Quote:
Originally Posted by esquire
^ When people say that Winnipeggers don't know how to merge properly, I'd say it's mainly because we have very, very few proper merging lanes in and around the city. We're more or less used to being forced right into the traffic flow after taking an exit ramp or a yield lane.
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Proper merge lanes are definitely part of the issue, a bigger problem though is when drivers are on a four lane road, travelling at a high rate of speed in the right hand lane with no exit near by and failing to move over to the completely empty left lane to let merging traffic in. At that point you are going significantly faster than the merging vehicle and can reclaim the right lane almost immediately without issue.
Personally I blame the poor driver education in this province. I strongly feel all drivers need to pass
four components: written knowledge, urban driving, parallel parking, and a highway driving component. In Winnipeg the highway driving component would use the Perimeter, for other testing locations they all have highways nearby they could use. Further, I think every driver needs a full, mandatory retest every five years. First retest attempt is free, you pay for every attempt beyond that. The retest by date would be will known in advance giving you plenty of time to have it completed. If you haven't passed by the deadline you revert to phase 2 of the GDL (can drive with limits) for a six month grace period, after which you drop to phase one of GDL (need a supervising driver).
All that said, while the province is busy fixing the Perimeter and building interchanges elsewhere start lengthening the merge and exit lanes already.