That Merge Lane

Quite a few drivers end up caught without any sort of plan when they reach a merge lane. The consequence is that the task may be done too slowly, which reduces any chance of blending in to moving traffic.

The answer is to plan early, do a shoulder check, and figure out the gap you are aiming for. Then step on it, no dawdling or hesitation. It is not dissimilar to leaving the pits at a race track. Your job is to get up to the speed at which your gap is moving, no faster or slower. It should then be simple to ease over and take your position, without forcing other drivers to make adjustments.

Of course, watch out for those unfortunate motorists who haven't figured this out, and have come to a halt at the end of the acceleration lane. On a busy day, they may be waiting there for quite a while.

The check ride portion of a Sidorov Advanced Driver Training course covers this sort of stuff. http://www.spdt.ca

Holding the Wheel

Unless a person has a physical disability and cannot do otherwise, that lazy one hand on top or bottom of the steering wheel is a public advertisement of lack of understanding.

In advanced driving schools, the one-handers struggle with each exercise until they learn proper wheel handling habits. It has to be learned. There are no phone booths handy where someone can transform instantly from sloppy to Superdriver. Under stress we revert to our dominant habits, so we should make sure they are good ones.

Think of it as the left hand sensing what the left front wheel is doing, while the right hand takes care of the other side. With one hand on top of the wheel, there isn't much feedback from the car at all, at least until the airbag deploys.