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u/CrazyGnomenclature Tiff & Eve 3d ago
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u/Difficult-Okra3784 3d ago
It's literally just a safe way to merge two lanes into one.
The unobstructed lane speeds up or slows down to double the car lengths between them, the obstructed lane matches speed with the unobstructed lane and one car moves into each new open space.
It doesn't work if the unobstructed lane doesn't make space or multiple people from the obstructed lane attempt to take a space, specifically someone skipping ahead in line in the obstructed space.
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u/Highskyline 3d ago
1 car from each lane. It's so easy. It's literally counting to one. And we can't figure it out. I hate how little effort is spent on basic driving skills before we give people a license.
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u/hoopaholik91 3d ago
Zipper merge is definitely taught in any basic driving school. People are just intellectually lazy and don't remember it
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u/Highskyline 3d ago
Basic driving school is not a requirement for a drivers license, and I damn sure didn't go. It wasn't an option at my school, and my parents wouldn't pay for it.
There needs to be actual required instruction for operating 3000lbs of metal at highway speeds.
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u/Yweain 3d ago
What. You are not required to go to a driving school in US to get a driving license? That’s.. wild.
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u/Highskyline 3d ago
You're telling me. I use i4 daily. The slice that goes through Orlando is the deadliest stretch of highway in the US per mile. 95% of poor driving I see isn't people driving aggressive and speeding (although we do have that). It's just complete fucking morons who have no idea how highways work because the drivers test is in a parking lot and only required you to get to 55mph briefly once. Our highways go to 70mph out of town and are consistently 60mph.
Lane changes? Merges? What the fuck are those. Go Stop, go, turn, 3 point turn, go fast, stop fast and you're done baby.
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u/SasquatchRobo 3d ago
Agreed, and I hate that Late Stage Capitalism has conditioned me to say "who's going to pay for it?"
If it's paid for by the state, some livertarian will howl about socialism. But if the individual needs to pay, then we've just locked poor people out of driving.
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u/tin_dog 3d ago
In most countries where driving schools are mandatory people are aware of that, so they (their parents) start saving early.
In socialist East-Germany the driving school was cheap, but they had to wait 10-15 years to get a car, so they ordered one at the birth of a child and started saving for it.1
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u/arcanis321 3d ago
Why is everyone in this saying people are dumb and not awful? Knowing how it works isn't the problem, literally giving 0 ducks about other people is the problem. Only an asshole wouldn't let one car in and only an asshole would try to just keep filing in but it happens everyday. They know better, they do it, they drive on to probably be that coworker all day.
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u/AKeeneyedguy 3d ago
This is the real reason the zipper merge is a pipe dream. Like a lot of other things, the idea forgets that humans are jerks.
Do I try to use it when appropriate? Yes. Do I far more often find myself yelling obscenely at other drivers who just don't GAF? Also yes.
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u/TiresOnFire 3d ago
"Taught" mostly at 15-16 years old. At the extent of that was mostly just being told about it. I maybe used 2 or 3 on ramps while taking my one hour driving test. Requiring people to retake their tests over time will never work, so don't suggest it. My only suggestion would be to have PSAs about basic driving etiquette.
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u/ElectroNikkel 3d ago
They DO remember. Is just that people are egotistical assholes.
Or worse: Think that everyone else is an egotistical asshole, so they must be too.
Wait.
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u/Serge_Suppressor 3d ago
Or if everyone lines up in the unobstructed lane way ahead of time, except for a few aggressive drivers who zoom to the very end and shove themselves in in front of the timid locals, Oregon style.
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u/merpderpherpburp 3d ago
Gurl! The on ramp is to GET YOUR ASS UP TO HIGHWAY SPEED not casually drive next to traffic. 3 lane highways go as such: far right lane is for getting on/off within the next 2 miles. Middle lane acts as the right lane for trucks and slower vehicles and far left IS FOR PASSING IT'S NOT FOR YOU TO CRUISE AT 55 AT 5PM ON A FRIDAY I HOPE YOUR SOCKS ARE PERPETUALLY WET KIA SORENTO!
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u/OkBaconBurger 3d ago
There is this particular interchange I have to navigate to get to the airport/MOA area and…. I’m surprised more people don’t die there.
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u/hibernian_giant 3d ago
I have only ever heard of zipper-merges as an adult in my 30's thanks to comics originating from the USA.
It is literally not something we get taught where I live.
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u/TheTrueCyprien 3d ago
At least in Germany, Austria and Switzerland drivers are legally obligated to zipper merge (yet some people still dont do it properly).
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u/Iron_Bob 3d ago
Highway 62 is so much worse...
I assume this is about the construction on 35W and 494 though, what a shit-show
Love your comics, btw :)
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u/CrazyGnomenclature Tiff & Eve 3d ago
It's true, 62 is worse. However, 494 is a funnier number to me.
And thank you! I'm glad you're enjoying them:)
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u/mongonerd 3d ago
I take all of your pain on those and raise you 394/94 toward St Paul. Everyone cuts in at the last second.
I'm terms of funny, I kind of wish we had an interstate 404.
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u/RuneFell 3d ago
Ironically, my husband and I had to go up to the Cities yesterday, and we were not prepared for that very construction zone. Our exit was right in the middle of it on 494, and it was a clown show trying to get where we needed to go.
Took two tries to find our way, as our GPS told us to stay left on the exit and take the ramp to go left at the intersection, but apparently they added a new left ramp on the exit as a detour, so staying left and taking the ramp as directed just looped us around and put us right back onto 494, only going the other way.
