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The Late Merger
- 11/18/09
- 77
Though I don’t feel quite right about it, I just had to give it a try. It is an experiment of sorts, I guess. I just had to know what it was like to be one of the few, one of the proud, one of the obnoxious—one of the late mergers. You know these people. Most of you, when you are crawling along the highway in heavy traffic and see a sign telling you that the lane will end in one mile (or one kilometer if you’re up here in Canada), quickly bump over into the lane that will not end, glad that you’ve immediately sorted out that problem. Now you can be assured that you won’t find yourself squeezed onto the shoulder or parked endlessly with your light blinking, trying to squeeze your way out of that dying lane while everyone else tries to block your progress. Yet, as you sit there, content that you’ve done the right thing, you can’t help but notice all those people speeding by to your right, driving their cars to the edge, to the brink, to the very last car-length of the lane that is about to end. You grouch, your grumble, you remark on their complete lack of care for the other people on the road. And yet you have to admit that they will get where they are going before you will. They seem unaffected by your plight, content to further their own goals even at your expense.
I’ve been there. And I just had to try life as a late merger. I now zip down that ending lane and merge at the very last second, finding a gap in traffic and squeezing my van into it. I get the dirty looks and angry stares. But I get where I’m going sooner than they do.
In his book Traffic Tom Vanderbilt discusses this same phenomenon. He, too, became a late merger, much to his wife’s chagrin, and he found that life is better this way. “It is a question you have no doubt asked yourself while crawling down some choked highway, watching with mounting frustration as the adjacent cars glide ahead. You drum the wheel with your fingers. You change the radio station. You fixate on one car as a benchmark of your own lack of progress. You try to figure out what that weird button next to the rear-window defroster actually does. I used to think this was just part of the natural randomness of the highway. Sometimes fate would steer me into the faster lane, sometimes it would relinquish me to the slow lane.” But he made a major lifestyle change when he became a late merger.
But the days after he first experimented with late merging were not easy. “In the days after, a creeping guilt and confusion took hold. Was I wrong to have done this? Or had I been doing it wrong all my life.” Seeking answers, he headed to an online community and posed the question to the waiting masses. He was rather surprised at the response, not just in the volume of responses but also in the passion and conviction with which people spoke. Some argued that he was a goon, refusing to do the sort of random acts of kindness that benefit all of society. By refusing to merge early, he was contributing to the overall slowness of the highway and making accidents more likely. Others argued that he was simply a good steward, using the highway to its maximum capacity. After all, what is the purpose of all that asphalt if we are not really allowed to drive on it? By maximizing the use of the highway surface he was actually making life better for everyone. Politeness or fairness (real or perceived) were actually detrimental to everyone.
Later in the book Vanderbilt gives empirical evidence as to what works best—whether early merging or late merging is better in the end. And he offers up his take on how we can best keep traffic flowing.
But for now, by way of light-hearted fare, do tell me, are you a late merger or an early merger? And how do you feel about the people who do the opposite of what you do?
I am a follower of Jesus Christ, a husband to Aileen and a father to three young children. I worship and serve as a pastor at 
Releasing on April 1, The Next
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Comments (77)
I would disagree that our traffic habits are ok just because they are legally ok. It is legally ok for me to watch porn on the Internet, so does that make it morally ok for me to do so? Certainly not and although that is an extreme example, it draws the distinction between morality and legality. There are some things that are morally right, but legally wrong. Does that mean that we should not do them because the state says so? I think this example of traffic is important in this day and age as laws of the state in North America are becoming more and more divergent with what the Bible says. I would love to get the thoughts from others on this as I am just at a place right now where I don’t think God allows us to compartmentalize our lives like that. Thanks.
