Photo by J Torres on Unsplash

When you’ve got somewhere you really need to be, every minute stuck in slow-moving traffic feels like torture. The next lane over starts moving faster, and you figure you can just cut in and save a few minutes. Then your original lane starts moving, and you cut back over there. All the way through the slowdown, you’re seeing opportunities to leapfrog ahead. But does any of this actually save you a significant amount of time? The answer is no. Not only that, but all that weaving is skyrocketing your risk of a serious collision.

There are 3 things drivers commonly do to get ahead when stuck in traffic. Let’s break them down and see why they make things worse for everybody.

Stop Weaving

Too many drivers change lanes any time they think the lane beside them is moving faster than theirs. Changing lanes, especially at the last minute, is a dangerous maneuver, and weaving through traffic this way dramatically increases the risk of a collision. One study from the state government of Victoria, Australia, found that “for every lane change a driver made, the risk of a collision increased six-fold.”

The idea that the lane beside yours is moving faster in heavy traffic is often an illusion. There is no way to know for sure which lane is moving faster overall without a bird’s-eye view. While another lane may appear to be moving faster, as drivers switch into the “fast” lane, it gets crowded and slows down, and the lane drivers just exited becomes the new “fast” lane. When you change lanes suddenly or unexpectedly, especially without adequate room, drivers around you are forced to brake, which in turn forces the drivers behind them to brake and so on, interrupting the flow of traffic and manufacturing a slowdown that ripples through traffic.

At best, you may reach your destination a bit sooner than a vehicle that did not weave through traffic. At worst, you could cause a deadly collision involving multiple vehicles. Arriving a few minutes early isn’t worth an injury and certainly isn’t worth your life or the life of another road user.

Keep Your Distance

Tailgating is a habit many drivers fall into when they’re stuck in slow-moving traffic and want everyone to just drive faster. Tailgaters often hope that pressuring the driver ahead will make them speed up or get out of the way so they can move up in the line. This aggressive driving tactic is not only ineffective but risky. The buffer between you and the vehicle ahead is the space you need to react, brake, or swerve if something goes wrong. Closing that gap to gain a few feet in traffic will not get you to your destination faster, but it will increase your chances of getting into a collision.

Like weaving through traffic, tailgating rarely saves you time and can carry unintended consequences. With less space between you and the vehicle ahead, you have less time to respond to sudden changes in traffic flow. If the vehicle in front of you slows down, you may be forced to slam on the brakes, which can affect the vehicle behind you and the vehicle behind them. Tailgating also makes it harder to change lanes or allow drivers beside you to change lanes or merge in front of you, which only adds to the congestion. The result is more stop-and-go traffic, which is not only aggravating but also slows everyone down.

Maintaining space ahead of and beside your vehicle doesn’t just benefit you. Just as you need space to stop or swerve in an emergency to avoid a collision, so do other drivers. Giving others the room they need helps others avoid harsh braking and side swipes, which in turn keeps traffic moving. An important part of giving others space is never lingering right beside other cars or in their blind spots. It also means always keeping a few seconds of open space ahead of you and allowing people to merge and change lanes into this space.

Don’t Cut In Early

A lane ending means drivers have to merge. There’s no way around it. In heavy traffic it may look impossible to enter a crowded lane, prompting some drivers to zero in on the first gap they see and slide in as fast as possible to secure their place in the line. They think this protects them from being blocked from entering the lane and left behind as traffic moves past those who diligently wait in the closing lane. Other drivers may think it’s the politest way to merge. They want to get over as soon as they notice their lane will end. But both of these types of drivers are slowing everyone down. They’re lining up in an already packed lane and causing everyone there to slow down even further, when there’s often still a few hundred feet of completely empty space ahead of them.

Drivers that wait until the end of the lane to merge help keep traffic moving. They are engaging in something called zipper merging, which is when you drive all the way to the end of the lane and then merge into traffic at speed, using your mirrors, signaling, and checking your blind spot to ensure everyone’s safety.

If you’re in a lane into which another lane must merge, do your part by keeping a few seconds worth of space between yourself and the vehicle ahead of you and allowing cars to merge in front of you.

If everyone is on the same page, zipper merging significantly reduces traffic because it maximizes the use of space. It also discourages those people who will enter the empty lane just to try to cut in front of the cars ahead of them, since the closing lane will be just as busy.

“[Zipper merging] maximizes available road space, which results in less time spent in line. In fact, research shows it can reduce congestion by as much as 40% (Wow!).”

-CAA

All road users have a duty to each other to behave safely, predictably, and courteously. That’s how we all make it home at the end of the day.

Sources:

https://www.bcaa.com/blog/2019/community/how-the-zipper-merge-can-help-beat-bottlenecks

https://practicalmotoring.com.au/car-advice/myth-busting-constantly-changing-lanes-get-faster/

https://www.theglobeandmail.com/drive/mobility/article-proper-merging-etiquette-will-help-get-us-all-where-were-going/