Professional help: Help me zipper merge

CATHY WURZER: We're going to turn now to our second segment in a new series here on Minnesota Now called professional help. Now, we all need a little help to get through life sometimes. From everyday questions to more complex problems, we are asking the experts to lend us a hand. Now, throughout the series, we're going to hear some direct advice for us not so direct Minnesotans. Here's Minnesota Now senior producer, Aleesa Kuznetsov.

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ALEESA KUZNETSOV: Construction season is here, and there's no doubt you've encountered orange cones. And sometimes that means zipper merging. We all like to think we know what we're doing, but I've been on the roads and have seen otherwise. So let's face it, Minnesota, you need some professional help.

MICHELLE MOSER: My name is Michelle Moser and I am the state work zone engineer in the Office of Traffic Engineering at the Minnesota Department of Transportation. I have been with MNDOT for almost 25 years.

ALEESA KUZNETSOV: I'll just start off by asking, why do you think Minnesotans are so bad at zipper merging?

MICHELLE MOSER: Well, it's not just Minnesotans, I will say that. Talking to our peer states, which we do often, it's not only a problem in Minnesota. It's a pretty common problem.

ALEESA KUZNETSOV: I thought I'd get some second opinions from my newsroom colleagues. Here's what Christine had to say.

CHRISTINE: I lived remotely during the pandemic in Florida for four months. I also took note of how poorly they zipper merged, which surprised me. I thought it was only a Midwest thing. So maybe we're not alone in our ineptitude.

ALEESA KUZNETSOV: She agreed with Michelle. But other Minnesota transplants in the newsroom feel it's uniquely bad in Minnesota.

WOMAN 1: I don't know if there's a place I've been that does it amazingly. But in Minnesota, it does feel not great.

WOMAN 2: It's the easiest thing in the world. And I think that people should stop joking about it and learn how to do it. It's this self-fulfilling prophecy, right? It's like it's part of the identity. And so we must be bad at zipper merging.

ALEESA KUZNETSOV: So we can all agree we're not great at it. And I did find out a pretty convincing reason why. According to the Department of Vehicle Services, zipper merging wasn't added to the driver's manual until 2015. So if we assume that most Minnesotans take driver's ed at age 14, that means Minnesotans above the age of 23 were never formally taught how to zipper merge. And that means the majority of drivers on the road were never taught.

So whether you never learned or you think you know, but you really don't, let's get a lesson.

MICHELLE MOSER: Zipper merge is really reserved for construction situations.

ALEESA KUZNETSOV: I was surprised by this. I and others I've talked to thought the satisfying merge of every other car that happens during traffic was also zipper merging. And while the technique is similar, it's not a true zipper merge. When you come upon a zipper merge, it's when traffic is being reduced to one lane in a construction zone. And you'll see very specific signage that says this--

MICHELLE MOSER: Use both lanes during backups and take turns at merge. So those are the very specific zipper merge signs.

ALEESA KUZNETSOV: And once you see those signs, stay where you are.

MICHELLE MOSER: If you're in the lane that's closing, you want to resist that urge to move over into the lane that's continuing and stay in your lane. As you approach that merge point, then look for those spaces and look over your shoulder, signal your merge, and then just start to safely move over into that, into the gaps in that lane. And in a perfect world, that's kind of how that zipper merge works.

ALEESA KUZNETSOV: So to recap, if you're in the lane that's closing, you should stay there until the lane is ending. Here's a phrase Michelle said five times during our conversation to help you remember.

MICHELLE MOSER: Resist the urge to merge early.

ALEESA KUZNETSOV: Say it with us, everyone. Resist the urge to merge early. So once you have successfully stayed in your lane till the very end, that's when the magic happens.

MICHELLE MOSER: The teeth of the zipper really are the cars. And so you're just wanting to fit one car into each space, alternating and kind of closing that zipper into the one lane that is the closed zipper. So everybody kind of slows down, leaves a little bit of space, and you move into those spaces right at that merge point.

ALEESA KUZNETSOV: Michelle says when people use both lanes, the traffic backup is 40% to 50% less. Whereas in cases where both lanes are not used, backup can be several miles long. Zipper merging, when done right, also reduces speeding.

MICHELLE MOSER: We want to try to keep speeds similar between the two lanes. It's just safer traveling. We don't have some people going exceptionally faster than others or slower than others.

ALEESA KUZNETSOV: When people don't zipper merge, it can kind of feel unfair like someone is budging the line when they whiz by in the open lane that's ending. But technically, the person using the other lane is doing it right. It's just no one else is joining them.

MICHELLE MOSER: And we really can combat that by people not merging early so that we have an approximately equivalent amount of traffic in each lane. Because at that point, you can't keep track anymore of who was further back than you. Really not merging early is really helpful for that, feeling kind of that ownership of your place in line.

ALEESA KUZNETSOV: So why do people zipper merge incorrectly? Well, as Michelle said, it's an urge to merge early.

MICHELLE MOSER: I think it really comes down to that human nature piece that we start to see instructional signs and we see the lane is closing ahead. And generally it will tell you what lane is closing. And so you want to make sure you're prepared. And so you get over into the lane that's continuing. And that actually is what makes the zipper merge not work.

ALEESA KUZNETSOV: And maybe it's not all our fault. MNDOT is actually doing research right now about the psychology of drivers during a zipper merge and they're considering changing their signing. Instead of saying right lane closed ahead, it would just say lane closed ahead.

MICHELLE MOSER: I think there's promise in not letting people know so far ahead. And usually we're trying to alert people so that they can watch for things. But in this situation, when we don't want them to-- we don't want them to take any action at that point. We just want them to be alert. I think that could show some promise, not telling them what lane is closed until we want them to really start to think about merging.

ALEESA KUZNETSOV: So Minnesota, there's some promise ahead that zipper merging will get better. But for now, spread the word. Resist the urge to merge early.

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For this episode of Professional Help, I'm Aleesa Kuznetsov.

CATHY WURZER: Yes. Yes. Aleesa, thank you. Thank you for doing this, truly. You can hear our new series called Professional Help every other Thursday here on Minnesota Now. Or if you missed one, you can find the whole collection at mprnews.org.