Three years ago, Tom Vanderbilt, author of a new book called 'Traffic' was driving on a crowded New Jersey highway when a sign loomed: LANE ENDS ONE MILE: MERGE RIGHT.

His first impulse was to immediately do what the sign said. Instead, he told himself, "Don't be a sucker. You can do better."

He zoomed ahead without changing lanes, despite hostile stares from stalled drivers to his right. He made it to the bottleneck, merged late and found an open road ahead.

Later, he asked himself, "Was I wrong to have done this? Why should one lane move faster than the other?

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