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

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  • onwards&upwards
    onwards&upwards Posts: 3,423 Forumite
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    leviathan wrote: »
    Not a queuer in that situation. But I tend to notice they are driving cars with entry level engines.

    .

    Lol, what’s an entry level engine? :rotfl:
  • nickcc
    nickcc Posts: 2,265 Forumite
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    Incidentally the Advanced Motorist did a survey which shows that merging makes no difference to the flow of traffic although they do advocate merging.
  • nickcc
    nickcc Posts: 2,265 Forumite
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    onwards&upwards wrote: »
    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/
    Queueing was bred in to the British but no longer, I say this after waiting patiently for a commuter train during rush hour.
  • AdrianC
    AdrianC Posts: 42,189 Forumite
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    onwards&upwards wrote: »
    Lol, what’s an entry level engine? :rotfl:
    Smallest available for any given model range...?
  • Supersonos
    Supersonos Posts: 1,080 Forumite
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    edited 14 November 2019 at 9:45AM
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    Even worse is when it's late at night, there's very little traffic but the "smart" motorway signs drop the speed to 40mph and spend 3.5 miles telling you to move over to lane 4 as lanes 1-3 are going to close... only for there to be no roadworks, no NSL sign, no roadworks "end" sign. They just... stop.

    So you've got half of the drivers still sitting in lane 4 doing 40mph and then then other half deciding the lanes are no longer closing and overtaking them on the inside at 70-80mph.

    Then, a few miles later, it happens all over again. Only this time, most drivers then ignore the speed limit (I saw two get flashed). 3 miles of 50mph and then... NSL. No roadworks AGAIN. This was on the M25 on Monday night.

    The highways agency abuse the smart motorway. Even if there were roadworks, why warn people of lane closures with "get over" arrows 3 miles ahead? Edspecially at 11pm when there's very little traffic. It causes confusion with some people moving over and slowing down and others waiting until the red X and ultimately causes people to disregard the warnings.
  • leviathan
    leviathan Posts: 257 Forumite
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    ^^^ been there. Its' just bloody dangerous.

    That they are getting flashed is of no comfort to me whilst being under taken by trucks igoring the signs when the signs have said 30mph in similar situations.
  • Norman_Castle
    Norman_Castle Posts: 11,871 Forumite
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    leviathan wrote: »
    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 :)
    I tend to notice its often yoofs in vans or people who think their cars are special and make an exhibition of themselves. I don't care if people use both lanes but there are a proportion who who do it at speed clearly thinking they're something special. Kids in cars.
  • leviathan
    leviathan Posts: 257 Forumite
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    Yep. Thanks to PCP an 18yr old can go and buy a RS3.
    Cant afford to fuel it after paying the insurance, but you'll find the roads are full of kids with high power cars that dont know when speed is appropriate.
  • Johno100
    Johno100 Posts: 5,259 Forumite
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    nickcc wrote: »
    Incidentally the Advanced Motorist did a survey which shows that merging makes no difference to the flow of traffic although they do advocate merging.

    Yes, I think @facade explains that quite well in post #9.

    Another way to look at it. If you've got separate taps for your sink and you release a set volume of water, it doesn't matter if you release it from the hot, cold tap or both, it is the capacity of the plug hole to drain the water that determines how quickly the sink empties.
  • Supersonos
    Supersonos Posts: 1,080 Forumite
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    facade wrote: »

    The "use both lanes & merge in turn" idea if carried out properly, simply makes the queue in each lane half as long, but moving forwards half as fast, it doesn't solve the problem of the restriction, and as most people can't drive anyway, it actually slows things down more than just having a single lane would, whilst they dither and create larger gaps than is needed.

    But it means the length of the queue is half what it would be if it was a single lane and, therefore, the queuing traffic is less likely to impact on other junctions/roundabouts etc. and, in turn, surrounding roads.
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