5 ms·

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

• reustle 12y ago
  Same in PA. I've always remembered merging like this.
• kelnos 12y ago
  I've rarely seen people in (northern) California do proper zipper merges. CA has some of the most clueless and inattentive driving I've ever seen.
  • flomo 12y ago
    Disagree. I used to reverse-commute through the Golden Gate Bridge and the Caldecott Tunnel, where the freeway went from 4 lanes to 2 in both places. 99% of drivers manage to zipper-merge properly. Likewise, almost everyone zippers at the South 101 Central Freeway merge. California drivers may or may not be bad, but they're much better than the ones in Minnesota.
    • joshwa 12y ago
      I wish some of the "exit only" lanes would change to be zipper-merge-able-- in SF, think about the 7th street exit on 80E just before the Bay Bridge-- two empty lanes!-- and lots of "cheaters" whereas with a zipper merge everything would move faster. IIRC California officially endorses early merging, though?
      • _delirium 12y ago
        You could just make two exit lanes in that case, and merge them as or after they exit. People exiting at the last minute from a non-exit lane though aren't really merging, but rather changing lanes. And it doesn't really result in a proper zipper merge since not everyone is exiting, so you can't predictably alternate cars.
        • joshwa 12y ago
          I guess I mean that they shouldn't be exit lanes at all, but should be used as extra capacity to facilitate zipper merges. In the case above, the exit lanes stretch back almost 1/2 a mile, which is waaay above the actual demand for that exit, esp in the evening hours.
          • _delirium 12y ago
            Oops, I read your case backwards (I'm not familiar with that exit). I thought you meant that there were too many people exiting for the one exit lane, so you were proposing people from the 2nd-to-right lane should be able to zipper-merge into the exit lane right before it exits. The reverse (merging out of the exit-only lane to stay on the freeway), I think usually works better with a late-merge, but you do still have the problem that you can't do a proper zipper merge, because the lanes aren't fully merging, so you can't alternate one-right/one-left. Instead some cars want to lane-change and some want to continue in the lane, which adds at least a little complexity. It could be partly improved by signage changes though, it sounds like, to just mark the exit lane later.
    • pseudonym 12y ago
      I still commute occasionally across the bridge. Getting people to zipper merge 4 to 2 lanes properly going onto the bridge almost never happens.
  • Noted 12y ago
    I rarely have seen issues in California with zipper merge, when the lanes are actually merging. Most of the time the issue I've seen is when people are cutting over from a turn only lane to try and force their way to go straight.
    • _delirium 12y ago
      Yeah, that situation is where I see it 2nd-most; first most is people trying to change lanes into an exit lane right at the exit when they're in a non-exit lane and want to exit. Those are lane changes, though, not merges.
    • joshwa 12y ago
      Turn-only lanes (using a turn-only lane to go straight) is where I see the worst cheater/vigilante behavior. (It's always BMW's who do it, too... ) Those turn-only lanes are just wasted capacity that could be used to carry more traffic into a zipper merge. I'm guessing that at some peak hour the turn lane has utility, but at reverse-peak they should be able to switch to a regular lane leading to a merge point.
      • dubfan 12y ago
        Zipper merging inside an intersection will almost certainly lead to gridlock due to incomplete mergers before the light changes.
        • joshwa 12y ago
          Referring to exit-only lanes on highways, not signaled intersections.
        • deleted 12y ago
          [deleted]
• astrange 12y ago
  SF drivers are great at the waiting till the end of the lane part, but not about the letting you in. Sometimes I have to wait for three or four cars to go by before someone notices me. Then again people also try to pass on the right by entering the merging-in lane and immediately getting stuck. More than once I've seen people try to pass inside the merging lane by going on the shoulder. Is it something about the 358i?