**Here is the situation:**
**Description:**
The road on the left is 1 lane and the road on the right is 2 lane. As you can see there is a queue of red cars on the right right lane. On the right left lane there is a blue car that is overtaking everyone and will eventually demand to merge where the two lanes stop, netting significant time savings to the driver of the blue car.
**Argument for the Red cars:**
I feel like my personal sense of justice and order is with the red cars. It just feels right that who ever is first should be first and the blue driver is simply an asshole.
**Argument for the Blue car:**
Today I was “forced” to be the blue car myself. I overtook a heavy vehicle, noticed the queue too late and at that point I did not really have a choice as to how to continue driving. It also seems that the law would require that both sides of the road be used and that people continue driving as if the traffic was a zipper.
Any opinions?
5 comments
If lanes merge, then cars are required in Lux to merge in an orderly fashion (i. e. One red vehicle, one blue, one red, one blue and so on). Essentially like the two sides in a zipper.
If the red cars are e. g. queuing to exit, then the blue car’s just impatient.
[Blue car is right](https://youtu.be/mmSTSj_OMpA)
You probably have the zipper sign there, so you should occupy the lane that is shorter in order not to propagate the jam. The issue is that not all drivers on the red side will play the game, so you may wait longer on the blue lane depending on the share of impatient drivers.
The law is clear, merge at the tip and zipper merge is required. This means the blue driver is correct and the red drivers must let him in, otherwise they risk a €74 fine.
Some may disagree, but that’s the law. Plus, as another commenter has already mentioned, it’s more efficient to do it this way.
I’m not sure of the case in Belgium though – they are aggressively early mergers and wanna be traffic cops (often blocking two lanes). Maybe the law is different there?
Zipping is more efficient use of road space and helps reduce queues. I used to also think people should queue single file, but it actually makes congestion worse in most cases. You are better to queue in both lanes and then zip together one at a time, lane by lane. The red cars should do better and use the entire road and not just one lane.