Bad Driving

MX5huggy

Anybody wanting to try diffrent techniques for joining or exiting a road should try Coventry ring road. http://www.itsallaboutcoventry.co.uk/video_ringroad.shtml

9 junctions less than 2 miles at points 6 lanes wide good luck to anybody who thinks they have priority!

doningtonphil

I think the people who complain about those joining the motorway 'barging in' are the same people who end up slowing down or almost stopping at the end of the slip road when trying to join. They will probably be the same people who get 'boxed in' behind a slow moving vehicle in the 'slow' lane, waiting for a half mile gap in the 'fast' lane traffic before indicating and overtaking

These are the people who have no awareness or consideration of others. A realtive of mine is just like that

For example, joining the A50 in Stoke the slip road runs next to the A50 for about half a mile (separated by a barrier). He fails to take any of this opportunity to survey the adjacent traffic for space/speed to aim for a gap. Instead he waits until just about to join, while doing 40 and then indicates, and surprise surprise there is no gap to get into - people aren't too keen on slowing considerably to let someone in.

A previous poster mentioned the A38 near Burton - the land of ridiculously short slip roads - where you need all the help you can get from people already on the road. Of course, if you see someone ahead on the slip road waiting to join and you moving to the fast lane would give them a nice big gap to join at a low speed (often from a standing start) then you think it would be the kind and aware thing to do. Not my relative, no, steady 65 maintained in the slow lane. I have actually ducked my head in shame as we have passed the car on the slip road.

Of course, he maintains this steady 65 until he is up the exhaust pipe of an HGV (well, you know what I mean) and then decides he needs to pull out. Of course, there is already a line of cars that have maneuvered in plenty of time into the fast lane all going at a constant speed so again unwilling to slow down to let a slow mover out. And anyway, how the hell are they supposed to know you want to overtake if you are NOT INDICATING??????

When on the M6, where they have some 'keep 2 chevrons apart' markings, he made the comment 'how are you supposed to overtake if you can never get closer than 2 chevrons?' implying that he would never contemplate 'overtaking' from that far away.

A bit of a rant, sorry, but the long and the short of it is AWARENESS OF THE TRAFFIC AROUND YOU AND CONSIDERATION and a willingness to yield rather than insisting on 'your right of way' is all it takes

gilbert_and_sullivan

@ Doningtonphil.

Excellent post, couldn't agree more....people like that think they are safe drivers, they probably tell everyone that they've never had an accident, unfortunately they leave pandemonium and frustration in their wake as everyone tries to get back to normal after they've swanned off into the sunset.

CKhalvashi

mildred1978 wrote: »

Of course they have priority. But they should be driving in such a way that other traffic can join the road (else it's those already on the road that are pig ignorant ).

The general aim (when I'm joining a morotway, anyway) is to sit at about 60mph and use Kickdown accordingly.

There's nothing more dangerous than driving too fast/slow when joining, and 60mph enables me to be within 20mph, either way, of this within about 5 seconds.

Thursday morning, for example, I approached at 65-ish and immidiately jerked to 80/lane 2, as this was the safest and most appropriate action for the situation.

CK

prowla

The person crossing the line and joining the motorway does not have right of way and it is up to them to ensure that they have a space to blend into.

In the real world, they might need to be a bit more "assertive" when joining if it is too busy.

NBLondon

doningtonphil wrote: »

I think the people who complain about those joining the motorway 'barging in' are the same people who end up slowing down or almost stopping at the end of the slip road when trying to join.

I think there's a varying definition of 'barging in'. Matching speeds and slipping in to a space of 2 or 3 car lengths is OK by me though others might say not. Accelerating to the limit and slipping into a space of 1.5 car lengths in front of a car then braking is not OK; particularly when there's a longer gap behind.

The A38 is a good example; it's (or was when I last drove it) a 2-lane dual carriageway where Lane 1 might have traffic at 50mph and Lane 2 traffic at 75mph. So it's not always easy or safe for Lane 1 to move over.

Both streams need to read the road ahead and consider what options the other has.

A different example is the A102 around the Blackwall Tunnel. 3-lane urban dual carriageway with a 50 limit. At peak times, it will be crawling and you need to merge at 7mph. Other times you have to merge at 50. At slow speeds, there will never be a gap unless someone hangs back yet there are still people who think that all they need to do is indicate and immediately drift over the line to magically dissolve the traffic that is already there.

pulliptears

2 from yesterday come to mind.

#1. We are coming down a slip road to join a 50mp dual carriageway. Outside lane is empty. In the inside lane is a woman in some variety of people carrier. OH accelerates to slot in safely in front of woman. Woman see's us and decides not to carry on at the same speed and allow the manoeuvre, not to move over to the empty outside lane to allow the cars behind us to merge, but to speed up and block us totally.

#2. We are approaching a slip road. Little old fella in a small 'foot like' car comes down the slip road with ample room to merge. Outside lane is empty so OH moves over to allow him and the cars behind him easier access. Little old man drives to the end of the slip, brakes, stops and indicates causing cars behind who were accelerating to slam on brakes and have to go around him.

Lum

Need to boot it on the sliproad, but also be watching the motorway the entire time, keep an eye out for a suitable gap, and arrange your speed and timing so that you can slip into that gap at a roughly similar speed. Do not expect people to move over for you, but be grateful if they do.

Never stop at the end of the slip road, and if you do, do not expect to be able to merge into L1 from a standing start. It is most likely safer to use the hard shoulder, if you screw up so badly that you have run out of slip road, though luckily I have not yet had to try this so cannot confirm from personal experience.

pulliptears

Lum wrote: »

keep an eye out for a suitable gap, and arrange your speed and timing so that you can slip into that gap at a roughly similar speed.

I dont know about you but I find a large amount of people who see you trying to do just that will put their foot down to block you, just like yesterdays incident.

Lum

I can honestly say I've never had somebody deliberately try to block me from merging. Sometimes I've seen people who are already catching up to the vehicle in front (typically a lorry) and with these you need to take the relative speeds into account.

If something like that did happen to me, I guess that would be when I'd use the hard shoulder.