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I usually wait until the sign too. The problem is people don't know how to merge. They get greedy and don't want to let you in, or you're the one trying to let someone in and they zoom off thinking they can get farther ahead. By then I'm like, "you had your chance" and shut them out. Juvenile I know.
At the sign people should merge one car at a time. People in the left let one car in and go and so on and so forth. Most people are either too nice and let a handful in tying up traffic behind them, or too many people trying to cut in at the last possible minute making everyone slam on the brakes. If people understood the gentle art of merging, theoretically speaking, there would be no slow downs.
OK, are we all talking about the same situation here? In very slow stop-and-go traffic, the idea of driving up until the end and merging in at the last second (one and one) makes sense to me. But, if we're talking about a situation where traffic is moving freely, I cannot wrap my head around it being a good idea to drive right up to the end of the lane and just divebombing into the next lane over.
For starters, everything I've ever learned about traffic laws basically says that those traveling in a lane have the right-of-way, meaning if you want to change lanes or turn onto a road, it's your responsibility not to impede the flow of traffic that already exists in that lane. Hense, in this situation, it would be a good idea to get over into the next lane whenever you can reasonably fit yourself into a hole without cutting someone off. So the notion that the 'wait 'til the last second, then cut over' approach is not only a good idea but also what the transportation authorities want you to do sounds very counterintuitive to me.
Secondly, what do you do if you're scooting right along at normal speeds and there is no spot to move over? Hit the brakes? Cut someone off? Run past the 'end' of the road? It seems very dangerous not to leave yourself some sort of 'out'. And if you do cut someone off, who was right and who was wrong? Reading posts here, it would seem some are saying the driver merging into the other lane would be right because the other driver should have accomodated them, but again, this goes against the logic that the driver in the lane that isn't going away has the right-of-way because nothing in their lane has changed.
by waiting till the last minute to merge,you create a domino effect of everyone breaking to let you in,best to merge asap,evryone will be at the same speed at the closed point and another thing if everyone didnt tailgate.let people in so they can do what they think they need to do.
same goes when there is multiple lanes and one is closed,we call it bottle neck..people move from left to right just to get one car length ahead.pick a lane and stay in it..
I love it when trucks block the disappearing lane, so the asses who wait until the last minute to merge (so they can get in front of everyone who does what they were told) have to wait to get over.
So we have this discussion basically every time we go on a road trip. Take a two-lane, one-way road. Imagine that up ahead 1000 feet or so is one of those big orange arrows indicating construction and that the lane you are driving in is about to end. Do you drive all the way up to the sign and then attempt to merge or do you merge farther back?
My wife says to merge at the sign, that doing so keeps traffic flowing better. I say merge farther back so that the people invariably crawling or stopped in the free lane don't think you're a jerk for driving past them and then "cutting in" at the sign.
I merge asap though many will wait until the last minute and rely on courteous people to let them in.
If you are a courtious driver you merge as soon as possible, if you are a me first and screw the rest then you wait to the last possible moment and than cut/merge in. I do it both ways depending on the mood.
Warning, Do not cut off folks driving old beaters or non owner operator big rigs, these people do not care if they rip off your fenders.
Depends on how heavy the traffic is. Sometimes, there is such a huge backup, that traffic has already come to a dead stop before you even get to the 'lane closed ahead' sign, at which point you are thinking about terrorist acts long before you get to the lane closure. But if traffic is very light, just move into the open lane and sail right through it at the speed limit.
A great place to practice and/or observe is on I-80 east of Chicago, where there are always lane closures, 24/7. The most difficult border in the world to cross is not between North and South Korea, it is between Indiana and Illinois.
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