Driving to Wales last Thursday was bliss - not much traffic, but what there was flowing nicely. What was apparent were the number of drivers who obviously didn't use the motorway much. On three occasions we saw drivers virtually stopped at the bottom of the slip road with indicators going. The first was somone joining the M1 near Leeds - I'd seen her near the top of the sliproad and moved over so the inside lane was empty, but she got to within 50 m of the end of the sliproad and slowed to almost a standstill whilst she checked her mirror and did a shoulder check before moving off.
The second one was an old couple sat indicating right as they sat at the end of the sliproad. They decided there was enough of a gap between me and the car in front so pulled away whilst I was doing about 60 - fortunately I'd seen them so was slowing and could take avoiding action.
The third was yesterday joining the A48 near Cardiff. Following a MB down the sliproad, nice and quiet, she got to the point where I thought she would merge and she just hit the brakes, stopped and I ended up overtaking her whilst she sat waiting for non existent traffic to pass.
All three showed total lack of understanding of how to join a motorway/dual carriageway. and the second could have resulted in a massive pile up.
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This subject - or rather the opposite of it - was one of the positive comments the examiner made after I'd taken my IAM test back in August 1986 (strewth; was it really twenty years ago? Yikes)
I had nailed my MG Metro along a short and steep uphill slip road (A41 at what used to be the start of the dualed section at Tring, Aylesbury bound) to join seamlessly at 70MPH; he commented after the test that it was good to see appopriate use of speed even though (pre much modifying) it meant using the 72bhp to the max. (70mph = redline in third gear, I recall)
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- fortunately I'd seen them so was slowing and could take avoiding action.
Maybe "avoiding action" makes it sound worse, but if you'd seen them you should have been already moving into lane 2.
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Forget a harder driving test. People should be assessed on their ability to be allowed out on their own in the first place !
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P
ooh! Harsh. But fair :-) There must be money in homes for the bewildered.
JH
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>> - fortunately I'd seen them so was slowing and could take avoiding action. Maybe "avoiding action" makes it sound worse, but if you'd seen them you should have been already moving into lane 2.
What rule says you have to move over to make way for someone joining the motorway? They should be checking and matching speed as they accelerate down the slip road, not cruise along and expect people to change lane.
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What rule says you have to move over to make way for someone joining the motorway?
The Defensive Driving rule.
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This is one of my biggest pet hates, I thought it was just me!
The problem seems to be that people don't think about their driving. It is always quicker to loose a bit of speed at the end than it is to magically accelerate from 25 up to 70 when you see a gap, but people just don't think of it like that do they?
I'd really like to see the police doing a "think about your driving" campaign rather than a "speed kills" campaign to get people thinking about this kind of stuff. Sometimes we all need it pointing out to us when we habitually do really daft things like tailgating, applying lipstick, eating sandwiches or whatever.
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'avoiding' should probably have said 'appropriate'. It was pretty busy at this point and probably why the car stopped - lack of confidence in their ability to join fast moving traffic in the dark. I saw the car indicating a fair distance ahead which allowed me time to slow in anticipation for the car pulling out - which it did. I then pulled out and overtook.
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And what about the clowns who move out just as you're overtaking just because they can see a car on the slip road.
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And what about the clowns who move out just as you're overtaking just because they can see a car on the slip road.
Yes, them as well! The 60mph inside lane crowd are particularly prone to this, despite the fact the car joining from the sliproad is already doing 75 by the time it hits the motorway.
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When I was teaching people to drive in Hornchurch one of the butt twitching moments used to be getting pupils from a slip road at Upminster onto the busy A127 London Southend road, which had a 70mph limit. The slip road was incredably short, and even an experienced driver needed his foot to the floor and his wits about him to make the join safely. Trying to get leaners to do that had it's moments, one particular one when I took a woman round the circuit several times to try and get her to accelerate hard enough to make the gaps in the traffic.
