Editorial: 'Zipper merge' more than a suggestion

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Saint John’s Harbour Bridge is under construction again this spring – a surprise to no one. It’s one of an unpleasantly deep roster of major bridges down for maintenance across our province.

Better management of these repair projects is needed long-term, but there is one thing the Department of Transportation and Infrastructure could do to reduce the gridlock grief in the short term: put up more signs mandating the zipper merge.

Current signs leading up to Harbour Bridge simply indicate the lanes are about to end somewhere up ahead, with no reminder that it’s proper to keep going till your lane actually ends.

Many drivers thus interpret the signs as an urgent call to move over as quickly as possible, leaving sometimes up to a kilometre of open road ahead of them. The result is that everyone moves more slowly, backing up traffic to a near-standstill and creating 15-minute delays during peak commuter hours.

Last year, the department had some moderately effective light-up signs posted, educating drivers to keep going and merge at the true end of lane for optimum traffic flow.

On Harbour Bridge, those signs have not yet made a return this year, and we lament their absence.

While we appreciate the courteous attitude that may underpin the early-merge impulse of many Maritime drivers, it just slows everyone down. Staying in your lane till the end – the “zipper merge” – makes more efficient use of the scarce pavement and helps everyone get across the span with minimal delay.

The department should show a little more initiative here. Foremost, to ensure that bridge repairs in general across the province are adequate and don’t drag on year after year. And, more immediately, to give explicit guidance to drivers on the zipper merge.