I see so many YouTube videos of people running blatantly red lights and getting in accidents or other videos of people stopped and gunning it backwards, hitting something, then they put it in drive and launch full speed forwards and hit something else. What is going through these peoples mind? I just don’t get how there is such a high quantity of these videos.
Let’s say it this way: you should merge at the time that disrupts traffic the least. Not at the last second. And anyway I’m not talking about people who just use the whole lane, I’m talking about people who use every last inch before they are striking the barrier.
I fail to see how merging early is necessarily bad for traffic. I don’t think it makes much difference to net throughput if you merge now or 500 feet before now. As long as you do it smoothly and safely with as little disruption to other cars as possible.
You should always merge at the choke point.
You should also let people in at the chokepoint.
Here’s a layman’s article on the topic:
https://www.usatoday.com/story/money/cars/2019/07/23/zipper-merge-merging-late-recommended-states-experts/1748026001/