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Post by gato on Jun 8, 2022 7:41:43 GMT -5
We've all been there, grinding our teeth and muttering curses, as the yokel with the flashing turn signal tries to "crowd in" at the last minute. "What a selfish idiot ... he was warned a mile ago that the lanes would be merging!"
But according to traffic experts in 34 states, he's doing the right thing ... those of us who resist his pushiness are doing the wrong thing. Like what?!
Yep ... it's called "zipper merging," named after the concept of the teeth on a zipper, seamlessly blending both sides together.
“It’s a bit of a collective idea that we’ve got to get everybody to understand, that it’s OK to use the lane until it closes, and it’s OK to let a car in front of you,” said Jacob Loesch, spokesman for Minnesota’s Department of Transportation.
Stupid me ... warned of an impending lane merge ahead, I always swap lanes early .... but according to the experts, the zipper method is more efficient, with one caveat: all the drivers have to cooperate, as in, "one car from the left, one car from the right, one car from the left .... " and so on. Not a popular concept among all drivers.
The idea of merging late cuts against my grain. For instance, I'm always seated before the movie begins, cursing the people who arrive in the middle of the previews and then stamp all over my feet to get to the seat they should have claimed ten minutes ago. Ain't no zipper merging about it!
In 2020, Illinois became the first state to have zipper merging written into its traffic laws, which fine offenders who fail to merge late.
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Post by oldnjplayer on Jun 8, 2022 7:58:25 GMT -5
It was called alternate merge. Don't think it should be done at the last point of entering or exiting. Like you said everyone has adequate warning. I usually see being done when there is a lot of traffic and a long line of cars waiting their turn to exit or enter. If there is no control then you have two full lanes trying to exit or enter. Just my 2 cents.
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Post by HenryJ on Jun 8, 2022 10:01:04 GMT -5
I first heard of this about 6 or 7 years ago. It was called zipper merging. For it to work, everyone has to cooperate and know how it works. It would certainly take up less space on a highway and give drivers behind all this the opportunity to exit upstream if that's where there route goes.
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Post by slacker 🐨 on Jun 8, 2022 10:58:48 GMT -5
I first heard of it driving in Minnesota about 5 years ago. They had signs. Reading the OP, I was thinking he was missing a key word: "cooperative" but he got to in later in the post.
In general, cooperating is more efficient for the whole, but there are too many selfish jerks out there.
I've never understood why just getting in the open lane isn't efficient. People merge over and nobody should have to slow way down, but there's an effect in highway traffic (can't remember the name) where the first person brakes a bit, the next person, not knowing how abrupt the braking will be and being cautious, brakes a little more, the next does the same. The net effect in busy traffic is that a 5 mph slow down by a car can result in a dead stop 40 cars back.
Traffic patterns fascinate me. Some of the decisions for managing traffic over the years are strange as hell. The cloverleaf interchange, for example. Who thought having two cars, one slowing and the other accelerating cross each others' path would be a good idea?
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Post by Think Floyd on Jun 8, 2022 20:19:33 GMT -5
Some of the decisions for managing traffic over the years are strange as hell. I think our local traffic engineers are smoking crack! I know of two intersections with a traffic light that are extremely busy at rush hour. As if that wasn't bad enough, if you're driving in a certain direction there are two lanes on one side of the traffic light that turn into one lane after you go through the light. |
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Post by Think Floyd on Jun 8, 2022 20:27:46 GMT -5
Stupid me ... warned of an impending lane merge ahead, I always swap lanes early .... but according to the experts, the zipper method is more efficient, with one caveat: all the drivers have to cooperate, as in, "one car from the left, one car from the right, one car from the left .... " and so on. Not a popular concept among all drivers. The idea of merging late cuts against my grain. For instance, I'm always seated before the movie begins, cursing the people who arrive in the middle of the previews and then stamp all over my feet to get to the seat they should have claimed ten minutes ago. Ain't no zipper merging about it! Zipper merging sounds ideal in theory, but isn't very "smooth" in real life. I view people who speed through the empty lane trying to get ahead of as many cars as possible to be useless lowlifes. IMO, changing lanes in heavy traffic can be dangerous because you never know what the other drivers are going to do. I think ahead... I usually try to get in the lane I want to be in, and then stay there. I also get to the movies early too. |
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Post by rickyguitar on Jun 8, 2022 21:14:59 GMT -5
Well, I am glad they got way up there. Lotsa room...behind me.
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Post by slacker 🐨 on Jun 9, 2022 11:06:53 GMT -5
Stupid me ... warned of an impending lane merge ahead, I always swap lanes early .... but according to the experts, the zipper method is more efficient, with one caveat: all the drivers have to cooperate, as in, "one car from the left, one car from the right, one car from the left .... " and so on. Not a popular concept among all drivers. The idea of merging late cuts against my grain. For instance, I'm always seated before the movie begins, cursing the people who arrive in the middle of the previews and then stamp all over my feet to get to the seat they should have claimed ten minutes ago. Ain't no zipper merging about it! Zipper merging sounds ideal in theory, but isn't very "smooth" in real life. I view people who speed through the empty lane trying to get ahead of as many cars as possible to be useless lowlifes. IMO, changing lanes in heavy traffic can be dangerous because you never know what the other drivers are going to do. I think ahead... I usually try to get in the lane I want to be in, and then stay there. I also get to the movies early too. My wife and I used to battle about when to leave for movies. I always wanted to get there really early to get a prime seat. It also save fretting in the concession stand line. Now the theater we go to has reserved seats that recline. We can pretty much show up at the "start time" and we're good to go. I put "start time" in quotes because the feature presentation always starts almost exactly 20 minutes after the advertised start time. The advertised time is when all the trailers, concessions ads etc. start. |
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Post by 009 on Jun 9, 2022 12:52:09 GMT -5
The true zipper merge takes place at the very end of the two lanes; two lanes fully filled with cars until they are forced to merge because of the obstacle. This is how it's done in Germany. Works well; an orderly rule of the road, and everyone knows it, follows it. Nobody gets wound up. Anyway, once you are in one of the lines of cars, you're there until the merge; relax.
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Post by RufusTeleStrat on Jun 9, 2022 13:15:23 GMT -5
And in Germany there probably is a 5 year prison sentence for deviation from this norm.
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