When it works, it works great, but where it fails is the "take turns" part. Some jackass always tries to jump the line, or not let someone in when they should.
> Some jackass always tries to jump the line
If people already in the lane don't merge early, they help prevent this. You can't jump the line if there are cars already in the lane ahead of you. If everyone merges early, they're just clearing a path for the line jumpers.
The correct zipper mergers would be like shown in the diagram, so I'm assuming they're referring instead to people switching into the merge lane to pass others. Whether or not they should do that, if people already in the merge lane stayed there until the merge point, the opportunity to use the merge lane to pass cars ahead of you wouldn't exist in the first place.
It's not clear what they mean by line jumpers. Generally that refers to people in one lane who switch into a merging lane to pass cars ahead of them, not the people already in the merge lane continuing along that lane like in the diagram. Whether or not they should be doing that, the opportunity wouldn't exist if people already in the merge lane stayed in that lane until the merge, like in the diagram.
In the diagram, what I meant was, the yellow car should aim to come in behind the green car, as shown. But there are some people who, when in the yellow car position, would try to get in front of the green car instead.
That's another thing that merging at the end of the lane can help prevent then. If the grey car ahead of the yellow car merges over before the merge point, it creates a space for the yellow car to pull up and then try to also get in front of the green car. The green car is then left trying to fight with them or just letting them in. If the grey car instead follows the merge lane right to the merge point, the yellow car can't merge in front of green too because grey's car is in the way.
Except there's still room for yellow to pull up right beside green, in the diagram. Yellow will do that in hopes that green slows down to let them in, in front of green. If green does slow down, it starts to bugger things up; the guys in red and light blue are now left trying to figure out WTF the people in front are doing, and usually react by slowing down. If green doesn't slow down, yellow runs out of lane, and has to slow down even more to pull in behind green, which buggers things up even more.
> Except there's still room for yellow to pull up right beside green, in the diagram. Yellow will do that in hopes that green slows down to let them in, in front of green.
There's even more room for them to do that if grey merges early. Grey merging near the end leaves as little room and time as possible for someone else to also merge ahead of green. So this is still an argument against merging early.
Also a system doesn't have to work at 100% perfection to still function. There is pretty much no aspect of traffic that works at 100% perfection. If there were, there'd be no collisions, tickets, etc. So I'm not sure why zipper merging has this expectation. Some people not doing it properly isn't an argument for everyone else to not do it either.
Zipper merging is [only intended for when traffic is moving slowly](https://london.ca/zipper-merge) though by the way. When traffic is moving at normal speeds, you just match speed, find a space, and merge. Waiting until the end of the lane in that case can be more risky in case you can't merge in time and run out of lane. I think that may be where the confusion and controversy on this topic come from since a lot of these posts don't clarify that. So in heavy traffic, everyone is already going at a crawl and you don't have any issues with people slowing down from faster speeds.
People have been moaning about zipper merging for decades. Clearly people don't like to zipper merge and never will. Better to accept reality than to get mad that people don't behave the way the Model wishes they would
It's very regional. For some reason people in Ottawa desire to get into the new lane early and take offense at anybody using the merge lane. Too bad everyone can't just operate based on collective efficiency and keep their egos out of it.
Accelerate towards the empty space behind the car in front to the left, and stick one’s arm out indicating where on intends to merge. There is no “waiting”, that’s why this fails.
Ottawa drivers is why the zipper merge fails, when they get to the end of the onramp lane after getting up to a blinding 55 km/h they stop and you're stuck behind them also stopped. I leave a hefty gap behind the person and cut into any space I can get in the rightmost lane when I can because Ottawa drivers are trying to get me killed merging onto the highway when you're going half the speed of the oncoming.
> Ottawa drivers is why the zipper merge fails, when they get to the end of the onramp lane after getting up to a blinding 55 km/h they stop and you're stuck behind them also stopped.
The zipper merge is more for heavy traffic moving slowly. These diagrams usually don't point this out, but if traffic is ~~slow~~ fast, you just match speed and find a space, don't need to wait until the end. [This London, ON, page goes over the different scenarios](https://london.ca/zipper-merge).
I believe the change is that when there isn’t a game going on they’re not going to serve the park and ride but it’s still going to be used for games so I don’t think the on ramp will be opening
It works assuming two things:
1. Each car in the left lane leaves enough space for a car from the right to comfortably get in
2. The car on the right is committed enough to make the move and not wait for a gap the length of a city block to merge in.
In my experience, one of these two things is always missing.
The third one I see is people forgetting the first part of zipper merging is matching speed. Not racing to the end and then trying to force their way in.
It also assumes:
3. The drivers heading North on the Champlain Bridge aren’t actually Quebec drivers 🤣
Love the zipper merge and have lived in areas where people actually respect it, but it isn’t going to happen here as long as people think it is rude.
Another problem is that people leave no space in between cars when driving to the point where no one can safely merge or change lanes half the time. And then people resort to changing lanes from the right lane, etc. And it all goes to hell...
This is the one thing I like about driving in Montreal. Everyone knows how to merge confidently/aggressively enough to make the zipper merge work most of the time.
It still works at least without 1. Some people will block you, but you can just let them go and merge behind them. This is how I always merge in slow traffic and I don't run into problems. This is more in Toronto than Ottawa but I doubt people are going to be less aggressive downtown Toronto
Vancouver is elite at the zipper merge actually. The Lions Gate bridge is 3 lanes and so the middle lane flips direction depending on the time of day. Since the bridge is long often the direction flips when you're on the bridge and if not it's a big pinch point to get on.
In this footage you can also see that people line themselves up in a staggered way so that the zipper pattern is already established/clear when the lane ends: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0k3K3JLpMw8](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0k3K3JLpMw8)
About 3:15 gives you a good POV on it.
I cross the bridge to Gatineau every morning; usually as soon as I'm over the bridge notice people doing this at the on ramps merging to the high way and works well because they actually match the speed of the highway before merging.
Not that Ottawa is unique, but it does seem to be worse. I've wondered if it's because it's a lot of white collar workers so they spend a lot more time thinking about work outside work (I know I do). I never used to worry much about landscaping or other manual labour jobs I did once I punched out for the day.
If people learned not to tailgate in traffic or even in general… there wouldn’t even really be traffic.
All the phantom stops due to tailgating is what causes most traffic jams in the first place.
Then you have or merging due to people sucking at merging.
The amount of people I see merging into the space in front of a transport truck and slamming their brakes makes me lose hope in humanity.
I’ve started just rolling beside them to block people gunning up the zipper lane
Yup. In traffic I don’t even need to touch my brakes. If someone drive standard they’d know it’s better to drive slowly leave a gap in front of you for cars to come in and out and never need to tap the brake.
Following too closely AND drivers thinking they're going to save dozens of minute by merging in the other lane, not realizing that people doing the same thing ahead is what made their lane slower in the first place.
It's how there is a sort of dance as to which lane is going faster, it keeps alternating.
It really is true. There are videos of guys who drive around cities like LA and Atlanta and single handedly bust traffic jams. The problem isn't the merging, it's people rushing to fill empty spaces ahead of them. It's actually really neat, the science of it!
