Slip road use when motorway blocked

Slip road use when motorway blocked

Author
Discussion

ferrariF50lover

Original Poster:

1,834 posts

225 months

Wednesday 26th October 2016
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Dudes/dudettes,

Relatively long acceleration lane off a large traffic light infested roundabout downhill onto a three lane motorway. It's a busy time of day, so the slip road is queued but moving onto a motorway which is nose-to-tail and crawling.

It seems obvious to me that those on the slip would go right to the end to save clogging the motorway any earlier than necessary and backing up the slip road onto the RA and causing inevitable yellow box junction catastrophe.

Sadly, this type of thing seems to go against the Great British Obsession with queueing as unnecessarily as possible. I find that the later one attempts to join, the harder it is made by those already on the motorway.

Any special advice? Is my thinking incorrect, should I join earlier for some reason? What would Jesus do?

Mandat

3,879 posts

237 months

Wednesday 26th October 2016
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I would use all of the available tarmac, where it is safe and appropriate to do so.

Lgfst

391 posts

108 months

Wednesday 26th October 2016
quotequote all
Single lane slip road?

The only one I ever have to use when it's busy and I take a short cut is this one near Wythenshawe

https://goo.gl/maps/psWdX2eiEjn

I stay left and go to the end (which a lot of others do too). Never had a problem getting in.

Queueing is very British and people don't want to feel like they pushed in and get upset if they think someone is pushing in. I see it all the time with a 2 to 1 merge. 800yds before people are waiting and indicating in.

Hackney

6,810 posts

207 months

Wednesday 26th October 2016
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ferrariF50lover said:
Dudes/dudettes,

Relatively long acceleration lane off a large traffic light infested roundabout downhill onto a three lane motorway. It's a busy time of day, so the slip road is queued but moving onto a motorway which is nose-to-tail and crawling.

It seems obvious to me that those on the slip would go right to the end to save clogging the motorway any earlier than necessary and backing up the slip road onto the RA and causing inevitable yellow box junction catastrophe.

Sadly, this type of thing seems to go against the Great British Obsession with queueing as unnecessarily as possible. I find that the later one attempts to join, the harder it is made by those already on the motorway.

Any special advice? Is my thinking incorrect, should I join earlier for some reason? What would Jesus do?
I regularly use the M25 to M1 North junction, so multiple slip roads. People seem in such a hurry to join the queue on the M1 to the extent that they switch slip lanes (crossing solid white lines) and cross hatched areas to get on the M1 when the slip lanes take you further ahead.


Chester draws

1,412 posts

109 months

Wednesday 26th October 2016
quotequote all
All the way to the end = those on the motorway think you're pushing in.

Right at the start = pushes the queue back onto the roundabout.

So the best answer will fall somewhere in between those two limits.

I would aim to get in about ¾ of the way down.

Munter

31,319 posts

240 months

Wednesday 26th October 2016
quotequote all
Join behind the car, that the car previously joining, is in front of. Then it's a single point, and smoother flowing will commence as nobody feels like trying to "block" anybody else.

The benefit of that would overcome any benefit from using the optimal point down the slip road.

This is different to merging lanes, because it's contained within the length of the slip. Not several miles.

huytonman

328 posts

193 months

Wednesday 26th October 2016
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All the way to the end...its never caused me any issues doing that, never been blocked from joining the MWay, always have my indicator on though even though its not really necessary..it seems to give legitimacy to the move.
Keith

Red Devil

13,055 posts

207 months

Wednesday 26th October 2016
quotequote all
Lgfst said:
Queueing is very British and people don't want to feel like they pushed in and get upset if they think someone is pushing in. I see it all the time with a 2 to 1 merge. 800yds before people are waiting and indicating in.
I blame the banks, post offices, etc. People are so used to joining the end of one long queue that they transfer it to the road.
The idea that there are alternative possibilities (e.g. a zip merge) simply doesn't register on their radar.

ferrariF50lover

Original Poster:

1,834 posts

225 months

Wednesday 26th October 2016
quotequote all
Lgfst said:
Single lane slip road?

The only one I ever have to use when it's busy and I take a short cut is this one near Wythenshawe

https://goo.gl/maps/psWdX2eiEjn

I stay left and go to the end (which a lot of others do too). Never had a problem getting in.

Queueing is very British and people don't want to feel like they pushed in and get upset if they think someone is pushing in. I see it all the time with a 2 to 1 merge. 800yds before people are waiting and indicating in.
You and I, I suspect, live a stone's throw from each other.

Lgfst

391 posts

108 months

Wednesday 26th October 2016
quotequote all
ferrariF50lover said:
You and I, I suspect, live a stone's throw from each other.
I live in Knutsford but I have a friend in Wythenshawe. When I use the M56>M60 and its crawling, sometimes I 'beat the traffic' by using junction 3B and then going on the A560 and getting back on at camperlands. Miss a good chunk of traffic that way. I'm always on the lookout for a PH smiley smile

7db

6,058 posts

229 months

Wednesday 26th October 2016
quotequote all
Join society? Do what other people do?

If there's an orderly join going on early on the sliproad, perhaps accounting for some heavies in lane one etc, it's going to get people's backs up to squeeze up the inside and nail it up to the end.

If everyone is gently crawling down to the end then zip merging then that's a great solution.

Mandat

3,879 posts

237 months

Thursday 27th October 2016
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7db said:
Join society? Do what other people do?

