Why you're soon going to be seeing, and doing, a lot of zipper merges

Construction season is just weeks away, and that means New Brunswick drivers will soon be tangling with traffic delays, lane reductions and frayed tempers.

But the province has a plan to help ease all of that by promoting widespread use of an often-misunderstood manoeuvre: the zipper merge.

The Ministry of Transportation and Infrastructure is rolling out a public awareness campaign this week with a barrage of social media messaging explaining the benefits of zipper merging, and a video demonstrating how to do it.

Minister Jill Green is already a big fan of the zipper merge, and says she has been practising it for decades.

"I learned about zipper merges back when I was in engineering school," Green said in an interview. "It's used all over the world ... and it just moves traffic faster."

But she concedes not everyone gets it, and she's hoping the awareness campaign will change that.

The campaign's 33-second video explains the technique with straightforward, step-by-step directions and illustrated demonstrations.

"You've seen this merge sign before," a voice on the video says. "A lane closure up ahead. Better get over now, right? Nope! Instead, do a zipper merge. Here's how you do it."

Green says the campaign has been in the works for a while, but the launch was timed to beat the summer traffic crunch.

"We want people to start using this technique because it's faster, it moves traffic faster, and … we want to help reduce frustration," she said. "We want everybody to be calm and enjoy the driving experience, and to keep construction workers and contractors safe."

The zipper merge will be required in construction zones, with orange "merge" signs signalling when the technique will be needed, Green said.

"Like for example, on the Harbour Bridge this year, we're going to have the zipper merge required on both sides [during construction]. So we would really like people to start employing this travelling technique."

Terry Sznober is all-too familiar with traffic backups on the Harbour Bridge, and with the problems that can arise from not knowing how to navigate them.

The Saint John resident was the victim of a road-rage incident several months ago on the bridge, an incident he believes was sparked by a zipper-merge misunderstanding.