[blahedo]

I've used a variant of this successfully when there's a merge coming up. Basically, if I'm in the lane that's disappearing, I slow down as if to merge, matching speed with the car next to me, but then don't merge until the last moment. When I do this I invariably get some hotshot honking behind me who wants to zip up to the merge point and slow down traffic there, but such people are essentially the cause of the problem, so I don't worry too much.

What generally happens is that from the moment I start doing this, overall traffic speeds up just a bit and the lane ahead of me clears fairly quickly. It's win-win for everyone but the hotshot behind me.

[jawns]

Actually, this is suboptimal.

The optimal flow is for everyone to use both lanes up until the last moment, and then to merge by alternation (one car from one lane goes, then one car from the other lane goes).

Unfortunately, this only works when a substantial majority of the drivers understand that this is how it should work. If you don't hit that threshold, then the people who use the disappearing lane are going to get glares.

Here's a link that describes the theory behind optimal merge patterns:

http://jksqr.blogspot.com/2008/09/optimal-lane-merging-part-...

[wbeaty]

Actually he may be forcing the lanes-full optimal mode to arise.

If one or a few drivers in the empty lane start pacing the cars in the full lane, cars will build up behind them. When they arrive at the end of their lane, the drivers in the full lane won't be so ready to block merges (since nobody was cheating by racing down to the end.) Perhaps this could trigger an outbreak of zipper-merging.

[bkudria]

So, what you're saying is: your solution is optimal in theory but suboptimal in practice, and the grandparent's theory is suboptimal in theory but optimal in practice. Right?