
There are tons of studies that show that if we all use the zipper merge,
we'd improve traffic flow and reduce the duration and physical length of backups.
In Germany, they've used the zipper merge since the '70s and it's the law.
Minnesota, Missouri, Kansas, and Washington state officially endorse it.
Colorado and Pennsylvania have used it at particular construction sites.
Texas and North Carolina are studying it with an eye towards implementing it statewide.
One of the issues that we have is we're seeing anywhere from 5,
10, 12 miles backup.
So, one of the things we're trying on this project is zipper merge.
In a traffic simulation or a math equation,
the zipper merge might look ideal but in the human brain it looks like
cheating and behavioral study show that we hate cheaters.
When people think someone is getting an unfair advantage,
they go to great lengths to punish the cheater.
This explains why people hate late merger's.
They perceive them as cutting in line and getting them one over on the early mergers.
Will you stop honking mac we're not going nowhere.
When Minnesota did a trial run of the late merge in 2003,
they put up signs like use both lanes and merge here.
Some drivers were observed acting as vigilante lane enforcers
weaving in and out of lanes to prevent late mergers from going over.
Other people straight up ignored the signs emerged early and
the whole thing caused 'Unnecessary disruptions in the traffic flow.'
That's partly why California still endorses the early merge citing
last minute mergers as a cause of
sudden braking and rear end collisions that make traffic worse.
There's a real measurable cost to traffic jams.
In 2017, U.S.
Drivers spent an average of 41 hours sitting in traffic.
When you factor in the lost productivity, wasted fuel,
and the higher shipping costs of getting goods through congested areas,
the backups cost over $300 billion which is
an average of nearly $1500 per driver per year.
That's one reason to look forward to the advent of smarter cars.
According to engineers and physicists and the laws of fluid dynamics,
traffic flow would be most efficient if every car maintained
a consistent speed and consistent space between a car head and the car behind.
Smart cars using sensors to communicate with each other would be able to maintain
optimal speed and distance for us thereby getting around the problem of human nature.
Until then, the real question to answer is this,
can we overcome our lizard brains and let that
late merging driver into our lane for the better good?
Let us know what you think in the comments.
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