In message , Harry Bloomfield
writes
Steve Walker brought next idea :
whereas merging at the pinch-point often means cutting into a small
gap, causing those behind to brake and the ripple effect to bring the
whole road to a halt or slowing to a stop yourself and holding up the
traffic behind.

Not if the merge is orderly and with cooperation from both lanes, which
is what you get as a result of no one being able to bypass the queue.

Early merges, leave one lane less than fully occupied and space for the
impatient to bypass the queue.

What you're saying is that late, 'co-operative' mergers force the
'unco-operative' would-be queue-jumpers to 'co-operate'. Well, this is
true - but it often leads to a log-jam at the pinch-point, and that
creates tail-backs that probably would not have happened if everyone had
merged early, and (if possible) maintained speed.
--
Ian