This year Saint Nicholas (whose day we celebrate on December 6) brought not only presents but also new rules to follow for all the drivers on the polish roads. On that day new regulations concerning emergency corridor and zipper merge has entered into force.
Emergency corridor is used to enable emergency services to arrive to the accident site as soon as possible. In order to create free passage cars on the very left lane have a duty to pan left and cars on the remaining lanes have to pan right. It is the so called rule of the right hand. Implementation of this rule is meant to unify the behavior of all the drivers and help to make emergency actions faster. Everyone should know how to behave in this kind of situations.
Second newly introduced rule concerns situations in which, for some reasons, it is necessary to narrow the road by limiting number of drivable lanes. According to new provisions in such cases movement will be alternated – one car from one lane and one form the other.
This means that the car moving on the open lane should let in one car from the neighboring (ending) lane. If the obstruction occurs on both sides (or two neighboring lanes are about to end) driver should let in the car from the right lane first and next a car form the left lane (zipper). What matters is that this rule should be applied directly before the accident site.
In short:
Vehicle on the ending lane:
– Should drive up to the end of his lane
– Should not change the lane before the end (even if he sees a free spot)
– After changing the lane he should not let in any other vehicles
Vehicle on the accessible lane
– Should let in only one vehicle from the ending lane (lanes)
– He makes the maneuver right before the other lane ends, not earlier
– Should keep the proper distance
Similar solutions function already in many countries of Europe e.g. Germany and Austria.
This year Saint Nicholas (whose day we celebrate on December 6) brought not only presents but also new rules to follow for all the drivers on the polish roads. On that day new regulations concerning emergency corridor and zipper merge has entered into force.
Emergency corridor is used to enable emergency services to arrive to the accident site as soon as possible. In order to create free passage cars on the very left lane have a duty to pan left and cars on the remaining lanes have to pan right. It is the so called rule of the right hand. Implementation of this rule is meant to unify the behavior of all the drivers and help to make emergency actions faster. Everyone should know how to behave in this kind of situations.
Second newly introduced rule concerns situations in which, for some reasons, it is necessary to narrow the road by limiting number of drivable lanes. According to new provisions in such cases movement will be alternated – one car from one lane and one form the other.
This means that the car moving on the open lane should let in one car from the neighboring (ending) lane. If the obstruction occurs on both sides (or two neighboring lanes are about to end) driver should let in the car from the right lane first and next a car form the left lane (zipper). What matters is that this rule should be applied directly before the accident site.
In short:
Vehicle on the ending lane:
– Should drive up to the end of his lane
– Should not change the lane before the end (even if he sees a free spot)
– After changing the lane he should not let in any other vehicles
Vehicle on the accessible lane
– Should let in only one vehicle from the ending lane (lanes)
– He makes the maneuver right before the other lane ends, not earlier
– Should keep the proper distance
Similar solutions function already in many countries of Europe e.g. Germany and Austria.