A quick question for you about traffic here on the North Shore. Imagine you are driving along the Upper Levels Highway. You suddenly see a sign which says, “lane closure ahead.” Do you choose to stay in your lane and merge at the last minute, or do you immediately merge into the other lane?
Perhaps you are leaving the North Shore, nearing the on-ramp of the Lions Gate Bridge. You look ahead and see that the on-ramps are bumper to bumper. Will you stay in your own lane until the last possible moment, then do a merge, alternating with the other lane to blend evenly?
At the first sign of your own lane coming to an end, the Canadian style is to abandon the disappearing lane as soon as possible. When cars hurry to squeeze into the faster lane, they seriously slow down that faster lane.
Then, as left lane cars slowly inch ahead, the drivers get annoyed when cars pass them on the right. They often defend their left lane by aggressively blocking the entry of all late mergers. The car(s) which have passed them on the right are considered to be cheeky and irresponsible low-lifes, butting in to the left lane.
I received a personal demonstration of this recently while driving eastbound on the Low Level Road in front of the Neptune Bulk Terminals.
When merging from two lanes into one, the driver on the left snugly tailgated the car in front of him, refusing to let me in. It was a hot day, traffic was moving at a crawl. He stubbornly stared straight ahead with a sullen look on his face.
Also, he had his passenger window open. I opened my window and cheerily shouted, “Thank you! Have a great day!” The poor man rolled his eyes and broke into a smile, then touched his brakes and let me in (thus proving that you really can catch more flies with honey than with vinegar).
In Europe, this problem is alleviated by the late merge or zipper merge. Studies have shown the benefit when each vehicle remains in its own lane until reaching the top of the bottleneck or merge lane. If they then blend together, alternating between the two lanes, traffic keeps moving and everyone gets a fair place in the resulting single lane of traffic.
Here in British Columbia, the ICBC Drive Smart Manual advises vehicles who are already on the highway to adjust your speed to allow merging traffic to merge and/or to help them find a safe gap. If you are in the right lane of the freeway, please note your options when you are approaching an entrance lane of merging traffic. These options are (a) pull to the left lane when safe to do so, or (b) adjust your speed to allow a gap for any vehicle on that entrance lane to safely merge into.
For vehicles approaching and wishing to merge onto the highway, the driver should scan the freeway traffic for a safe gap, match your speed to that of the freeway traffic, then safely merge with the freeway traffic. It is very important to avoid stopping on the on-ramp – you could be rear-ended.
Jeff Kasbrick of the Alberta Motor Association says, “If we maximize that full use of two lanes until the point of merge, and then we’re courteous as drivers to allow alternating vehicles through, that can really help reduce some of that congestion.”
The City of Kamloops website lists the following benefits to the zipper merge:
- Reduces differences in speeds between two lanes.
- Reduces the overall length of traffic backup by as much as 40 per cent.
- Creates a sense of fairness and equity that all lanes are moving at the same rate.
In Winnipeg, Man., a pilot program of the zipper merge was held in 2016. City Coun. Matt Allard called the zipper merge a “no-nonsense way to better traffic flow in Winnipeg” and noted that there was an immediate 40 per cent reduction in the length of the traffic lineup when properly implemented. It was concluded that improvements to driver’s education would further benefit this issue in the future.
In the U.S., the state of Colorado has faced this challenge by offering new directional signs which read, “Use both lanes during congestion,”
“Use both lanes to the merge point” then “Take turns. Merge here,” according to a news report at driving.ca.
It just makes sense that when a line of traffic isn’t forced to come to a virtual halt in the aggression of early merging, traffic can work together to smoothly blend. If you choose to stay in your lane and do a zipper merge, then you’re doing your part to reduce traffic congestion. Wouldn’t it be wonderful for the North Shore to be one of the first areas in the Lower Mainland to recognize and welcome this positive step?
Wendy Station has lived in North Vancouver for 50 years. Her very first job was being on staff in the Lynn Valley Dairy Queen’s opening day back in the early 1970s. Before early retirement in 1999 she worked at the District of North Vancouver, taught ESL at Queen Mary and Boundary schools and was a leader with local Brownies, Guides and Pathfinders.
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