If there's an orderly join going on early on the sliproad, perhaps accounting for some heavies in lane one etc, it's going to get people's backs up to squeeze up the inside and nail it up to the end.

If everyone is gently crawling down to the end then zip merging then that's a great solution.
What about squeezing up the inside, and then gently crawling down to the end before zip merging, leaving the early mergers to their own devices?

Munter

31,319 posts

240 months

Thursday 27th October 2016
quotequote all
Mandat said:
7db said:
Join society? Do what other people do?

If there's an orderly join going on early on the sliproad, perhaps accounting for some heavies in lane one etc, it's going to get people's backs up to squeeze up the inside and nail it up to the end.

If everyone is gently crawling down to the end then zip merging then that's a great solution.
What about squeezing up the inside, and then gently crawling down to the end before zip merging, leaving the early mergers to their own devices?
Assuming every driver is able to act like a grownup that's fine. But given the majority of the population are tts...

What happens is you roll to the end of the slip (which is the most efficient use of space and great if everybody is doing it), and when you try to join, there's a 50% chance the person you are trying to merge in front of, is someone who joined from the slip, and 50% chance they are someone who already let one car in in a proper "zip" merge. Either way they feel they have done what's required and will (because most people are tts), try to block your merge. Which moves you from a crawl to a stop. Which generates a stopped "wave" down the queue of traffic behind you, and them on the main road. Which leads to more congestion than would otherwise have happened. Even the skipping of cars and "shuffling the order" causes that effect to some extent, but the tt factor makes it worse.

If you want less congestion you merge at the same point as the car ahead of you. Hopefully that's at the end of the slip lane, but wherever it is, is better than the other options in terms of creating a smoother flow, and reducing congestion.

7db

6,058 posts

229 months

Thursday 27th October 2016
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Indeed -- you only have to read the views of some posters on the current "Stopping on a main road to let people out..." thread to see the mixed views that people have about letting people out across their own priority. Why let anyone out of the slip road at all, they might say, that's a giveway line and they have to wait for priority traffic to clear.

(One for the legal pedants, if the priority traffic is stationary, do you need to yield since you aren't requiring them to change speed or direction by pulling out in front of them?)

ferrariF50lover

Original Poster:

1,834 posts

225 months

Friday 28th October 2016
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I understand exactly why you'd say this, I really do, but the point of asking in the AD sub was to get an idea of what's best to do, not what's most common.

You'll agree, I'm sure, that the average man is pretty stupid and that 50% of people are stupider still. Since driving seems to bring out the worst in people, simply following the crowd is probably the very worst thing to do.

I am all for joining convention when it's a better solution than rocking the boat. I don't refer to 'sheeple'. I don't use the phrase 'WAKE UP!' as punctuation and I don't attempt to turn unsubstantiated opinion into truth by ending with the word 'fact'. What I do like to do is know the best solution to problems which I encounter and can't quite fathom myself, often because of the issue that so many other people seem to do it the counter-intuitive way.

Rest assured, I won't be taking a wilfully contrary line and length for its own sake, but if it comes my turn and the situation dictates, I'll happily take on board the reassurance in this thread and head on down to the end of the slip.

Cliftonite

8,406 posts

137 months

Friday 28th October 2016
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Good for you! Spot on! ^^^^^^^

7db

6,058 posts

229 months

Friday 28th October 2016
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F50 - I appreciate where you're coming from. I suppose it does all depend on what you mean by "best", doesn't it.

In my world, "best" certainly contains a bit of quickest, but also a large dose of safest and -- by dint of your observations about the average driver that must have at least a passing nod to what is least likely to provoke confrontation through confusion or aggression.

We rarely drive in a vacuum, so worth noting whether our actions will encourage others to help or hinder our progress. Whether we -- superior beings that we are :-) -- are likely to have to use our superior skills to pick up the pieces when we provoke others to screw up near us.

If you are driving an F50 upto the end of the slip, then you are likely to find a number of jealous individuals with cars/vans less likely to cost more than yours to repair who are prepared to use them to prevent your progress. I'd suggest that AD is about thinking about that before it happens, and very little more.

Munter

31,319 posts

240 months

Friday 28th October 2016
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If best is to avoid "clogging the motorway any earlier than necessary and backing up the slip road onto the RA and causing inevitable yellow box junction catastrophe."

Then merge in turn regardless of the location (within a few hundred yards). Changing the order with the "middle" of the queue, overtaking the front, causes more congestion as the low speed of some of the cars in the queues is lower than it would be if they all join in order.

R0G

4,984 posts

154 months

Saturday 29th October 2016
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Mandat said:
I would use all of the available tarmac, where it is safe and appropriate to do so.
THIS - also by using all the slip it allows you to see others and others to see you for longer which allows for each to make safe decisions in good time

r129sl

9,518 posts

202 months

Thursday 3rd November 2016
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I have this situation every morning. People are so desperate to join the queue that most all of them do so across the hatchlings that lie between the slip road and the main carriageway. Morons! I merge in the same place that I would if there were no queue, about two thirds of the way down. I never have any trouble merging. I figure anyone obstructive is going to have to drive into me. And that just doesn't happen. If I encounter any head shaking, I allow a decent gap to open up in front of me so as many as possible other motorists can get in ahead of the head shaker. This makes no difference to my journey time but certainly provides entertainment and satisfaction to enliven an otherwise dull market meant.