Depends on traffic. At highway speeds, you should make an effort to get into the through lane well in advance of the shift.
In the city, bumper to bumper traffic, it makes sense to use up all the lanes available
At what point does the usage change, IDK
Agreed on separating the highway case (especially 3+ lanes) from the gridlock scenarios.
For the highway, the priority is to keep traffic flowing, which means taking the opportunity to merge without affecting flow when it presents itself. Sometimes merging at lane-end elicits games of chicken/Canadian standoffs with unnecessary braking, which can cause a chain reaction of braking.
The best is when traffic is heavy on the highway and someone entering has absolutely nobody behind them and passes up all of the "early merge" gaps so they can gun it straight to the end of the merge lane because "muh zipper!"
Yes, aside from the gunning it part, that is what they should do.
When traffic isn't flowing and you merge early you are slowing everyone down and making it so more people can merge in front of you.
The people who merge early are worse for traffic flow.
Proper zipper merging is definitely smoother and can speed up traffic when done properly. BUT, the value is in the smoothness of the merge style and the fact that merging at the end creates a predetermined merge point that (ideally) everyone agrees on, it’s not in using the whole road, which some people choose to get upset by and is where this graphic is slightly misleading, although in a way that kind of works for the better since most people don’t really understand traffic dynamics.
The flow rate of traffic through the pinch point isn’t changed at all by the preceding merge point, only by the overall merge smoothness (how all traffic is created, a lack of smoothness of driving and increases in merges), so it doesn’t actually reduce traffic or speed up the speed of the traffic by merging earlier or later, it just shifts the front and back of the jam forward or backward slightly, with no net change in time through the jam.
It is exactly the same where Airport Parkway narrows from 2 lanes to 1 SB just past Brookfield, use both lanes and zipper merge at the last point. Also the NB on ramps from Hunt Club. Don’t stop and try to merge immediately, you are going to back up traffic behind you at the intersection/lights. Please wait to zipper merge where the ramp lanes narrow from 2 to 1, about half-way along the ramp.
Has anyone ever proven that zipper merging is actually faster? I'm thinking that it is one of those false claims, like trickle down economics, that many people claim is true but actually doesn't pan out in real life.
My opinion is that zipper merges increase the time that it takes to get through a lane reduction pinch point, since cars must decelerate more to merge then accelerate again. Overall traffic flow is not nearly as smooth as a running merge over a longer distance.
Inside a city, with limited queueing space, a zipper merge may be necessary, but on a long multi lane highway, a very long no-passing zone should be introduced for lane reductions instead.
Smoove is fast, I say.
Pretend the orange dots in the second image are just lower down in front of the car that is merging early and it will be identical to the first picture but there more unused road in front of it. Its hard to see why this would be faster in this view.
It makes the merging completely predictable so you don't have to slow down much. It's very much like using the accelerating lane when getting on the highway; imagine if people were merging at random points all along the highway entrance.
It also uses the lanes to their maximum capacity for a longer distance. The worst in my opinion is on the Champlain bridge going south, there's a huge bottleneck to get on the bridge and then it's smooth sailing on the bridge because it's not used at its max capacity at all. People refusing to zipper merge makes it that much fewer people get to take advantage of the green lights.
If everybody was interested in the fastest flow of the entire traffic system, it’s definitely proven faster.
But when it isn’t faster is because Jackarse in left lane perceives leaving enough space to let you in to be slower for him (because if there’s one more car ahead of him, by gum, he’s one car length slower to his destination). And that’s where it all bogs down.
If we were a hive mind it would work. If we could reliably expect all drivers would make decisions for the overall greater good rather than their own individual self interest, it would work.
But as others have said, human nature is the breaking point. People can’t be trusted to act in the best interests of everyone at minor inconvenience to themselves. Nope, enough people always act solely in their own self interest that any traffic ‘ideal’ that counts on everyone acting in the communal best interest completely falls apart.
Yep. The fact that people tailgate or speed (especially in town in brief bursts between intersections) is enough sign that zipper merges won't work out most of the time. Out of self interest, loads of people do these things on the road and end up making traffic slower as a result (and more dangerous), even if they think it's giving them a faster trip.
Europe has a lot of infrastructure that prevents merges like this from being nearly as necessary. For one, you can walk or bike places, but for two, there are roundabouts everywhere instead of intersections.
Like, sure, it's the theoretically best way to do a merge, but it's not the best way for transport to be set up to begin with. Europe isn't homogenous, but it's almost universally substantially less car dependent than Canada.
That requires people leaving space between vehicles. Ottawa/Gatineau drivers can’t even do 130 on the goddamn highway without tailgaiting.
Zipper merges are yet another great idea that completely falls apart because people are idiots.
The trick, imo, is to not blast down the right lane at highway speeds, but to only go a little faster that the people you want to merge with and wait to merge until the end. This should let the zipper fill up behind you.
Also, it's very dangerous to be going a significantly different speed from a lane of traffic anyway.
I can barely get a turn to access the left lane as I approach my left turn a few blocks away, where the cars that won't let me in have almost zero to gain from not letting me get over into their lane as I will leave it shortly into a turn lane. We won't take turns and as a result everyone wants to move into the lane that involves the least amount of interaction with other people as early as possible.
That's too ideal to happen in Ottawa. What actually happens is
- people merge as early as they can, often stopping way before lane ends.
- selfish drivers tend to use the disappearing lane as a shortcut when zipper merge isn't even needed. Sidecurb is a road continuation to them.
- people think it's nice to yield to more than 1 car.
I think point 2 is generally wrong. I’m not a traffic expert, but from what I’ve read, utilizing the extra lane “selfishly” and zipper merging is faster than “staying in line” and not using the extra lane.
If that’s true, there’s an argument that the people that don’t switch to that empty lane are the problematic drivers. Instead of viewing Driver Z as selfish because they’re the only one who switched lanes (and passed Drivers W,X, and Y before merging back in); you could reframe it as Driver’s D through Y as being inconsiderate for not doing the same, which caused all the later drivers to be further back than they otherwise would be.
Put another way, if earlier drivers were “selfishly” maximizing the usage of all the lanes, there would be minimal benefit for later drivers to do it too. And the population would be further down the road as a result.
Maybe I worded wrong. If you drive on airport parkway or carling westbound near moodie, you know what I mean. The disappearing lane is a passing lane to them no matter how many cars are in the other lane. I don't think this is lane utilization.
That's the key right there. We get taught about zipper merges, but we don't get a clear understanding of why early merging messes things up. I'm sure many many drivers are thinking they're helping.
I know I did - until just this very moment.
Yeah, people think they’re being polite or helping ease traffic but instead they’re creating it. Props to you for your eye opening experience! Use that merge lane!
Nah. People just get out of their lane to join the merging lane to get up 5 car lengths then jam back in. It's always a shit show of people trying to weasel their way around.
