Why did you write that people joining a motorway from a slip road should expect drivers on the motorway to give way?
Your reply in the Telegraph suggests that people joining the motorway should expect drivers already on the carriageway to give way when it is very clear that the responsibility for merging safely is firmly upon the shoulders of the drivers joining the carriageway, not those already on it. Personally I always move out of lane one to aid vehicles joining the carriageway, if possible and out of courtesy. However, there is no legal obligation for drivers to do this and a good driver would never rely on this happening. Careful use of mirrors and quickly matching the speed of traffic on the motorway rather than trundling to the end of the slip road at 50mph will allow a smooth and safe merge. I'm sure you will agree that you should never have to rely on the actions of other drivers in order to complete your own manoeuvre safely.
Asked on 2 May 2011 by MC, via email
Answered by
Honest John
No, my reply does not state this at all. Read it again. It was to try to stop old fools flashing their headlights and ploughing straight into joining traffic rather than having the common sense to lift and let the traffic in. Or from getting angry because a joining driver had better judgement than theirs and slipped into the traffic flow in front of them. So basically we are in agreement. As a driver it is your responsibility to watch everything going on around you, to try to anticipate the actions of other drivers and to try to accommodate them. The 'rule' in the Highway Code does not state that sliproad drivers MUST give way to traffic already on the carriageway, it states they should.
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