Washington, Minnesota officially endorse a “safer, faster” traffic merge
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Re: Washington, Minnesota officially endorse a “safer, faster” traffic merge
#2I see the negative effects of early merging regularly. The freeway onramp closest to my home leads to a frequently congested portion of the freeway. People merging ASAP often end up having to stop on the onramp, blocking traffic behind them which can then back up onto surface streets. They do this despite the onramp merge lane continuing for quite some time after it first connects to the freeway.
Re: Washington, Minnesota officially endorse a “safer, faster” traffic merge
#3This is pretty brilliant, but how do you encourage this without a light or years of including it in driver education?
Re: Washington, Minnesota officially endorse a “safer, faster” traffic merge
#4In practice zipper merging works amazingly well. MNDOT has used signage to tell drivers to maintain speed and stay in their lanes for the past few years of construction in the northern Twin Cities. You wouldn't believe how much faster traffic moves when these simple reminders are posted.
The problem is that without the signs (and enforcement) drivers in the Twin Cities Metro regularly shoot to seal any gap that may allow someone signaling to enter their lane, regardless of the distance to the merge point. This behavior also occurs in on-ramp situations where drivers are entering the highway and slow lane drivers refuse to move over, but don't want you in front of them!
I have driven in many states and never has the mentality that you cannot, MUST NOT, let someone ahead of you been as bad as it is here. Minnesota Nice, indeed.
Re: Washington, Minnesota officially endorse a “safer, faster” traffic merge
#5This is pretty brilliant, but how do you encourage this without a light or years of including it in driver education?
Even including it in driver's education isn't likely to help. Driver's education teaches people to use blinkers, but from informal observation I'd estimate 1/3 of drivers in my area don't use their blinkers at all.
Re: Washington, Minnesota officially endorse a “safer, faster” traffic merge
#6Traffic management is a fascinating intersection of sociology, fluid dynamics, behavior change, and urban planning.
If you're interested in this field, I can't recommend the work of Tom Vanderbilt enough. His book "Traffic" brought urban planning to the masses in the same manner "Freakonomics" made social and public policy accessible.
Re: Washington, Minnesota officially endorse a “safer, faster” traffic merge
#7This is pretty brilliant, but how do you encourage this without a light or years of including it in driver education?
In Minnesota there are posted signs such as "Stay in your lane until the merge point" which seem to work pretty well.
Re: Washington, Minnesota officially endorse a “safer, faster” traffic merge
#8As a driver in the Twin Cities area, I can back the stereotype that Minnesotans don't know how to zipper. It speaks so truly of the Minnesota condition.
People begin often merge far too early, and get offended when folks like myself "budge" at the front of the line.
Learn to zipper, darn it!
Edit: This TPT parody, How to Talk Minnesotan, shows how to drive in Minnesota (scrub to 11:58):
http://video.tpt.org/video/2365042610/
If you ever lived in rural Minnesota, you know this is completely dead on.
Re: Washington, Minnesota officially endorse a “safer, faster” traffic merge
#9I'm surprised this is written like zipper merging is some kind of recently discovered secret. Zipper merging (or weaving) has been standard practice in parts of Europe for 20 years (maybe longer – I can't really remember anything else). Since March 2014 it is even mandatory in Belgium, and anyone merging early may risk a €55 fine [1].
It has been repeatedly advocated and promoted by various governments in Europe [2] and I doubt anyone questions its effectivity. Some experiments have been done in the past with alternative methods like zipper merging with groups of cars, but this is only applied when traffic can be regulated (with lights or traffic controllers). The nice thing about zipper merging is that with enough public knowledge, drivers can regulate merging themselves.
[1]:http://www.vandaag.be/binnenland/145761_ritsen-verplicht-van...
[2]:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TNhnLYI2Efw – Dutch government TV ad from 1989 which explains and promotes zipper merging (albeit very poorly, I must admit).
Re: Washington, Minnesota officially endorse a “safer, faster” traffic merge
#10I'm surprised this is written like zipper merging is some kind of recently discovered secret. Zipper merging (or weaving) has been standard practice in parts of Europe for 20 years (maybe longer – I can't really remember anything else). Since March 2014 it is even mandatory in Belgium, and anyone merging early may risk a €55 fine [1]. It has been repeatedly advocated and promoted by various governments in Europe [2]…
It's not the concept that is newsworthy, it's the decision to actively promote it that is.