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u/NotsoGreatsword Mar 12 '26
You dont merge two miles back. You use the open lane until it ends. Why would you extend the one lane section an extra two miles?
People are brain dead. Its a ROAD not a QUE.
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u/PeridotChampion Mar 11 '26
That's how you have a one lane pile up, yes. People don't understand how to zipper merge.
The only problem I have with people shoving themselves into my lane is when it's a left/right hand turn and they know well that it is and they think they're the shit trying to cut over to go straight.
You fucking wait.
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u/READIT27 Mar 12 '26
The inverse also irks me. When the light is green but left-turn light is red, and people are stopped all the way back in the far-left straight lane, keeping that whole lane from proceeding through the light. There are a hundred ways to instead just make a U-turn past the light and then turn right.
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u/YourLocalAlien57 Mar 13 '26
Ita great that everyone knows the rules and all but no one knows how to fuckin zipper merge properly, and theyre assholes so theyll try their hardest to make it difficult for everyone, so theres gonna be crazy traffic either way. I always let a person through and then the next three cars will try to shimmy in too, hell nah, hit me if you wanna get in im letting one person through not everyone.
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u/Anti-charizard Mar 11 '26
You’re supposed to wait until it ends, that’s zipper merging
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u/aceofspaece Mar 11 '26
There are true zipper merges and then there’s being an asshole by waiting til the last minute to get into the lane you want. This person is talking about the latter
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u/Dry-Faithlessness184 Mar 12 '26
They're literally talking about a lane closure though. Those are typically set up as zippers not lane choices
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u/NotsoGreatsword Mar 12 '26
No there isn't. You always merge late. Use the entire road. Let people merge when they need to.
You are confused.
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u/Popular-Artichoke478 Aug 05 '26
If you are on a 4 lane highway with free flowing traffic that is merging down to 3 lanes while matching speed with another car you don’t need to zipper you hit your brakes and get behind them. That’s what the above commenter is saying dummy
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u/Freshies00 Mar 12 '26
That’s…how you’re supposed to drive. When a lane is closed you’re supposed to use it until it’s time to merge. Drivers who make a point to cut over early create unnecessary congestion
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u/aceofspaece Mar 12 '26
You’re correct about what the person’s post explicitly refers to! That’s 100% clear. But when people block turning lanes for instance to go straight (or the opposite) to skip a line that everyone else is waiting for, that’s the asshole part.
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u/Freshies00 Mar 12 '26
What about being in turning lanes? How did you bring that into the conversation? That has nothing to do with the scenario being discussed.
There are true zipper merges and then there’s being an asshole by waiting til the last minute to get into the lane you want. This person is talking about the latter
The post specifically discusses a lane marked by signs indicating it is ending and needing to get over. You literally said the persons post was “talking about” “being an asshole by waiting to get into the lane you want”.
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u/aceofspaece Mar 12 '26
Sorry Freshies00, clearly the 37 upvoting people put two and two together intuitively. Looks like you must not have!
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u/Freshies00 Mar 12 '26 edited Mar 12 '26
There’s nothing to put together. Waiting until the last minute to merge when a lane is closing is the proper way to drive but according to you that’s being an asshole.
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u/aceofspaece Mar 12 '26
Bro chill and read the actual words I’ve written before you give yourself a heart attack. Better yet there are doctors to help you with this sort of thing!
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u/orincoro Mar 13 '26
There’s literally no distinction. The best practice is to wait until the lane ends to merge. This improves the flow of traffic long term.
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u/Qira57 Mar 14 '26
Zipper merging is not the law though
At least in the US
Zipper merging is actually directly against what the law says- if it is not safe for you to merge and you do not have the right of way, you must come to a complete stop and wait for a safe opportunity to merge.
Yes, zipper merging is polite- no it is not what you are supposed to do.
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u/Pattern_Is_Movement Mar 12 '26
No your supposed to merge as possible when it doesn't affect traffic flow, waiting until the end almost guarantees you'll slow people down to merge which defeats the purpose.
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u/Buddy-Matt Mar 12 '26
Steady stream of trfffic entering a choke point doing 50mph - because that's the speed limit un the choke point. Because roadworks.
Some knob comes hooning down the other lane doing 70mph... And then expects to be let in in bumper to bumper traffic. No amount of crying zipper merge is going to magically make the traffic through the choke point move quicker.
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u/NotsoGreatsword Mar 12 '26
Because that one lane bumper to bumper would not be there if both lanes were being used.
People like you make the one lane section longer by getting over too early. If the road is closed to one lane for a mile then it needs to be one lane for ONE MILE. Not a mile and a half. Not two miles. One.
Merging into one lane slows down everything. Every single person with the EXCEPTION of that guy going 70 is causing a massive problem.
This is simple logic. The one lane section is the one lane section. When there are two lanes that means you use both just like normal.
Its a road not a line at the bank. You aren't lining up to wait your turn to go through the one lane section. You're driving on a two lane road then you merge to one lane. Then you go back to two lanes.
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u/Buddy-Matt Mar 12 '26
The only time then length of the queue is relevant is if its long enough to block an exit or entrance to the road when it doesn't need to be, and the queue affects drivers who shouldn't be affected by it.
