Zipper merges! It’s my understanding that that’s a norm in some countries, but that’s a social issue and not an infrastructure one.

Yes but more than just zipper merges. There was street realignment which also included a braided flow (crossing lanes because not only would they need to funnel traffic from so of canal to the tunnel but also allow them to get off on a local street before the point of no return to the tunnel and same for the ‘uptown’ side) anyway it was an over complicated solution that only worked in simulation and not with real cars and trucks so none of it was implemented.

I'm less familiar with downtown but the whole area around where the Lincoln Tunnel access is in Midtown is a snarled mess. You have the Port Authority, aka one of the world's worst bus terminals, and more generally just a bunch of intersections that are such a mess that you need cops directing traffic because otherwise you just get gridlock between cars trying to make turns and pedestrians trying to get across streets.

Most of society seems to have a problem with the notion of allowing someone else first ultimately means faster for everyone vs the asshats that actively speed up to block/deny someone from being able to merge ahead of them. To me, these are the same people that complain about a single longer queue rather than individual queues for each register.

Zipper is best and I completely agree that "society as a whole" just doesn't understand it and are outright hostile towards the correct behaviour.

Whenever traffic is slow, I make a point of always driving up exactly towards the merge and just sliding into the flow of traffic. Many many times, someone will be pissed at that, either on the way there because my lane is free, sometimes for a very very long stretch and they try to cut me off because I'm 'bypassing' the line or even at the merge, where I just let someone through but then it's my turn but they cut me off.

What do these people think? The 2 lane highway is supposed to become a 1 lane highway just because there's a merge ahead (say because of an accident)? How far back is it supposed to become 1 lane? 100 meters? 500 meters? 10 kilometers? I've seen some crazy long lineups with nobody on the second lane for multiple kilometers. The line could easily have been half as long if everyone just stayed on their lane until the merge point and zippered.

I remember seeing an experiment on TV (Germany) like 20 years ago, where they had a large truck adhere to the zipper rule, merging exactly where they're supposed to and filming it (doing it over and over) and there were many many cases of the truck having to brake hard as people tried to 'slip by'. This was a 'soft zipper' i.e. lots of space to the front with just lines marked out where the truck could come to a standstill/slow down and go on, so it was a safe experiment.

Which ultimately is one of those cases that demonstrate that some ideas are good and 'correct' but "not implementable with humans."

These have been implemented in a lot of places extensively, such as Germany. There are also some implementations in the US. One such that I drove on often is when I-70 eastbound runs into the beltway at Baltimore, MD.

The only problem with zipper merging (much like roundabouts) is a lack of education around how they work and WHY they work. Adjust the education we give new drivers and over time our roads will become more efficient.

CGP Gray's simple solution to traffic and good visuals.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iHzzSao6ypE

The real simple solution to traffic is no more monkeys driving cars. Also, implicitly, fully isolate cars from human powered forms of transportation.

There is a slight flaw there. It fails to account for vehicle malfunctions (blown tires, running out of power, component failure, roadway debris, etc.) so even with computerized coördination you need to keep a speed determined safe distance from vehicles in front of them. (with reference to the accordion effect of stop and go.)

Accidents will require cleanup services.

Meanwhile self-driving cars can learn of them from the scheduling coordination services and distribute the load among working routes without rubbernecking.

People are taught to use turn signals, and are reminded "keep right except to pass" every 2 miles. Unless there are a lot of blatantly illiterate people driving around, they just don't care about the conventions of the road, and I doubt education is going to change that.