by David L., Palo Alto
Today, when you go to work, most of the roads you travel on are very congested and filled with cars. Even on the widest of highways, each lane is filled with hundreds of automobiles. With everyone trying to get to their destination safely, everyone slows down, even if it means that they have to spend more time on the road. However, many workers, hard-pressed for time, try to break out of the slow lanes by merging into the surrounding, faster lanes to save some time. In almost all urban areas, this phenomena of waving through traffic is commonplace. This practice, although giving the impression of efficiency, should be stopped, as it is dangerous and inconvenient for everyone, and not worth the risks involved.
In the age of automobiles, car crashes are one of the most prevalent causes of death. While smaller collisions do occur on open, local roads, the most violent – and deadly – crashes occur on freeways. The practice of weaving through traffic is a significant player in these accidents. Most of the time, when people change lanes, they will leave their slower lane and merge into a faster lane. However, in the time that it takes for them to leave and accelerate, a fast-moving car may not have enough time to react. These practices of weaving can cause death or injury when drivers miscalculate distance or speed, meaning that an attempt to save time can easily turn into an expensive and deadly incident.
For others, weaving vehicles also cause inconvenience at best. When a car in a faster lane sees a car merge into its lane, it has to slow down, in order to avoid a collision. However, even though they may be safe, that car, and the dozens of cars following it, all have to slow down, potentially triggering a block of traffic. When that lane slows down, more cars behind it may opt to weave into surrounding lanes, continuing this chain of traffic and weaving. Because of everyone’s desire to stay safe, a single car merging into a faster lane can cause all the cars behind them on the freeway, and even on local roads, to slow down, creating a ripple effect of traffic, and wasting everyone’s time.
Many individuals, despite acknowledging the risks inherent to weaving, often mentally justify these risks by citing the potential to save time. While it is true that merging from one slow lane into a fast lane can save some time in the short run, these drivers often fail to recognize that they would only be saving a few seconds. Even if a lane appears to be slower, in reality, the cars only a hundred feet in front could be moving at the same pace as the other lanes. Had the drivers stayed in their lane and remained patient, they would have been able to speed up once the temporary block of traffic disappeared. On the other hand, by weaving, the drivers may have saved a few seconds, but they also incurred significant, unnecessary risks.
As more people rush to work, it is for your own benefit to stay patient and avoid weaving. As more and more people drive more safely, we can not only keep ourselves safe, but we may also be able to improve traffic for everyone else. Furthermore, as we transition into self-driving cars or public transport, our own safety and time savings can simultaneously rise, with more capable drivers making better judgements on the road. We can attempt to reap the benefit of these safer drivers earlier by doing what we know they would do: avoid risky merges.