Zipper Merge

So I was driving recently on the freeway in Saskatoon and ... oh wait ... maybe I should explain for those of you who have never driven in a city besides Winnipeg: a "freeway" is a road with no stoplights where you can drive at highway speeds. Saskatoon, a city one third the population of Winnipeg, has one. It's called Circle Drive.

As I was saying ... I was driving on Circle Drive in Saskatoon when I approached a construction project to extend the freeway to the west. That's when I saw it: a sign that said "ZIPPER MERGE AHEAD".

source: http://ckom.com/story/circle-drive-millar-back-normal/110318

The concept is simple: drivers are to stay in their lane until the point at which one of them ends, and then they are to take turn merging -- one from the left, one from the right -- like a zipper.

I quite like it.

It's a nice alternative to the situation that we normally encounter here in Winnipeg. That is, the majority of drivers all pile into the single lane that is continuing, causing a huge backup in traffic. Then a minority of drivers zip ahead and cut in at the front of the line or somewhere close to it.

There are a couple of problems with this, one being that it creates an unnecessarily long traffic queue, another being that it causes animosity among drivers. The drivers who get in line right at the start of the queue and wait patiently as the line trudges along resent the selfish nimrods who zip past them in the empty lane and cut in at the front.

But why should you get in line half a mile before the construction starts when there is a perfectly good lane that can legally take you right up to the merge zone? That isn't rational.

I've been on both sides. Sometimes I get in line, and when I do I get annoyed at those who don't. Depending on what kind of mood I'm in that day, I may even do my best to keep them from merging in front of me. Sometimes, if I'm in an unusually pissy mood, or if the guy trying to merge is driving a pickup truck with a license plate that says "GORJUS" and is wearing a ball cap backwards (I have seen this), I'll even tease them by leaving space for him to merge and then closing up to the car in front of me at the last second, and then I'll go extra slow to give the guy behind me a chance to close up behind me too.

That's how I roll.

However, sometimes I'm the douche bag who zips up the empty lane, although in my head I say to myself "Oops, is this lane closing off? Gosh, I hadn't noticed. I guess I ought to merge over here at some point." -- as if I can telepathically communicate to the drivers waiting in the queue that I didn't mean to drive up the empty lane, it's just that I didn't notice the construction signs. Silly me.

However, I won't drive right to the front of the line because that would be rude, and it would negate the little excuse that I made for myself that I only inadvertently failed to get in line.

This is all normal behaviour, right? Good. Just checking.

Sometimes those who set up the construction sites make it worse than it needs to be. For example, the signage for the construction on the Pembina overpass on the south Perimeter Highway in Winnipeg begins more than 2 kilometers in advance of the lane closure, with signs that warn you that there is a lane closure ahead and the speed limit is reducing to 70 km/h. As a result, most drivers pull over into the right hand lane and slow down to 70 km/h on the highway so far in advance of the construction that you can't even see where the construction begins.

*****

In writing this blog post, I found out that the zipper merge is a new thing for Saskatoon. They only started to experiment with it in May, because, as one person put it, "People have been so bad historically in this city anyway on road construction and merging that anything might improve it".

Saskatoon borrowed the idea from the state of Minnesota, a pioneer in the zipper merge revolution, and so far they have found that it works quite well. My own experience with it was pretty good. I mean, about as good as merging at a road construction site can be. It's not comparable to, say, a full-body hot oil massage, but you know ... it wasn't painful.

The Minnesota Department of Transportation says that the zipper merge "has proven to help traffic flow by decreasing queue lengths as much as 35 percent" and "reduced lane-changing conflicts and sudden-stop crashes."

However, even in Minnesota not everyone is an advocate. One blogger: "I get how the zipper merge is supposed to work, the problem is the people who don’t. ... The zipper merge is going to be this century’s conversion to the metric system in the ’70s. Great idea, made perfect sense, and was dead on arrival."

