[devin]

I've been driving like this ever since I heard a show on Wisconsin Public Radio where they interviewed a traffic researcher. One thing that is not true, however, is that "cheaters" are always wrong.

For instance, there is significant research that suggests in a 2 lane situation where both lanes must merge into one single lane (road work ahead, for example), it makes more sense for both lanes to proceed uniformly toward the point where they must merge. Most people would assume this would cause a deadlock at the point where the merge occurs, but it doesn't. When both lanes are allowed to proceed without switching lanes towards the point where they both must merge, they will achieve far better results than if they were to organize into a single lane prior to that point.

This makes people /really/ angry. Once, when there was approximately 2 miles notice for road work, I stuck with the right lane and did not merge into the left lane like everyone else. I actually had a large pickup truck attempt to cut me off from proceeding in an EMPTY lane.

Of course, this only holds when there is an inevitable traffic jam. When it comes to /avoiding/ traffic jams, you are better off maintaining distance to allow other drivers to merge.