"Use Both Lanes Until Merge Point"
You've seen it. Road construction with a lane closed and traffic needs to merge from two lanes into one. Construction companies are now posting signs for traffic to "Use Both Lanes" up to the merg...
Forum Discussion
I have driven millions of miles, and served a lot of time on the other side of the barrels.
All construction zones there will be a average speed thru, and most likely the spacing between vehicles will be tighter than normal. Now when all is moving smooth that tight spacing is not a issue, but when 1 vehicle slows, the next in line will slow more, realize gap is opening pick up speed. If you are setting where you can watch, the traffic ripples like a wave around a stadium.
Now one thing that causes most of those ripples is a car merging into that already reduced spacing. That speedup-slowdown-speedup is stressing everybody, but a heavy truck, the reduced space still must be larger than the car's space. When a couple of hands get side by each, almost immediately the ripples in front of them smooth out, and traffic is soon moving steady at what the average speed traffic can flow thru the zone.
Now as soon as traffic volume is higher than the number of vehicles that can go thru at the reduced speed, vehicles must line up. In most cases, single file, or 2 by 2 would not matter, still the same number of cars. If everybody wants to line up before the lane drop, but you hang in the dead lane run up to steel somebody's stopping room, you are the rectum. Now if everybody zippers together right at the end, that's great. But it works better if all the merging happens well before all the workers.
Whenever a state asks for feedback, I suggest the best thing to do for safety of workers, safety of traffic, and best traffic flow would be outlaw passing anywhere between "LANE CLOSED AHEAD" and "END CONSTRUCTION"
All construction zones there will be a average speed thru, and most likely the spacing between vehicles will be tighter than normal. Now when all is moving smooth that tight spacing is not a issue, but when 1 vehicle slows, the next in line will slow more, realize gap is opening pick up speed. If you are setting where you can watch, the traffic ripples like a wave around a stadium.
Now one thing that causes most of those ripples is a car merging into that already reduced spacing. That speedup-slowdown-speedup is stressing everybody, but a heavy truck, the reduced space still must be larger than the car's space. When a couple of hands get side by each, almost immediately the ripples in front of them smooth out, and traffic is soon moving steady at what the average speed traffic can flow thru the zone.
Now as soon as traffic volume is higher than the number of vehicles that can go thru at the reduced speed, vehicles must line up. In most cases, single file, or 2 by 2 would not matter, still the same number of cars. If everybody wants to line up before the lane drop, but you hang in the dead lane run up to steel somebody's stopping room, you are the rectum. Now if everybody zippers together right at the end, that's great. But it works better if all the merging happens well before all the workers.
Whenever a state asks for feedback, I suggest the best thing to do for safety of workers, safety of traffic, and best traffic flow would be outlaw passing anywhere between "LANE CLOSED AHEAD" and "END CONSTRUCTION"
