> Why deny others the same opportunities?

Almost exclusively these people will zip around a line and force their way in at the end. Even kindergartners are taught budging in line is not good.

Why is this the problem on the people actually being considerate and are in the correct lane at the appropriate time?

No one was born in the correct lane at the beginning of time. They inserted themselves there at some point. In traffic, the only way they could have done so is to move in front of another driver.

Zipper merging [0] exercises a different kindergarten skill, taking turns. Still, "lines" are a small minority of lane-changing situations, all of which involve taking the open space in an adjacent lane.

[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Merge_(traffic)

Yeah and zipper merges don't increase traffic flow, they combine backup congestion so that the impact of the selfish driver is minimized. It is implemented so those who will not take their turn as intended don't have as much negative impact on other drivers.

"Lines", to use your emphasis, are by far the major time component so for me this is a meaningless distinction. Normal traffic merges should of course be accepted gracefully.

Because merging early is worse. How is creating an artificial backup in one lane considerate?

I find it inconsiderate frankly, because it forces an arbitrary decision rather then just patiently using the available road as marked.

https://www.freep.com/story/money/cars/mark-phelan/2018/07/0...

I have a casual theory that driving in the US relies upon every individual enforcing their own idea of what the rules should be, inherent to our culture. I really enjoy driving in Europe, but maybe it's delusional. There's an aggressive indifference that I perceive.

We should mostly be on bikes and scooters anyway.

I have driven in both the US and a few European countries, and I would disagree with your proposed cause but agree somewhat with the effect. Having driven on long-distance road trips in the US, drivers are noticeably more competent than in (sub)urban highways, probably because the latter are filled with drivers who don't drive as much at those speeds. This is often inherently true in many western European countries in which driving usually has reasonable public transit alternatives so the selection of drivers on roads may tend to be more skilled and experienced.

That being said, in some European cities drivers are not very keen to stop for pedestrians in crosswalks, even when pedestrians are already in the median "island." I haven't noticed any US city of a similar size that had drivers quite so negligent about crosswalks.

In every US city I've ever spent time in, including San Francisco and Portland, you're taking your life into your own hands every time you use a crosswalk. Or even a sidewalk, as people will just turn into driveways without checking if the sidewalk is clear first.

I agree with one exception- Seattle. For all of Seattle's faults the drivers are very aware of pedestrians and very courteous towards them.

Agreed. Also, some college campuses I've been to are great with drivers stopping for pedestrians.