Jeff Cranson
Host
00:07
Hello, this is the Talking Michigan Transportation podcast. I'm your host, Jeff Cranson. To set up today's conversation, I'm going to begin by reading an excerpt from the 2008 book Traffic by Tom Vanderbilt. Keep in mind, this is in his voice. It is a question you have no doubt asked yourself while crawling down some choked highway. Watching with mounting frustration as the adjacent cars glide ahead, you drum the wheel with your fingers, you change the radio station, you fixate on one car as a benchmark of your own lack of progress. You try to figure out what that weird button next to the rear window defroster actually does.
00:46
I used to think this was just part of the national randomness of the highway. Sometimes fate would steer me into the faster lane, sometimes it would relinquish me to the slow lane. That was until recently, when I had an experience that made me rethink my traditionally passive outlook on the road and upset that careful set of assumptions that had always guided my behavior and traffic. I made a major lifestyle change. I became a late merger.
01:09
Chances are, at some point you have found yourself driving along the highway when a sign announces of the left lane in which you were traveling closed one mile ahead and that you must merge right. You notice an opening in the right lane and quickly move over. You breathe a sigh, happy to be safe lane sconce in the lane that will not end. Then, as the lane creeps to a slow halt, you notice with rising indignation that cars in the lane you have vacated are continuing to speed ahead out of sight. You see then contemplate returning to the much faster left lane. If only you could work an opening. You grimly accept your condition.
01:42
So one day not long ago, I had an epiphany on a New Jersey highway. I was having a typical white-knuckle drive among the scenic oil storage depots and chemical processing plants of northern Jersey when suddenly, on the approach to the Pulaski Skyway, the sign loomed Lane ends one mile, merge right. Seized by some rash impulse, I avoided the instinctual tickle at the back of my brain telling me to get in the already crowded right lane. Just do what the sign says. That voice usually counsels. Instead, I listen to another, more insistent voice don't be a sucker, you can do better.
02:12
I plowed purposely ahead, oblivious to the hostile stairs of other drivers. My wife was cringing and I wondered could I have been doing this wrong all my life? So when I posted this anonymous inquiry on the Ask Metafilter website one can visit to ask random questions and tap into the hive mind of an anonymous audience of overeducated and over-opinionated geeks. I asked why should one lane move faster than the other? I wanted to know, why are people rewarded for merging at the last possible moment? As was my new lifestyle, that of a late merger somewhat deviant I was startled by the torrent of responses and how quickly they came.
02:50
What struck me most was the passion and conviction with which people argued the various cases, the fact that while many people seem to think I was wrong, almost as many seem to think I was right. Rather than easy consensus, I had stumbled into a gaping divide of irreconcilable belief. So I can get into what the various camps think about this but this is very topical now because MDOT has been using the zipper merge in specific applications for a few years now. Other states have been trying it too. Nobody's completely figured out the best way and, like all questions dealing with transportation, it's much more complicated than it seems.
03:30
So here today to talk about it from the MDOT perspective is Greg Brunner, who's MDOT's Acting Chief Operations Officer, and he's also the Director of the Bureau of Field Services, the big umbrella, which includes statewide construction, statewide maintenance and statewide operations, meaning the operations of the roads. Greg, thanks for taking time to be here.
Greg Brunner: Thanks for having me, Jeff
Jeff Cranson:
So tell me, let's start with the most basic thing. I guess, if you're at a weekend cookout with friends and family and somebody asks you about the zipper merge, what do you tell them?
Greg Brunner
Guest
04:06
Well, first thing, I tell them it's a little more complicated than it seems. I know kind of in Michigan, probably ever since driver's ed, we've been taught to merge over pretty much as early as possible when you see lane reduction signs ahead or a road closure ahead. And again, maybe that just ties to our Midwest nice where we all want to get over and be orderly as we work our way through the work zone. And in some locations what tends to happen and I'm sure we've all seen it, where 95% of the people move over early, there may be one or two people that start getting frustrated as drivers are passing them to cut to the front of the line and they kind of move over to block vehicles so they can't pass, and again this leads to driver aggression and other types of things. So again, that's called an early merge, where you want to merge over as early as you can.