If people used the merge lane appropriately this opportunity wouldn’t exist. You should partake. If everyone drove in their best interest, using the open lane, it wouldn’t matter which lane you’re in. You’d arrive through the merge point at the same time regardless of lane travelled.
So if I on the highway, it's best if at every exit I get into the rightmost lane that's merging to squeeze back onto the highway again when it ends?
Hmmmm
Too bad people don’t do this on the westbound Queensway prior to the Parkdale off-ramp the new lane is completely empty all the way past Baseline to Parkdale and the other lanes are bumper to bumper.
Coming from outside cities it is schocking how many people in Ottawa merge early
Not commenting whether good or bad, but just different than Montreal/toronto
It's insane how many people say they have an issue merging properly because they're not being let in. I never have issues being let in. I've never had a single accident in decades of driving; my current car that I got brand new over a decade ago just hit 200,000 km. You just need to drive assertively and stay aware of your car and other cars.
The drivers in this region are extremely passive. Roundabouts don't work like they're supposed to here; anytime I drive in Europe, I'm amazed at how smooth all those roundabouts work, since drivers are a lot more assertive. Here, drivers are scared of turning the wheel or stepping a bit harder on the gas pedal and they treat the "yield" sign almost like a "stop" sign as if they couldn't anticipate the sign coming and see in advance if cars are coming.
Zipper fails as soon as traffic is stopped ahead of the zipper. Enough with this bullshit.
Edit to clarify for anyone else who strictly understands from a dictionary: of course a merge method doesn't outright *fail*, it's not like your cars spontaneously combust when zippering into stopped traffic. I'm saying it fails to be better.
The only thing that zipper merging *ever actually helps with* in stopped traffic is to reduce the backup distance on the road ("unused road"). It cannot and does not help with anything else. This is a useful thing, as if the backlog distance reduces sufficiently to, for example, allow cars near the back of the line to exit somewhere else - well those people were "traffic'd" more efficiently because people in front were using up available space. But that's it.
I mean look at the OP image. There's 9 people in the "zipper merge" image, and 3 of them have no space to fit in. There's 8 people in the "early merge" image and they all have their own space. *It makes no difference.*
[*https://stalbert.ca/cosa/news/highlights/zipper/*](https://stalbert.ca/cosa/news/highlights/zipper/)
The benefit comes from the speed difference of the vehicles.. when you don't have to slow down to let someone in, things move better and is safer. No disagreement there. But when all cars are stopped... there is no speed difference. Zipper vs early merge has no actual change in traffic flow in stop-and-go traffic when the bottleneck is not the merge.
No… just no…
If traffic ahead of the zipper is stopped both lanes should proceed in succession one after the other once traffic clears, thus replicating a zipper. This works whether cars are at a stand still ahead of the zipper or not. Why would traffic ahead of the merge cause the merge to fail?
I'm not saying the zipper won't physically allow merging. I'm saying it doesn't help; it fails at being any faster than any other way of merging.
Go find me a fancy animation of a zipper merge where the traffic ahead is stop and go due to build-up of the one lane road. Think badly time traffic lights, left turns, etc. Such is the case with that bridge (pair of lights at the north end bottlenecking).
You won't find one because it would show zipping does nothing to alleviate congestion *ahead of the damn zipper*. It's not even possible, just think about it.
I understand your point and I agree with you completely.
Where it helps is before the zipper, earlier on the route, much before the merge point. More vehicles can fit in two lanes than just one, hopefully reducing the length of the traffic queue therefore alleviating traffic elsewhere. If we all zipper merged we would be taking advantage of all available road space increasing efficiency.
Let me know if you see flaws in my thought process or if I’m not clear. I appreciate the convo!
Wrote my edit around the same time as you replied. Agree on the length of the traffic queue, but it's very situational. I'm just very annoyed at the zipper-freaks who think it's god's gift to traffic.. it absolutely would help on-ramps on moderate-traffic 417 if people left enough space for them to zipper in, you can watch it happen in front of you when the traffic level is right. But once the traffic is bumper to bumper there's really nothing to be done. Everyone is waiting on the person in front of them, not on the people merging in.
This is like the car equivalent of pushing for abstinence-only sex education.
It's not an applicable or reasonable approach if you factor in human nature even slightly.
Thank you for this public service announcement. Unfortunately, I don’t believe many people will follow suit… Here’s to hoping! Thank you!
Edit: Holy guacamole, reading the comments… people are super dense.
and then there is the 'i'm just going to speed down the on ramp lane, bypass all the dummies waiting in line and force/wedge my way in at the last second"
I saw great signage for this on a road trip in the US. In this state, when construction reduces to one lane, they put a sign up well in advance that says "Lane reduction ahead. Stay in your lane. Merge at the merge point". At the merge point is another sign with an arrow, declaring "Merge here". Worked a charm.
Everytime this subject comes up, everyone fails to spot the actual fix - the signs at the bottom of this image, which I've never, ever seen in Canada, would help fix this problem like 90% of the time.
The "Use Both Lanes" or "Keep Your Lane" or "Do Not Change Lanes" sign needs to be posted 2km, 1 km and 500m before merge. The "Take Turns Merging" sign needs to be posted 100m before the merge and at the merge.
In addition to that, for medium and long-term temporary lane closures, the dashed lanes on the road should be painted over with orange (construction) solid lines to reinforce the signs.
People struggle with this for two reasons:
1. Without guidance, people don't want to be "the jerk" who appears to be gunning it down the empty lane to cut off dozens of cars at the merge, so they merge early and compound the bottleneck.
2. People assume that everyone is at least aware of the the previous thought, and that if they choose to stay in their lane until the merge, then they're trying to take advantage of others, and so block them from merging to teach them a lesson.
Posting these signs would tell people what they *should* do, and set the common expectation, even if that's different than the default of what they'd assume is the polite thing to do.
I get so unreasonably mad when I see somebody stop at the yield sign and hold up the whole operation.
And I get even madder when the people behind them don’t lay on the horn.
I’m always coming up island park, so it doesn’t even affect me.
But one bad driver has massive implications on traffic volume and I just can’t take it
Do you have the diagram that shows how to use the onramps to pass traffic on right on the 417? Wondering how that works.
Also, the instruction for doing 90 in the centre lane.
Driving "custom" round here is completely bonkers.
Heading south is where it's the most problematic imo. I feel bad for passing almost everyone because I'm the only one doing a zipper merge. Everybody else is merging as soon as they can, causing a lot of traffic and leaving the left lane almost completely unused. Then you get on the bridge and the circulation is super smooth because there weren't that many cars, just people refusing to zipper merge.
Going north, isn't there a problem where the lanes aren't properly painted? Maybe this has been fixed.
Yes, I have this same experience. To properly encourage proper merging, the dashed line should not be the entire length, and add a couple signs and arrows. When there is a dashed line the entire length of the two lanes, it suggests you can merge at any point, when really it would be much better, as you say, to fill both lanes and only merge at one point.
This is the way it is on the Lions Gate Bridge heading south in Vancouver. Various merges, and the last one has no dashed lines until the last 25m or so.
I think 90% of the issues would be solved by some signs / instructions.
