Slip roads onto dual carriageways.....

Cornucopia

ERICS_MUM wrote: »

the slip roads I use have white broken lines painted on the edge where it joins the dual carriageway and I always thought these meant "Give Way". Am I wrong, and what do they mean (if anything) ?

Thanks

ALL dashed/dotted lines on British roads mean Give Way. Depending on the type of marking it may mean something in addition to that.

This includes the dashed lines between slip roads and motorways, and the ones between lanes on motorways. (Despite the fact that their meaning is widely ignored).

ERICS_MUM

Cornucopia wrote: »

ALL dashed/dotted lines on British roads mean Give Way. Depending on the type of marking it may mean something in addition to that.

This includes the dashed lines between slip roads and motorways, and the ones between lanes on motorways. (Despite the fact that their meaning is widely ignored).

Phew, thanks for confirming my understanding, I was worried I had got the highway code wrong.

flyingscotno1

Joe_Horner wrote: »

You'll be waiting a long time because there's no law at all against stopping before joining the main carriageway. It may be (generally) bad practice. but it can't always be avoided and it's certainly not illegal

On the other hand the alternatives - pulling unsafely into the traffic flow or using the hard shoulder (if available) - ARE illegal.

And bombing down a slip road to "reach merge speed" without being aware of the car ahead that seems to be slowing or stopped is, at least, careless - "it wasn't my fault, I was looking over my shoulder" would be an interesting one to play in court

Exactly my view. Bad practice, but sometimes just unavoidable- I've had to do it a couple of times where the gaps were too small to merge and traffic too heavy for them to change lanes. Indeed one slip road I know commonly has a queue on it as traffic tries to merge due to short length and the volume on the main road.

Who knows what kind of problems they were having either- their car which is old might have cut out or anything.

However one thing is abundantly clear. Highway Code 126- Drive at a speed that will allow you to stop well within in the distance you can see to be clear.

If visibility is restricted and it is only a 40 limit, then you really shouldn't be going around a bend at a speed needed to slam on the brakes with ABS kicking it to stop just 2 feet away because a car is stopped around it.

Lum

Re: The "third option", you can always continue onto the hard shoulder if you screw up and need to avoid causing an accident. I'd argue that this is a valid emergency.

Likewise if you're forced to stop for some other reason (e.g. L2 person changing lanes) you should probably use the hard shoulder to match speeds.

Weird_Nev

Lum wrote: »

Re: The "third option", you can always continue onto the hard shoulder if you screw up and need to avoid causing an accident. I'd argue that this is a valid emergency.

Likewise if you're forced to stop for some other reason (e.g. L2 person changing lanes) you should probably use the hard shoulder to match speeds.

Yes, this is what we were trained to do in Police Driver training: You get up to speed on the hard shoulder, then merge into traffic.You should have identified your point to merge before starting to accelerate. It's far safer to merge at close to the speed of the traffic, obviously.

Mark_Mark

Lum wrote: »

Re: The "third option", you can always continue onto the hard shoulder if you screw up and need to avoid causing an accident. I'd argue that this is a valid emergency.

Likewise if you're forced to stop for some other reason (e.g. L2 person changing lanes) you should probably use the hard shoulder to match speeds.

The thing is not many dual carriageway with a 40mph speed limit will have a hard shoulder. These roads often have T junctions that join them so is getting it wrong and being forced to join from stationary really a major issue?

The OP doesn't know why she stopped or what caused it, he didn't even see her until he nearly hit her. Building up speed whilst not keeping observations or complying with road markings. Which one wound attract the court appearance or lose you your not claims?

bigjl

On my Advanced Driving Course, IHCD so Roadcraft may differ, we were trained to treat sliproads coming onto the road we were on as hazards and to move to lane 2.

When level with the sliproad we were trained to check the sliproad was clear and if it was to move back to lane 1 unless there was a reason not to.

In this instance Strider was driving too fasr for the conditions and available visibility.

It isn't legal or correct to cause an accident by pulling out in front of traffic in lane 1 to ensure traffic going too fast for the conditions on the sliproad are no inconvenienced or made to slow.

bigjl

Weird_Nev wrote: »

Yes, this is what we were trained to do in Police Driver training: You get up to speed on the hard shoulder, then merge into traffic.You should have identified your point to merge before starting to accelerate. It's far safer to merge at close to the speed of the traffic, obviously.

Really!!

Might explain why the Ambulance Service stopped using RoadCraft if that is what they teach you to do when momentarily delayed on a slip road.

Especially since not all dual carraigeways have hard shoulders and sometimes even motorways have sections without them when road widening has been carried out and used up the available space, this may be more common in the South East and London where space is more of a premium.

prowla

Anyway, it could be worse; this morning after dropping the kids off at school a car in the opposite direction on a normal road stopped to allow me through a gap, when someone just ran into the back of her; must've been going a fair speed, as his front bumper and her rear one were trashed.

andygb

We have a curved exit slip road at a national shopping centre, which leads onto a dual carriageway (50MPH limit). When it is busy it is very common to have to stop on the slip road, when nobody will let you merge, and I always use the old "lifesaver" glance over my right shoulder (because the mirrors are just not good enough) before I go.
Very often this situation is caused by selfish motorists who do not move to the right lane when people are trying to merge.