No fucking way is that anything comparable to “a proper zipper merge.”

Fuck that “gap is a gap” line of bullshit. When people leave a zone between themselves and the car in front, it’s for safety, not for some idiotic toolbag to stuff themselves into.

You can’t cross the solid white, it’s not rocket science. Also the driver should have tried to get in line earlier instead of being a prick and going ahead of everyone. That’s not other people being a sore loser, that’s the driver being a twat.

Ok, so you’re a sociopath... Good of you to let us know that early on.

He could have also changed lanes ahead of time and not been a giant dick, which is what put him in this position to begin with. Stop trying to rationalize (your own?) bad driving.

There’s a crash test regulation that requires the center console to remain latched closed during a roll over. The EU R doesn’t latch closed, its a ratcheting system. You can look up FMVSS 201 if you’re interested or just super bored like me.

Everyone else behind him got in the correct lane, obeyed the law, put on their signals and proceeded to slowly inch forward. He skipped the line. Even without the solid lines, he’s a selfish moron. If everyone did what he did, there would be chaos.

My brother drove a school bus for a few years, and among the more egregious crap people pulled was darting into gaps like this and eating up his stopping distance. It’s reckless and dangerous. Period.

This is not a zipper merge. He deliberately tried to kamikaze into the right lane at the absolute last second. The solid white line doesn’t even apply because traffic wasn’t moving before it. A zipper merge would imply a safe merge into moving traffic well before the exit with no clear intention to overtake traffic.

More like:

The cop got him on the white line, but this guy was a douche for trolling the merge lane and blocking moving traffic in the main lanes as he did so.

It is adding to the commute though. I used to have to deal with this at an offramp on RT128 in MA. People would always hop in front of the big truck like this. At the end, there was a stop sign, not a light, a sign and anyone who needed to take a left would routinely take about 30-45 sec to make it across if they were…

Your “a gap is a gap” rule is a bit misleading. If I’m leaving a car-length gap, it’s for safety. You cutting in and making the gap 3 inches forces everyone to slow down.

That dickbag forcing his way in after the part where the highway engineers had lines painted on the road that said “don’t merge here, asshole” causes a ripple back through the line that causes me to be late to work an hour after he did it, because people had to brake for him to fit in and the chain reaction has begun.

What kind of zippers do you use? The guy passed several openings before getting to the solid white line.

The front page has been filled with “UBER SUCKS” “WOO TESLA” AND “TRUMP SUCKS” posts. This isn’t a place to go for car news.

I hope Orlove and Ballaban return to reviewing cars immediately. I do not come to Jalopnik read about politics.