Things that kind of bother me

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Originally Posted by RblDiver

I understand the idea of the zipper, but I still personally feel it's terrible. If you saw a line at the movie theater, do you walk up on the side and then just cut in once you hit the doors?

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"THAT GUY".
If people actually zippered together there would be very little speed reduction. It's the folks who get over early and then don't let others in that created the problem. Oh yeah, the people who drive 10' in front of their hood instead of paying attention to traffic out front.

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Originally Posted by RblDiver

I understand the idea of the zipper, but I still personally feel it's terrible. If you saw a line at the movie theater, do you walk up on the side and then just cut in once you hit the doors?

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The objective of a line to enter someplace is to establish preference of place for seating (if general admission like a movie theater). The objective of a merge is to move on and through.

Those who think traffic queues are the same as movie or lunch lines are the ones who don't get the difference between the objective of each queue.

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Originally Posted by Jamnanc

"THAT GUY".
If people actually zippered together there would be very little speed reduction. It's the folks who get over early and then don't let others in that created the problem. Oh yeah, the people who drive 10' in front of their hood instead of paying attention to traffic out front.

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When two lanes of moving traffic become one lane, there will be a speed reduction. Unless there is very little traffic at the time and in that case it would not matter when you merge - early or late.

If a two lane road has a rate of one car per second passing a single point, and both lanes are at capacity, merging those two lanes into one will certainly cause a backup. The merged lane may maintain one car per second rate, but now there are twice as many cars. And it does not matter at what point those cars merge over, there will be a backup.

What am I missing?

Perhaps the zipper was conceived by a hydrodynamics engineer and we should all be moving much faster through the construction zones.

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Originally Posted by MrAK

Customers at my job who lose $2k in a night gambling, start acting like dicks, and think they deserve everything for free. Really makes me want to introduce them to the actual high rollers who are generally pleasant people.

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Winners get sprinkles...not losers.

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Originally Posted by davsel

What am I missing?

Perhaps the zipper was conceived by a hydrodynamics engineer and we should all be moving much faster through the construction zones.

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You're missing two things, from a dynamics perspective - backpressure and the wake effect. If the lanes merge too early, the point at which overall passage rate goes down to 1/2 car per second for the two lanes occurs further back than it needs to - slowing down all the cars behind the merge for a much greater than distance than otherwise would be the case, and the wake effect causes turbulent flow in the lanes further back, leading to a further reduction in speed before the merge point.

Add in human foibles, where people slow down too early out of caution, and people react pre-emptively to the brake lights. The further back from the merge at which this occurs, the more disruption of overall traffic flow there is.

A proper zipper merge minimizes the distance from the merge point at which dynamic flow and human foibles affect the traffic flow, creating the shortest possible disruption. Any other solution is suboptimal.

Drivers in Denver can't avoid the slinky, HTF do you think they're gonna manage a proper zipper merge?

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Originally Posted by Circuits

You're missing two things, from a dynamics perspective - backpressure and the wake effect. If the lanes merge too early, the point at which overall passage rate goes down to 1/2 car per second for the two lanes occurs further back than it needs to - slowing down all the cars behind the merge for a much greater than distance than otherwise would be the case, and the wake effect causes turbulent flow in the lanes further back, leading to a further reduction in speed before the merge point.

Add in human foibles, where people slow down too early out of caution, and people react pre-emptively to the brake lights. The further back from the merge at which this occurs, the more disruption of overall traffic flow there is.

A proper zipper merge minimizes the distance from the merge point at which dynamic flow and human foibles affect the traffic flow, creating the shortest possible disruption. Any other solution is suboptimal.

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I believe I understand your points.
When you state, "shortest possible disruption," are you referring to time or distance?

I understand that the zipper merge will shorten the distance of disrupted traffic measured from the merge on back. However, if only 1/2 car per second is the max capacity - usually due to posted reduced speed limits in merged zones - it makes no difference in time whether cars merge early or late. With the exception of the previously mentioned assholes who rush to the front of the polite line.

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Originally Posted by opie011

When someone says "me and insert name" instead of "insert name and I"

I even have to correct people on TV when I hear it.....yeah I'm weird like that

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Sometimes it is correct to say "[name] and me" versus "[name] and I". http://www.learnersdictionary.com/qa/when-to-use-i-and-when-to-use-me

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If you’re having trouble deciding which one to use in a particular sentence, here's a hint: Take out the other person, and it should be clearer. You are not likely to be tempted to say, “Me joined the chess club,” or “Jill took I to the shop.”

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Originally Posted by davsel

I believe I understand your points.
When you state, "shortest possible disruption," are you referring to time or distance?

I understand that the zipper merge will shorten the distance of disrupted traffic measured from the merge on back. However, if only 1/2 car per second is the max capacity - usually due to posted reduced speed limits in merged zones - it makes no difference in time whether cars merge early or late. With the exception of the previously mentioned assholes who rush to the front of the polite line.

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It's the half mile of empty lane which is being defended by do gooder asshats that can no longer be used for staging that is the difference. So instead of going one for one, we end up going three to one with only prickish aggressive drivers cutting off do gooder asshats who slam on their brakes causing the third car back to get in a fender bender, and oh yeah, three other texting douchenozzles who use the median as an out even though they had room to stop. Since the asshats don't let the prickish in, the right lane Is slower than necessary. Since the prickish scare the do gooders, the left lane is slow. Now everyone is going slow and more people turn prickish and it continues to devolve. I drive too much. Thanks for the vent.

I have watched a do gooder asshat and a prickish agressive ever so slowly collide as they jockied for position. The fight was even funnier than the slow motion scrape up.

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Originally Posted by Jamnanc

It's the half mile of empty lane which is being defended by do gooder asshats that can no longer be used for staging that is the difference. So instead of going one for one, we end up going three to one with only prickish aggressive drivers cutting off do gooder asshats who slam on their brakes causing the third car back to get in a fender bender, and oh yeah, three other texting douchenozzles who use the median as an out even though they had room to stop. Since the asshats don't let the prickish in, the right lane Is slower than necessary. Since the prickish scare the do gooders, the left lane is slow. Now everyone is going slow and more people turn prickish and it continues to devolve. I drive too much. Thanks for the vent.

I have watched a do gooder asshat and a prickish agressive ever so slowly collide as they jockied for position. The fight was even funnier than the slow motion scrape up.

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8/10
I liked it