Proper Driving, Lesson 1

The title of today's lesson is "how to merge".

As you approach the flow of traffic, gauge the speed of that flow so that you have an idea of how to match your speed. Take a look ahead to see how much merge area you have. Then take a look down the road to see what cars are coming so you can find an opening in the traffic flow (if necessary). Make sure you turn on your turn signal; other drivers should know that you are about to merge, but use of the turn signal is always just simple courtesy, like saying "Please". Accelerate as you approach the flow of traffic and try to time your acceleration so that you can match your speed to the first available opening in the flow. Once you have matched speed, simply move over into the opening, and voila!

The most important point...NEVER STOP or even slow down while trying to merge, unless you have no other choice. There are elevated entrance ramps here in the OKC area where there is no merge lane and no shoulder, so if you don't have an opening and no one moves over, you must stop or else you hit the barrier. However, this is a rarity. Most entrance ramps have a sizable merge lane, and even if you are unable to match speed or find a convenient opening right away, you can drive a little way down the highway on the shoulder while you are merging. (No self-respecting, competent police officer is going to write you a ticket for this.) Why is this the most important point of this lesson? Because it's much easier to make small speed adjustments, like when you're accelerating to merge, than it is to accelerate to a standard highway speed of 60-70 mph from a dead stop. It's common-sense safety.

Consider the following situation. You are looking to merge to a highway where the speed limit is 65 mph. You approach but don't see an opening, so you stop at the yield sign right at the edge of the highway and look down the road for an opening as cars are whizzing by. You see one, so you go for it...you stomp on the gas and your car jumps out into the opening. Now, let's say that the closest car is about 500 feet away (1/10th of a mile...the equivalent on a busy highway of a HUGE opening). If that car is doing 65 mph, that works out to just over 95 feet per second. that means it's going to cover that the distance to you in about 5 seconds. Now, most cars today can do 0-60 in about 8-9 seconds if they're pushed really hard. (For proof of this, go here and look up your car...then figure it out.) But that means you're not going to be up to speed before he gets to you. So he's going to hit you, or have to hit his brakes (or worse, swerve if he's not paying close attention or if you misjudge his speed or the size of the opening) to keep from hitting you. This will probably make him very angry, increasing the possibility of road rage. It could also cause an accident at worst, or it will create a natural shock-wave traffic jam behind him at best, because he hits his brakes, and people behind him hit their brakes, and...well, you get the idea. (If you think this concept is BS, take a look at this link to see some details on research that has been done into why traffic jams seem to happen for no apparent reason...complete with video evidence.) Also, you're probably doing this on your way to work, which means there are probably other people who want to merge also. When you stop, anyone else on the entrance ramp behind you will also have to stop so they don't hit you. If you have to spend any time waiting for a decent opening, you could have 5-6 cars back up behind you. And all of them will also have to merge from a dead stop now, because you've made them all lose any merging speed they might have had. So you've not only caused one traffic problem, but you have potentially caused 5-6 more, as well.

And all when you could have just shown a little more common sense in merging. So do it the smart way...think ahead, maintain as much speed as you can, and merge firmly but courteously...and NOT FROM A DEAD STOP.

(NOTE: Why did I write all this? Because as I approached an entrance ramp on the way in to work, I witnessed (for about the 30,000th time) someone approaching the highway with moderate traffic flow didn't see a good opening and timidly stopped at the yield sign while they looked and waited for one, when they could have accelerated on the ramp, driven a bit on the wide-open shoulder, waited for me to pass, then moved over into the 300-foot-long space directly behind me. It's obvious that there are still lots of drivers in the world who have driven every day for 20-30 years, yet who still have not learned how to merge safely.)