04:53
And this other topic, which is more of a late merge, as it's called in some states for the more trendy term is probably a zipper merge is actually the opposite of that, where you maintain both lanes in a lane closure as far up to the merge point as you can And then kind of just like the zipper on your coat. One car goes from one lane, one from the next lane and so on to kind of keep moving traffic through the work zone. And again these are two different approaches to driving And again there's different situations where each one can be a little more beneficial when you look at the overall safety and operations of some of those work zones.
Jeff Cranson
Host
05:33
So do you feel like being in charge of highway operations and that also includes the traffic safety division that you've got to be more than an engineer? You kind of got to be a behavioral psychologist? I mean, a lot of this is trying to figure out why people do the things they do, and you talked about the vigilantes who get over and block the other people. That mindset, and can we ever get past that and really go back to everything we need to know we've learned in kindergarten which is like take turns.
Greg Brunner
Guest
06:08
I'd love for that to be the fact and kind of hits on the key part of traffic engineering, why it's a little bit different than any other types of engineering out there is a personal factor.
06:18
06:18
I know, if I'm a structural engineer and you told me to design a bridge that could hold a million pounds, I could do it no problem.
06:25
But if you tell me to design a roadway that's gonna be safe for everybody and no one's gonna die on it, that's a little more difficult because of the human factor in there. And that's where we have to look at kind of overall behavior and how things work and do our best to engineer around those types of things, keep people and things both safe and operational. And so for the zipper merge, what we do in those instances where we start to use that is it's tied to a couple of things. Number one we do use different signing within the work zone where we tell drivers to use both lanes through there. And then one of the other big components with that is a driver education tied to those work zones where we do a lot of promoting of the zipper merge publicly to raise that driver awareness which then kind of leads into specific uses where we'd look to use that that I can talk in some of those more details that you'd like to hear.
Jeff Cranson
Host
07:16
Well, yeah, I think that's kind of what I think I really want people to get from this, if nothing else is to understand why it can't be used in every construction zone, every project, every application. Because that's the question we're getting most frequently now. I hear it from people, I know a couple people who are just huge fans of it. They I don't know if it's because they read Vanderbilt's book or they just buy into the capacity idea that you know we should maximize the capacity and use it all to the very end, but talk about why it doesn't work in every application.
Greg Brunner
Guest
07:50
Sure, a lot of it's tied to the traffic volumes that we see on those roadways, for instance, if there's relatively low traffic volumes, you don't want people raising racing all the way up to the merge point where they could be in one lane and not cause any of those potential conflicts if they're driving Fast to get up there where we don't want them to slow down at the merge point if they don't have to, which is where kind of an early merge would be better.
08:14
When it comes more to the zipper merge, where we focus those on is typically more on commuter routes where it's the same people using the same route every day Where they become accustomed to using that zipper merge because, like I had mentioned previously, there's signing, a lot of public education that goes on.
08:31
So again, the majority of the people are the ones that use it and Kind of like I guess I can compare it to again a zipper on your jacket, if you remember everything's very orally and how it works. But if you've ever had one of those little teeth on your jacket come out of alignment or pop up, you know Things kind of fall apart really quick. You know you can't zip up your zipper. Things don't work those types of things, and I can kind of tie that back to traffic, where if you have one person that's blocking lanes or other types of things, not allowing it to work, again That just creates bigger issues. So it really comes down to like I had mentioned a lot of the traffic volumes that we're seeing. We base it on that and hire Commuter routes where we can educate the people that use that route every day.
Jeff Cranson
Host
09:14
So it's about training really.
