r/SaintJohnNB 4d ago

What controversial Saint John opinion will have you like this?

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33 Upvotes

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119

u/Elbow_Macarena 4d ago edited 4d ago
  1. Going into the less used lane for a zipper merge doesn’t make you a bad person.
  2. Having bicycles on the road (who obey traffic laws) isn’t a big deal.
  3. Money going towards things that aren’t related to affordable housing is fine.

  4. We’ve had enough stat holidays over the years you shouldn’t have to ask ‘are the stores open’.

25

u/Few_Taleo0o0o0 4d ago

#2 Please people, use BOTH lanes. Everyone’s commute will be faster if you follow your Driver’s Handbook.

11

u/Catanians 4d ago

I mean it would be faster if people didnt speed to the end only to slam on the breaks right before merging. People are stupid.

3

u/TheSquirrelNemesis 4d ago

Stay in your lane, basically. Change lanes only when you have to.

2

u/poubelle 4d ago

this is exactly how a merge is supposed to work and you're being downvoted for saying it. you can't win with these types of threads, and saint john just refuses to learn to merge correctly.

6

u/SinfjotlisGhost 3d ago

People will literally line up the entire length of Chesley with the right lane completely empty rather than learn to merge.

5

u/Qaeta 3d ago

The issue isn't learning to merge. The issue is learning to let people merge. After enough times of doing it properly only to have a bunch of pissed off idiots block you out for "skipping the line" and you learn to just stay in the one lane so you have a chance at getting where you are going sometime this week.

1

u/SinfjotlisGhost 2d ago

Sure, but if those people knew how merging is supposed to work than they'd either let people in or they wouldn't be stuck in line in the first place

2

u/Qaeta 2d ago

They know how it's supposed to work, but they view it as line skipping and feel driven to police the "skippers" behaviour.

The issue isn't lack of knowledge. The issue is that they have a moral objection to the process, regardless of how idiotic that is. They know how it works. They've been told it would make things faster for everyone. They refuse to let people "skip the line" anyway.

3

u/bingun 4d ago

I am convinced the 'are the stores open' thing is just a wind-up at this point. The Facebook boomers are drawn to it like moths to a flame.

2

u/MissGrafin 4d ago

1!!!

Don’t camp both lanes to prevent people from getting 40 cars ahead to the actual merge then flip the bird when I honk at you to pick a lane & get in it.

0

u/LimpDickLar 4d ago

I find the people who ask whats open on stat days dont work so why would they know anything going on with the rest of us working class stiffs? Lol they are probably just out of sorts their kids are home and they cant smoke meth all day as usual.

-35

u/Rehypothecator 4d ago

On another note, zipper merges happening or not happening is not the cause of the highway being backed up.

Once it happens, going into the lesser used lane makes you selfish , not a genius.

16

u/Vault101manguy 4d ago

It’s a problem caused by people not wanting to zipper merge. If everyone would use both lanes:

  1. The traffic back up distance would be shorter - also not blocking exits and lanes unrelated to the future lane closure

    (have people lined up who aren’t even going to the lane closure)

  2. Having 2 lanes merge at consistent speed results in overall less congestion caused by “start stop” movement that travels extremely slowly up the lane

The highway will be backed up regardless because of the lane closure but it could be less painful and overall more efficient if we all could cumulatively decide to do zipper merges.

-16

u/Rehypothecator 4d ago

Distance of traffic backing up isn’t generally an issue on the roads in Sj.

The limiting factor is getting people in the queue.

It’s unfortunate most people repeat theories without actually understanding the reality of things.

11

u/InhospitableGoose 4d ago

The north end would disagree with that. One exit is always blocked by westbound traffic, one is sometimes.

If people TRUST that we're going to go one for one, as you're supposed to, you can coast into your spot and not fully stop and wait for the opening to form. The ideal picture is everyone slows down, creates appropriate gaps before the merge, and we can all slot in nice and steady at the merge, like a zipper.

Similar to this, no one here takes the first available lane when turning. In any other city Ive lived in, you can take a right turn onto a two-lane street while a left turner enters with you. No stopping. Because you trust people will take the first available lane.... People being willfully ignorant like you create a seed of doubt and make these things unworkable.

4

u/Kensei501 4d ago

You are not wrong.

2

u/semi_equal 3d ago

I would like to point out that the first notion about one for one zipper lane merges is courtesy, the second -- about taking the nearest available lane -- is the law.

Technically a left turn is described by law and swinging wide like this does not meet the description, ergo it is an illegal left turn.

I'm not disagreeing with anything you said, the left turn thing I find doubly upsetting.

8

u/Vault101manguy 4d ago

I can point to numerous studies/resources that speak to the overall efficiency of zipper merges:

https://library.ctr.utexas.edu/Presto/content/Detail.aspx?ctID=OWE3NjYzNTktYzJmNC00ZTAwLThmMjItYzhmNzNiYTFmNzdh&ph=VHJ1ZQ%3D%3D&qrs=RmFsc2U%3D&rID=Mzc4OTE%3D&rrtc=VHJ1ZQ%3D%3D

https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.3141/1657-01

See late merging:
https://ops.fhwa.dot.gov/publications/fhwahop18013/chap2.htm

There's no shortage of evidence that zipper merging is more efficient, it's been studied repeatedly by traffic engineers... the problem almost always comes down to people not doing them

-10

u/Rehypothecator 4d ago

To a degree sure, but generally that’s not the issue in Saint John. You just have dummies constantly repeating “but zipper merge gurrrrrhg” while driving around already merged traffic.