I’ve been reading this for years, and the hypothesis always seems to be that zipper merging is good because it maximizes road usage. You know what else maximizes road usage? Bumper to bumper gridlock.
Good luck getting humans to do that, though. Bumper to bumper only makes people slow down due to discomfort, so cramming to the front and increasing density to bumper to bumper will only slow traffic further.
It’s the same reason rolling stops happen on highways even without traffic accidents or lane closures. When density gets too high, people will slow down, and the assholes thinking bumper to bumper at the last second is zipper merging are indeed assholes slowing traffic down.
I’ve been reading this for years, and the hypothesis always seems to be that zipper merging is good because it maximizes road usage. You know what else maximizes road usage? Bumper to bumper gridlock.
Gridlock doesn’t maximize it. Bumper-to-bumper at 80mph does, though
Good luck getting humans to do that, though. Bumper to bumper only makes people slow down due to discomfort, so cramming to the front and increasing density to bumper to bumper will only slow traffic further.
It’s the same reason rolling stops happen on highways even without traffic accidents or lane closures. When density gets too high, people will slow down, and the assholes thinking bumper to bumper at the last second is zipper merging are indeed assholes slowing traffic down.
Zipper merging, when done properly by enough people, prevents (selfish) others from racing past
People cramming in at he last moment on a jammed highway exit is a different story