Be nice! But not TOO nice.
Hey, it’s Rich Dale. Quite some time ago, I wrote about drivers who don’t yield when they should. But according to experts, there’s something just as bad — drivers who yield when they shouldn’t!
My other post was about drivers who worm their way in when turning on red when they really should wait until the way is completely clear. I still stand by that. They cause drivers with a green light to have to slow down, and that shouldn’t happen.
But just as detrimental to the flow of traffic is people who are on the main road when others have to merge with them, and they’re so nice, they let people in nice and early. Instead, people are supposed to do what’s called the “zipper merge” — that is, the line of cars merging should keep going and merge further up, like the teeth of a zipper going together. If you let people in early, you’re causing the main road traffic to slow down prematurely.
And while we’re at it, I get ticked off when I’m at a stop sign and the person at the other stop sign was clearly first, but he lets me go first. I waited for you for nothing? It’s your turn — take it!
In short, don’t under-yield and don’t over-yield. Maybe when our cars are driving us around, they’ll get it right.