A pair of city councillors are hoping permanent signage will help drive home the benefits of zipper merging to Winnipeg drivers.
A motion tabled by St. James Coun. Scott Gillingham and seconded by St. Boniface Coun. Matt Allard at Wednesday’s council meeting calls on the city to include signs encouraging zipper merging when a lane is closed at road work sites next summer.
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“Winnipeggers, I think, felt the construction in a way that was unprecedented this year because of the record spending and road construction that happened this year, so, a lot of people’s commutes were delayed,” Allard told Global News after the meeting.
“And part of that delay is because Winnipeggers, for the most part, don’t zipper merge.”
The zipper merge is used in construction zones where traffic loses a lane.
It asks motorists to use all lanes available right up to the barricade, and then take turns letting cars merge, instead of everyone lining up in one lane and motorists getting frustrated when someone cuts in front.
Allard has for years worked to make zipper merging happen in Winnipeg.
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He helped to spearhead a pilot project to encourage drivers try the concept back in 2015 after watching it work in other cities in the United States and Canada.
And while that pilot project — which saw the city put up temporary signs advising drivers “Merge here” and “Take turns” — saw some success, a city report afterward ultimately found very little difference observed in “pre and post zipper merge setups.”
But the report also noted the pilot’s ineffectiveness was largely due to a lack of education as to how drivers should merge at a construction lane closure.
A diagram from the City of Winnipeg shows how the zipper merge works.
City of Winnipeg / winnipeg.ca
Allard is hopeful years of pushing the idea — his office still has bumper stickers encouraging zipper merging available — and permanent signage can make the difference.
“I hope this will be the policy that finally works,” he said.
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“I think that’s what Winnipeggers need — they need to know that it’s the norm and not the exception to zipper merge.”
The zipper merge motion will need approval from council’s infrastructure and executive policy committees before coming back for a final vote by council as a whole.
