ORLANDO, Fla. – News 6 traffic safety expert Trooper Steve Montiero answers viewer questions about the rules of the road every week, helping Central Florida residents become better drivers by being better educated.
Trooper Steve on Thursday was asked, “What’s the difference between merging and yielding?”
He said that this question threw him off a bit, prefacing his answer as honesty.
“Nowhere in my mind have I ever confused the difference between yielding and merging, as they are two completely different actions,” he said.
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Technically speaking, they do still work in conjunction with each other, according to Trooper Steve.
“When merging, you are conducting a maneuver in which you are entering traffic. You must yield to traffic prior to your merge. Meaning, to yield is to take a pause before your movement takes place,” he said. “For example, a driver would yield to other traffic in the travel lanes in which they are attempting to merge into.”
So, merging is its own action action, yielding is also, but the yielding has to occur before the merge. You slow down to ensure you violate no one’s right of way, and then that is what allows the merge to ultimately happen.
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