And I don't mean 2 into 1 at roadworks :)
Two situations arose on way home from work yesterday.
1. 4 way junction with traffic lights. Not dual carriageway but double laned. Long queues, I am about 20 car lengths from traffic lights so possible 3 changes to get through these ones. As there is a road to my left, and a box junction for it, I wait back not wanting to enter the box junction. However, car behind me is wanting to turn left to go along that road. Now should I just wait where I am , not enter the junction so that in the off chance someone wants to come along that road, then I am not blocking them. Or do I move forward into the junction , let him turn left, and then run the risk of blocking someone?
One scenario I am definitely blocking someone, another only potentially?
2. Slip road off motorway is tailed back so they have started to queue on hard shoulder. But no obvious sign of this until you are on them as initially it just looks like one vehicle broken down. So then vehicles trying to get in from the inside lane onto the hard shoulder to join the queue and it all becomes confusing! Is there an unwrittren rule that hard shoulder is used for queuing when queue exceeds length of slip road? It makes sense but only if everyone knows!!
For any of you in the Glasgow area, first scenario was on London Road, second on A8 Shawhead offslip.
|
1) You wait. They wait.
2) No.
|
|
|
Know where you mean Bobby. I was in Glasgow this week and no one waved. Quite disappointing really.....
;-)
|
Humph, I sat by my window all day looking for a silver Siggie but none appeared......
Next week its my turn to cross the border, off to Hull, Nottingham, Wolverhampton!! Do I need a passport?? :)
|
No passport required. The Scots are usually made very welcome. Often in fact chosen by the English to be leaders due to their superior Caledonian intellect........
You might want to bring something to counteract the effects of heatstroke though as you will be that much closer to the equator....
;-)
|
|
|
|
1. Dont enter a box junction unless you can get off it without stopping. My Sis in Law was done by a cctv camera for stopping with her front wheels about two feet onto a box.
2. I dont think queuing on a hard shoulder is legal, except on the M42 when allowed by signs.
Edited by Old Navy on 06/03/2009 at 13:27
|
|
|
Re point no. 2
How sensible of the folk of Glasgow, that they form a queue on the hard shoulder to prevent congestion and a risk of accidents on the main carriageway.
How easy it would be for the road engineers to anticipate such a problem and provide signs that would legitimise this use of the hard shoulder.
Without these signs, how easy for the police to pick off every one of these sensible drivers on the hard shoulder and fine them.
Public servants are well paid and yet are rarely held to account for their actions.
I will say no more, except that the only person that I have ever met who worked in traffic engineering had never driven a car.
|
For the road engineers to anticipate such a problem and provide signs that would legitimise this use of the hard shoulder
By altering the broken and continuous white-lining to make it clear to everyone. Else the queue looks like a breakdown (as the OP says) and drivers aiming for the slip overtake, then pull in ...
|
sq
IMHO a stupid idea!
what if (highly possible) the queue is due to an accident on the motorway?
by queuing on the slip it is now impossible for the emergency services to access the motorway.
hand shoulders should only be used in an emergency.
I am not in agreement with using them as a running lane, except by direction of the police to clear a blocked motorway.
Edited by Pugugly on 07/03/2009 at 11:51
|
|
This happens just about every morning at J12 for Gaydon on the southbound M40; I presume it's people going to work at the various motor industry-related facilities there, who have a tightly prescribed start time. I was surprised when I first saw it and imagined it must have some form of sanction from the police, because it does seem to help the traffic flow, especially since the motorway undulates around there and arriving drivers can't see that far ahead. Without that, though, it is, as others have said, illegal - although if I know it happens there, the police must too.
|
|
|
|
_COLON_no_upscale()/cdn.uk.prod.group-mobility-trader.com/images/cas/1d865fc9133b06c245664241957557da/89ea8b976d62e6bca6837c53b57f1f64.jpg)
_COLON_no_upscale()/cdn.uk.prod.group-mobility-trader.com/images/cas/d9be51de970c4109efbdaadc0b2ee9a4/4b74dca515a7a68cb159b0853bbd6d7c.jpg)
_COLON_no_upscale()/cdn.uk.prod.group-mobility-trader.com/images/cas/e33e245b6c78f520dbad3a16902e244e/3673ec8094fede89c304980a53330ef2.jpg)
