The City of Windsor is encouraging drivers to use the ‘zipper merge’ to keep traffic moving during construction season.
Executive Director of Operations and Deputy City Engineer Stacey McGuire says zipper merging happens when drivers use both lanes fully until the merge point and then take turns moving into a single lane, but that’s not always what happens.
“Everybody is trying to be as courteous as possible; they see that a lane reduction is coming up ahead, and everyone tries to get into the open lane very, very early. What this does is back vehicles up in a single-file lane for kilometres,” she says.
Transportation experts say early merging leaves valuable road space unused, creating longer delays and increased frustration for drivers.
McGuire says they see cases of this on the E.C. Row Expressway the most but they need drivers at the front of the line to be courteous and let people in at the point the lanes begin to merge.
“It’s also about people that are further along in line in the understanding that isn’t about people cutting ahead; this is actually to try and improve the flow of traffic because if you have two available lanes, you should be using them to their fullest capacity. Otherwise, the backups are longer, and everyone is going to be sitting there longer,” she says.
McGuire says drivers need to get over the misconception that we’re being unkind if we use both lanes before a construction zone lane reduction.
“You have to get over the idea that people are doing this in some way to cause you harm or to get in front of you. I think some people are hearing that zipper merging is better and some people aren’t. It’s very difficult to get to those people that aren’t,” she says.
The city says that key benefits of the zipper merge include maximizing use of available road space by keeping both lanes moving, reducing traffic backups, improving safety by minimizing sudden stops and risky lane changes, and promoting fairness by encouraging drivers to take turns at the merge point.