Cheeky Driver's or Not?!

sismjw

It’s just a quicker way around, just like taking a different road in or out of town.

Lilibee

Lum wrote: »

Actually quite the opposite

At the typical two lanes into one roadworks merge, if everybody just stayed in their lane until the pinch point, then let in ONE car from the other lane, not only would both lanes flow smoothly at a matched speed, but the actual length of the queue would be halved.

This can have a significant effect when longer queues as it takes twice as many cars before the queue has stretched back far enough that it's blocking up the previous exit, and thus people who wanted that exit are not delayed at all.

But because everyone has to be oh so British and form one single queue in the left hand lane we are twice as likely to cause unnecessary delays for people who aren't even going to be passing through the roadworks.

Wholeheartedly agree with this. At the moment, there are roadworks on a stretch of the ringroad that I drive round to work every morning. As you come off one roundabout and on to the next stretch there are signs saying left hand lane is closed 800 yards further on. 800 yards should be more than enough for traffic to leave the roundabout using both lanes and then funnel into one, but no.

Stupid, idiotic drivers see this first sign and immediately slam on their brakes and attempt to merge into the right hand lane straight away. This then causes all other traffic behind them on the roundabout to also slam on brakes causing several near misses, as traffic at this particular junction can be coming from several major roads, all funnelling onto the ring road. And then, because nobody can get onto the roundabout from any of the roads, traffic backs up along ALL the routes coming into it, including the opposite carriageway of the road in question. It's chaos.

Yet when I calmly come off into the left hand lane and continue to drive up it at 30mph (the temporary speed limit) past all the vehicles queued in the right hand lane, before merging in at a spot nearer the shut off point, I get evil stares. Despite being the only person who seems to realise that 800 yards is actually quite a long way and should be more than enough to merge in an orderly fashion without endangering the lives of everyone behind me. :wall:

/rant

mellowtimes

Lilibee wrote: »

Wholeheartedly agree with this. At the moment, there are roadworks on a stretch of the ringroad that I drive round to work every morning. As you come off one roundabout and on to the next stretch there are signs saying left hand lane is closed 800 yards further on. 800 yards should be more than enough for traffic to leave the roundabout using both lanes and then funnel into one, but no.

Stupid, idiotic drivers see this first sign and immediately slam on their brakes and attempt to merge into the right hand lane straight away. This then causes all other traffic behind them on the roundabout to also slam on brakes causing several near misses, as traffic at this particular junction can be coming from several major roads, all funnelling onto the ring road. And then, because nobody can get onto the roundabout from any of the roads, traffic backs up along ALL the routes coming into it, including the opposite carriageway of the road in question. It's chaos.

Yet when I calmly come off into the left hand lane and continue to drive up it at 30mph (the temporary speed limit) past all the vehicles queued in the right hand lane, before merging in at a spot nearer the shut off point, I get evil stares. Despite being the only person who seems to realise that 800 yards is actually quite a long way and should be more than enough to merge in an orderly fashion without endangering the lives of everyone behind me. :wall:

/rant

Couldn't agree more. The obsession with getting in the queue as soon as possible is ridiculous and in many cases is actually selfish and causing other road users delays that needn't occur - as you perfectly describe

fivetide

mellowtimes wrote: »

Couldn't agree more. The obsession with getting in the queue as soon as possible is ridiculous and in many cases is actually selfish and causing other road users delays that needn't occur - as you perfectly describe

Twaddle.

Once everyone has merged there is no reason for traffic to halt. The only thing holding up the rest of the traffic and making it worse is self important people driving to the front and using idiocy like this to make themselves feel better about it.

Case in point: Last week 2 lanes of the M74 shut for repairs. Queue at a standstill. Then, lorry moved out and covered off the lanes to stop this happening. Result - queue starts moving. Slowly of course but no stops.

If everyone got in while traffic was rolling there would be no need for actual stops while someone forces their way in at the friont because they have an ocver inflated opinion of their own importance. End rant.

5t.

DaveF327

What have they done wrong? They've used the right hand lane marked for a right turn direction to make a turn completely around the roundabout. It's perfectly acceptable and correct to make a U-turn at a roundabout (although the highway code now discourages this at painted mini-roundabouts), and this manoeuvre is only like missing an exit and taking the next one. As long as the mirror-signal-manoeuvre process is correct and used properly, it's perfectly safe.

boyse7en wrote: »

It's also a bit risky, as the people turning left at the roundabout may not expect the car that was on their right to suddenly re-appear in front of them

The onus is on drivers emerging onto a roundabout to give way to moving traffic on their immediate right regardless of the road from where they originally came, which is immaterial.

Lum

fivetide wrote: »

Once everyone has merged there is no reason for traffic to halt.

In most cases where there are slowdowns there is no actual reason for it, but it still happens.

The only thing holding up the rest of the traffic and making it worse is self important people driving to the front and using idiocy like this to make themselves feel better about it.

If everybody stayed in their lane and zip merged correctly, there would be no benefit gained by moving into lane2, other than the aforementioned halving of the queue length.

It is the idiots who merge early that create the opportunity for people to jump the queue in the first place! No empty lane? No queue jumping.

FWIW should I find myself in the closing lane, I don't blast down it as I believe it's unsafe to pass a queue of near stationary staffic at typical motorway speeds. I'll go about 15-20 mph or so faster and rarely have any problem merging close to the pinch point in a controlled manner with the co-operation of someone in the other lane. This is probably because the perception of queue jumping doesn't happen when there's not much difference in speed.

mellowtimes

fivetide wrote: »

Twaddle.

Once everyone has merged there is no reason for traffic to halt. The only thing holding up the rest of the traffic and making it worse is self important people driving to the front and using idiocy like this to make themselves feel better about it.

Case in point: Last week 2 lanes of the M74 shut for repairs. Queue at a standstill. Then, lorry moved out and covered off the lanes to stop this happening. Result - queue starts moving. Slowly of course but no stops.

If everyone got in while traffic was rolling there would be no need for actual stops while someone forces their way in at the friont because they have an ocver inflated opinion of their own importance. End rant.

5t.

The point, which you have spectacularly missed, is that yes - everyone should merge while traffic is rolling but not a mile or so prior to the merge point !!!! If everone stayed in lane until the merge point the traffic would still flow but the poor sods who just want to get round the roundabout or junction a mile or so back aren't impeded by a ridiculous line of traffic that is twice the length it should be.


(oh and don't get me started on sodding lorry drivers who think they are some kind of "highway sheriff/god of the road" and start blocking off lanes - imbeciles)

photome

I often go all round a rbout to take first exit or second exit if the left hand lane is queued and right hand lane empy, I cant see a problem and certainly not illegal as I am making a perfectly legal manouvere around a roundabout

ZenUK

I do this.. especially when there is a learner driver who keeps stalling everytime there is a gap in the traffic.

ailuro2

There's a big roundabout near here where people do that, but it's so big not many people notice who is doing it, as the ones who are near enough to the front to notice the "right laners" are normally already on their way by the time someone comes all the way round. It is for going straight ahead that people do it, goes from dual to single carriageway.

what DOES happen though is the right hand lane starts to get clogged up with people turning right for the all the other exits, so the cheeky chaps can end up in a longer queue.