Welcome to America. This issue seems to be more American than Floridian. We just don't know how to merge. We all drive up to the obstruction and then hope someone will let us in, but they never do. So we sit with our blinker on slowly, slowly inching over until someone finally relents and lets us over. Of course this behavior just screws up both lanes; because we know that no one will let us merge we get out of the blocked lane way before it's necessary. Making a small obstruction into a major conga line of traffic. If we could learn to merge we could use both lanes right up to the obstruction and then quickly merge to one lane pass the problem and then get get back to two lanes.
I've had the opportunity to watch how they handle merging in other countries. My favorite two are Italy and Mexico. General rules of the road seem to be in short supply but the traffic flows along because people allow the other cars to join the queue at any point and let them right back out again. The closest analogy I can give is swimming as member of a school of fish; swim left, swim right, the school shrinks at one intersection, grows at another, but it never stops moving.
The wackiest merging, if you can even call it that was in the Soviet Union, wait make that Russia. On the way in from the airport to Moscow I kept trying to figure out how the highway traffic was flowing. Cars were six across, two across, ten across I couldn't figure out what the traffic flow should look like. Then I noticed that there were no lanes painted on the roadway. People just made their own lanes as needed. Less like merging and more like roller derby.
If you're coming to Florida for a visit and renting a car. Get a Tolltraxx transponder to pay your tolls. Skip the rental car company transponders, avoid the fines for missing a toll, save money and enjoy your vacation.
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