This seems hypothetical and click-baity to me. In the parts of the US I've been to, here's what happens: most people do a (more or less) zipper merge "too soon"

This seems hypothetical and click-baity to me. In the parts of the US I've been to, here's what happens: most people do a (more or less) zipper merge "too soon" at a pretty good speed. A few people race past (too fast to merge), then stop (too slow to merge) at the last possible point. Everyone stops, again and again, to let them back in. I think a perfect zipper merge requires matching speeds. I don't see how zooming ahead and stopping can help, and the article doesn't suggest any ideas.