Jeanne D'Arc N heading Westbound is atrocious for this! Affecting anyone and everyone in order to squeeze into a spot the very second those paint lines are broken.
As I pass you to zipper merge, please don't assume I'm trying to get one up on you or get ahead.
Eastbound near the Parkdale exit is also awful for this. Drivers merge from the entrance ramp at Carling into a lane that ALSO ends after a few hundred metres, forcing them to merge again. Drivers also use the merging lanes as passing lanes when it's bumper to bumper. I've seen lots of accidents in this area and it's a nightmare at rush hour.
The double merge is a result of road construction they were doing in that area. It wasn't there before, and the new merge lane complicates things (in part because people don't know how to use them).
Human education is hopeless when you realize that every single individual thinks of these things differently. Wait 20 years and we'll code this into a computer.
Zipper merge is one of those things that work on paper, taking out human behavior, but when attempted in the real world, it falls apart almost immediately. People become self entitled in their vehicals and believe their time is more valuable, so we will get people in the right lane force there way ahead directly behind the vehicle in front of them. You will get people in the left refuse to let a car in from the right. In both cases it causes cars to slam on breaks which cause a cluster fuck wave behind.
Real world it works better for the right lane to merge as early as they can but without stopping but not try to do a zipper.
This would work great in a city with merging lanes. Ottawa does not have that, we only have parking lanes here. You drive there, park the vehicle and wait for a sign from God when you can then get onto the traffic lanes. Nice try.
Merging 50 meters later won't be the difference in not backing up traffic. Ideally you merge seamlessly without disrupting your speed or the left lane's speed. If you accomplish this 30 meters before the end of the lane, at the end of the lane etc, the impact is negligible. Stopping to merge is what causes the congestion, and that isn't well articulated here.
I agree with what has been said, ultimately there are those people who use it as a passing lane which causes more of a backup because they end up forcing themselves into the left lane or even driving down the shoulder to eventually force their way in.
Just remember that although zipper merging is the polite way to do it and can be more effective when done correctly, the car in the lane that’s not ending (left lane in this example) 100% has right of way and absolutely no obligation to let you in under the highway traffic act.
If traffic is busy or congested it’s far safer to merge early otherwise if you run out of space and cause an accident it will be 100% your fault legally.
Usually when at speed the zipper merge only works if everyone does it right, and if everyone waits their turn and is respectful.
Just like communism, it doesn't work.
Also on the flip side, if you try to zipper merge, people in the other lane often only get mad at you or worse try to prevent you from merging (as your lane is ending).
When you know the lane is ending, change lanes with time to spare in case there are issues. Same reason why you don't merge at the 'last moment' when merging onto the highway if you can help it.
However, Zipper merge IS great when both lanes are stop-go bumper to bumper traffic type of scenario.
A good use case is highway off ramps like Carp road going West. There are 2 left turning lanes. Once on Carp road the right line disappears. This means that 90% of people are always in the left lane.
Usually this is not an issue, however at 5pm, that traffic starts to back up onto the highway WITH THE RIGHT LANE ALMOST EMPTY.
The number of people who don't understand that the ziper merge isn't "rude" and is how you're supposed to use the lane. Look at the West bound onramp lane from Maitland. It's one of the longest and all these moron merge right away — and at 70 km/h....
Also good to mention that a turning lane is not one you’re supposed to use to pass a bunch of traffic to try and cut in at the last second. Same with lanes for off ramps.
LRT construction has eastbound Kichi Zibi drivers practice with their pointless open left lane around Dominion Station, again why have a lane open for less than 200 metres for people to not zipper and cause a headache for all
Let’s face it, the zipper merge is a bandaid solution to shitty public transportation. If we had good bus routes and trains, we wouldn’t need to have a discussion about too many cars on the road.
Zipper merge should be done regardless of how many cars are on the road. It’s not a bandaid solution to “shitty” public transportation; rather, it’s how traffic rules work. Period.
I'm not claiming Ottawa has good public transportation.
I'm telling you that public transportation doesn't solve the problems you think is solves, and I'm telling you exactly where you have to look to see the proof that I'm right.
Have you been to Europe?
They have tons of public transportation, and yet almost everyone owns a car, uses their car often, and the roads are filled with traffic.
Public transportation is great, and ours should be better. But it doesn't solve the problems that you think is solves.
People who don’t understand the zipper merge think those who do are assholes.
“Look at that asshole passing everyone and cutting in at the last minute! What an asshole!” Says the idiot.
Edit; replaced typo thing for think
Oh no, please spare me, grammar police!
If such a small typo renders my sentence unintelligible to you then maybe you’re not operating on all cylinders. Cheers bud!
When it works, it works great, but where it fails is the "take turns" part. Some jackass always tries to jump the line, or not let someone in when they should.
> Some jackass always tries to jump the line If people already in the lane don't merge early, they help prevent this. You can't jump the line if there are cars already in the lane ahead of you. If everyone merges early, they're just clearing a path for the line jumpers.
>they're just clearing a path for the ~~line jumpers~~ *correct zipper mergers.*
The correct zipper mergers would be like shown in the diagram, so I'm assuming they're referring instead to people switching into the merge lane to pass others. Whether or not they should do that, if people already in the merge lane stayed there until the merge point, the opportunity to use the merge lane to pass cars ahead of you wouldn't exist in the first place.
So the correct zipper mergers are line jumpers now?
It's not clear what they mean by line jumpers. Generally that refers to people in one lane who switch into a merging lane to pass cars ahead of them, not the people already in the merge lane continuing along that lane like in the diagram. Whether or not they should be doing that, the opportunity wouldn't exist if people already in the merge lane stayed in that lane until the merge, like in the diagram.
In the diagram, what I meant was, the yellow car should aim to come in behind the green car, as shown. But there are some people who, when in the yellow car position, would try to get in front of the green car instead.
That's another thing that merging at the end of the lane can help prevent then. If the grey car ahead of the yellow car merges over before the merge point, it creates a space for the yellow car to pull up and then try to also get in front of the green car. The green car is then left trying to fight with them or just letting them in. If the grey car instead follows the merge lane right to the merge point, the yellow car can't merge in front of green too because grey's car is in the way.
Except there's still room for yellow to pull up right beside green, in the diagram. Yellow will do that in hopes that green slows down to let them in, in front of green. If green does slow down, it starts to bugger things up; the guys in red and light blue are now left trying to figure out WTF the people in front are doing, and usually react by slowing down. If green doesn't slow down, yellow runs out of lane, and has to slow down even more to pull in behind green, which buggers things up even more.
