DENVER — Zipper merging is not just for construction zones.
There are permanent zipper merge opportunities on state highways and city streets.
“If you had some kind of signage that was very explicit, so that you said something like, ‘zipper merge, use both lanes,’ or something like that,’” Jeff Lindberg said.
Lindberg is a zipper merger from Estes Park.
While living in Fort Collins, he wrote a letter to the editor in the Fort Collins Coloradan in Oct. 2016 about zipper merging and better signage.
“…then the drivers who are paying attention would at least understand,” he wrote.
“They would know what to expect, then you wouldn’t have somebody just think, ‘Oh! Well, those jerks are just running up to the front of the line and cutting in,’” Lindberg said.
“We definitely need to be talking more about zipper merging. People don’t understand it. People make mistakes. It gets people angry. And it’s all for nothing,” Sam Cole, Colorado Department of Transportation’s (CDOT) traffic safety manager, said.
Cole is responsible for the traffic safety messages on the electronic CDOT signs.
Over Memorial Day weekend, some of those signs said, “Zipper merge. It’s legal and encouraged.”
“I was really pleased to see 9NEWS do these stories about zipper merging and we thought we would hop on the bandwagon and get some signs out reminding the public,” Cole said. “If people just took a minute to Google ‘zipper merging,’ watch a 9NEWS story, they would learn and they would do it appropriately.”
What if we want the sign to say, ‘Zip it, Colorado?’
“We could probably do that on our overhead signs,” Cole said. “I do all of those messages. People like them when they’re witty. So, ‘Zip it. Merge Over’ is probably something that would be well welcomed.”
Zipper merge opportunities also exist in your daily commute.
For example, at Speer Boulevard and Downing Street in Denver, there are two lanes on the bridge over Cherry Creek. Just north of the intersection, the lanes reduced to just one. There is a yellow sign that says, “right lane ends.”
Could a city sign say “zipper merge ahead” instead?
A city transportation spokesperson did not respond. But if the rules are the same as the highway system, the answer is no.
“There’s nothing we can do with the permanent yellow merge signs on the side of the road. Those are all governed by the [Federal Highway Administration]. They’ve got to be the same in every single state, so we can’t start making them different in Colorado,” Cole said. “That’s a hard no to making any changes to those permanent signs.”
Perhaps, the effort by Next with Kyle Clark to get the zipper merge included in the Colorado Driver Handbook needs to be advanced to getting the Federal Highway Administration sign guidelines to allow for zipper language.
“It really depends on how ambitious you guys want to be, but go for it,” Cole said.
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