Yeah, that situation is where I see it 2nd-most; first most is people trying to change lanes into an exit lane right at the exit when they're in a non-exit lane and want to exit. Those are lane changes, though, not merges.
And then, invariably, someone behind them will immediately change into the right lane and speed up to pass them on the right. Thereby making it even harder for the person merging to get in, while also pinning the person who made room for them in the middle lane, because there's suddenly a bunch of faster-moving traffic in the right lane.
It will tend to work out this way even when it's a 3-lane highway and the left-hand lane is wide open.
People merging onto the highway are supposed to reach highway speed before attempting to merge, but they very often do not do that.
And they're supposed to to find a gap, but there may not be one or other drivers may deliberately try to deny them one.
The merging lane may be very short.
The merging car may start to change lanes even if it's not safe to do so.
Congestion may require more deliberately courteous behavior.
The right lane often has many trucks clustered together and rote exercise of the keep-right rule will require an excessive amount of lane changing.
And on a limited access highway, lane changing is the most dangerous routine maneuver so one should be thoughtful of balancing lane changing with expediency.
And the idea that a driver has no responsibility to accommodate another merging driver, if applied strictly, also means that one cannot always leave the right lane at will, because driver in the left lane are not permitting. So you change speed a lot, which is rough on fuel efficiency and precludes cruise control if it's adaptive.
Being religious about keep-right is kind of miserable on a congested highway, especially one with a differential of speed speed limits depending on vehicle type. The people most steadfast about traffic laws get punished at the pleasure of people who flout them, which doesn't seem correct.
I've seen that as well and that only ever happens when the left most lane is also an exiting lane. It's not intuitive by any means but it's also consistent so if you know the rules and can see the road ahead, you'll be safe.
I believe ComputerGuru was talking about the merge into the left lane of the intersecting road while exiting the highway and turning left. It's not the most intuitive of arrangements, especially when combined with the left-hand exit following shortly. Hopefully the drivers on the intersecting road will be sufficiently surprised by the arrangement to break the usual expectation of the left lane being a through lane with higher speed.
Sure but when you merge you're taking an action. You're changing lanes. Otherwise if you're in a turn lane/on ramp you're just following the lane. For you the lane is going straight.
In the Netherlands at least, if you can't find a spot to merge from the onramp lane, you are to stop and wait for a better moment to merge. This never happens in practice though, because drivers on the rightmost lane will commonly either move a lane to the left, or if they can't, change their speed a little to accommodate you. But that's a courtesy, not a rule.
yeah.. we have merge in turn here, the curved arrow on the road at the end of a lane means this. we also have text signs for "use both lanes" and "merge in turn"
but mostly people are not too keen to actually follow the rules.. i used to follow the pack, now i just follow the instructions and merge as late as possible. - probably this makes me an asshole
> In a lot of European countries, vehicles entering from the right (aka merging onto the highway) have the right of way
Really? In Ontario, entrance merge lanes are marked as if the opposite is true, with "lane ends 300 m" signs and painted lines all the way until it tapers off to nothing.
I'm not sure what the law says, but this creates the feeling that "you're lane is ending, not mine", and it's entirely up to entering traffic to match speed and find a gap. Basically, freeway traffic shouldn't adjust their speed unless it's the only way to let entering traffic enter (if there's no room).
In contrast, most US states seem to immediately merge the two lanes into one really wide lane that gradually (or rapidly) tapers down to normal width. Often without any warning signs for freeway traffic to expect merging traffic.
(Some US states also do this for exit ramps, which creates the dangerous situation where some drivers will accidentally take the exit at freeway speeds. This happened to me once at night, and I had to slam on the brakes before running the stop sign at the end.)
In real life, I observe both, often simultaneously. The far left or right lane can back up a very long way as everybody tries for the same turn. Oblivious or selfish people bypass it all and try to change lanes at the last second, often with sudden braking and occasional bent metal because the target lane is full and stopped.
In a lot of European countries, vehicles entering from the right (aka merging onto the highway) have the right of way, so even if they aren't necessarily up to speed, you have to let them in, or make room for them. This is one reason you'll see many people change out of the right lane just before a merge -- they are probably making room to let someone get in.
Locally (metro NYC), I've heard this referred to as "alternate merge" and it's usually mentioned in the context of someone saying something along the lines of "there was a traffic jam due to an accident and then when it was MY TURN to go, the person in the other lane didn't let me in". Usually there's a comment about how the plates were from out of state, too.
This is not to be confused with, e.g., a road that splits and the left lane split it moving fine and the right lane is backed up and a driver in the left lane waits until the last possible second to move over, often times coming to a complete stop, thus backing up what should be a free-flowing lane. No, in that case you didn't move over in time, you don't get to slow down traffic, you take the lane you're in and keep going, you'll have to take the next exit.
Not to mention that if the right lane is an "exit only" lane, merging a truck over a lane is pretty hard. No one wants to leave enough room. Or when you do leave enough room, some idiot sees that giant opening and moves into it.
in Pittsburgh, part of the reason is that there are some exit ramps off the left lane. People who are afraid to change lanes get in the left lane and stay there for miles so they don't have to merge to get to the ramp
It is a signal that I am going to get over into that lane one way or the other. You can choose to keep me from doing so in which case I'll get in front of one of the following vehicles and merge there. I don't know where you drive but that is absolutely normal and expected behavior where I do.
It seems like just one of the challenges for autonomous operations. Driving that is pretty much necessary in some locations (and to do otherwise would cause other drivers to route around you in unsafe ways) would often be seen as hopelessly aggressive in others.
Experience up and down the east coast and currently in the Midwest.
I've started calling the first merge style you've observed the "Minnesota merge". I deal with it on the way to and from the office, each direction with a good mile of merge lane.
Ninja Edit: Jersey is the best for clear right lanes. I've made entire journeys never coming up on anyone in the right lane, unless they were in the process of "merging", which in this case means getting all the way into the left lane immediately.
I like the idea of #1. But it seems from my experience in the U.S. and Canada, that there is a tendency towards unambiguous right-of-way. That tends to rule out collaborative scenarios where there's no clear "winner" when two cars are competing for the same resource. Which is a shame, because making this collaborative is exactly what will change the mentality (i.e. you can't ignore the drivers trying to merge, because you're trying to merge too).
Even with zipper merging the right-of-way is going to be on the person who is staying in their own lane.
I'm not sure if my experience is regional, or even imagined, nor do I know the reason...I'd imagine it makes assigning blame in an accident much easier, but that's a really crappy basis for traffic rules.
It's not a big problem to be in the wrong lane. You just change lanes like any other road. And like any other road, when you change lanes, it's your responsibility to make sure the lane you're merging into has space for you.
I am an impatient driver, but I think you're in the right and the other driver is in the wrong. Right lane is slow traffic/merge. Middle lane is travel. Left lane is fast/passing lane.
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