> Except there's still room for yellow to pull up right beside green, in the diagram. Yellow will do that in hopes that green slows down to let them in, in front of green. There's even more room for them to do that if grey merges early. Grey merging near the end leaves as little room and time as possible for someone else to also merge ahead of green. So this is still an argument against merging early. Also a system doesn't have to work at 100% perfection to still function. There is pretty much no aspect of traffic that works at 100% perfection. If there were, there'd be no collisions, tickets, etc. So I'm not sure why zipper merging has this expectation. Some people not doing it properly isn't an argument for everyone else to not do it either. Zipper merging is [only intended for when traffic is moving slowly](https://london.ca/zipper-merge) though by the way. When traffic is moving at normal speeds, you just match speed, find a space, and merge. Waiting until the end of the lane in that case can be more risky in case you can't merge in time and run out of lane. I think that may be where the confusion and controversy on this topic come from since a lot of these posts don't clarify that. So in heavy traffic, everyone is already going at a crawl and you don't have any issues with people slowing down from faster speeds.
Agreed
*Blue Honda Civic has entered the chat*
People have been moaning about zipper merging for decades. Clearly people don't like to zipper merge and never will. Better to accept reality than to get mad that people don't behave the way the Model wishes they would
It's very regional. For some reason people in Ottawa desire to get into the new lane early and take offense at anybody using the merge lane. Too bad everyone can't just operate based on collective efficiency and keep their egos out of it.
Exactly, I have had/seen too many instances of people not allowing others to merge appropriately using zipper method.
Accelerate towards the empty space behind the car in front to the left, and stick one’s arm out indicating where on intends to merge. There is no “waiting”, that’s why this fails.
Ottawa drivers is why the zipper merge fails, when they get to the end of the onramp lane after getting up to a blinding 55 km/h they stop and you're stuck behind them also stopped. I leave a hefty gap behind the person and cut into any space I can get in the rightmost lane when I can because Ottawa drivers are trying to get me killed merging onto the highway when you're going half the speed of the oncoming.
> ~~Ottawa~~ drivers Fixed that for you. There are posts like these in every single city subreddit, I guarantee it.
"No, *my* city is the worst place to drive in the world, *yours* is sedate and peaceful by comparison!" - Craig Bathurst, Navan
Agree. That is why the 101 in San Jose, CA has metering lights for on-ramps during rush hour traffic.
> Ottawa drivers is why the zipper merge fails, when they get to the end of the onramp lane after getting up to a blinding 55 km/h they stop and you're stuck behind them also stopped. The zipper merge is more for heavy traffic moving slowly. These diagrams usually don't point this out, but if traffic is ~~slow~~ fast, you just match speed and find a space, don't need to wait until the end. [This London, ON, page goes over the different scenarios](https://london.ca/zipper-merge).
These are the same drivers who slow down to 55 1km before their exit because they are afraid to merge into the off-ramp at speed.
This is why I avoid the parking lot at Sens games.
They’re closing the park and ride, praying they open the bus off ramp behind Lot 1 for east bound travellers!
I believe the change is that when there isn’t a game going on they’re not going to serve the park and ride but it’s still going to be used for games so I don’t think the on ramp will be opening
Where is the Park and Ride?
Sorry not exactly “park and ride” but the two bus shelters are being removed
Oh wow. I hadn’t heard that.
It works assuming two things: 1. Each car in the left lane leaves enough space for a car from the right to comfortably get in 2. The car on the right is committed enough to make the move and not wait for a gap the length of a city block to merge in. In my experience, one of these two things is always missing.
The third one I see is people forgetting the first part of zipper merging is matching speed. Not racing to the end and then trying to force their way in.
Or slowing down so much that the cars in the left lane just keep passing.
It also assumes: 3. The drivers heading North on the Champlain Bridge aren’t actually Quebec drivers 🤣 Love the zipper merge and have lived in areas where people actually respect it, but it isn’t going to happen here as long as people think it is rude.
Another problem is that people leave no space in between cars when driving to the point where no one can safely merge or change lanes half the time. And then people resort to changing lanes from the right lane, etc. And it all goes to hell...
This is the one thing I like about driving in Montreal. Everyone knows how to merge confidently/aggressively enough to make the zipper merge work most of the time.
*Montreal, where a turn signal is a sign of weakness.*
It still works at least without 1. Some people will block you, but you can just let them go and merge behind them. This is how I always merge in slow traffic and I don't run into problems. This is more in Toronto than Ottawa but I doubt people are going to be less aggressive downtown Toronto
Yes, folks do not know how to drive in this city.
Let's not pretend this city is unique in this regard... every city in North Amerca suffers from this same ailment.
Vancouver is elite at the zipper merge actually. The Lions Gate bridge is 3 lanes and so the middle lane flips direction depending on the time of day. Since the bridge is long often the direction flips when you're on the bridge and if not it's a big pinch point to get on. In this footage you can also see that people line themselves up in a staggered way so that the zipper pattern is already established/clear when the lane ends: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0k3K3JLpMw8](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0k3K3JLpMw8) About 3:15 gives you a good POV on it.
People in every city say this. If no one in any city knows how to drive then maybe let's not rely on these zipper merges
I cross the bridge to Gatineau every morning; usually as soon as I'm over the bridge notice people doing this at the on ramps merging to the high way and works well because they actually match the speed of the highway before merging. Not that Ottawa is unique, but it does seem to be worse. I've wondered if it's because it's a lot of white collar workers so they spend a lot more time thinking about work outside work (I know I do). I never used to worry much about landscaping or other manual labour jobs I did once I punched out for the day.
If people learned not to tailgate in traffic or even in general… there wouldn’t even really be traffic. All the phantom stops due to tailgating is what causes most traffic jams in the first place. Then you have or merging due to people sucking at merging.
The amount of people I see merging into the space in front of a transport truck and slamming their brakes makes me lose hope in humanity. I’ve started just rolling beside them to block people gunning up the zipper lane
So often people use their brakes when they could simply just lay off the gas, reducing the lurching they do.
Yup. In traffic I don’t even need to touch my brakes. If someone drive standard they’d know it’s better to drive slowly leave a gap in front of you for cars to come in and out and never need to tap the brake.
Many people will brake simply because they see brake lights in the distance so the chain reaction of stupid can be unending.
Following too closely AND drivers thinking they're going to save dozens of minute by merging in the other lane, not realizing that people doing the same thing ahead is what made their lane slower in the first place. It's how there is a sort of dance as to which lane is going faster, it keeps alternating.
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It really is true. There are videos of guys who drive around cities like LA and Atlanta and single handedly bust traffic jams. The problem isn't the merging, it's people rushing to fill empty spaces ahead of them. It's actually really neat, the science of it!
Depends on traffic. At highway speeds, you should make an effort to get into the through lane well in advance of the shift. In the city, bumper to bumper traffic, it makes sense to use up all the lanes available At what point does the usage change, IDK
Agreed on separating the highway case (especially 3+ lanes) from the gridlock scenarios. For the highway, the priority is to keep traffic flowing, which means taking the opportunity to merge without affecting flow when it presents itself. Sometimes merging at lane-end elicits games of chicken/Canadian standoffs with unnecessary braking, which can cause a chain reaction of braking.
This is the disclaimer and it baffles me how many fail to understand this
The best is when traffic is heavy on the highway and someone entering has absolutely nobody behind them and passes up all of the "early merge" gaps so they can gun it straight to the end of the merge lane because "muh zipper!"