I must stagger my response somewhat because I think the question assumes too much. Consider an example (your example) where I see a sign telling me that the lane will end in one mile. In those situations I am a later merger (towards but not at the end). Arguments that this slows down traffic and make accidents more likely are, to me, unconvincing. I could really go on and on here, but will not. Consider a second example, a freeway onramp connected to and with an offramp. The same two arguments are more applicable here and I tend to get in whenever and wherever the getting is good. And a third example might be where a freeway divides. The same two arguments now hold a great deal of weight for me. People attempting to merge late in these situations are imbeciles. I merge long before any such split and try to get as far over as possible to avoid any such numbskull I might have the misfortune to meet up with.
To your second question, how do I feel about people who do the opposite to me… well, I have to stagger my response to that too. In situation #1 above there are two type of people not doing what I do; those in line and those going to the very end. I have no ill feelings towards either; absolutely none. They can do what they want as far as I am concerned. However, I am not ignorant of the hard feelings by some. I attribute that to human nature. It is also, truth be told, a factor in why I tend to merge sooner than the very end. In the later two examples I have some negative feelings towards those who “push the envelope” as it were. These feelings increase as my perception of the danger levels increase.
I’ve situated my life in such a way that I don’t have to face traffic on a regular basis. I detest crowds and that “herded” feeling of being one of the masses. As my dad used to say about himself, “If the crowd is going that way, (he would then point to the opposite direction) I’m going that way.” I guess that may say a lot more about me than even the early or late merge dilemma?
I would have to make the argument that, while there is personal benefit to late merging, it is actually the intent of the merging lane and promotes the safety of all. The lane is there for you to get up to the speed limit so that you can be moving at a similar speed to the cars around you so that traffic does not have to slow down to accommodate your slowness. While not all, but at least where I live, many of the early mergers are rather dangerous and are in fact creating the traffic by merging at a slow speed. They come off the on-ramp and get right into the travel lane at 40 mph. Whether they know it or not, they cause the people behind them, even if there is a significant distance between them, to slow down or change lanes. This of course is the cause of almost all the traffic on my drive.
What SHOULD happen has more to do with the relative speeds of the two lanes. Ideally the traffic in both lanes is flowing at the same speed and merge together zipper-like and life is good for all. In the world of fluid mechanics when you have flow at different speeds interacting you get turbulence. I would suggest that if you always merge real early work at merging a bit later, if you always speed to the end of the merging lane expecting to be let in late, slow down a bit and merge a bit earlier, it’ll help maintain a better flow of traffic for everyone.
My husband insists that late merging is the most traffic efficient, sensible thing to do - and it seems some traffic engineers agree.Couldn’t it be seen as a type of “2 way stop”?
Early merger on purpose; late merger in accident.
The only times the late merger bothers me is during traffic, when we are all waiting. No Cuts, No Buts, No Coconuts! Come on! We learned that in second grade!
Early merging can be frustrating if there’s a slowpoke in front of you, but it is also possible, if you merge early, to go around the slow car and move back into your lane… perhaps that would qualify as a “late merge” but it shouldn’t bother a car going that slow anyway.. (and i’m talking.. 45, 50 on the freeway).
I’m an early merger in the morning and a late merger in the afternoon. So it balances itself out…..
Really - its an issue of legality. If there’s a solid line to cross then its wrong. After all, doesn’t the “law” show us what sin is?
I have been an early merger all my driving years. Before I was saved I occasionally started fights with late mergers when the line stopped or if I happened to see them stop later. Late mergers are very considerate of their fellow drivers. What does the bible say? It is better to be last. Why would a professing Christian think that their time was any more important than the next person? Can you imagine Jesus being a late merger? If you can then you need to read your bible a little more.
What’s wrong with you North Americans? Have you not learnt the zipper method? NZ has the merge like a zip in their driving code. http://www.ltsa.govt.nz/roadcode/about-driving/merging.html
Late merger. It just makes sense to have two lanes filling the available asphalt and politely taking turns merging into one.
I’m a late merger. Mostly because if everyone did it, traffic would be much smoother. The inconsistent stopping and starting of traffic creates much more traffic than if everyone just merged late. Therefore, I have concluded that I’m actually doing what’s correct by merging late while reaping the benefits of many others merging earlier than they should. I like to think of it as another step in my progressive sancitfication :o)
Jon,You straddle both lanes to impede anyone from passing you? What is this, kindergarten?
