It’s an infuriating situation in terrible traffic: waiting your turn patiently only to watch a fellow driver skip the line and cutting in at the last minute.
The problem of “traffic cheating” isn’t isolated to one community. Whether it’s on the Pattullo Bridge, leading onto the Lions Gate Bridge on West Georgia Street in downtown Vancouver, the Massey Tunnel or the Queensborough Bridge in New Westminster, it’s common to see drivers racing up an adjacent lane and merging back in at the last minute.
Most of the time lane cheating isn’t against the law, but it is rude, and infuriates drivers, say Delta Police.
“It is a bit of a jerk maneuver,” Const. Sarah Swallow said.
Now, a Metro Vancouver city has decided to take action by installing a barrier that physically prevents drivers from cheating.
Delta authorities have placed tall white cones at the bottom of Nordel Hill.
“[The] cones have been put in place to make sure the two lanes of traffic that are dedicated to going onto the Highway 91 over the Alex Fraser Bridge are really committed to that turn much earlier,” Const. Swallow said.
“The hope is it will stop the cheaters in their tracks.”
The barriers are relatively cheap and quick to install. They're made of a soft plastic and they're bolted to the dividing line on the roadway.
It’s a solution that other police forces say they’d be open to try.
Sgt. Chad Johnston of the New Westminster Police Department said he thinks it’s a good idea, even though it may not completely solve the issue of so-called “last-minute mergers.”
“They're just going to merge at the last second before those cones or those dividers but we're certainly open to suggestions as a city and a police department,” he said.
In the meantime, Johnston left this message for drivers tempted to cheat:
“Have that common courtesy. Understand that everyone’s time is valuable as what you think yours might be,” he said.
With a report from CTV Vancouver’s Shannon Paterson
