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Washington, Minnesota officially endorse a “safer, faster” traffic merge

arstechnica.com

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Re: Washington, Minnesota officially endorse a “safer, faster” traffic merge

#11

Post by dusing »

ChikkaChiChi wrote: post #4

In 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 a…

I live in the Twin Cities and "Minnesota nice" means merging incredibly early when a lane is posted as closed. As a transplant I can always count on getting and extra 1/2 - 1 mile ahead by staying in the closed lane.

It is getting better, but still 40% of the time the car at the end of the zipper merge is NOT happy to see you, and thinks they are letting you in.

Signage is helping at the big construction areas.

Re: Washington, Minnesota officially endorse a “safer, faster” traffic merge

#12

Post by smacktoward »

pwenzel wrote: post #8

As 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/236…

Since the big obstacle to zippering is people's perception that it's rude (since you appear to be "pushing to the front of the line," as it were), one could argue that this is a case of Minnesota Nice hurting more than it helps :-D

Re: Washington, Minnesota officially endorse a “safer, faster” traffic merge

#13

Post by ChikkaChiChi »

pwenzel wrote: post #8

As 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/236…

Generally I've found that most drivers in the Twin Cities have not acclimated to "city driving" the way many of us from other areas learned. People here drive as if they are exempt from the responsibility of piloting a 2 ton death roller skate and what it could possibly do to others while they text their friends.

Re: Washington, Minnesota officially endorse a “safer, faster” traffic merge

#16

Post by ChikkaChiChi »

smacktoward wrote: post #12
pwenzel wrote: post #8

As 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/236…

Since the big obstacle to zippering is people's perception that it's rude (since you appear to be "pushing to the front of the line," as it were), one could argue that this is a case of Minnesota Nice hurting more than it helps :-D

"Minnesota Nice" tends to be an in-joke according to many of the people I've asked about it here. :)

Re: Washington, Minnesota officially endorse a “safer, faster” traffic merge

#17

Post by dubfan »

ChikkaChiChi wrote: post #10
molf wrote: post #9

I'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.

More importantly, the decision by American transportation authorities to promote it is newsworthy. It seems like Northern Europe takes a more systematic and serious attitude towards driving, while the American attitude is more "eat my breakfast while driving 50mph in the left lane, and give the finger to everyone who passes me on the right"

Re: Washington, Minnesota officially endorse a “safer, faster” traffic merge

#18

Post by reustle »

adrr wrote: post #14

I thought the zipper merge was the standard way to merge? You stay in your lane till the merge section(end of your lane) and its every other car. Maybe its a California thing.

Same in PA. I've always remembered merging like this.

Re: Washington, Minnesota officially endorse a “safer, faster” traffic merge

#19

Post by jerf »

pwenzel wrote: post #8

As 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/236…

People think they are being nice. Education can work very quickly and efficiently on such people by showing them they aren't being nice after all.

I live in the US in a "nice driver" area with a number of traffic circles. On a fairly routine basis I come up to a traffic circle and stop because there is someone in it coming towards me, but then they try to "helpfully" stop and wave me in, slowing down themselves, everyone behind them, and even slowing me down as now I'm confused and less likely to move. Or I get stuck behind such a person in the circle and have to stop gracelessly as they unexpectedly stop in the middle. (This being a traffic circle it's not that dangerous due to lack of speed, plus over time I've learned to predict who is going to do this based on the car body language...) I haven't yet witnessed this causing an accident but it's just a matter of time, it snarls things up that badly. They think they're being friendly. If someone would explain that "friendly" is using the traffic circles as designed, they'd probably do the right thing in the future, but so far I haven't discovered the hand gestures that properly express that.

Re: Washington, Minnesota officially endorse a “safer, faster” traffic merge

#20

Post by iLoch »

This works pretty well where I live. Here in Vancouver, a major bridge that takes traffic into the downtown core is only 3 undivided lanes. There's a huge amount of traffic flowing over this bridge in the morning as it connects work to home for somewhere in the range of 60,000 - 70,000 commuters daily. From the residential side of the bridge, traffic zipper merges from 4 lanes into either one or two depending on the time of day. The traffic is coming from two different sources (west and east) so each source will zipper merge and then the zipper merged lanes will zipper merge onto the bridge. I honestly have no idea what this would look like any other way.

Zipper merges are obvious and natural if you set them up right - what it takes is the knowledge to do it. Once people know that they should be yielding to the mergers, the whole merge process speeds up considerably.

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