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I think there may be two seperate situations under discussion.

After I posted, I realized that there are probably many different types of "lane cutting" that people are talking about.

I live in a fairly rural area, so traffic jams are not a constant nuisance. Whenever I see a Merge sign, I do it as soon as possible, even if that means I'm going to be delayed a little bit. I usually leave for my destinations with a half hour to 45 minute cushion, so I can afford a few distractions.

Now in big cities, you probably have a whole different ball game. However, the few times that I travel to and through big city traffic area's, I still get over as soon as possible. You and I both know that there are alot of people who take advantage of those of us rapidly obeying the warning, so that they can zip up to the front and save 3 minutes. That's rude.

I have gotten caught unawares and was unable to merge right away so I had to go all the way forward until someone let me in. I also understand the wave principles of road jams, but I really have a hard time buying that the "cutters" are the smart ones keeping the traffic flowing. What if 90% of the people ignored the signs until they were right up there? Logjam.

The part of this that I do think is idiotic is trying to make a law to regulate this. (((Phooey))) That's a liberal knee jerk response. Cops can ticket you for various inoculous laws like "hazardous driving." We don't need more stinkin' traffic laws. IMO.

Sincerely

> but I really have a hard time buying that the "cutters"
> are the smart ones keeping the traffic flowing. What if
> 90% of the people ignored the signs until they were right
> up there?

The best action for everybody would be if the traffic split into 2 (or however many are available) lanes and treated the area right before the slowdown as a merge line, splicing traffic back together like a deck of cards. That would minimize delay for everybody. (It would also make the "cutting in line" moot, because essentially everybody would do it.)

The only problems are people are really crappy at merging, and the jerks who "have to be first" that try and block traffic in the other lane.

But I agree with you, this is a ridiculous topic for legislation, and in places where lane shutdowns aren't a daily pain in the patookus, it isn't that big a deal, anyway.