(10-11-2017, 08:17 PM)panamaniac Wrote:(10-11-2017, 07:33 PM)jamincan Wrote: A zipper merge is not something that only happens where indicated. It is how all merges should work. People do it all the time with highway on-ramps with no issues. For some reason though, when a normal lane ends, people get into a queue mentality. I have found that zipper merges do seem to be used effectively on the Hwy 8-401 bridge.
This makes a lot of sense. However, where feasible and in particular anywhere two lanes are reducing to one, the signage should be symmetrical to get people away from the idea that one lane is continuing on (and can just drive) while the other is stopping (and has to merge into the other lane). I think if explicitly-signed zipper merges were common in these situations, people would probably adopt an improved approach to on-ramp merges and other merges as well.
(10-11-2017, 08:17 PM)panamaniac Wrote: I agree and it's the way I usually try to merge, unless the lane I'm merging into is free of traffic. The other week on the 401 east of Kingston, however, I attempted to do so in a place where the two lanes were reduced to one due to construction. As I was proceeding toward the merge point, a woman pulled partly out of her lane to try to block me from passing and gave me the finger as I passed her (having had to move partly into the shoulder to avoid hitting her). The stretch of the Conestoga Parkway between University and Bridgeport Rd is renowned for that manoeuvre.
You were both right (well, I’m not really endorsing the rude gesture, but…read on!).
She was correct that you were jumping the queue, and you were correct that the merge point should be, uh, at the merge point.
What you’re missing is that the behaviour of the two lanes has to change at a certain point. Their speeds should match up, then the cars should adopt positions opposite gaps in the other lane, then the lanes should zip together.
It is unreasonable to expect people who have spent time slowly advancing through a line to view favourably your proposal that they let you in after you zoom up past the whole line. That’s why I match speed with the line at a certain point, at the absolute latest the point where the merging lane mostly clears out, and then merge at the merge point.