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u/Tytonic7_ 21h ago
This looks like ignorance, not stupidity. I reckon they haven't driven there before (thus unaware of the lane merge), and their GPS says they'll be making a right turn soon so they got into the right lane. The merge sign is right there, but also not totally visible past the other cars.
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u/not_blowfly_girl 13h ago
Im guilty of getting in the right lane for a turn and then that lane disappears...
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u/PunkCPA 1d ago
Streets are not laid out to encourage zipper merging. The markings always seem to indicate that one lane continues (markings continue straight) and the other one ends. One wins, the other loses.
Maybe the outside lines of each should pinch in toward the center while the center dashed line goes straight down the middle instead of dropping a lane.
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u/igotshadowbaned 16h ago
Streets are not laid out to encourage zipper merging. The markings always seem to indicate that one lane continues (markings continue straight) and the other one ends. One wins, the other loses.
I fully agree that's how things usually are and what it means
Maybe the outside lines of each should pinch in toward the center while the center dashed line goes straight down the middle instead of dropping a lane.
But that is actually what this road in the video is at the end.
I was kinda shocked it was actually a zipper
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u/Leverkaas2516 20h ago
Why is this on IdiotsInCars? Nobody doing anything wrong here, unless OP was hugely invested in whether the white car merges in front of the gray car or in back of it.
It's a zipper merge. It's working. What is the issue?
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u/GirlScoutSniper 19h ago
Zipper merge means go to the end and merge, so that person is not doing it right. Also, doesn't the sign indicate the right lane is ending?
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u/AnonymousGrouch 14h ago
doesn't the sign indicate the right lane is ending?
Frankly, I'm baffled that so few in the comments have noticed that. Whether or not people are merging in turn is kind of beside the point; someone held up traffic to get into a lane that's ending when the sign's right there in front of them.
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u/bdougherty 13h ago
It's just bafflingly idiotic on both accounts (car in front of OP and nobody noticing the warning sign that is very clearly visible).
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u/RyGuy_McFly 18h ago
It looks like the car ahead of OP merged exactly one car early, and everyone else did it properly. Everything in the video went smoothly and the vast majority of people on screen did things 100% correct. Where's the problem?
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u/bdougherty 13h ago
It's the right lane that is ending. Why would you cut in, over a solid white line, from the lane that is not ending to the lane that is ending?
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u/GirlScoutSniper 18h ago
You don't understand zipper merge... and as you very specifically say, they merged early, which make "100% correct" is incorrect.
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u/RyGuy_McFly 18h ago
Reading comprehension may help you. I said the vast majority were 100% correct. A single person went one car early. Is that really enough of an epic fail to post here?
Again, nothing went wrong, it's a basic merge between two small streets. The entirety of both lanes (less than 5 car lengths of two lanes btw) are being used for this very simple merge. I'm just struggling to see what makes this such an egregious mistake.
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u/PDXGuy33333 16h ago
The white SUV stopped when it didn't need to. Premature merging.
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u/Leverkaas2516 12h ago
Every car on the road was stopped. Driving forward 40 feet would change nothing about the situation.
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u/PDXGuy33333 5h ago
It's indicative of an attitude that in similar situations causes real problems. Take a look at the google map of the junction of OR 217, Kruse Way and I-5 in Tigard, Oregon. At peak traffic times (which just about all the time), traffic coming off of I-5 NB onto 217 is moving at a crawl at the point that traffic coming onto 217 from Kruse Way joins it. Until a recent redesign and reconstruction, the far right lane of 217 NB was designated as "Exit Only" in respect of the offramp to OR 99 some 3/4 mile north, at which point that far right lane ended. As a result, many cars coming from Kruse Way onto 217 would stop in that right lane, insisting on merging to the left, thereby blocking traffic behind them. They didn't need to make that merge for another 3/4 of a mile, but there they sat with their blinkers on with hundreds of yards of empty right lane ahead of them. Traffic would back up for hundreds of yards on Kruse Way as a result of these malletheads.
Fortunately, the state recently added new pavement and the far right lane of 217 NB no longer ends at the offramp to OR 99. The "Exit Only" designation has been removed. The backups no longer happen and everyone is happier except the people stuck behind folks who don't yet realize it's no longer necessary (as if it ever was) to merge as soon as possible, or at all.
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u/DickDover 18h ago
Right by Southcenter
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u/PDXGuy33333 16h ago
I am so proud of myself for actually hitting 405 NB off of I5 NB the last time I tried it. At least twice I've had to fart around in the Southcenter parking lot to get back on track to Bellevue.
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u/PDXGuy33333 16h ago
Undying contempt for the people who stop and block an open lane to merge before the lane reduction requires it.
I am so grateful to the people who redesigned and rebuilt the interchange where Oregon 217 NB and I5 NB come together. They eliminated exactly this problem. People were stopping and blocking an empty traffic lane a full 3/4 of a mile before zippering was necessary.
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u/Pretty-Geologist-437 1d ago
So annoying when people merge early cutting you off. Sometimes i just go into the merge lane and pass them.
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u/Several_Razzmatazz51 20h ago
I was zippering to go over the Sagamore bridge this summer and I could see the person behind me was staying 10 inches off my bumper with no intention of letting the other lane have a turn. So I slowed even further and allowed the person from the other lane who should have gotten in behind me to go in front of me. People suck.
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u/syber_d 17h ago
I want to agree but I can see the same idiots doing the same thing everyday locally. These folks are crawling and then stopping you literally have minutes to read the sign saying right lane ends merge left. We can see it from this guys view the white VW should be able to see it too. So that would be much more believable at 40mph not this speed. These are just lots of morons following other morons.
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