should more be done about exit lane jumpers?

londonTiger

it's a serious problem in a lot of commuter traffic. I was driving back from south kent to central London once and I was stuck on bumper to bumper traffic on the motorway crawling forwards.

Thought there mustve been an accident or something.

But as I drove on I realise the traffic was from all the que jumpers who decided to jump the queue on the dover exit lane by trying to merge in yards before.

They left just 1 lane open for the "drive on" traffic, which is what was causing delays.

Should there be more done to prevent this? Perhaps put up physical barriers 1/4 or 1/2 mile before, so if you don't get in the correct lane, you're stuffed and you must drive on and take the next exit.

Or use central london style revenue regeneration and put a yellow hatched box as a central reservation and send a PCN to any motorist that jump queues like this.

surreysaver

Surely you'd just move the problem further back to before the barriers?

Strider590

I'm not familiar with the area, but surely 50 cars in one lane, is going to cause more problems back up the road, than 50 cars in two lanes..........

matttye

Strider590 wrote: »

I'm not familiar with the area, but surely 50 cars in one lane, is going to cause more problems back up the road, than 50 cars in two lanes..........

Yes, I agree. Some people seem to have a problem with other people making quite proper use of overtaking lanes.

I saw a woman in front of me the other day move to the right and straddle both lanes to stop more people overtaking her on a two lane bit of road approaching a merge.

Nodding_Donkey

matttye wrote: »

I saw a woman in front of me the other day move to the right and straddle both lanes to stop more people overtaking her on a two lane bit of road approaching a merge.

Don't blame her. If people merged properly instead of racing to the front then the traffic would keep moving rather than stopping.

lister

'Tis well known in traffic engineering circles that late merging is the most efficient use of space and time. Unfortunately most people see it as queue jumping. It isn't...

marlot

Strider590 wrote: »

I'm not familiar with the area, but surely 50 cars in one lane, is going to cause more problems back up the road, than 50 cars in two lanes..........

Especially when it's on an A road, and there are turnings off on the left. I had to queue for 20 min in a tailback recently, and I wasn't even going as far as the road works. If they'd used both lanes I'd have had no delay at all.

We need to get used to 'zip' merging. It halved the time through a busy roundabout near Bracknell when they changed to it a couple of years ago.

marlot

Nodding_Donkey wrote: »

Don't blame her. If people merged properly instead of racing to the front then the traffic would keep moving rather than stopping.

Define 'properly'.

Zip merging close to the lane merge is perfectly legitimate, and often better than merging half a mile or more before the obstacle

matttye

Nodding_Donkey wrote: »

Don't blame her. If people merged properly instead of racing to the front then the traffic would keep moving rather than stopping.

Merging at the end of the lane is obviously a perfectly legitimate use of the road.

Only reason I don't do it myself is because I see such mergers treated with contempt and blocked from merging all the time. People get upset over it for some bizarre reason.

Jonesya

lister wrote: »

'Tis well known in traffic engineering circles that late merging is the most efficient use of space and time. Unfortunately most people see it as queue jumping. It isn't...

In a lot of cases it is simply queue jumping.

There's a dual carriage way I use that merges to a single lane, with restrictions in flow due to traffic lights half a mile after the merge point. The traffic is light on the dual carriage way so all the cars approach the merge point in the driving lane, and so the queue runs back from the traffic lights up the driving lane of the dual carriage way.

The only drivers in the over-taking lane are those over taking the queuing traffic, ie. jumping the queue!

londonTiger

How on earth is merging last minute more efficient? It is probably efficient for you (the que jumper), and the people who decide to zip merge into the lane that is zip merging into the exit lane - completely blocking the ongoing traffic.

But I struggle to see how this is recommended. I was driving around in wembley a while ago and distinctly remember a police banked on the central reservation of the exit while he was on foot instructing the last minute mergers to carry on driving straight. I was in the traffic on the exit lane. He did it to quite a few vehicles. One of the few times when I gave the police a thumbs up while they were doing their job.

When I am queing in traffic in the exit lane you get car after car driving up beside you to merge. I'd give way when I'm quite some distance away from the exit because some people legitimately don't realise what the queue is for. But then you get idiots trying their luck and indicating to merge in like 30-40 yards from the exit and I think, no chance.