Greg Brunner
Guest
09:17
Correct. It's a lot. A lot of it goes into education And kind of the duration of the project where we try to get media coverage out there as well as social media coverage to kind of enlighten people. As well as the signing and dynamic message signs within the work zones will alert people to use the zipper merge or use both lanes at that merge point.
Jeff Cranson
Host
09:38
Well, I know you, like a lot of people at MDOT and you know people in transportation everywhere are not at all ashamed of consulting others to see if somebody's figured something out and somebody's got a better idea. And some other states have tried this. You mentioned, you know, 'west Michigan nice'. That's the exact phrase you hear a lot out of Minnesota. You know there's a concept 'Minnesota nice' and Minnesota. The Minnesota Department of Transportation has been very aggressive about trying to use a zipper merge and efforts to educate the public on what it is And why you should do it, why you should participate. And I know another state I think it was Missouri created a video of young children in, you know, cardboard cars on the sidewalk just learning to take turns. Going again back to that concept that you know it's something we should have all learned at a very early age. Despite all those efforts, I know what you hear from some of your counterparts in other states is it's not exactly a straight line to making progress in this, right?
Greg Brunner
Guest
10:40
Yep, you hear about a few hiccups when you talk about the zipper merge and other areas, but that's one of the things we continually see are doing on this and other initiatives as we engage with other state Department of Transportation around us to look for best practices, to see what works in order to have a more safe and reliable operation or transportation system.
Jeff Cranson
Host
11:17
You've talked to, um, we discussed this earlier some of the other challenges being the geometrics of the roadway and a work zone and why that can present problems sometimes and why the zipper merge doesn't work well there. Can you talk about why that is?
Greg Brunner
Guest
11:21
Sure, again, a lot of it comes into being able to see ahead of you where the signs are when you're looking at roadway geometry, again, when you look at hills and curves and other types of things, you have to take that into account And a big part of it just comes down to engineering judgment and past experience with work zones in the area and making a final determination on where to use the zipper merge system. So I'd love to come out and say there's a one size fits all approach to these work zones And finally, what we've seen and experienced, that's not the case. So again, we're continuing to use this on a case by case basis And again you should expect to see signs or message signs in advance of the zip for merge, where we're encouraging folks to do that And, if not, kind of go back to our normal early merge that we've talked about previously.
Jeff Cranson Host 12:12
We'll be right back. Stay tuned.
MDOT Message: Know, before you go, head on over to MiDrive to check out the latest on road construction and possible delays along your route. For a detailed map, head over to www.Michigan.gov/Drive.
Jeff Cranson: In terms of safety and in terms of crashes and the various things that can happen, and you know, an ongoing concerns about work zone safety, which is, you know, among the top priorities at MDOT, obviously, and spend a lot of time and effort focusing on that, especially after recent years, a few bad crashes where workers were killed. What do you hear? Is the jury still out among contractors about this and you know what their feelings are about using it?
Greg Brunner
Guest
13:06
Again, the jury's still a little bit out on that, but the contracting industry is the same as the same feelings that we do. They want to do what's best and safe for not only their workers but people that are in those traffic cues. which is why a lot of this comes down to looking at it operationally from an engineering standpoint that we want to try to do all that we can to reduce those queue lengths because inevitably what happens is I'm sure many of the listeners have been out driving and kind of are surprised when traffic stopped in front of them. So that's where we're relying on our operations and engineering judgment to do what we can to reduce those, to keep traffic moving and again, hopefully not run into these conflicts and any of these merge points where traffic has to make a decision. But again, at the end of the day, our goal is to keep everyone safe.
Jeff Cranson
Host
13:52
Yeah, you and others have made the point often that all this focus on work zone safety isn't just about the people doing the work on the road. It's about the drivers who are most often the victims of crashes and work zones. This is probably something to explore with others on another podcast sometime. I have to wonder if all the automated technology that's increasingly being added to our vehicles, including auto braking, which has been around for a while now, that has to start to make a difference in some of those crashes that involve backups where people just didn't notice that the person in front of them was stopped.
