How the zipper merge works in road traffic – VIDEO

Autor: EVmarket Romania
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regula fermoarului - zipper merge

The zipper merge is a traffic rule in Germany or America. Unfortunately, in Romania it is not mentioned in the traffic code and is not discussed by driving schools for beginners. Only at defensive driving schools is it analyzed.

Zipper merge meaning: The zipper merge applies on two-lane roads where for some reason, whether there is work on one lane or the road narrows at the entrance to a town, only one lane remains available. If there are more cars and the drivers do not know the zip rule, a traffic jam occurs. Some studies have that the zipper rule can increase joint capacity by 15% – 20%.

The zipper merge in Germany

Germany uses the „zipper system” or Reissverschlussverfahren. The system is in the German Road Traffic Regulations and states that when two lanes converge into one, drivers must go to the front of the closed lane and wait to merge at the last possible point.

regula fermoarului germania, zipper merge in Germany,

In a zipper merge, drivers use both lanes of the highway up to the point where one lane ends, then take turns moving into the single lane – just like a farm closing. The practice can help in highway work zones to make traffic flow more efficiently.

In traffic engineering, a junction (zipper) is the point where two streams of traffic traveling in the same direction from several roads or from several lanes on the same road merge into a single lane.

How the Newell-Daganzo fusion model describes the zipper merge

The history of the zipper merge model has its origins in Gordon Newell’s description of the merging process, but Daganzo’s cellular transmission model provides a diagram for freeway merging.

In traffic flow theory, the Newell-Daganzo merging model describes a simple procedure on how to determine flows that exit two branch roads and merge (merge) to flow through a single road.

The input term is called the split priority or merge ratio and is defined as the proportion of the two input streams when both are operating under the congested conditions.

VIDEO: Zipper merge explained

Does the zipper merge really work well?

Traffic experts largely agree that the best way to combine two congested lanes is a technique called zip-splitting. Only in this way, the drivers on both lanes will not reduce the traffic speed. If the zip rule is not respected, a traffic jam will occur and it will be driven at low speed.

This technique maximizes available road space, which results in less time spent queuing. Zipper merge can reduce traffic by 40%.

VIDEO: Joining like a zipper in America

The drivers who drive in both lanes until the end of one, will interlace like the teeth of a zipper that come together: one by one, one from the left, one from the right.

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The zip rule is more efficient because it uses more of the available space on the road for as long as possible, helping to keep traffic moving.

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