Are you using merge lanes properly?

(THUNDER BAY, ON) – The Ontario Provincial Police (OPP) and the Ministry of Transportation (MTO) would like to remind drivers regarding the proper use of highway acceleration lanes.

Acceleration lanes allow drivers to speed up to match traffic flow in the thru-lane and join the highway.  The proper use of acceleration lanes improves safety by reducing the number of collisions between slow speed and higher speed vehicles. 

Remember these important steps when using acceleration lanes:

• As you move into and along the entrance ramp, look ahead, check your mirrors and blind spots to assess the traffic to see where you will move into the highway lane.
• As you leave the ramp, you enter the acceleration lane. In the acceleration lane, drivers increase their speed to the speed of traffic on the highway before they merge.
• Signal and increase your speed to merge smoothly with thru-lane traffic.  It is the driver’s responsibility to make the lane change without affecting other traffic already on the highway.

In Thunder Bay, acceleration lanes are located at each intersection along the Thunder Bay Expressway, between Highway 61 at Chippewa Road and Highway 11/17 at Hodder Avenue.

While the OPP, the MTO and drivers all play different roles in keeping winter roads safe, the goal is the same for all: safe drivers and safe winter roads that are free of collisions, injuries and deaths.