Nougat

If the lane being used is still open for forward traffic, that is a completely legitimate zipper merge, although it would be safer to match speed more gradually and, of course, wait for an appropriate space to merge into. As a hypothetical, that’s a borderline case, and it’s certainly possible to adjust the details of the hypothetical to make the merging driver into the dick. But I’m not sure that’s a useful pursuit.

If you’re passing a bunch of people, you are using the open lane to travel. By the time the lane you are in comes to an end, you then modulate your speed to match traffic in the slower lane, and merge. Because cars have brakes.

The United States has a strong general culture of “I got mine, fuck you.” That is certainly playing a part in this thread.

We’re talking about two different things then. Open road, light fast-moving traffic, lane ending - the “merge zone” lengthens with that speed and space.

Heavy slow-moving traffic, lane ending, use the lanes which are available and zipper merge at the end. Merging too soon in this situation does create congestion.

If you see an opening, merge over sooner than later to prevent disruptions to traffic.

This actually creates disruptions in traffic. Use all lanes, zipper merge at the end.

That’s not an example of zipper merging but there’s tons of people who I’ve seen argue that’s acceptable behavior.

We agree that that’s not what we’re talking about, and those people are wrong. That wasn’t hard at all.

Do you mean “rush to zipper” as in “using an open lane to move forward and then zipper merge into the remaining lane when that one closes?” That is precisely what you should do.

The problem is the selfish people who refuse to let those people actually zipper merge, like OP.

You should be using all lanes of traffic, and zipper merge at the end.