I’m pretty sure you are meant to merge where the road merges… you know use all the available road space? I merge at the last minute because it’s stupid not to. If you want to sit in a queue longer than you need to that’s your problem
They give you almost a kilometre to get in lane, and if everyone did traffic would continue to flow. It’s the difference between filtering and merging. I don’t choose to be a person that sits in the queue, I choose not to be the other type of person 
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Okay if the traffic is flowing then yes get in the lane early. If there is one lane stationary and the other is free I am going up the free one cautiously incase someone decides to split the lanes to punish me for my merging in turn correctly.
Yes sorry in that case you’re right. I meant traffic filtering. But in many cases (that I’ve seen) the reason traffic starts backing up so far is because of people wanting to merge last minute bringing everything to a stand, if that makes sense. It’s kind of a snake eating it’s own tail situation. Proof of this is when all the cars from the merge point onwards are moving, but everything on approach isn’t.
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I hate putting forward an opposing view but sorry everyone, I’m a “late merger” or what I call “merge in turn”. I can’t see the point of causing a mile long traffic jam when you can have two lanes of traffic half the length. I bet half those sitting there on the inside lane are on their phones or fiddling with their giant entertainment screens.
If you like rules and have a warm feeling inside at your dutiful compliance then … merge in turn.
Two-seater cars with a road tax bill of £320, an acceleration 0-62 in 7 seconds and weighing a tad over 1 ton an “indulgence”? I’m not having that if you have avoided paying 40% tax by taking advantage of salary sacrifice schemes or 100% write downs for business or paying zero road tax on your 2.7-ton Audi, 0-62 in 4.5 seconds, cyclists and pedestrians bouncing off your windscreen, potholes ever deeper in your wake. But what the hell. You have a little green splash on your number plate to say you’re a better person than me. So it must be true.
Whether you’re a late merger or not I agree with a lot of what you say. This is why all these things are matters of opinion. We all may think ours is right, but it doesn’t make it so. Freedom of speech and opinion can be frustrating, but is great 
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It’s interesting that when people are in cars they are more likely to be rude, unsociable or even aggressive. You don’t see people pushing in queues at the shops or at the cinema. I reckon the more isolated you feel (eg. a big SUV) the more likely you are to be pushy. In an MX-5 with the roof down you feel engaged and in the moment, in fact you can actually talk to people if you are moving slowly in a queue.
Agree. My understanding is that when roads are busy using all available space in both lanes and merging at the point it goes into one or a lane is closed is best. Public awareness of that is low, though. See:
And also the relevant Highway Code rule (this direct link might not take you to exactly the right place, but it’s Rule 134):
The Highway Code - General rules, techniques and advice for all drivers and riders (103 to 158) - Guidance - GOV.UK.
On the safety point, all new SUVs would I imagine have Autonomous Emergency Braking and many of the premium ones Adaptive Cruise control, so I think that is negated to an extent.
On the environmental point, yes you are lugging around a lot more mass while a lot more energy and raw materials go into making the thing in the first place. I don’t consider the new hybrid Range Rover an environmentally responsible choice but maybe if it has a 20-year life (haha - it is a JLR product so fat chance) then it is not too bad I suppose.
But for me the key point is the appalling economics and driving experience. These things cost much more (because there is so much more of them) and you are paying for extra engineering you just don’t use. Yes the ride height is nice sometimes I get that, but they roll and pitch about and honestly how many times do you really, actually need 4x4? Buy some winter tyres! The Mazda CX-30 versus Mazda3 is a case in point. Everything about the CX30 is worse and yet it costs more! Stick to the hatchback unless you have mobility issues, which is probably the only legitimate reason to own an SUV.
2018- on Honda Jazz Sport gets a bigger engine and some sportier toys. Looks good in white / black / orange. And the manual gearbox is quite fun apparently.
Not sure if the current generation offers a sportier version, I don’t think it does.
Yes, that’s what I have. 1.5 with c. 130bhp IIRC. The word “Sport” is optimistic and doing some heavy lifting. I’d like to see one with closer to 200bhp and a sportier suspension setup.
It’s here (I originally intended to get a second gen, but changed my mind): Second generation Honda Jazz 1.3/1.4 manual - #12 by MikeyC
Interesting views on merging expressed here, I guess they reflect different levels of training and familiarity with the highway code, which recommends merging in turn when it is safe, to the custom for advanced drivers to use the IPSGA system to make safe progress.
I would very much suggest the views on merging are down to levels of self importance and ability to actually appreciate logic.
Zip merging, as the name suggests, is the synchronisation of speed between the lanes and then the filtering in to the space without causing the other lane to slow.
Those that aren’t brain dead or conceited will be able to work out that for this to happen both lanes need to be going at the same speed and also that because the volume of cars in two lanes needs to fit into one, (or even 3 in to 1) then the cars in both lanes need to slow down to allow that two lane volume of cars to fit into one.
Mr Imsoimportant that charges to the front is not merging in turn “like it’s supposed to be done” or “making the queues” half the length, but actually saturating the merging point by exceeding the merging capacity which in turn causes the vehicle they "pull in front of to brake, this then causes a shockwave back down the queue of traffic and it very very quickly becomes stop start and that queue suddenly becomes far longer. So while Mr Smugashellbutactuallyabitofatwat gets through thay are actually the equivalent of that loose bit of skin that gets caught in a zip on a bad day. A right pain.
There are plenty of on line traffic flow modeling tools that show the effects of Mr Smugashell.
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It’s one of those things that works if everybody does it, I’ve seen it happen, but only where the advance lane merge/closure sign also says something like
STAY IN LANE
MERGE IN TURN
Saved my skin after a heavy rainfall . My Mx5 would have floated.
The reason traffic starts backing up is because of people blocking those from merging correctly at the point the lane ends. All it takes is for the cars in the continuing lane to gradually open up a couple of car length gap that the car in lane 2 can slot in to. This can be done by barely slowing down at all as you should already have pretty much that gap as a braking distance anyway.
If people could merge in turn correctly there would be no “pushing in” because both lanes should be of equal length. Unfortunately those who see a merge in turn a mile up the road and instantly line up at a standstill are the ones who block up the roads.
As for the SUV topic… its all relative really. Yes they are less aerodynamic and heavier but not to the degrees that people seem to think when compared to modern family cars. The gap is even less so when you get into the ever more common crossover market.
Comparing an MX5 to an SUV is like comparing an MX5 to my bicycle. An MX5 is as utterly useless at family transport as my bicycle is for weekend trips to the coast with my wife. The key difference is that the SUV will do both without being a ton of resources sat there slowly disintegrating itself. I’m pretty sure that driven in my usual manner the SUV would deliver better fuel economy on the trip than my NA would.
For most of us our cars are a pointless luxury in a completely different scale to someone who chooses a Tiguan over a Golf.
Finally - “Road wear/damage increases with the fourth power of the vehicle weight. So a 2 tonne car takes 16 times as much out of the road as a 1 tonne mx-5, load being pro rata.”
So… forget SUVs because by that measure a fully loaded 44T HGV does 3.7 million times more damage to the road surface than an MX5 
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Something over 200,000 x an average car if you believe it - it sounds a lot but put a loaded 8 wheel tipper on your block paved drive and you might!
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