How to Properly Merge Onto a Highway, Interstate or Freeway?

A couple of days ago, I stumbled across a pretty hilarious meme on Facebook. Vehicle Mechanic shared something that echoed a frustration that I have carried with me for decades- since I got my driver's license back in the late 80s. Here's the post!

Okay, I'll admit it. I assumed that everyone already knew this. When I was studying for my driver's test thirty-five years ago or so, I distinctly remember reading about how to properly merge onto a highway, freeway or interstate. That was fully addressed in the booklet of Kentucky traffic laws I was given to help me prepare for the written portion of the exam- which I careered by the way.

However, I can't tell you how many times I have watched people attempt to merge into highway or interstate traffic well below the speed of their fellow motorists. To me, that's irresponsible and dangerous. People who do that are literally disrupting the flow of traffic- not only on the freeway, but also for the motorists behind them in the merge lane.

There are all sorts of "how to" conversations online, but I think the folks at Progressive summed it most effectively. Here are some tips from their Life Lines site. Notice the very first bullet point Progressive shares.

HOW TO MERGE WHILE DRIVING

Try to match the speed of traffic in the lane you want to merge into.
Make sure you have enough space (3-5 seconds is recommended).
Check your blind spot before merging to make sure the lane is empty.
Only change lanes where it’s legal to do so (indicated by a dashed white line between lanes).
Use your turn signal several seconds in advance of your lane change to alert other drivers.
Be especially attentive and eliminate driving distractions when merging or changing lanes.

There are also some great tutorials available on YouTube as well. Zutobi Drivers Ed shared this video. It's comprehensive, practical and the instructor is amazing.

If you want to think of it in pop culture terms, think of merging this way. It's far less Driving Miss Daisy and way more Days of Thunder.

LOOK: See how much gasoline cost the year you started driving

To find out more about how has the price of gas changed throughout the years, Stacker ran the numbers on the cost of a gallon of gasoline for each of the last 84 years. Using data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics (released in April 2020), we analyzed the average price for a gallon of unleaded regular gasoline from 1976 to 2020 along with the Consumer Price Index (CPI) for unleaded regular gasoline from 1937 to 1976, including the absolute and inflation-adjusted prices for each year.

Read on to explore the cost of gas over time and rediscover just how much a gallon was when you first started driving.

Gallery Credit: Sophia Crisafulli