After about the fourth time, I finally got her round the tight turn onto the sliproad at a reasonable speed, with instructions to floor the gas if she had a big enough gap in the traffic flow to fit into. This she duly did, only to find some prat parked at the end of the sliproad reading a map! It was one of the best emergency stops I have ever seen and it woke the guy up no end, but put my poor pupil back to square one again with her nerves completely shot. One of the many happenings which ensure driving instructors never suffer from constipation.
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I recently experienced something very similar while joining the anticlockwise M25 towards Kent from the A217.
Coming down the A217, about 2 miles short of the junction I caught up with a car doing a stately 30 although the limit was 40 and the road conditions were good. Never mind I thought, I won't overtake because it's not far to the junction so I don't want to risk having to cut back in sharply if the overtake runs on a bit.
So we reach the junction and what do you know? The 30mph dawdler turns down the slip road as well!
Oh well, not to worry I think to myself. It's a double lane slip road.
So I indicate right and a few seconds later move into the right hand lane and start to accelerate.
AAAAAARRRRGGGGHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!
Yes, you guessed it - the dawdler then moves suddenly into the right hand lane without indicating and still maintains 30....!!! I have to slam on the anchors and only just manage to avoid the rear bumper...
Right.... By now there is unsurprisingly a bit of a queue behind us, and there was no way I was going to risk joining the M25 at 30 [ assuming the dawdler didn't actually stop like the examples above! ], so I have to be a little bit naughty and indicate left and pass him on the left [ as did everyone else behind me ].
When I reached the bottom of the slip road I took a quick look in the mirrors and would you believe it, the dawdler is now still only half way down the slip still doing only 30...
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Just had someone on our local radio advocating a speed bump on every entrance road to every roundabout!!!
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What about the other side of the coin, the drivers that insist on leaving the motorway from the third lane when only well past the 100 yard indicator post, by diving across all the other lanes, just because they want to overtake that last car.
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I agree with everybody's comments. But there are some junctions (particularly in Wales?) where the road is half-way between an ordinary give-way junction and a proper slip road. Some people start speeding up to match the traffic speed, then realise that it isn't long enough to be a slip road. Services exits on ordinary dual carriageways can be a bit like that.
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Should give these people an introduction to Coventry Ring Road.
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Slip road zip merging does seem to cause the less confident driver the
most problems. Here in N.Wales (..and that means the A55) I can only conclude
that the ancient Cymric legend from the Mabinogion foretells of ..'payne, dysaster &
bewytchmente of soules for them as do to venture on the Devulls highway' , since
it can be the only explanation for the fearfully bad & timorous examples I've witnessed.
Firstly, many,many local people will go lane 1>2 at the sight of a slip-roadee,
thereby not only causing inconvenience for following traffic (or even potential
danger if relative speeds are great) but setting the 'standard' whereby, people
then expect first lane incumbents to lane 1>2, so their merging skills
wither on the vine. If I'm in lane-1 & see a non-confident looking slip-roadee
I will usually 'flash' them in - it helps removes uncertainty
Something else I've noticed, people seem very reluctant to do over-the-shoulder observation,
when appropriate, relying more on wing mirror - which means they're then more committed
& have less manoeuvre room, since they're necessarily further down the slip road
at that point. I have noticed a sex bias in the above situations, but PCness forfends.
(Minor ed for you Woodbines. You forgot to include the b when you cancelled the bold. HJ)
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Should give these people an introduction to Coventry Ring Road.
Ah, the ring road, what were the planner thinking of? During my student days I saw about 1 crash every week on those slip roads.
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PEOPLE WHO SIT IN THE RIGHT HAND LANE BEING UNDERTAKEN FOR 8 MILES BECAUSE THEY ARE TURNING RIGHT (eventually)
ok, ok, I'll stop shouting.
But they must be as bad...
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The ones I hate are the ones who come hammering down the slip road flat out, undertake you on the inside and then force their way in front of you when there was plenty of room to merge in behind you. Once on the road they usually cut straight across to the outside lane. Often they come in pairs with one chasing his mate in front and both driving like they are demented.
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