Perhaps this is a dumb question, but what’s the difference? I thought a zipper merge was what happened when there was a lane closure.
For a zipper merge the highway department is very clear about where the dead end lane ends and the merge is supposed to happen. At a zipper merge there should also be a sign advising drivers to stay in their lanes until they reach the merge point. Sometimes locally the signage does not tell you which lane is disappearing with the zipper merge. If you are supposed to stay in your lane you don’t really need advance notice of which lane is going away.
Locally (in Milwaukee) we see a fair number of lane closure warnings where there is no actual lane closure. The road crews are not always good about taking the signs down. I ran into this on the way to work recently, 5 miles of lane closed ahead but no lane closure.
The way I see them doing a lot of construction projects they gradually move the construction zone so in that case I understand why they don’t move the signs but they should cover the signs when they end the closure.
I used to drive in Milwaukee a lot 4 or 5 years ago and I don’t envy your experience.
If the lane closed ahead sign is not always reliable but the lane is traveling faster than the other lane, I’ll just stay in the lane until I get to where it closes. It’s just a warning. If the traffic has slowed to a crawl when the lanes merge then do a zipper merge, if not just scoot over when you’re there. It’s not that hard.
I’ve seen numerous cases where there’s a mile long queue in the right lane, no one in the left lane and cars have to wait several minutes to get off at an exit before where the merge is supposed to happen.
Yes, i meant the lane closure warning, not the merge.
Driving along on a highway that’s a 65 mph speed limit and there’s a guy going 59 in the left lane, texting.
So I pull over to the right lane and pass him going about 61 mph behind some other cars and I pull back into the left lane in front of him and speed up to 69 (my normal speed).
So I’m going along at 69 and he screeches into the right lane, passes me doing about 85 and flips me off.
Dude… why is 59 in the left lane perfectly acceptable but 69 is way too slow???
Because I was just texting for 1 minute before resuming my high speed! Don’t you know anything!
I hate drivers who take passing personally. That’s just weird.
I approve.
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One thing that I don’t understand is people trying to pass without speeding up.
For example you are going 70 and you come up on a car going 69.5 so you move to the passing lane, so far so good. But then you don’t speed up at all so it takes like 3 minutes to pass the other car meanwhile traffic backs up behind you in the passing lane. I say if you are going to pass, PASS. Give it a little extra gas so that you clear the car you are passing.
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Agreed. I think one should minimize the time that someone is next to another vehicle (especially tractor trailers) going at those speeds in case somebody suddenly swerved. Passing a tractor trailer with a half-mile difference in speed will take around two minutes, whereas a 10 mile differential will be 20 times as fast.
“Normal speed of 69” would probably get you a lot of attention if that were on your dating profile
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I assume it is a super lazy person who won’t adjust his cruise control.
Yeah, sorry about that, my next car will have adaptive cruise control
Hopefully you left out the detail that you shifted back in the left lane only because you were about to overtake slower-moving traffic in the right lane.
Surely you don’t want to imply that you’re one of those annoying drivers who fails to observe the “keep right except to pass” rule of the road (assuming you’re not in a drive-on-the-left jurisdiction).
That is exactly what you inferring that she’s implying.
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And don’t call her Shirley.
She takes the erose “lane changing is for suckers” position quite seriously.
Uh, I mentioned that I was behind cars going 8 mph slower in the right lane, so yes, I got into the left lane to pass those cars.
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One of the things they really instilled in me in my motorcycle safety course was that most accidents involving motorcycles can be avoided by the motorcyclist being a better driver, being more aware, and wearing the best safety equipment.
Not to say that all motorcycle accidents are the fault of the motorcyclist, but it’s often that the tiny amount of fault they contribute would be enough to avoid the accident entirely if it were 0%. Or at least enough to avoid serious injury or death.
And when you choose to ride a motorcycle, you have to know the risk involved.
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I don’t speed, period. So I mostly drive in the right lane, as I rarely overtake cars. But when I do need to pass, I pass going the speed limit. It is the law in my state. Not going to break the law, no matter how annoying that is to others.
You won’t get any criticism from me for observing the speed limit but if the car ahead is going only slightly under the speed limit my inclination would be to slow down a little and save some gas.