the thread on the go about middle lane hogging has prompted this
there's a slip road on the A38 in Devon, that I periodically use (and has been like it since i was a kid) that does not have a very long slip road before joining a dual carriageway.
If you've got any sense you welly it down the slip road, to get some speed up, so you can have a number of merge in options, because it is often difficult to get out.......... and you really do not want to end up stopped at the bottom of the slip road, worrying about : 1,someone ramming you up the jacksy ....... and 2,how on earth you are going to instantly accelerate to a speed that matches the traffic on the dual cariageway.
it is amazing how many people will travel in the inside lane on the dual carriageway, have nothing in the outside lane, see you indicating and trying to merge and utterly refuse to consider moving lanes to let you out....
lorries and (generally) other professional drivers will often adjust their speed to let you out....... but some muppets wilfully refuse........it begs the question, Why?
I really don't want to be sat their thinking i'm going to be annihilated on the slip road or desperately trying to get 6,000 revs plus out of wifey's diesel in a despearate attempt to get some speed up
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Whilst I'm not about to justify their behaviour for not moving out into lane 2, the responsibility to merge safely as far as the HWC is concerned lies with you - even if the physical layout of the slip road makes this a very hard task to do safely. Yes, it is good practice to move to lane 2, but from your own observations (and similar experiences that I have had), it's not safe to assume that traffic on the road you are joining could or should move out of lane 1.
My view is that we should not listen to our common sense when it tells us that "cars in lane 1 will move over when we wish to join". If we do listen to our common sense approach, the risk of some kind of collision may well be unnecessarily increased.
TT
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Top Turkey - the fastest hands in Brum
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I suspect a lot of people don't move over because they know from experience of the dangers of then being trapped in the middle lane with a long stream of faster cars undertaking on their left.
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When the rules for merging from slip roads were devised there was a lot less traffic than there is now.
On a busy road there has to be some give and take. If the merger can vary his/her speed to match the main traffic flow, then he/she should do so. If you're on the main carriageway and can see a merger for whom it'll be difficult, then where possible either slow or move to lane 2. It's just commonsense.
I do get (very briefly) peeved by mergers who act as though it's their God-given right to come up a slip road and just get on to the main road, regardless of the conditions there. But hell, some people make mistakes from time to time, some are a bit dim and others are forcefully arrogant, etc. Life's too short to get over-worried by it all.
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Life's too short to get over-worried by it all.
On the subject of behaviour on the road you and I are clearly of one accord.
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L\'escargot.
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Hmm, but when the outside lane is completely empty I dont think that applies. My cynical view is that they are so transfixed on the road 50 yds dead ahead they are completely unaware of anything going on outside their narrow field of vision.
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I do find more and more people just pull out from a slip road, whether they think people will move into lane 2 I don't know, but I do try and move over to lane 2 if I can, but if I can't I don't expect to have to avoid an accident happening due to someones presumption.
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If I know I'm approaching an entrance with a short slip road and there is no one approaching behind I'll move over on the off - chance of someone wanting to join. I've never had a problem with lots of people overtaking on the inside although sometimes I will overtake the person joining only to find them accelerating hard and undertaking before I've had a chance to move back over but I don't find that a problem.
Two types of situations I find mildly annoyig about slip roads:
1. When the car behind follows you up the slip road close behind in an overtaking position so you can't get a clear view of anyone approaching in lane 1
2. When loads of cars come charging along a slip road all bunched up with 1 second between them and attempt to join a busy carriageway at the same time in a space only big enough for one, and similarly when cars on the carriageway are all bunched up preventing one car from merging seamlessly with the carriageway
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I'm sure it is all about concentration. When on a motorway or dual carriageway, it is one of the things you are supposed to be on the lookout for, but if you are distracted, not concentrating properly, in a zombie like state etc it won't happen.
It is not helped by the fact that this is not covered by the practical driving test (I think).
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It must be due to my advancing years - but I'm pretty sure it's just plain selfishness / not thinking of others that prevents drivers pulling in to the middle lane to let you in. I take a bit of pride in my awareness and do what I can to pull out of others' way. It also shows you are concentrating on the job of driving, not the radio, weather, view , your passengers etc.
Not covering the issue in the Driving Test might be relevant too. My two teenager new drivers know about pulling out - I told them !!!
On the theme of "I'm all right jack", I'm getting irritated by non-consdierate parkers in my road. Parking is tight like on most residential roads and this being Dulwich we have trees in the pavement. This is all very nice, but idiots persist in dumping their cars wherever they want, so they might leave a 12ft gap between their car and a tree or lamp post. This means that to not block someone's driveway, what was potentially a two car space has now just become a one car space.
Maybe I am just too thoughtful, for my own good, but I always try and park efficiently.
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It's plain bad driving arising from an inability to anticipate and a lack of courtesy.
It's the difference between driving looking at the car in front of you in order to decide what you're going to do next... compared to looking at the three - five cars in front of you so that you are anticipating the hazard after the next one.
It's also the difference between using your mirrors at all times so that you KNOW if there's a car behind you/beside you so you know if you can pull out... compared to not having the foggiest.
And the difference between a courteous approach to driving and the 'I'm on the road it is my RIGHT to get there before you - even if it only takes one second off my journey, but adds incalculable discomfort to the other driver.
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I've thought for a while that lane one should become the slip road, the motorway reduced by one lane as it passes over/under the junction and then the on ramp becomes lane one the other side, this would stop all this give-way argument and be a lot safer for all.
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Just out of interest westpig, which slip road on the A38 are you referring to?
Jon
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Just out of interest westpig, which slip road on the A38 are you referring to? Jon
Wrangaton (4 miles North of Ivybridge, on the old A38) towards South Brent
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Saw one yesterday on the M25 sticking to one lane;A large 4x4 staying firmly in the RH lane whilst all the other traffic was sailing past in the left and middle.
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Mmm, it sounds nice, but I fear it could become more justification for the confirmed middle lane hogger.
Alongside the usual nonsense arguments these worms put forward, the new one would be "I stay in the middle lane, because the left hand lane is just the slip road"
Number_Cruncher
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I was taught to accelerate briskly to 60 on the slip road so as to give options at the merge point of accelerating further, slowing down or maintaining speed. This seems to work all the time for me so that I can just merge with the lane 1 traffic.
I do move out to lane 2, if clear, to allow vehicles on the slip road into lane 1. I do this as a matter of courtesy rather than because other drivers were taught badly!
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there's a slip road on the A38 in Devon, that I periodically use (and has been like it since i was a kid) that does not have a very long slip road before joining a dual carriageway.
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i agree with mapmaker's earlier comment that it is a question of anticipation and coutesy to allow cars to join the carriageway from slip roads. (and similarly get out of the way of cars queing up to leave at an exit - an example of such blocking behaviour is commonly seen at the m25 clockwise exit to join the m1 northbound. )
on the other hand, if you have seen the very short "on and off ramps" to join the freeways and highways in america, and the speed at which you have to get or off those sliproads (in nose-to-tail hogging and very fast traffic), you feel grateful for the design of the uk motorway junctions.
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