I always get beeped at this jcn - is it me or every other driver on the road who is wrong?

BOWFER

In this scenario, the cheapest and easiest solution would seem to be an arrow on the left approach lane pointing straight ahead and right.
Could probably (possibly) get away without lane markings around the roundabout then, people would just have to get used to the possibility of another vehicle on their left.

Flight3287462

Plenty of slip roads etc that were two lanes in the past have changed to one lane in the last 10-20 years and too many dobbers who think they can still use it as two lanes.  You all know what you are meant to do but want to save a couple of minutes and wonder why other drivers get annoyed.

7Phil

The road markings and signage here are horrible. However, this is a roundabout & roundabout rules apply

I've followed google streetview off the A41 down the slip lane. According to the photos at that time:

1. Single lane all the way down over yellow "reduce speed" lines
2. Pass a "roundabout ahead" sign, obscured in foliage
3. A large green double-roundabout sign, mostly hidden behind foliage
4. At the end of the yellow lines there is a zone of approx 5/6 car lengths where it widens to 2 lanes before the give-way line
5. Completing an RH turn merges back to single lane


Summary:
1. Clearer road markings needed - the LH lane is for through traffic, RH lane for A414 etc
2. It's daft having a 2nd lane to re-join A41 but maybe it's a common mistake and it is there to formalise rules?? Were people unsafely overtaking on the hard shoulder?? The LH lane does not extend far back along the slip-way.
3. If there are five cars ahead of me turning right I would not go into the vacant inside lane expecting to overtake them
4. If I had to turn right from LH lane: I'd keep my right indicator firmly on and proceed carefully around but giving way to everyone on my left until I have a gap. (But I would not attempt that after jumping a solid queue of cars...)

My final point:
If you are doing something regularly and getting regularly honked at then it's definitely you. There are stupid people on the roads but not everyone is.

ontheroad1970

7Phil said:

My final point:
If you are doing something regularly and getting regularly honked at then it's definitely you. There are stupid people on the roads but not everyone is.

I would respectfully disagree here.  When you get that lane closing warning sign showing 800m, too many people form a queue at this point and beep their horns, or worse pull out in front of people to block them.  This isn't an occasional thing, it very very regular.  If people treat a lane as closed at least half a mile before it actually is then you will get 3 to 4 miles if tailbacks.  Drive any major motorway after 8pm and you will see this in action.  Highways England have stopped telling you i advance on the matrix signs which lane(s) are being closed until much closer.  Why?  Because people start forming a queue too early and it ends up causing the merging of more than one set of roadworks.  

Like I say, merge in turn needs to be taught to drivers at the beginning - I wasn't and I passed my test in 2013.  If people merge in turn at say 100m or even 200m before the lane is actually closed then the queue would be 10 times shorter.  

Username03725

7Phil said:

 If I had to turn right from LH lane: I'd keep my right indicator firmly on and proceed carefully around but giving way to everyone on my left until I have a gap. (But I would not attempt that after jumping a solid queue of cars...)

My final point:
If you are doing something regularly and getting regularly honked at then it's definitely you. There are stupid people on the roads but not everyone is.

Re your first point here, I would. If people are happy to queue when there's empty road space available that's their look out. Once at the front it's v easy to get away a little bit quicker (no not a Grand Prix start, just a touch more go from the off) and be in front. There's no need at all to end up side by side going under the main road. If the guy on the right also goes for the quicker getaway I'll cede and tuck in behind. I encounter the same issue across Leicester - there are numerous sets of traffic lights across town on the south many with double lane approaches which continue over the lights as two lanes but quickly merge back into one again after the lights. It's no difficulty at all to merge and pass slower traffic in that short space; the A41 off slip two into one is exactly the same.

Secondly that's not necessarily true. This whole thread has shown that simple poor and ambiguous application of road markings can lead to uncertainty, and that's certainly the case here. If Hemel Council wanted it to be one lane on the slip they could have done that when they repainted the south bound slip into one lane.

Jenni_D

Username03725 said:
If Hemel Council wanted it to be one lane on the slip they could have done that when they repainted the south bound slip into one lane.

The slip linked from the OP is one lane ... it only splits into two lanes right at the bottom. (As someone said previously - about 5-6 car lengths of two lanes).

Username03725

In that case it's entirely analogous to the traffic light queues I mentioned then, an opportunity to re-sort the traffic. What's the problem? There's a short stretch of slip road that's two lanes wide, leading into a stretch of two lane road that then merges into one lane where the chevrons are, then two again down to the lights. If someone beeps me in that scenario they're beeping into the abyss.

ontheroad1970

The trouble with this setup is that people that are at the front of the queue won't generally think of others and utilise the space to stop the queue forming too far back and then they get mad and beep at those that take the initiative they refused.

Biggus_Dickus

Jenni_D said:

Username03725 said:
If Hemel Council wanted it to be one lane on the slip they could have done that when they repainted the south bound slip into one lane.

The slip linked from the OP is one lane ... it only splits into two lanes right at the bottom. (As someone said previously - about 5-6 car lengths of two lanes).

Indeed. 

It’s a 250m single lane slip road that only widens out to two lanes approx 4 or 5 car lengths prior to the junction.

If a driver undertakes the 4 or 5 cars ahead them as they approach the junction, knowing full well they’ll immediately need to merge  back into a single lane in short order, then it’s hardly surprising that the patiently queuing drivers in the right-hand lane would get a bit peeved.

The argument that using the left-hand lane to alleviate a tail-back on the slip-road is valid, but it would only reduce the tail-back by 4 or 5 cars,...and perhaps a couple more as they started to merge back into the traffic just after the junction.

However, I’ve never driven down that slip-road and I probably never will so what the hell do I know;...I’m from the North and we just don’t encounter issues like this when we’re out and about ont’ horse n’cart.

JamoLew

The left hand lane could have been done to allow long HGVs to make the turn easier.

Or it could be a slip straight back onto the road if the signage is poor or unclear.

There is a motorway junction that I use daily that regularly has drivers exiting only to immediately rejoin due to poor signage/not reading it correctly