One single thing that makes you think "knob" Vol 3
Discussion
Conscript said:
WD39 said:
Drivers who defend this practice by crying 'use the road' etc. are likely serial pushers in themselves, while the rest of us are quite prepared to wait our turn.
The reason the practice is defended like that is because that is exactly the intention of the designers who lay out junctions like the one in question.The precise point of having two lanes merging into one at a specific point is to reduce queuing lengths. If the intention had been for you to merge 500 yards earlier, the lanes would have narrowed 500 yards earlier - if what you're suggesting is true, then there's an enormous amount of materials and labour being wasted constructing lanes wider than they need to be.
It is a logical and obvious use of road space intended to have the effect of easing congestion further back along the road network. Unfortunately, far too many people hold opinions like yours, considering doing anything other than moving left as soon as possible as "queue jumping" and "pushing in". It is not. Quite why so many people have this opinion is both bizarre and frustrating for road designers.
I know this because I used to work for a construction company which dealt heavily in traffic management and highway works, and had a lot of exposure to road construction at the planning and design stages, including speaking to such road designers. I state in the hope that I can convince you that the opinions you are posting on this matter are incorrect and to counter them by explaining the intentions of the very people who design the roads.
However, I get the impression from your posts so far that you won't change your mind and will brush me off as a "serial pusher in". I really hope you don't because the more people we can convince otherwise, the more efficient our road network will work.
EDIT: I've just seen from scrubhub's post above that you've already ignored the facts as laid out by a road designer, so I guess my post will have no bearing on you whatsoever.
Edited by Conscript on Wednesday 18th November 20:45
The highway code is very clear on where to merge.
Both lanes are supposed to be used until the point of merger, which is marked out by lines to facilitate a stop-free merger of both lanes.
By deliberately and willfully ignoring the legitimite and legal use of the road way, anyone in either lane who refuses to merge in turn at the correct point is committing a traffic offence and should be prosecuted using CCTV as evidence.
Hol said:
Road markings are very clear on where to merge.
The highway code is very clear on where to merge.
Both lanes are supposed to be used until the point of merger, which is marked out by lines to facilitate a stop-free merger of both lanes.
All true. Now all we need is an education campaign to inform 95% of drivers about this..... It might be almost as effective as the 'keep left unless overtaking' messages on motorway signs The highway code is very clear on where to merge.
Both lanes are supposed to be used until the point of merger, which is marked out by lines to facilitate a stop-free merger of both lanes.
The very stupid Doris t'other day near Farley Hill, south of Reading.
Cycling along alongside another rider whom I'd randomly met out on the road. Yup, two-abreast, just like it's permitted both by law and by Highway Code recommendation. Full 'risk assessment' had been done...
Is it a narrow road? No. Two lanes clearly marked and separated by a dotted/broken central white line.
Is it a busy road? No. Absolutely not. This is rural Berkshire, and cars seem, on average, to have >5 minute spacing between them.
Am I inconveniencing anyone? No. They can pass just fine with me in this position. They'd need to use the opposite lane to pass even if I were cycling alone, closer to the n/s verge.
So along comes this stupid Doris in her 'Biohazard Green' BMW 1 series, draws alongside in the opposite lane, THEN beeps her horn, and starts yelling (sadly incomprehensible - it might have been amusing) and wildly gesticulating to her left. My arm went out to my right in a sort of "What?" gesture.
Here's a clue you f
king idiotic Doris: If you are alongside me, and there is still about 4 feet of clear air between us, then you have conclusively PROVEN that there is ABSOLUTELY NO BARRIER to your ability to pass me swiftly and safely. So quit your faux outraged tantrums, and fk off to wherever it is you are going, because the only moron delaying YOUR journey right now is YOU, by slowing alongside me to have a pop at me. 
Then last night, on my way home through/near Marlow, a dark blue Insignia pulls out of a side turn right into my path, eliciting a flash of my high beams as my only response.
Cue him/her crawling along at 20mph, interspersed with brief bursts of acceleration (traffic was busy, so opportunities for them to misbehave were limited) then ineffective attempts to "brake test" me. This lasted about 500 yards, whereupon the car turned left into a car park outside a parade of local shops, only they deliberately remained halfway out into the road until the van driver behind me felt it was time to sound his horn.
What made this one worse was the Christian 'fish' symbol on the bootlid. The car wasn't old enough for it to have "been there When I bought it" so, Mr/Mrs "I Want to Go To Heaven When I Die", how's about some of that full on happy-clappy cheek turning, caring for your fellow man Christian teaching outside of Church on a Sunday? Or does God only see, and judge you upon what happens in the confines of your house of worship? I should have been able to drive behind you full on the horn, high beams permanently on, throwing faeces at you car, and the worst that should happen is that you remember the incident come Sunday, and pray for my deliverance from sin. Brake testing and deliberate lane blocking? Sins of your own making, pilgrim, and you're going to owe soooooo many "Hail Marys" for that...
Cycling along alongside another rider whom I'd randomly met out on the road. Yup, two-abreast, just like it's permitted both by law and by Highway Code recommendation. Full 'risk assessment' had been done...
