[greggyb]

Experience up and down the east coast and currently in the Midwest.

I've started calling the first merge style you've observed the "Minnesota merge". I deal with it on the way to and from the office, each direction with a good mile of merge lane.

Ninja Edit: Jersey is the best for clear right lanes. I've made entire journeys never coming up on anyone in the right lane, unless they were in the process of "merging", which in this case means getting all the way into the left lane immediately.