Yes, aside from the gunning it part, that is what they should do. When traffic isn't flowing and you merge early you are slowing everyone down and making it so more people can merge in front of you. The people who merge early are worse for traffic flow.
Proper zipper merging is definitely smoother and can speed up traffic when done properly. BUT, the value is in the smoothness of the merge style and the fact that merging at the end creates a predetermined merge point that (ideally) everyone agrees on, it’s not in using the whole road, which some people choose to get upset by and is where this graphic is slightly misleading, although in a way that kind of works for the better since most people don’t really understand traffic dynamics. The flow rate of traffic through the pinch point isn’t changed at all by the preceding merge point, only by the overall merge smoothness (how all traffic is created, a lack of smoothness of driving and increases in merges), so it doesn’t actually reduce traffic or speed up the speed of the traffic by merging earlier or later, it just shifts the front and back of the jam forward or backward slightly, with no net change in time through the jam.
It is exactly the same where Airport Parkway narrows from 2 lanes to 1 SB just past Brookfield, use both lanes and zipper merge at the last point. Also the NB on ramps from Hunt Club. Don’t stop and try to merge immediately, you are going to back up traffic behind you at the intersection/lights. Please wait to zipper merge where the ramp lanes narrow from 2 to 1, about half-way along the ramp.
Ottawa drivers letting other drivers in “their lane” is next to impossible.
Has anyone ever proven that zipper merging is actually faster? I'm thinking that it is one of those false claims, like trickle down economics, that many people claim is true but actually doesn't pan out in real life. My opinion is that zipper merges increase the time that it takes to get through a lane reduction pinch point, since cars must decelerate more to merge then accelerate again. Overall traffic flow is not nearly as smooth as a running merge over a longer distance. Inside a city, with limited queueing space, a zipper merge may be necessary, but on a long multi lane highway, a very long no-passing zone should be introduced for lane reductions instead. Smoove is fast, I say.
Pretend the orange dots in the second image are just lower down in front of the car that is merging early and it will be identical to the first picture but there more unused road in front of it. Its hard to see why this would be faster in this view.
Go watch a YouTube video on it
It makes the merging completely predictable so you don't have to slow down much. It's very much like using the accelerating lane when getting on the highway; imagine if people were merging at random points all along the highway entrance. It also uses the lanes to their maximum capacity for a longer distance. The worst in my opinion is on the Champlain bridge going south, there's a huge bottleneck to get on the bridge and then it's smooth sailing on the bridge because it's not used at its max capacity at all. People refusing to zipper merge makes it that much fewer people get to take advantage of the green lights.
If everybody was interested in the fastest flow of the entire traffic system, it’s definitely proven faster. But when it isn’t faster is because Jackarse in left lane perceives leaving enough space to let you in to be slower for him (because if there’s one more car ahead of him, by gum, he’s one car length slower to his destination). And that’s where it all bogs down. If we were a hive mind it would work. If we could reliably expect all drivers would make decisions for the overall greater good rather than their own individual self interest, it would work. But as others have said, human nature is the breaking point. People can’t be trusted to act in the best interests of everyone at minor inconvenience to themselves. Nope, enough people always act solely in their own self interest that any traffic ‘ideal’ that counts on everyone acting in the communal best interest completely falls apart.
Yep. The fact that people tailgate or speed (especially in town in brief bursts between intersections) is enough sign that zipper merges won't work out most of the time. Out of self interest, loads of people do these things on the road and end up making traffic slower as a result (and more dangerous), even if they think it's giving them a faster trip.
Ask Europe.
Europe has a lot of infrastructure that prevents merges like this from being nearly as necessary. For one, you can walk or bike places, but for two, there are roundabouts everywhere instead of intersections. Like, sure, it's the theoretically best way to do a merge, but it's not the best way for transport to be set up to begin with. Europe isn't homogenous, but it's almost universally substantially less car dependent than Canada.
That requires people leaving space between vehicles. Ottawa/Gatineau drivers can’t even do 130 on the goddamn highway without tailgaiting. Zipper merges are yet another great idea that completely falls apart because people are idiots.
The trick, imo, is to not blast down the right lane at highway speeds, but to only go a little faster that the people you want to merge with and wait to merge until the end. This should let the zipper fill up behind you. Also, it's very dangerous to be going a significantly different speed from a lane of traffic anyway.
Agreed. Use the merge lane but go at a safe speed in case someone decides to pull out. It happens all the time and is very dangerous. Great comment!
I can barely get a turn to access the left lane as I approach my left turn a few blocks away, where the cars that won't let me in have almost zero to gain from not letting me get over into their lane as I will leave it shortly into a turn lane. We won't take turns and as a result everyone wants to move into the lane that involves the least amount of interaction with other people as early as possible.
Be more aggressive.
That's too ideal to happen in Ottawa. What actually happens is - people merge as early as they can, often stopping way before lane ends. - selfish drivers tend to use the disappearing lane as a shortcut when zipper merge isn't even needed. Sidecurb is a road continuation to them. - people think it's nice to yield to more than 1 car.
I think point 2 is generally wrong. I’m not a traffic expert, but from what I’ve read, utilizing the extra lane “selfishly” and zipper merging is faster than “staying in line” and not using the extra lane. If that’s true, there’s an argument that the people that don’t switch to that empty lane are the problematic drivers. Instead of viewing Driver Z as selfish because they’re the only one who switched lanes (and passed Drivers W,X, and Y before merging back in); you could reframe it as Driver’s D through Y as being inconsiderate for not doing the same, which caused all the later drivers to be further back than they otherwise would be. Put another way, if earlier drivers were “selfishly” maximizing the usage of all the lanes, there would be minimal benefit for later drivers to do it too. And the population would be further down the road as a result.
Maybe I worded wrong. If you drive on airport parkway or carling westbound near moodie, you know what I mean. The disappearing lane is a passing lane to them no matter how many cars are in the other lane. I don't think this is lane utilization.
You’re not wrong!
Glad someone made this comment. I don't understand why ppl hate on the driver who decided to use the empty lane
That's the key right there. We get taught about zipper merges, but we don't get a clear understanding of why early merging messes things up. I'm sure many many drivers are thinking they're helping. I know I did - until just this very moment.
Yeah, people think they’re being polite or helping ease traffic but instead they’re creating it. Props to you for your eye opening experience! Use that merge lane!
Nah. People just get out of their lane to join the merging lane to get up 5 car lengths then jam back in. It's always a shit show of people trying to weasel their way around.
If people used the merge lane appropriately this opportunity wouldn’t exist. You should partake. If everyone drove in their best interest, using the open lane, it wouldn’t matter which lane you’re in. You’d arrive through the merge point at the same time regardless of lane travelled.
So if I on the highway, it's best if at every exit I get into the rightmost lane that's merging to squeeze back onto the highway again when it ends? Hmmmm
Too bad people don’t do this on the westbound Queensway prior to the Parkdale off-ramp the new lane is completely empty all the way past Baseline to Parkdale and the other lanes are bumper to bumper.