Greg Brunner
Guest
14:32
Yeah, that is one of the big things.
14:34
And again, like I mentioned previously, there's not really a one size fits all to safety.
14:39
Again, it's looking at different types of things, which is why we're actually adopting a safe systems approach which looks at a lot of different methods to be able to do that One of its side of the vehicles themselves, like you had mentioned, with the advanced braking. Some of the other initiatives we're looking at are actually smart work zones that they're called, where they can actually communicate. Upcoming work zones are backups to in-vehicle and navigation systems. That's one of the cutting-edge things we're working on. And then we also have some stop traffic ahead technology that we've been deploying on a few roads around the state, where what that does is it monitors those traffic backups going into work zones and once the traffic really starts to slow down, we have message signs placed in advance to warn traffic of stop traffic or congestion ahead, just to kind of raise that awareness to cover the bases on all sides, whether it's the driver, the vehicle or the roadway itself. So again, that multi-tiered approach to improve overall safety is one of the things that we're looking at in Keen.
Jeff Cranson
Host
15:40
So that goes to something else within your umbrella, which is the Intelligent Transportation Systems Unit, its, and they're the ones that would be working on the kinds of things you're talking about. How far away do you think we are from a better use of that vehicle to infrastructure technology that could feed it right into your vehicle So you're not relying on a person looking at a message board but being told in there if they're not using Waze or Google Maps or something that's giving them audio alerts a system that the DOTs actually participate in to get that information to the vehicles.
Greg Brunner
Guest
16:16
Probably still a few years out on that from adoption. Again, it's not just an MDOT or Department of Transportation thing. This is a national approach that we're looking at. There is something called the Work Zone Data Exchange, which what that means is it's a language, kind of a language we've developed to be able to speak to any different car manufacturer out there. That's been adopted by both the Department of Transportation and vehicle manufacturers to be able to communicate those types of things, And we're in the process right now and have already done some successful pilots to be able to transfer that information. A lot of that goes just to kind of adoption with OEMs and the vehicle manufacturers to incorporate that technology throughout. So I'd say it's very close And again, it's just a matter of time of rolling that out a little bit further, both not only with Waze and Google, but with the vehicle manufacturers themselves.
Jeff Cranson
Host
17:11
Well, the consumer clearly values that, or you wouldn't see so many of the automakers making that part of their ads and you see a lot for auto braking and other safety technology that's been added to cars And the competition which is good among the automakers trying to trumpet their vehicle is safer because it has that. So they must know from purchasing decisions and focus groups that the consumers value that. So, I guess what I struggle with is how to reconcile people saying that I want to buy the safest car possible but then still doing the kinds of things that put them in dangerous situations.
Greg Brunner
Guest
17:51
Yep, yeah it's tough, but again we got to keep pushing forward if we're going to move the needle here. So that's why it takes kind of an all-hands-on deck approach When we look at both MDOT our contracting industry and working with some of the vehicle manufacturers. When it talks to some talks about some of those safety initiatives.
Jeff Cranson
Host
18:08
Well, thanks, Greg. I'll be revisiting this topic in the coming months and years, no doubt because it's going to be an evolving science and there's still going to be a lot of discussion and we're still going to field a lot of questions about it on our social media feeds and elsewhere. So thanks for taking the time to talk about why this is more complicated than people might think.
Greg Brunner
Guest
18:30
Oh, no problem, Thanks for having me, Jeff.
Jeff Cranson
Host
18:32
I'd like to thank you once more for tuning in to Talking Michigan Transportation. You can find show notes and more on Apple podcasts or Buzzsprout. I also want to acknowledge the talents of people who help make this a reality each week, starting with Randy Debler, who skillfully edits the audio, Jesse Ball, who proofs the content, Courtney Bates, who posts the podcast of various platforms, and Jacke Salinas, who transcribes the audio to make it accessible to all.
