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When two lanes of traffic become one, zipper merging is the correct thing to do. But for some reason, Windsor motorists just aren’t getting it.

Next week, the City of Windsor’s traffic department will be putting zipper-merge signs on the E. C. Row Expressway in an attempt to convince local drivers to adopt the superior merging method.

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“We actually did a merging campaign back in 2009, because of a construction project on the E. C. Row,” noted Dwayne Dawson, the city’s director of operations.

“(The campaign) was not that successful, to be quite honest. It was just the driving habits of the people — Trying to break them was problematic.”

Photo by Dan Janisse / Windsor Star

If you’re not familiar with it, the zipper merge is what traffic scientists widely consider the safest and most efficient way for vehicles to enter a bottleneck: Drivers should delay merging until their lane actually ends.

Then, at the point of the bottleneck, vehicles from each lane take turns entering — an arrangement that ideally resembles the teeth of a zipper.