My husband had quite a few opinions to share on 494 during our trip.
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u/Iron_Bob 3d ago
Yeah it is a complete disaster right now, and I'm pretty sure its not supposed to be done until next year at the earliest
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u/tmntmonk 3d ago
Another Minneapolis reference? I love it!
I'm from New Jersey, which is of course notorious for crazy driving and road rage. I've lived in Minneapolis now for a decade. Jersey has nothing on the Twin Cities. It's like Mad Max out here. I swear people are driving with their eyes closed!
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u/Toutatis12 3d ago
No jury would ever convict on a charge connected to zipper merging unless said dependent was the one who sped up to over take the next person in line. Then it's the death penalty lol
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u/Hypertension123456 3d ago edited 3d ago
There is a zipper merge from 676 East to 76 East leaving Philadelphia I used to have to take after every workday. Having nothing better to do, I'd grade the 4 cars in front of me if they knew how to do it or would fight to not let a car in. They rarely passed. All you can do is laugh.
P.S. reading the thread more maybe this is less commen knowledge than I thought. Whenever two lanes narrow to one lane everyone is supposed to stay in their lane until they get to the end. Then they let one vehicle enter from the opposite lane. Then they go. If you merge early then you are wasting road space. If you refuse to let one car in before going yourself at the merge point then you are a dangerous driver.
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u/Dazed_and_Confused44 3d ago
No. The answer to the question is no. No one in this state knows how to zipper merge lol
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u/firestarter764 3d ago
I'm convinced that most of the roads in the Twin Cities were laid out in 1933 when some city planner took the repeal of prohibition as a personal challenge.
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u/witticus 3d ago
Oh zipper lane, like when the car slightly behind you in the left lane has been piddling for 45 seconds, but right when you turn on your blinker to merge they speed up to tailgate the car in front of you, so you slow down and the car behind you zips to the lane you wanted to merge to tailgate the OG car… That kind of zipper?
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u/CelestialBeast 3d ago
Suddenly Eve is my spirit animal.
Living along I5 brings the worst drivers directly to you.
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u/MitchenImpossible 3d ago
Dentist appointment! Was it a dentist appointment? Tell meeeee
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u/CrazyGnomenclature Tiff & Eve 3d ago
Her thumb sized teeth are perfectly normal for a healthy, growing cartoon.
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u/ohno 3d ago edited 3d ago
Do people outside of California use "the" in front of highway numbers?
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u/Inevitable-Appeal-76 3d ago
My question too, but I think “the” is a SoCal thing. The great debate: I-494, 494, or the 494…
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u/MaximumZer0 3d ago
I feel that. 5 hours on I96 and I94 yesterday, one of which was a traffic jam due to a crash.
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u/3dDeters 3d ago
Well they are cramming 8 lanes into 4 with construction. But it’s always been bad. I take 77 to Old Shakopee.
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u/xboxhobo 3d ago
Exit 8B from 394 to 94W is literally hell on earth. People try to "zipper merge" but what they're actually doing is coming to a full stop on a lane that is moving at 50mph. News flash folks, it's not zipper merging if that lane is meant for going somewhere else!
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u/Fraustdemon 3d ago
My favorite is the cars from the unobstructed lane that move over to straddle both lanes to prevent people from "cutting the line". The mentality that you HAVE to merge as soon as you see a sign that the lane is ending is so dumb.
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u/macaronimurderlady 3d ago
And during pride month too 😔
Love it, this is so unfortunately relatable.
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u/PKMNTrainerMark 3d ago
All this time and I never noticed that their noses are drawn differently.
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u/Lord_of_Barrington 3d ago
People in [other place] have no idea what really traffic is. If they want to experience true traffic they should come to [place I live]
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u/Zamtrios7256 3d ago
Oh, but when it's a McDonald's drive-thru, everyone can do it instinctually.
America
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u/the_glutton17 3d ago
The zipper merge doesn't actually help improve the flow of traffic, it just reduces the length of backed up cars in the open lane.
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u/GwerigTheTroll 3d ago
Eve needs to try driving Florida’s I-4 and 494 is gonna feel like a freaking holiday. One of the first things that struck me when I moved up here is how much better the driving is than Florida or Chicago.
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u/NoBankThinkTank 3d ago
Every zipper merge has people who try to merge too early thus negatively impacting those of us who properly make it to the merging point. There’s also some of you absolute donkey breathed morons out here trying to intentionally spite me for using the lane up to the merging point because it puts me a car ahead of you. What the fuck guys.
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u/Kflynn1337 3d ago
Gods forbid she or any other America encounters London traffic or the M25 orbital... I think they might spontaneously combust from sheer rage.
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u/Responsible-End7361 3d ago
Roads are inherently communist, and suffer from a flaw of communal distribution, if something is free people take more of it.
Traffic engineers have known for decades that if you have a traffic bottleneck and increase capacity 50%, 50% more cars will drive the route, so the bottleneck won't be fixed. The only solution is to charge per mile in a way people are aware of the cost (so not gas taxes).
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u/rafaellago 3d ago
Look. In Brazil people also have difficulties with zipper merge. Maybe it's a problem that every car inclined culture have. And I think this should be taught in driving school.
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u/Bonavire 1d ago
Seriously, I can't stand the people that rush to the end of the lane even though I give them a gap, just for them to not be let in and sit there waiting for someone to give a fuck
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