Why The Zipper Merge Will Never Work In Rockford

Why does it seem like so many people don't have a clue on how to merge into traffic? Not just in Rockford either. There are Merging Morons in every city.

While your complaints about merging morons will be very similar to the people in this video from WGN TV, the suggested merging skill might be unfamiliar to you.

In traffic engineering, the late merge or zipper method is a convention for merging traffic into a reduced number of lanes. Drivers in merging lanes are expected to use both lanes to advance to the lane reduction point and merge at that location, alternating turns.

In the Rockford area, zipper merging would never be the same as in big cities like Chicago, but the idea sure would help, no matter how long the 'zipper.' Problem is that no one will be consistent with the method. Rockford is not a city of considerate drivers, that's been my assessment after living here for 23 years.