HOW I TAUGHT ANNALISA “THE MOST DEMANDING TASK MOST DRIVERS WILL EVER FACE”. In a comment on this post about the zipper merge, Annalisa reminisced about how when she was learning to drive, I taught her how to deal with merging on a freeway: “When it came time to merge, I was already zipping along the Merritt Parkway (an old, two-lane highway in Connecticut). I asked him urgently how to merge. He replied calmly, ‘Oh, they sort themselves out.’â€
In this article on the roadandtrack.com website, Jack Baruth points out that: “If you think about it for a moment, you’ll realize that merging onto a freeway is the most demanding task most drivers will ever face.” Borath also writes about the difficult experience of learning to deal with merge situations: “So there you are, the untrained driver, trying to find a hole in traffic. You’re not good at quickly adjusting the position of your vehicle in any direction. When in doubt, you’ll do what you were told to do in Driver’s Ed: you’ll stomp on the brakes and reduce the speed of your merge even further into dangerous territory. If you try to brake and turn at the same time, you’re likely to activate your stability control, assuming you’re lucky enough to have it. It’s scary and miserable….
I realize it’s a tribute to Annalisa’s poise that she handled the merge situation successfully that first time and thereafter.