Raving Genius,I agree:” I have no problem getting cut off or cutting others off, provided the cutter don’t slow the cuttee down.”
Although I waffle a little bit on this one. From what I understand from supposed experts, late merging is the correct way to merge.I think however the fact that many drivers do not know which one is actually correct causes a lot of traffic problems.
I live in South Africa and we have a thing here called a mini bus taxi which is a 16 seater Toyota or equivalent. There are thousands on the roads because of our lack of a proper public transport system. They are the definitive late mergers and a source of total frustration for normal law abiding citizens. I am therefore an early merger on principal because someone has to do it right. As for straddling lanes etc. - yes we do it simply to frustrate the taxi drivers. Unfortunately I have found that the only person getting frustrated is me - the taxis simply don’t care. Perhaps I should follow their example - ‘When in Rome do as the Romans do’
I’m a early merger. It is something I find myself doung regardless of circumstance. For my old job where I had to drive to it, at one of the junctions the right-hand lane was only for those turning right, whereas all the other lanes were for those heading straight on into Liverpool city centre. This lane set-up was clearly indicated for the half mile before the junction itself, so I would zip past all the traffic, as would all those turning right. It was always interesting to play the game of predicting how many of the cars in front were genuinely turning right, or zooming up to the junction and then late-merging; the former tended to outnumber the latter. It used to annoy me even though I wasn’t one of those drivers who had to let the selfish drivers in.
Why am I an early merger? I tend to find life is a slow crawl at times where we have to patiently wait for the good things to come along, so any opportunities I come across where I have to be patient, I tend to take.
Sorry - I should have said in my previous comment that the late mergers tended to outnumber those who genuinely needed the right-hand lane!
I’m an early merger who always hopes that no one will let the late mergers in. One time I had the opportunity to keep a late merger out. I was driving an old Chevrolet Celebrity and the late merger was driving a shiny new luxury car. I won, and it was sweet.
LATE MERGER. No laws are broken. No lives at risk. God is not dishonored.
Late merger…and the only thing that bothers me is that there are brothers and sisters in Christ that are early mergers that are praying imprecatory prayers toward me.
Mostly an early merger. I am one who thinks that you should get in the lane you need to be in as early as possible and just be patient.Problems I see:1) WAY too many people always running late. This is definitely going to affect how they drive. Being late does not promote patience.2) Most people seem to view driving as competitive. Why can’t we view it as collaborative? If we all obey the laws and not be unnecessarily nice to eachother, then we’ll all get where we’re going in a timely fashion. If we all cut eachother off and generally act like we wish noone else were on the road (i.e., “in our way”), then we all fail corporately.
(I rarely comment, but read frequently. Love, love, love the site!)
In my state early merging is legally mandatory, but since the law is not enforced, late merging is practiced by some. If there were no law against it, I would be a late merger, but since there is such a law I am an early merger. This in turn makes me ethically resentful of late mergers because they are willfully breaking the law at the expense of law abiders (me).
At this point I don’t think Christan charity and the golden rule mean that I must defer to those who are committing crimes against me any more than I must defer to a burglar in my house. In fact, I deliberately attempt to prevent their crime. To me the appeal to Christian charity here is an example of hyper-piety.
(Wow, 72 comments… Too many to read right now so I’ll apologize for the repetition here if any…)
As a 35+ year automotive engineer and driving professional I can tell you that late mergers are a big part of the problem with regard to the overall flow rate of moving traffic through a restriction. Now, if the vehicles we all were driving behaved like and were as indestructible as a water molecule, then perhaps we could simply apply the laws of fluid dynamics! Because as an H2O molecule, inertia, energy management, safety and (oh yes!)simple courtesy would not be an issue. We would all just bump along wet and happy at whatever velocity the situation demanded. The narrowing of the roadway would simply cause our velocity to increase and the localized pressure to decrease (Bernoulli effect). And when the road again widened, we would simply slow to the original velocity (wet, slippery, fat, and happy).
