There are two types of drivers on the road, the early mergers, and late mergers.
The late mergers are doing what is called zipper merge.
Zipper merge is an issue that can make driver's blood pressure rise.
Instead of drivers merging early in heavy traffic before a lane ends, the zipper merge calls for drivers to exhaust the lane entirely, all the way to the choking point and then fall in line one by one like the teeth of a zipper.
"In a perfect world there would be that zipper pattern where a car would go, and then you would go, and then so on and so forth, but it just doesn't happen, " said
Trooper Johnathan Cardona.
The Federal Highway Administration remains neutral on merging, though studies show traffic moves 35 to 40 percent faster when drivers zipper-merge.
Neighboring states like Missouri, Kansas, and Colorado are among the ones that have launched multi-million dollar campaigns to promote zipper-merging, but it is not the law there.
California maintains it's better to early merge saying the zipper-merge is a recipe for rear-enders.
The bottom line is Oklahoma doesn't endorse the zipper merge, but if you do it because you believe it's more efficient, you have plenty of other drivers to back you up.
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