Unsure how to use zipper lanes on Texas highways? Do this to avoid frustration

Texas has 8,860 ongoing freeway construction projects , according to the Texas Department of Transportation.

The dreaded zipper lane is inevitable.

“In a zipper merge, all the drivers in the lane that’s closing continue to drive forward until the very end of their lane,” according to Crosley Law , a San Antonio based firm, “At the lane closure point, each driver from the non-closed lane stops to let one driver from the closed lane merge, then continues.”

Drivers often find these frustrating because they think people use zipper lanes as a way to cut the line, but really that’s how they are meant to be used.

The Texas Department of Transportation says those who merge early are technically making the traffic worse.

Robert Brydia, senior researcher at the Texas Transportation Institute at Texas A&M University, says to imagine a two-mile long queue.

“If you could utilize all of the available capacity (between non-closed and closed lanes), then your queue is only 1 mile long,” Brydia says. “And, typically, the 1-mile long, with people alternating and taking turns … flows much more efficiently than the queue that is two miles long and growing.”

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Here is how you should use zipper lanes.

Zipper lanes in Texas

The most efficient way to use a zipper lane is to use both lanes right up to the merge point, and then the non-closed lane takes turns, letting cars from the closing lane in. The name zipper comes from the interlocking image of the cars taking turns.

If not everyone knows how to operate zipper lanes, then it can induce road rage. But for them to work, everyone has to be on the same page.

If traffic is already slowed down or congested, you should always use the zipper lane. There is no point in merging early if everyone is moving at the same slow speed.

Zipper lanes are proven to be safer

“A 2008 study by the Minnesota Department of Transportation found late merges cut traffic by half on some merging roadways in the Land of 10,000 Lakes,” according to the Texas Standard .

The MN Dot outlines the four benefits of using the traffic tool:

• Reduces differences in speeds between two lanes.

• Reduces the overall length of traffic backup by as much as 40 percent.

• Reduces congestion on freeway interchanges.

• Creates a sense of fairness and equity that all lanes are moving at the same rate.

Texas A&M’s Texas Transportation Institute also found that the zipper lane helps with road rage , “The research team reported that almost 51% of survey respondents said they were significantly stressed when other drivers prevented merging in a bottleneck. Another 37% reported high stress levels when another driver blocked them from moving out of a closing lane.”

Zipper lanes can help resolve these agitations. However, no part of Texas law enforces zipper lanes. For them to be most efficient, drivers must understand how to use them properly.