When things as simple as “display this font” aren’t.
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The reason people can’t zipper merge is because we can’t trust each other on the road. That is the beginning and end of it, and it won’t be fixed by just telling people that it would be more efficient otherwise.
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It’s also the law, which most people don’t realize.
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There are so many laws people ignore on the road. I get the reason for it, but if people won’t do it, they won’t do it.
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if the same people were on foot, they would all merge intuitively and even let people in.
put them behind the wheel of a cage, the lizard brain takes over, and this is why we can’t have nice things.
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Example:
The endless arguments about how people should cross the street at the crosswalks and while the lights are saying cross instead of don’t cross.
Now for me there’s the added deathtrap that the crosswalks are at intersections, where the cars are often firing turn signals, the lights are often firing their own brainscramblers, and so on. So I often have to avoid intersections to avoid getting safetied into the street again and potentially killed…
But there’s the common deathtrap that the lights say to cross at the same time as cars are driving through. For example, right turn on red is standard here, so if you don’t wait for cars to finish, then you get hit by drivers looking left while turning right. If you do wait, you might get to cross as the light fires orange brainscramblers, or in the next cycle, after waiting for the next set of cars. For another example, somme intersections are set up to time the left turns through the crosswalk when people are supposed to use the crosswalk.
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It’s not generally possible to cause a half-mile-long flaming pile up on foot, even on an escalator. The escalator has to catch fire itself. Maybe if everyone wore cheap taffetta made of nitrocellulose… but people don’t wear explosive clothes for a reason.
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right, well, we’ve normalized using machines that can and fairly often do cause a flaming pile-up, and saying that’s crazy only makes everyone think the sayer themself is crazy.
it’s like an entire culture gaslighting you.
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Maybe the refusal to zipper is a subconscious protest. Like, if we have to be professional about our driving, then pay us for our commute and we can all live in a worldwide MYami not YOURami.
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Which one is Glenn Danzig?
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the band is far better known than the film these days but believe it or not the film is the source of the band’s name
1977–1978: Formation and Static Age
Misfits were formed in 1977 in Lodi, New Jersey, by Glenn Danzig, who had previous experience performing in local bands. He named the band after actress Marilyn Monroe’s final film, The Misfits (1961).
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I don’t even have the trouble with blinking lights, but I agree. In my experience, it’s just safer to cross in the middle of the block, where traffic will only be coming from one direction until you get to the center of the street, and then only from one other direction, (and is likely to be moving relatively steadily and with the drivers more likely to be looking forward) then at an intersection where traffic is randomly stopping or going in 8 different directions and the drivers are distracted by looking in all the other directions or trying to figure out if this is where they need to turn.
And then as you mentioned, there are the intersections where sometimes red means ‘go if you feel like it’ instead of stop, or the crosswalk timers are all wrong.
But people think I’m crazy whenever I say crosswalks should be in the center of the block where it’s safer instead of at an intersection.
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Which is why Montrealers are notorious jaywalkers - you can see the cabs coming at you midway up the block. However, we do have the example of the UK as well, where motorists must yield to pedestrians at zebra crossings (and do).
It’s a cultural difference, perhaps, but make laws like pedestrian priority and zipper merging, then enforce the crap out of them, and your culture too will change…
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If a sign was posted that said “use two lanes” and another later said “merge now,” it would help. They’ve now introduced round-a-bouts which are driving everybody crazy.
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I suspect a lot of urban designers would agree with you. I’ve noticed in some cities (London UK for one) the pedestrian crosswalks are set back from the actual intersection, so by the time cars are an issue there are only two directions to worry about.
“Jaywalking” only came into existence with the advent of the car anyhow.
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I found this when doing some more cleaning in the one room of my house; I was in D.C. on a class trip.
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