A rant about roadwork lane closures and those who "police" them!

leviathan

cubegame wrote: »

Do we have a queuer on here who can explain their behaviour so I can understand it?

Not a queuer in that situation. But I tend to notice they are driving cars with entry level engines.
I'd be with you, merging in turn, using the lanes with my 400bhp on tap



My route home from work has a mile long slip road off the motorway onto another.
People queue to get on this slip at the first possible moment reducing motorway speed to a crawl in lane 1 and backing up traffic for a good 2 miles.
I take the outside lane, drive past all of them and then merge into the open space on the slip about 1/2 mile from the exit.
I dont understand the lemming like behaviour to queue and block the road entirely unnecessarily.



Since they are going slowly one or more of them will also be on their phone, which makes the start stop queue even worse.

MysteryMe

cubegame wrote: »

Perhaps I should have added more colour to the description.

The idiot who pulled out to "police" the lane actually nigh on forced me to do an emergency stop.

He made a reckless idiotic manoeuvre to prove his point.

If I had been doing the speed limit of 70 mph no doubt him and I, along with a good few other members of the queue would now be dead or seriously injured.

You'd also be reckless driving at 70mph in those circumstances. You drive at an appropriate speed not foot down up to the limit regardless.

George333

cubegame wrote: »

Perhaps I should have added more colour to the description.

The idiot who pulled out to "police" the lane actually nigh on forced me to do an emergency stop.

He made a reckless idiotic manoeuvre to prove his point.

If I had been doing the speed limit of 70 mph no doubt him and I, along with a good few other members of the queue would now be dead or seriously injured.

So a confession.

Belenus

Use both lanes and merge in turn is the common sense, best and correct thing to do.

Using one lane only long before a pinch point risks backing traffic up to a previous junction, and also allows the so called 'queue jumping'.

If all drivers used both lanes and merged in turn, all drivers would be treated equally and nobody could 'queue jump'.

Deliberately blocking two lanes is illegal, obstructs those driving correctly and unnecessarily delays drivers who want to turn right before the pinch point

What do some people on here think that they know better than the Law, the Police, The Highway Code and the traffic management people who place the 'Use both lanes and merge in turn' signs?


This is from a US study but there are similar UK reports.

Studies reveal that zip-merging reduces crashes, speeding and congestion.

In 2008, a study by Ken Johnson, a state work zone engineer in Minnesota, found three primary benefits of using zip-merging, which can be summarised as follows:

A reduction in the difference in speeds between the two lanes: without the urgency to move over, the traffic is travelling at roughly the same speed in both lanes, making the merge easier and safer.

The length of queue is reduced by up to 50%, which is critical in areas where you find junctions and slip roads.

When nobody has a perceived advantage, the potential for ‘road rage’ is reduced significantly.

The UK government seems to agree......

Tigsteroonie

I cross a particular junction on my way home - before the junction a single lane splits to two lanes; goes across the junction as two lanes; and then re-merges to a single lane after the junction. Presumably this is to maximise the number of cars crossing the junction on change of the traffic lights. No problem, we do merge in turn.

Except that after the merge, the right-hand lane reappears: as hatching, then a right turn lane, then hatching again. Every night there are idiots who see this right turn lane as an extension to the previous right-hand lane, drive through the hatching, straight up (not turning right) and then force their way in at the end hatching.

Yes I do tend to police this, sitting very wide and blocking attempts to force their way in. Why should they get to ignore road markings (it's clearly a right turn lane)?

nickcc

Perhaps we need to educate drivers better if merging ends up as being compulsory. Another area that needs education is undertaking, many drivers become extremely irate if undertaken even though it is not an offence to do so, of course if the person you are undertaking decides to pull in then you could be held blameworthy.

Scrapit

The road works are designed to have the traffic use all available lanes up to the taper of the closure. Anyone not using the lanes is wrong. Simple as.

prowla

You should drive up to (almost) the end in both lanes and zipper-merge.


There's no pushing in involved.

nickcc

Scrapit wrote: »

The road works are designed to have the traffic use all available lanes up to the taper of the closure. Anyone not using the lanes is wrong. Simple as.

Highway Code rule 134 states merging is recommended not compulsory so not simple as.

onwards&upwards

bertiewhite wrote: »

There is a difference between "merging appropriately" and "waiting until the last possible opportunity before pushing in" though.

Not really.

The most efficient way for two lines of traffic to become one is to ‘zipper’. One from each line goes at once.

This happens quite naturally in some situations, like a T junction near me where both roads are slow moving at rush hour, everybody zippers in quite happily and traffic flows.

Something about lane closures just brings out the irrational need to queue in the British public!


https://www.rac.co.uk/drive/advice/driving-advice/zip-merging/