That's actually pretty stupid. It does go faster if all the cars wait for the 'zipper' effect until the lane is actually closed down.
It depends how heavy the traffic is. If it's light enough for cars to merge without having to stop, it's far better to merge early. But if it's that light and someone shoots to the end, he'll bring the entire road behind him to a standstill because the cars will have to stop to let him in.
why is that? if traffic is light you can merge late without having to stop, which means better use of the road.
...except some arse will always judge it wrong and run out of time to cut in, and have to brake and stop, and make others brake and stop behind him to let him in.
I thought you said if traffic is light? if traffic is light, said idiot will easily find a gap without much inconvenience to the rest.
yeah, but we're talking about the mentality of the sort of driver who'd try to overtake a car ahead rather than pull in behind one, because letting the guy in the next lane stay ahead would be akin to admitting he has a smaller penis.
in the situation i described, the traffic was moving steadily at about 20 mph, most of the time, for about a quarter to half of a mile , which took about a minute or so. there was no bottleneck because all the cars were single file. it might be "stupid" not to zipper the cars, but it's also more equitable, if that matters at all. the reason for the slow pace was that there were several tractor-trailers in the queue, and you know how that goes.
I was recently at Ecuador and drivers their are irresponsible. I'm not sure if they are the worst drivers but it's alarming how fast and reckless they drive. It's like they didn't care about their cars. The traffic can be chaotic because they don't have many traffic lights instead they have roundabouts.
I've heard bad things about Argentine and Egyptian drivers. In the US, DC and California have pretty bad drivers.
if California had more Argentine and Egyptian drivers, it wouldn't be safe to leave the house. i've lived in SoCal since the middle of the past century. every day i see dead people stacked up on the side of the freeway. driving at 85mph, it's a challenge to determine whether any of them are Egyptians, and for some reason, the TV news doesn't cover these kinds of stories. two years ago we were in DC, my wife and I, and we were trapped on the Beltway till we ran out of gas. my dream is to move to Ireland and spend hour upon hour behind a tractor on a narrow country road. i like the smell of a tractor engine in the rain.
We Americans have a way to deal with that, we can either: A. Tap the brake peddle to make the rear lights come on making you thing we're coming to a grinding halt so you have to lock up your brakes in order not to rear end us or... B. Really slam on the brakes forcing you to rear end us and then suing the living shit out of you for tailgating us or... C. Turn on our headlights really quickly which lights up the rear end of the car lights forcing you to slow down because you don't know what the hell we're doing or... D. We slow way the hell down to piss you off, forcing you to go around us while waving your middle finger in disgust.
I do this. Not only because I want them to pass me, but because the closer they are to me, the bigger stopping distance I need with the car in front.
i prefer slamming on my brakes and hoping that the driver behind me loses control of his car. i don't ever do that, really, but it's not because i don't feel like it. what possesses people to tailgate? are they just complete lunatics or jerks.
This works best on the Autobahn: Accelerate. Or just make some space. Driving a car is quite dangerous, so you want to minimize risk. Plus, that idiot doesn't even deserve your rage...
Tailgating not really an issue on New York freeways because of the traffic, but I choose option "D" a lot while driving in narrow city streets when they are unable to drive around me. Then I'll run a red light and if my timing is spot-on it forces them to stay behind while I speed away.
Driving in Italy almost made me insane! The drivers there are all suicidal! At least they seem to be and they are risking other peoples lives as well!
nah, they are just being Italians. and they fly like they drive. I mean the airline pilots flying passenger planes. try flying AlItalia, it's good fun. well, maybe not for you so much giving that you don't like driving in Italy. I actually enjoy driving in Italy a lot, probably because I have a very similar driving style..
Qatar is really bad but the UAE is more dangerous as they drive faster. For Europe, I'd pick Romania.
I once travelled by bus from Bangkok to Surat Thani. The bus driver watched television throughout the trip - which in itself was bad enough, you'd think. It gets worse though: the television was actually BEHIND him.
meanwhile they're doing over 100 km/ h on a semi paved road on a 20 year old bus with suspension problems
