Saskatchewan Government Insurance is encouraging drivers to “embrace the zipper merge.”
When approaching a construction zone where one lane ends, instead of merging ahead of time, drivers are encouraged to use both lanes up until the lane closes and then alternate into the open lane in a “zipper fashion.”
Vehicles still in the lane that is closing are supposed to now shoulder check and merge when it is safe, with each driver allowing one vehicle in at a time through the new zipper merge.
“Some people think zipper-merging is rude, but it’s not,” Earl Cameron, executive vice-president of the SGI Auto Fund, said in a news release Thursday.
“When a lane is closing, slowing down to change lanes well ahead of the merge point slows traffic unnecessarily, and can cause congestion.”
Zipper merges are a part of a recent set of updates in the Saskatchewan Driver’s Handbook.