The problem is that our sheet metal molecules (cars) and the fragile contents within these fragile containers simply cannot operate in this fashion. Actually, I stand corrected, at times we do try to emulate molecular behavior on our highways and bump together somewhat randomly. But we call those events accidents!
Human nature being what it is (sinful and selfish) I have personally seen a high speed (single lane closure) merge work properly only once and it was a beautiful dance of (forced) cooperation and resulted in virtually no delay. I was headed West on I-40 near Kingman AZ. There were three lanes in use and a sign announced the temporary loss of the far left lane in about 1 mile. Traffic was somewhat light (say… 100 cars per mile) and most of us moved over and adjusted our speeds for comfortable two lane travel. About 60-65 MPH. Then came the “late mergers”, flying up a left lane that was about to disappear in less than 30 seconds. They had increased their speed to over 70 MPH to pass the civilized slugs who made the mistake of obeying the lane closure signs. When I saw these people doing this I knew that our chances of getting through this restriction without significant delay was doomed! And then I saw him! An Arizona State Trooper, parked in the median, standing outside of his car about a 1/4 mile before the lane closure, waving (with authority) at the late mergers to get over! And they did! We breezed through the 1/4 mile long restriction (bridge work) at ~50 MPH and then resumed to full highway speeds immediately afterward. As I said… It was a beautiful operation and proved that with a bit of cooperation, a significant delay in such situations is not always necessary.
I know that it seems corny and square, but the physics and mathematics are undeniable. If possible, getting over as soon as possible in a lane closure situation will give the best overall chance of success to minimize the delays experienced by everyone. For example and generalization, two lanes that are clogged and barely moving might handle (let’s say roughly) 1 car per second or less. The exact same lanes with cars running at 50 MPH with a two car length spacing (bare minimum) will handle will handle 4-6 cars per second and may actually keep up with the traffic load.
P.S. trying to stop a rude and determined late merger is very dangerous because it entails adjusting your following distance WAY too low and will get everyone into big trouble fast! Chain reaction collisions are very common and very avoidable. But that’s the subject of another article…!
I merge whenever it’s natural — not too early but not zooming up just to cut people off. Then, sometimes, depending on how egregious the late mergers are being (because, really, they are slowing down your lane), I might drift over to take up half of the lane that’s ending, straddling the broken yellow line, until the lane fully merges into mine. You’ll get honked at a bit by the people trying to cheat, but hey, at least they’re the ones who are now upset instead of you at their cheating.
I also live in DC.
I’m from CA and everyone there is a late merger. My first encounter with early mergers here left me wondering why they were in one lane and how did they know this was a good idea. I learned over time that people just do early merging in the North/East. Doesn’t seem like good use of space, yet, it matches the courtesy were have experienced in the North/East that we never experienced in CA. I love it here and will become an early merger so I can be a part of this fine state of OH.
Definitely, I’m a late merger, but not in the cheater/speeder way. I actually think that many times the early mergers are the reason why the traffic is moving so slow. If everyone just kept driving a reasonable (but safe) speed, and then allowed every other car to merge in, and then they kept moving at a consistent, reasonable and safe speed, the whole thing would go sooo much better. I’m all for keeping it moving, but unfortunately it doesn’t always work out like that.
And of course let’s not forget those late mergers who aren’t really trying to maximize their use of space or trying to get ahead of anyone, but who are just in la la land and oblivious to the fact that if they don’t wake up, they’re going to drive into a cement wall in about 15 seconds.. hello.. oh, do I have to get over now?? duh.
Amen to #27. Pshaw to #28 — blocking both lanes of traffic out of vindictiveness is pretty much evil. You have no idea why a person is delaying to merge. What if they are on the way to the hospital? What if they will lose their job if they’re late? What if they, like many others on this page, believe that it the right way to drive —more efficient and safer? Late mergers may or may not be selfish - you do not know that. But a person who blocks both lanes to make all traffic screech to a halt is worse than selfish - more like demonic.