The last word: The urge to merge

The average American spends hundreds of hours every year out on the roads. But the choices we make, says author Tom Vanderbilt, prove how little we know about driving.

Why does the other lane always seem to be moving faster?

It is a question you have no doubt asked yourself while crawling down some choked highway, watching with mounting frustration as the adjacent cars glide ahead. You drum the wheel with your fingers. You change the radio station. You fixate on one car as a benchmark of your own lack of progress. You try to figure out what that weird button next to the rear window defroster actually does.

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