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"When people ride a merge lane till the very end, and then cut in, I just feel like strangling them." [Sorry, haven't mastered the quote feature yet}

I agree. In addition, we should fault the engineers when they don't provide enough length of entrance ramp to accelerate enough to merge safely.

BTW, in my previous post, I should have stayed with the same cruising (average) speed throughout the example, 35 mph. My bad.

Ralph

All right, I will describe the “4-7 driving technique” for freeways 3 lanes each way. It’s a little long:

Envision traffic as being heavy but moving at an average speed of 35 mph. From ground level you see most of the people driving too closely with brake lights flashing all over the place as the cars speed up and slow down 10 seconds or so each time. Some cars are weaving in and out, also speeding up and slowing down. One of the weavers, John, has a 45 minute commute to work and will beat his co-worker non-weaver Joe to the coffee pot at work anywhere from 15 seconds to 2 minutes depending on if he makes a traffic light that Joe misses after exiting the freeway.

Viewed from the air from a traffic engineer’s helicopter, what does he see? Mostly, he sees the oscillating movement of the flowing traffic, maybe each lane moving at a slightly different average speed, but all with this jerking motion caused by everyone trying to constantly minimize the air space between his car and the car in front of him as though it is a duty to perform.

But he notices something else: Here and there he sees a car in the middle lane driving the average speed of 50 mph but with no jerking motion that would signify constant braking and acceleration. How is the driver doing it, and won’t that give him a more relaxing ride to work and allow him to arrive at the same time? The engineer sees that the clearance in front of the steadily traveling car is varying from 4 to 7 car lengths. Periodically, when there are 7 car lengths, a weaver from one of the other lanes moves in front of his car for about 10 seconds and then moves to another lane. Because the steadily moving car always has at least 4 car lengths in front, at 35 mph he hardly ever needs to brake. So, he is on cruise control, and no one else is. He arrives at work more relaxed from not fighting the traffic.

A question for debate is: Are these guys who are in the middle lane, driving at times with 7 car lengths in front and on cruise control, creating a bottleneck in the traffic and maybe even constituting a hazard? The traffic engineer will not think so. He will consider them the smartest drivers and wonder why more people aren’t doing it. Comments, please.
Ralph

Not that it matters much, but I would like to correct a statement I made: I have been in 58 cities in 35 countries outside the U.S., not counting just changing planes, not 58 countries as I said in my previous post.

Also, if pressed, I will describe the "4-7 driving technique" for freeways with 3 lanes each way. It is also controversial. My wife says I should never be encouraged to expound, so it is your choice. I don't believe you have covered it.

Ralph

You guys have done an excellent job on this subject, so I probably should not even join in. But I must because the opinion of my wife of 53 years is involved. Some people don't understand me on this driving issue. Take my wife. Please! (Henney Youngman). I grew up with the U.S. freeway system. Remember when Texans vowed none of them would ever collect tolls?

Fib_78, Twice a year we drive to a place 72 miles west of Denver and back from Houston and stop in Amarillo each way. Since 1972, actually. In this thread, the distinction has rightfully been made between 2 lanes each way and 3 lanes each way, and how the issue is practically absent with 3 lanes. My route through Amarillo is at least 3 lanes everywhere there is significant traffic, which is for 15 minutes twice a day (Houston, Oh My God!). The disagreement with my wife, to whom one must give into occasionally to stay married, if one in fact wants to, is where there are 2 lanes each way through cities such as Pueblo, Colorado Springs, and parts of Denver, which we now can easily bypass on I 470. In these cities where there is merging traffic entering in continual streams every 1/4 mile, I prefer to stay in the left lane at 5-7 over for the entire 10 minutes or so and whiz through town without continually braking and speeding up to avoid collisions while merging. It is relaxing to me. But, maybe during that time someone back there wants to whiz through faster, or more often there is a local who enters, goes 20 over for two exits and turns off. But that's his business, not mine. Actually, I learned this non-merging technique commuting to work across New Orleans for 3 years, a technique I credit to saving my life many times. Maybe I'm selfish wanting to relax tooling through places like that. Fort Worth and Oklahoma City are other good examples, although Ft. Worth has improved measurably by widening 35W over the last 10 years. Anyhow, I am bad in my wife's view, and probably half of yours, too. So, let's hear it.

BTW, I have traveled by rented cars, government cars with drivers, and taxis in 58 countries outside of the U.S., in most instances as passenger. I have driven myself on the left and the right, including on some of the autobahns.

Ralph