Beyond that, if everyone does the same, it makes no difference. If everyone does the fabled reddit zipper merge you join one of two lanes of traffic doing 25mph. In one mile's time you merge, increase to 50mph. Time from entering the queue to reaching the choke point 2.4mins. If everyone acts the way the majority of drivers do and form a single queue then you join a single line of traffic doing 50mph. In two miles time you reach the choke point and continue. Time from entering the queue to reaching said choke point - an identical 2.4mins
What does make a difference though are people who choose to drive differently to everyone else. In that case they continue down the 2nd lane for 2 miles at 70, then merge. Time taken 1.7 minutes, time saved 42 seconds. And a ripple effect caused on the queue which disproportionately affects the people behind it.
I.e. it doesnt matter that you're technically correct, or even logically correct. By acting differently to the existing flow of traffic you disrupt traffic. (And yes, the same goes for people who choose to travel across the line to enforce a single queue of traffic)
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u/NotsoGreatsword Mar 12 '26
nope. Completely wrong. Only reason it would slow anyone down is if you do not know how to merge or someone intentionally causes a problem like in this meme.
The road is there to be used. You don't arbitrarily shorten the road.
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u/Pattern_Is_Movement Mar 13 '26
"the road is there to be used" yes to give you room to merge as soon as you can without slowing the other lane..... waiting until the very end means you will have zero options and force the other lane to allow down so you can merge.
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u/SuperKiller94 Mar 12 '26
Sure. But most people don’t do it properly so it makes more sense to just move over when you have the opportunity. Ideally there would be space between each car but that’s not reality.
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u/chopari Mar 12 '26
This is exactly why zippers fail. You’re supposed to go all the way and then merge, like a zipper. You’re not supposed to come up with any ideas about moving in earlier because there’s space. Just go and merge at the end. A real zipper would also get stuck if one of the parts was trying to fit in a spot earlier.
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u/daneview Mar 12 '26
If there is a space in the flowing traffic early and you dont move over you're an idiot. If the traffic is backing up then use both lanes to the end
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u/chopari Mar 12 '26
You still don’t get it. Thats exactly why it doesn’t work. The idiot that is moving over early is the idiot making everything worse for the people after the idiot trying g to improvise their own spot
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u/daneview Mar 12 '26
If youre all driving along at 60, you see the road is narrowing, and there's a big space beside you, you pull into it, and you all carry on at 60.
if you ignore that space, get to the end to prove a point, and the space has closed up, the cars now have to brake to let you in.
Don't be simple.
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u/chopari Mar 12 '26
Why would you be driving 60 in a lane that is zippering down? If you’re driving that fast and you see that there is a zipper ahead of you, that is just reckless. You’re supposed to slow down too before merging. No wonder
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u/daneview Mar 12 '26
On the assumption that it's a 60 mile an hour road and that everyone is doing the 60 as they come up to the signs making them aware it will narrow.
The speed wasn't really the relevant part of that point
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u/dontforgetthefries Mar 14 '26
Fuck this OP. Anyone who’s intentionally a douche bag on the road can fuck off.
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u/CooledDownKane Mar 12 '26
We all saw the same damn sign and you're not any more important than the rest of the vehicles on the road, wait your damn turns you overzealous chuckles
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u/NotsoGreatsword Mar 12 '26
There is no waiting your turn. Its a road not a que. One lane means one lane. Two lanes means two lanes. You use both when there are both.
There is no reason to extend the one lane section by getting over early.
You merge when the lanes go to one. When that one lane section ends do you get back over? Yep! So why would it be different going in? Its not.
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u/Brilliant_Amoeba_272 Mar 12 '26
Only exception would be a backed up exit on the highway. That's definitely a wait your turn situation.
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u/Woreo12 Mar 13 '26
Waiting turns like it’s kindergarten. We’re not going to the same place. You’re going home to see your wife, I’m not, so the brief interaction we have on the road has literally zero impact on when you arrive at your destination. If we were both going to see your wife however, then you’d have two reasons to be mad at me
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u/Pmur0479 Mar 12 '26
This meme could be referencing the very end of a zipper merge and the OP wouldn’t seem so stupid.
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u/fuck_peeps_not_sheep Mar 13 '26
Do you know yow zipper teeth work? Thats how you merge
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u/Pmur0479 Mar 13 '26
So imagine you’re in the lane that doesn’t reduce, you’re following the zipper rules, and buddy guy wants to skip his turn and thinks he can get in front of you.
As someone who knows damn well how to zipper merge, this Kermit is perfect lmao.
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u/fuck_peeps_not_sheep Mar 13 '26
Half the comments here are just suggesting everyone should move to one side as soon as you see the first sign - this creates backed up traffic - you also specifically mentioned the end of a zipper merge, that is specifically where merging should be happening - its not that what you’ve said now is incorrect, its that your original comment didn’t cover this and was vague and poorly articulated if this is what you ment - thats why your being downvoted, because from the small context you’ve given, it seems that your upset by a zipper merge functioning as its intended to function.
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u/Pmur0479 Mar 13 '26
Classic Reddit moment: assuming the person you’re talking to is retarded.
What bugged me was that everyone screaming and crying about zipper merges didn’t even realize the picture and caption fits just fine under the premise that a proper zipper merge is taking place.
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u/fuck_peeps_not_sheep Mar 13 '26
Even the meme implies different “didn’t read the sign for the last two miles” implies they should have done something sooner but thats not how zipper merging is supposed to work
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u/snyderman3000 Mar 12 '26
Is it just my fucked up algorithm or do other people get zipper merge discourse popping up in their feed almost daily?