Contributed

By Mel Rothenburger

ARMCHAIR MAYOR

ROTHENBURGER: Time to dust off our zipper-merge driving skills again

Mar 11, 2020 | 4:54 AM

KAMLOOPS — HOW SOON WE FORGET.

After a short winter break, work on Victoria Street West is heading into the final stages, with completion expected in May.

It’s been a long haul and it will be a relief for drivers and businesses to get it done. In the meantime, though, morning commuters from the North Shore are finding it slow going. Yesterday morning, for example, the lefthand, southbound lane was backed up from one end of the bridge to the other.

The righthand lane, however, was almost devoid of traffic.

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The reason? That old Canadian politeness. Whenever this happens, we have an undeniable urge to slide into the lefthand lane at the earliest possible opportunity. To do otherwise seems rude.

But what we see as rude does have its efficiencies, since what’s known as the zipper merge reduces congestion at the bottleneck.

The City spent a lot of energy convincing us to get over our politeness. Unfortunately, 95 per cent of us have reverted to the old merge-as-soon-as-possible method.

As I idled in the lefthand lane on Overlanders Bridge yesterday, I watched a few brave souls zip past and go to the front of the line. Which is where the inequity is created.

Those who do employ the zipper merge get to where they’re going a lot faster; if everybody used it, everybody would get there faster.

So, time to get over our aversion to the zipper all over again, and zip it. But It’s only fair to add that, while we’re being too polite about the merge, we’re also being polite in another way — there’s none of the horn honking and fist shaking that was there at the start of the project.

And that’s a good thing.

I’m Mel Rothenburger, the Armchair Mayor.

Mel Rothenburger is a former mayor of Kamloops and newspaper editor. He writes five commentaries a week for CFJC Today, publishes the ArmchairMayor.ca opinion website, and is a director on the Thompson-Nicola Regional District board. He can be reached at mrothenburger@armchairmayor.ca.

Editor’s Note: This opinion piece reflects the views of its author, and does not necessarily represent the views of CFJC Today or the Jim Pattison Broadcast Group.