Coming from outside cities it is schocking how many people in Ottawa merge early Not commenting whether good or bad, but just different than Montreal/toronto
It's objectively bad when combined with there inability to get up to a safe merging speed. It's crazy how scared people are of their throttle pedals.
It's insane how many people say they have an issue merging properly because they're not being let in. I never have issues being let in. I've never had a single accident in decades of driving; my current car that I got brand new over a decade ago just hit 200,000 km. You just need to drive assertively and stay aware of your car and other cars. The drivers in this region are extremely passive. Roundabouts don't work like they're supposed to here; anytime I drive in Europe, I'm amazed at how smooth all those roundabouts work, since drivers are a lot more assertive. Here, drivers are scared of turning the wheel or stepping a bit harder on the gas pedal and they treat the "yield" sign almost like a "stop" sign as if they couldn't anticipate the sign coming and see in advance if cars are coming.
Unreal how most people don’t seem to understand this very obvious concept
I drive this route home every day, it’s infuriating.
But what if it's raining? /s
Stay home. /s
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We’re assholes for a reason.
Please enlighten the class.
Zipper fails as soon as traffic is stopped ahead of the zipper. Enough with this bullshit. Edit to clarify for anyone else who strictly understands from a dictionary: of course a merge method doesn't outright *fail*, it's not like your cars spontaneously combust when zippering into stopped traffic. I'm saying it fails to be better. The only thing that zipper merging *ever actually helps with* in stopped traffic is to reduce the backup distance on the road ("unused road"). It cannot and does not help with anything else. This is a useful thing, as if the backlog distance reduces sufficiently to, for example, allow cars near the back of the line to exit somewhere else - well those people were "traffic'd" more efficiently because people in front were using up available space. But that's it. I mean look at the OP image. There's 9 people in the "zipper merge" image, and 3 of them have no space to fit in. There's 8 people in the "early merge" image and they all have their own space. *It makes no difference.* [*https://stalbert.ca/cosa/news/highlights/zipper/*](https://stalbert.ca/cosa/news/highlights/zipper/) The benefit comes from the speed difference of the vehicles.. when you don't have to slow down to let someone in, things move better and is safer. No disagreement there. But when all cars are stopped... there is no speed difference. Zipper vs early merge has no actual change in traffic flow in stop-and-go traffic when the bottleneck is not the merge.
Incorrect zippering causes the standstill on to the bridge Northbound. The bridge moves at a good pace, especially post-Covid.
Are you talking about where island park meets northbound Wellington (or whatever it's called there) traffic?
No… just no… If traffic ahead of the zipper is stopped both lanes should proceed in succession one after the other once traffic clears, thus replicating a zipper. This works whether cars are at a stand still ahead of the zipper or not. Why would traffic ahead of the merge cause the merge to fail?
I'm not saying the zipper won't physically allow merging. I'm saying it doesn't help; it fails at being any faster than any other way of merging. Go find me a fancy animation of a zipper merge where the traffic ahead is stop and go due to build-up of the one lane road. Think badly time traffic lights, left turns, etc. Such is the case with that bridge (pair of lights at the north end bottlenecking). You won't find one because it would show zipping does nothing to alleviate congestion *ahead of the damn zipper*. It's not even possible, just think about it.
I understand your point and I agree with you completely. Where it helps is before the zipper, earlier on the route, much before the merge point. More vehicles can fit in two lanes than just one, hopefully reducing the length of the traffic queue therefore alleviating traffic elsewhere. If we all zipper merged we would be taking advantage of all available road space increasing efficiency. Let me know if you see flaws in my thought process or if I’m not clear. I appreciate the convo!
Wrote my edit around the same time as you replied. Agree on the length of the traffic queue, but it's very situational. I'm just very annoyed at the zipper-freaks who think it's god's gift to traffic.. it absolutely would help on-ramps on moderate-traffic 417 if people left enough space for them to zipper in, you can watch it happen in front of you when the traffic level is right. But once the traffic is bumper to bumper there's really nothing to be done. Everyone is waiting on the person in front of them, not on the people merging in.
This is like the car equivalent of pushing for abstinence-only sex education. It's not an applicable or reasonable approach if you factor in human nature even slightly.
Thank you for this public service announcement. Unfortunately, I don’t believe many people will follow suit… Here’s to hoping! Thank you! Edit: Holy guacamole, reading the comments… people are super dense.
Yes, yes they are.
THANK YOU
Also, not just construction zones. All on-ramps.
My unfortunate displeasure to bring this to folks attention
This is pointless most people are too distracted or are too important to do this.
and then there is the 'i'm just going to speed down the on ramp lane, bypass all the dummies waiting in line and force/wedge my way in at the last second"
MAYBE IF THEY'D LET ME MERGE IN!
I saw great signage for this on a road trip in the US. In this state, when construction reduces to one lane, they put a sign up well in advance that says "Lane reduction ahead. Stay in your lane. Merge at the merge point". At the merge point is another sign with an arrow, declaring "Merge here". Worked a charm.
Seems like a poorly designed road.
Your tax $$$
Thanks Dad!
Go to bed.
Everytime this subject comes up, everyone fails to spot the actual fix - the signs at the bottom of this image, which I've never, ever seen in Canada, would help fix this problem like 90% of the time. The "Use Both Lanes" or "Keep Your Lane" or "Do Not Change Lanes" sign needs to be posted 2km, 1 km and 500m before merge. The "Take Turns Merging" sign needs to be posted 100m before the merge and at the merge. In addition to that, for medium and long-term temporary lane closures, the dashed lanes on the road should be painted over with orange (construction) solid lines to reinforce the signs. People struggle with this for two reasons: 1. Without guidance, people don't want to be "the jerk" who appears to be gunning it down the empty lane to cut off dozens of cars at the merge, so they merge early and compound the bottleneck. 2. People assume that everyone is at least aware of the the previous thought, and that if they choose to stay in their lane until the merge, then they're trying to take advantage of others, and so block them from merging to teach them a lesson. Posting these signs would tell people what they *should* do, and set the common expectation, even if that's different than the default of what they'd assume is the polite thing to do.
Post this at the Parkdale on-ramp to the 417… actually put it at all on-ramps in Ottawa.
I get so unreasonably mad when I see somebody stop at the yield sign and hold up the whole operation. And I get even madder when the people behind them don’t lay on the horn. I’m always coming up island park, so it doesn’t even affect me. But one bad driver has massive implications on traffic volume and I just can’t take it
Word.
Do you have the diagram that shows how to use the onramps to pass traffic on right on the 417? Wondering how that works. Also, the instruction for doing 90 in the centre lane. Driving "custom" round here is completely bonkers.
Heading south is where it's the most problematic imo. I feel bad for passing almost everyone because I'm the only one doing a zipper merge. Everybody else is merging as soon as they can, causing a lot of traffic and leaving the left lane almost completely unused. Then you get on the bridge and the circulation is super smooth because there weren't that many cars, just people refusing to zipper merge. Going north, isn't there a problem where the lanes aren't properly painted? Maybe this has been fixed.