Is it a narrow road? No. Two lanes clearly marked and separated by a dotted/broken central white line.
Is it a busy road? No. Absolutely not. This is rural Berkshire, and cars seem, on average, to have >5 minute spacing between them.
Am I inconveniencing anyone? No. They can pass just fine with me in this position. They'd need to use the opposite lane to pass even if I were cycling alone, closer to the n/s verge.
So along comes this stupid Doris in her 'Biohazard Green' BMW 1 series, draws alongside in the opposite lane, THEN beeps her horn, and starts yelling (sadly incomprehensible - it might have been amusing) and wildly gesticulating to her left. My arm went out to my right in a sort of "What?" gesture.
Here's a clue you f
king idiotic Doris: If you are alongside me, and there is still about 4 feet of clear air between us, then you have conclusively PROVEN that there is ABSOLUTELY NO BARRIER to your ability to pass me swiftly and safely. So quit your faux outraged tantrums, and fk off to wherever it is you are going, because the only moron delaying YOUR journey right now is YOU, by slowing alongside me to have a pop at me. Then last night, on my way home through/near Marlow, a dark blue Insignia pulls out of a side turn right into my path, eliciting a flash of my high beams as my only response.
Cue him/her crawling along at 20mph, interspersed with brief bursts of acceleration (traffic was busy, so opportunities for them to misbehave were limited) then ineffective attempts to "brake test" me. This lasted about 500 yards, whereupon the car turned left into a car park outside a parade of local shops, only they deliberately remained halfway out into the road until the van driver behind me felt it was time to sound his horn.
What made this one worse was the Christian 'fish' symbol on the bootlid. The car wasn't old enough for it to have "been there When I bought it" so, Mr/Mrs "I Want to Go To Heaven When I Die", how's about some of that full on happy-clappy cheek turning, caring for your fellow man Christian teaching outside of Church on a Sunday? Or does God only see, and judge you upon what happens in the confines of your house of worship? I should have been able to drive behind you full on the horn, high beams permanently on, throwing faeces at you car, and the worst that should happen is that you remember the incident come Sunday, and pray for my deliverance from sin. Brake testing and deliberate lane blocking? Sins of your own making, pilgrim, and you're going to owe soooooo many "Hail Marys" for that...
OpulentBob said:
Or don't, let the sheep stick to L1 and leave L2 empty - even if you only find a blocker 50% of the time then you're still winning on aggregate!
What about those people who pull out from L1, and then drive v e r y slowly (such as 5mph) down L2? I drive down L2 a little slower than usual if L1 is chocked up (after all someone could pull out) but driving at a brisk walking pace smacks of trying to police the road a bit to me.Triumph Man said:
What about those people who pull out from L1, and then drive v e r y slowly (such as 5mph) down L2? I drive down L2 a little slower than usual if L1 is chocked up (after all someone could pull out) but driving at a brisk walking pace smacks of trying to police the road a bit to me.
Was it in this thread or the 'bad driving caught on dashcam' one - where one of these sheeple pulled out of their queue, into the clear second lane of the long merging slip road, and stopped there, with nothing in front of him (about 100m from the actual final merge point) and just blocked traffic behind him, in an attempt to serve 'justice' to those he deemed to be in the wrong for actually using both lanes.I recall the car that met him and wanted to continue down the road, but couldn't, got rather irate..
smithyithy said:
Would it really be so hard for them to knock out a 15 second TV advert showing basic driving things like this?
Stick it on during peak hours on ITV, it would blow the public's mind.
A bit like a public information film of the 1950's to 1990's.Stick it on during peak hours on ITV, it would blow the public's mind.
It would be a great use of public money, considering the fact that it would halp reduce road rage incidents by pointing out where the people are [Polite mode] going a bit wrong. [/Polite mode]
There was a RTA on the A40 (dual carriageway) today that closed the road for two hours.
Approximately 200yds from the accident there was a road to the left that took you off the blocked road and enabled you to bypass the crash and carry on. Likewise there was an opening in the barriers to the right that enabled you to carry out a legal U turn and then to try a new route past the blockage.
I sat for 45 minutes watching maybe 1 out of 20 people taking either option and then carrying on with their day, before I carefully manouvered between both lanes of gridlocked traffic and then turned left down the completely unobstructed B road and after a few minutes was able to bypass the problem and continue my journey.
Can't understand why everyone else just sat there and waited, when there were two completely obvious ways to avoid the hold up.
Approximately 200yds from the accident there was a road to the left that took you off the blocked road and enabled you to bypass the crash and carry on. Likewise there was an opening in the barriers to the right that enabled you to carry out a legal U turn and then to try a new route past the blockage.
I sat for 45 minutes watching maybe 1 out of 20 people taking either option and then carrying on with their day, before I carefully manouvered between both lanes of gridlocked traffic and then turned left down the completely unobstructed B road and after a few minutes was able to bypass the problem and continue my journey.
Can't understand why everyone else just sat there and waited, when there were two completely obvious ways to avoid the hold up.
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