This is my vent of the day. (Thanks to TUC LOL)
People, you have to learn how to "Zipper Merge"!
You're driving down the freeway, and see a sign that says "Construction ahead. Right lane ends 1 mile."
What do you do? Do you move over right then? Do you move over 1/2 mile down the road? Do you see the traffic backed up and you drive all the way to the end to where you MUST merge?
90% of Americans think you should move over right away, or pretty soon anyway. But you certainly don't wait until the end. That those who drive all the way to the end are "rude" or "selfish", or similar thoughts.
There have been LOTS of studies on the most efficient ways to move traffic when a lane has to be closed down. Guess what? The Zipper merge won, but ONLY when it was done CORRECTLY.
Do YOU know how to zipper merge correctly? You're SUPPOSED to go all the way to the end of the lane, then the cars from the right lane move over in an alternating fashion (meaning each car in the lane being merged into lets a car from the right lane in.) Seriously, how many of you DO this? No, instead you'll give someone the finger because they "waited till the last second to move over." Or..as happened to me the other day, you'll scream at them out your window.
Seriously? Don't believe me? The MN DOT goes so far as to put out PSA's about zipper merging. (It's called a "Dynamic Merge Point" (graphic here) in some states.) Most new drivers are now taught about zipper merging in class, but us old people are clueless. LOL I think that as each person renews their drivers license they should be handed a flyer on how to Zipper Merge correctly. Now, weather or not they actually CHOOSE to do so is hard to say. After all, nobody likes to be told they've been doing something wrong for the past 10 years, right?
Ok, jumping off my soap box now.
3 comments:
I got my license 5 years ago and I never heard a word about zipper merging. Now I feel old!
also, I am guilty of not zipper merging. the anxiety gets too high and i move over right away.
Makes sense. What makes me the most angry is when I see someone get OUT of the lane to go as far up as possible before merging. That bugs me!
The "zipper" method should also be used in ultra-busy parking lots after venues, like concerts!
This is common all over the world, I guess. I learned about it in Germany when I was riding with a friend who yelled through her windshield "REISSVERSCHLUSS, MANN!" ("Zipper, man!") at someone who did NOT correctly zipper in. I find it a very cathartic thing to yell at people through my windshield, now.
And you can too! Try it: Reißverschluss (RICE-fair-shluss (shluss rhymes with 'puss' as in 'pussycat')), Mann (mahn)! See? didn't that feel great? :)
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