Well, as it turns out, a lot of you have.
The people who merge early.
Someone on a recent Reddit forum urged drivers to ‘cut up their license’ if they merge early.
The standard of uk driving is absolutely abysmal. Drivers on phones, hogging the right lane yet not even reaching 70 so there’s just huge tail backs. Tapping brakes every 5 seconds, driving way too close to the car in front. What is with the OBSESSION with lane hogging!?
— Aaron (@hook2704) June 20, 2025
Zip-merging is a traffic flow measure that drivers are supposed to adopt when a motorway lane or dual lane closes, leaving only one lane available.
It is intended that drivers merge at the point of the lane closure instead of indicating early and merging as soon as possible.
According to the RAC , here’s how it works:
- Drivers in the open lane continue to drive until they reach the point where the lane is closed.
- Once they reach that point, they merge one at a time with the traffic from the other lane, much like the teeth of a zipper coming together.
- The goal is to use both lanes fully until the merge point, rather than having one lane empty and the other congested, which helps reduce traffic build-up and improve the flow of traffic.
The responses, as you can imagine, were varied.
One replied: “The problem with zipper merging is it works in theory but not in practicality because no one is on the same page. You have the people who merge early, the people who speed to the front of the end of the road and then merge in expecting you to just give it to them, and everything in between.
“Unless everyone gets on the exact same page it’s always gonna be a cluster.”
In response, another person said: “Yup. If I come across a large group of cars zipper merging, great. I will do the same. If I come across a group of cars where everyone has moved over early, I will do the same.
“One single car zipping to the front when everyone moved over early isn’t helping anyone but themselves.”
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Another commented: “In Switzerland, it’s the law, and it works quite well! Sure, you get a few who won’t let you merge or close the gap on purpose, or a lot who still merge early, but it has improved.
“If it doesn’t work in your country, then start doing it yourself and get others to do the same. Who cares if they honk at you?”
Someone else replied: “Trying to zipper merge when everyone else is early merging is a great way to get punished for no reason. A lot of people will think you’re cutting the line and can’t merge. So they will refuse to let you in and flip you off while you wait. People are stupid.”