Much like a roundabout, I don't know how you could fail to understand how it works. Having never experienced such a thing before, I found it exceedingly easy to understand. Mind you, I have underestimated the stupidity of other drivers before.

Even if some people don't catch on to the concept of a zipper, I think it's worth trying out here in Winnipeg because it eliminates the dilemma of deciding between two bad options: burn 5 minutes of your life in a line of cars, or be rude and selfish by cruising to the front of the queue.

Taking turns is something we're taught to do as little kids. As adults driving cars it shouldn't be that hard.

Christopher Pauchay and circle of kindness

Christopher Pauchay, the guy who killed his two daughters by dropping them in a snowbank while intoxicated, faced his scentencing circle. Their recommendation : Pauchay should serve his sentence in the community. Probable punishment: setting up rocks for sweat lodges, filling and lighting pipes before ceremonies, and assisting elders with other tasks.

If you think he's getting off easy, you're wrong. Just listen to Chief Robert Whitehead:

It's a lot tougher than traditional courts because you have to face the people who you wronged and try to make things right.

See? There you go. Let's have a look at some of what transcribed when he faced the people he wronged:

Tracey Jimmy, his ex-wife and mother of the girls: "He was just such a good dad. I just love him and you guys are taking him away from me - the only person who can actually feel what I'm feeling."

Elder Evelyn Burns suggested Pauchay does not need to go to jail. "Every day you must think of your little girls - that's punishment enough, I think."

Pauchay's stepmother, Jo Anne Machiskinic: I'm not mad at him because he never intended such a horrible thing to happen..

Pauchay's uncle, Francis Nippi: jail should only be used for animals. "Release him to the elders".

Pauchay's gay lover, armando: "I miss the way he beats me when I've been bad. Please don't take him away from me."

The local liquor store owner: "He should stay in the community. He's one of my best customers."

Ok ... I'd better stop before the Southern Chiefs Organization sic their lawyers on me. The point I'm trying to make is this: A scentencing circle may be effective in some situations, but in this case, the victim's family is Pauchay's family. The community members are Pauchay's friends. How is the scentencing circle supposed to be effective when many (most?) of the participants are sympathetic to the criminal?

Look, I feel bad for the guy. I can't imagine what he's going through. I just question whether a scentencing circle is the right tool for the job.

Saskatoon

Saskatoon is quite a nice city, in spite of being located in the middle of The Gap. When I was there it was cold. Brutally cold. Colder than a hairless rat in a bag of frozen perogies. Colder than Winnipeg even. I woke up one morning to -41°c. The ice fog was so thick I couldn't see across the river from my hotel room. The picture above was taken the day before when it wasn't quite so cold. Somehow, the river was not completely frozen over, so mist was rising off the water as it froze, drifting up into the morning sky. Some of the bridges that cross the South Saskatchewan River are reasonably picturesque, and it made for a nice view from the river bank. (One of those bridges, by the way, crosses over the river from downtown to Broadway, which has a walkable shopping strip with small shops and cafes .. in case you're ever there.)

Somewhere along the way, they decided not to develop along the river. The river bank is not all designated parkland, but there is virtually no development between the street and the river as it passes through the city, making that land available for walking paths, green space and recreation. Saskatoon also seems to have better infrastructure than Winnipeg. It is 1/3 the size, but Circle Drive is essentially a freeway, with only a few stop lights on the east side of town. (Ditto for Ring Road in Regina). Previous city planners must have had a longer term vision than here in The 'Peg.

What about current and future development? I am not that familiar enough with Saskatoon to really comment, but the city of Saskatoon web site gives the impression that they actually have a functional planning process. The Local Area Planning (LAP) process really seems well organized. I look at that, and look at the ad hoc crap that we do here (hey, let's put a stadium in South Point Douglas!) and I shake my head. You should read their LAP Brochure, and if you're a city planning geek (you know who you are) there are lots of other reports and stuff to peruse. Of course putting something on paper and implementing it are two completely different things, but there may be a few things we can learn from the S'toon.