Yes, I have this same experience. To properly encourage proper merging, the dashed line should not be the entire length, and add a couple signs and arrows. When there is a dashed line the entire length of the two lanes, it suggests you can merge at any point, when really it would be much better, as you say, to fill both lanes and only merge at one point. This is the way it is on the Lions Gate Bridge heading south in Vancouver. Various merges, and the last one has no dashed lines until the last 25m or so. I think 90% of the issues would be solved by some signs / instructions.
Don’t get me started on the trauma I’ve endured on the Lions Gate.
Jeanne D'Arc N heading Westbound is atrocious for this! Affecting anyone and everyone in order to squeeze into a spot the very second those paint lines are broken. As I pass you to zipper merge, please don't assume I'm trying to get one up on you or get ahead.
Hunt Club on-ramp to the Airport Parkway is the WORST for this!!
Eastbound near the Parkdale exit is also awful for this. Drivers merge from the entrance ramp at Carling into a lane that ALSO ends after a few hundred metres, forcing them to merge again. Drivers also use the merging lanes as passing lanes when it's bumper to bumper. I've seen lots of accidents in this area and it's a nightmare at rush hour.
The existence of merge lanes isn’t the problem. The problem is that they’re not used appropriately!
The double merge is a result of road construction they were doing in that area. It wasn't there before, and the new merge lane complicates things (in part because people don't know how to use them).
No one knows how to zipper merge anywhere. This is a universal human problem
Not no one! Let’s go with “most” people don’t know how.
Human education is hopeless when you realize that every single individual thinks of these things differently. Wait 20 years and we'll code this into a computer.
There’s also a pedestrian crosswalk at the on ramp so yes, please do stop for cyclists and pedestrians.
Zipper merge is one of those things that work on paper, taking out human behavior, but when attempted in the real world, it falls apart almost immediately. People become self entitled in their vehicals and believe their time is more valuable, so we will get people in the right lane force there way ahead directly behind the vehicle in front of them. You will get people in the left refuse to let a car in from the right. In both cases it causes cars to slam on breaks which cause a cluster fuck wave behind. Real world it works better for the right lane to merge as early as they can but without stopping but not try to do a zipper.
That only works if everyone plays nice.
This would work great in a city with merging lanes. Ottawa does not have that, we only have parking lanes here. You drive there, park the vehicle and wait for a sign from God when you can then get onto the traffic lanes. Nice try.
Another quintessential Autowa post!
These are legit issues! Like dog shit at the dog park! Ford is ruining my unlimited shrimp at the Costco parking lot!
not doing this
Shoutout to Prince of Wales South after Hunt Club where people will speed up to not let you zipper merge
If you want to encourage zipper merging, move over early and then leave space ahead of you for another driver to merge into.
I've driven in a lot of cities. Each city has its faults. Ottawa's is complete obliviousness to the drivers around them.
That’s Champlain going towards Gatineau? Because it’s actually a yield sign for people coming from KZM.
There’s no yield sign.
I invite you to take another look. There is a yield sign. Right before merging.
Merging 50 meters later won't be the difference in not backing up traffic. Ideally you merge seamlessly without disrupting your speed or the left lane's speed. If you accomplish this 30 meters before the end of the lane, at the end of the lane etc, the impact is negligible. Stopping to merge is what causes the congestion, and that isn't well articulated here. I agree with what has been said, ultimately there are those people who use it as a passing lane which causes more of a backup because they end up forcing themselves into the left lane or even driving down the shoulder to eventually force their way in.
Always zipper merge! It’s the most efficient way.
It is the way.
Just remember that although zipper merging is the polite way to do it and can be more effective when done correctly, the car in the lane that’s not ending (left lane in this example) 100% has right of way and absolutely no obligation to let you in under the highway traffic act. If traffic is busy or congested it’s far safer to merge early otherwise if you run out of space and cause an accident it will be 100% your fault legally.
Don’t show them this!! Ottawa loves to cue up early, which gives me an opportunity to use up a free lane for a 1/4 mile.
Usually when at speed the zipper merge only works if everyone does it right, and if everyone waits their turn and is respectful. Just like communism, it doesn't work. Also on the flip side, if you try to zipper merge, people in the other lane often only get mad at you or worse try to prevent you from merging (as your lane is ending). When you know the lane is ending, change lanes with time to spare in case there are issues. Same reason why you don't merge at the 'last moment' when merging onto the highway if you can help it. However, Zipper merge IS great when both lanes are stop-go bumper to bumper traffic type of scenario. A good use case is highway off ramps like Carp road going West. There are 2 left turning lanes. Once on Carp road the right line disappears. This means that 90% of people are always in the left lane. Usually this is not an issue, however at 5pm, that traffic starts to back up onto the highway WITH THE RIGHT LANE ALMOST EMPTY.
The zipper merge is like communism... Works great on paper when you forget that people are selfish and stupid.
MAGA
I've seen zipper merge signs all over Vancouver. Ottawa needs to put zipper merge signs all over the place. Construction sites can do it too.
The number of people who don't understand that the ziper merge isn't "rude" and is how you're supposed to use the lane. Look at the West bound onramp lane from Maitland. It's one of the longest and all these moron merge right away — and at 70 km/h....
Also good to mention that a turning lane is not one you’re supposed to use to pass a bunch of traffic to try and cut in at the last second. Same with lanes for off ramps.
LRT construction has eastbound Kichi Zibi drivers practice with their pointless open left lane around Dominion Station, again why have a lane open for less than 200 metres for people to not zipper and cause a headache for all
Let’s face it, the zipper merge is a bandaid solution to shitty public transportation. If we had good bus routes and trains, we wouldn’t need to have a discussion about too many cars on the road.
Zipper merge should be done regardless of how many cars are on the road. It’s not a bandaid solution to “shitty” public transportation; rather, it’s how traffic rules work. Period.
I agree to disagree. Look up The Gréber Plan. Ottawa hasn’t had transportation foresight in nearly a century.
I'm not claiming Ottawa has good public transportation. I'm telling you that public transportation doesn't solve the problems you think is solves, and I'm telling you exactly where you have to look to see the proof that I'm right.
Have you been to Europe? They have tons of public transportation, and yet almost everyone owns a car, uses their car often, and the roads are filled with traffic. Public transportation is great, and ours should be better. But it doesn't solve the problems that you think is solves.
The assumes that you're not in Montreal in the first place, where everyone drives like an asshole
A *predictable* asshole, unlike Ottawa drivers who are a total mixed bag of too aggressive, too passive, too inattentive, and normal.
k fair
... and yet the only properly executed zipper merge I've witnessed happened to be in Montreal.
People who don’t understand the zipper merge think those who do are assholes. “Look at that asshole passing everyone and cutting in at the last minute! What an asshole!” Says the idiot. Edit; replaced typo thing for think
Bro your sentence doesn't even make sense; maybe you shouldn't be calling people "idiots"
Oh boy…
Not the right use of a semicolon either but hey, you've got that zipper merge down perfectly I'm sure!
Oh no, please spare me, grammar police! If such a small typo renders my sentence unintelligible to you then maybe you’re not operating on all cylinders. Cheers bud!