"If anyone tries to tell you that if only drivers left space in front of them and took turns merging, traffic would flow smoothly, and it’s only because of jerks that there are any traffic jams at all, just ask them what’s going to happen at the next merge. Where is that extra space going to come from? You cannot keep 2 seconds back from the car that has just merged in front of you without, um, slowing down. If the car in front of you is also slowing down for the same reason, you have to slow down even more. This is basically the definition of a traffic jam."
However, if you have two lanes, with one lane blocked, then wouldn't not allowing for another car to safely merge into your lane prevent them from merging? Then you have one lane moving quite fast, but the other lane would be going more slowly...
Like I say, there may be something I'm missing here, I'm happy to be enlightened!
"If anyone tries to tell you that if only drivers left space in front of them and took turns merging, traffic would flow smoothly, and it’s only because of jerks that there are any traffic jams at all, just ask them what’s going to happen at the next merge. Where is that extra space going to come from? You cannot keep 2 seconds back from the car that has just merged in front of you without, um, slowing down. If the car in front of you is also slowing down for the same reason, you have to slow down even more. This is basically the definition of a traffic jam."
However, if you have two lanes, with one lane blocked, then wouldn't not allowing for another car to safely merge into your lane prevent them from merging? Then you have one lane moving quite fast, but the other lane would be going more slowly...
Like I say, there may be something I'm missing here, I'm happy to be enlightened!