[gorpy7]

depends on the distance between stoplights. but, in general, this will reduce throughput- if you’re the lead car and you accelerate slowly when it turns green then the 10th car may not get through the light. and if you slow down early and gently, that’ll ripple backward. slowing down gently also doesn’t let the cars pack densely quickly and here again you can’t get enough cars in the space between lights, especially over freeways/bridges. sometimes you’ll see zipper merges just to combat this low density as cars accelerate.

[mitthrowaway2]

Yeah it's not a technique intended for gridlock city traffic where you need cars to squeeze through a light and then pack together. It's very good for some other scenarios though. I think the sorts of people who put enough thought into driving to delete traffic waves are also aware enough to know when it's not appropriate to use that technique.

[taberiand]

I'm talking about highway driving. At traffic lights the behaviour I see is people stacking up in one lane when there's a zipper merge across the intersection - I don't get this either, but it's good for me because there's plenty of room to skip past that line and merge in while the stack dawdles across the road, the inchworm-style traffic movement leaving plenty of space between each car