Slip roads onto dual carriageways.....

GwylimT

When driving to my grandma's I have to use a particular slip road that is very small and on a bend, if you are at around 40 mph and then discover that you don't have room to merge you don't have time to stop, so you have to stick to 30 mph and keep your eyes peeled. The last time I made this journey I had to stop on the slip road as there wasn't space the merge, a van behind me instead of stopping and waiting for a gap pulled straight onto the carriageway and they were hit by the vehicle they pulled in front of as they were going both too slow, and they were too close to the vehicle and so there wasn't time for slow/stop.

Thankfully as the road was so busy traffic wasn't too fast, but it was still quite nasty.

Joe_Horner

PlymouthMaid wrote: »

Sometimes you have no choice but to stop even if it is not best practice and I would not be happy if some speed demon ploughed into the back of me.

One of the worst bits of driving I ever saw was about 2 years ago - massive roundabout in Plymouth and I was waiting at red lights when I saw a car going backwards round the roundabout as the driver had missed his exit. This was at night and so there was not much other traffic but even so, madness.

Marsh Mills? Had a school friend who did that on a driving lesson with her dad years ago (before they built the flyover). Coming down the A 38 from Ivybridge way he told her to "turn right at the roundabout towards Plympton" so she did.

Luckily no harm done, but she was paying for professional lessons from then on

PlymouthMaid

Oh yes, Marsh Mills. Terrifying roundabout for learners or the incompetent.

Aretnap

Cornucopia wrote: »

The Highway code says this: give priority to traffic already on the motorway.

Unhelpfully, it doesn't say "stop if absolutely necessary".

It doesn't have to. It also doesn't say that you should stop if a child steps into the road in front of you. Some things just don't need saying. If stopping is necessary to avoid an accident then of course you should stop. Ideally on a slip road you don't get into a position where stopping is the only way to avoid an accident... but given that people do occasionally get things wrong, of course it's better to stop on the slip road than to plough on and cause a pile up.

Cornucopia

Indeed.

I should have added that in some of the discussions in other Forums, some people were stating (incorrectly) that it was illegal to stop on a slip-road.

anotherbaldrick

Its also illegal to go down them the wrong way, a young woman managed to miss this lot early this morning and went down what is the sliproad off the A3 ended up going northbound on the southbound carriageway. To stop her the police had to ram her car . She is currently in hospital.

anotherbaldrick

Cornucopia wrote: »

Indeed.

I should have added that in some of the discussions in other Forums, some people were stating (incorrectly) that it was illegal to stop on a slip-road.

I think part of the problem may be in the nomenclature, to stop in some instances would mean to park up switch off and go for a walk into the bushes. On a slip road this would obviously be very wrong.
Perhaps they should express the manoeuvre as a HALT which has the connotation of being a temporary cessation of movement . A momentary halt until the way ahead is clear to proceed.

Joe_Horner

Aretnap wrote: »

It also doesn't say that you should stop if a child steps into the road in front of you.

On an urban clearway you shouldn't. The HC clearly says you MUST not stop on these except to pick up or drop off passengers. Didn't you know that common sense has no place on the roads as long as you have the law behind you?

Norman_Castle

arcon5 wrote: »

This thread is brilliant! Not only did op through sheer carelessness nearly crash in to a car, she said pats herself on the back for not then showing agression towards said motorist.
Then the icing on the cake - op wonders why the said motorist is mad.

Just brilliant

I suspect Strider has been given happy pills, or the invasion of the body snatchers has started.

mrcow

Strider - rule one of driving a car:

Look where you are going.


Then, most of the rest of it pretty much falls into place.
Good luck with that.