Lorry drivers who think the are the Police

[Mandat]

Chrisgr31 said:

Except what happens in the real world is that traffic does sort of merge in turn, but due to the lower capacity of the merged bit the speed is lower and therefore the merge point creeps further and further back. You eventually get a point where one land is full and stationary, the other empty. Some drivers therefore go down the empty lane to merge at the front. The problem with this being is that the traffic in the full lane has to slow even more to allow them in.

By moving out in to the empty lane the lorry drivers are allowing the traffic in the full lane to pass quickly without obstruction through the merge point and at the same time moving the merge point back to where you want it.

The effect that the stradling HGV is creating (i.e. both lanes of equally full traffic) should be what happens natrually at the merge point.

Those people who merge too early and too far away from the merge point are the ones that actually create the problems.

[theplayingmantis]

matjk said:

good job ! i think motorways should have rasing barriers and box junctions, the biggest hold ups when motorways merge and the dheads decide they are going to push all the way to the front then whack the hazards on and cut in. Saw a guy the other days cut straight across the stripped separator area and onto the hard sholuder, got out and pretended to look a his wheel, waited 30 seconds then continued up the hard shoulder 300m and merged.
Interestingly i lived in the USA and when they close lanes EVERYONE starts moving over right away, no one zooms up the empty lane and cuts in last minute, its seen as very rude and antisocial, on the flip side pretty much everyone drinks and drives so.....

i think we have found the sort who like there 5 minute power trip! (the cutting across striped separtor is wrong though)...and we should really be following the yanks...

[V8 Fettler]

GreatGranny said:

Most of the time it doesn't make any difference.

Last year on my commute on the Worksop (enough said) Bypass there was 2 to 1 lane up to a roundabout.
Signs were put up a mile before and every few 100 metres stating "Use both lanes" and "Merge in turn" but still most queued in the 1 lane with the lane police being evident 1-2 times per week (usually either HGVs or 4x4s)

This lane closure was on for 4 months!
I changed my route in the end when I found myself driving the return route shouting out of the window across the centre reservation "USE BOTH LANES aholeS!".

We need more of this

[deckster]

GreatGranny said:

Most of the time it doesn't make any difference.

Last year on my commute on the Worksop (enough said) Bypass there was 2 to 1 lane up to a roundabout.
Signs were put up a mile before and every few 100 metres stating "Use both lanes" and "Merge in turn" but still most queued in the 1 lane with the lane police being evident 1-2 times per week (usually either HGVs or 4x4s)

This lane closure was on for 4 months!
I changed my route in the end when I found myself driving the return route shouting out of the window across the centre reservation "USE BOTH LANES aholeS!".

Please tell me that you actually are a Great Granny. Because the image that conjures up is just wonderful.

[Lopey]

We have two similar but very different issues near where I roam.

The M69 at Leicester is regularly held up by the lorry police who feel justified in entering lane 3 about a mile from where it merges into two lanes.

Then we also have the A38m coming out of Birmingham, where you get a long line of traffic queuing to get onto the M6 south, and have the idiots speeding down in the lane for the A38 and the whacking on the brakes to force themselves into the queue (no merge in point), quite often getting it wrong and becoming stationary in a 50mph lane causing others to take avoiding action.

[505diff]

Today on the A428 an HGV decided to do this about 400 yards before a lane closure, the result
400 yards of empty lane two ahead of him and 300 yards behind an ambulance on blue lights stuck stationary with everything else, because of this prat, I was driving the opposite carriageway, the standard of driving has got at lot worse over the last few years in general, but HGV drivers standards have fallen a lot more than other road users in that timescale.

[Caddyshack]

I 100% agree, use both lanes and take turns to merge, it seems people use their daily drive as a battle zone. I often stop to let the grid lock flow, the technical right of way is mine but I can see that someone needs to give a little to let it all flow yet I often get head shaking or a toot....it takes so little time to lift off the throttle and flash the oncoming car, I don't even need to brake.

So many drivers don't look any further than the car in front. Give a driver the priority sign over the oncoming traffic and they go out of their way to aim at and block anycar that dares to keep moving in a sensible manner.

[XDA]

Bright Halo said:

when joining the M5 from the M6 the road works take it from two to one lane with the left lane merging into the right.
I am usually in the right lane anyway as it is less hassle than trying to merge.
Anyway twice last week a lorry has taken it upon themselves to crawl along the left hand land creating hundreds of yards of free lane in front of them and basically forcing other vehicles to merge earlier. Why do they do that, they are not the police or traffic officers? All they do is cause a greater tailback as the traffic cannot fill the available lane. If people want merge later on near where the cones start then that is up to them. I think there is even a sign stating to merge near the end.

Why do they do it? Because they are brain dead morons in the vast majority of cases.

But if you hold up or don't yield to these overweight knuckle draggers, they have a massive tantrum.

[matjk]

theplayingmantis said:

matjk said:

good job ! i think motorways should have rasing barriers and box junctions, the biggest hold ups when motorways merge and the dheads decide they are going to push all the way to the front then whack the hazards on and cut in. Saw a guy the other days cut straight across the stripped separator area and onto the hard sholuder, got out and pretended to look a his wheel, waited 30 seconds then continued up the hard shoulder 300m and merged.
Interestingly i lived in the USA and when they close lanes EVERYONE starts moving over right away, no one zooms up the empty lane and cuts in last minute, its seen as very rude and antisocial, on the flip side pretty much everyone drinks and drives so.....

i think we have found the sort who like there 5 minute power trip! (the cutting across striped separtor is wrong though)...and we should really be following the yanks...

Actually I'm talking about something different,(my bad) what grinds my gears is when a motorway splits like say on the M25 , you get the idiots that effectively get off the blocked or heavy M25 use the new free flowing lane (lets say its going to the M4) to shot past all the traffic then try to squeeze back in right at the very last opportunity, often they cant get in right away as people sit tail to bumper to stop them, then they sit in a live motorway lane with hazards on waiting for someone to let them in and hopping an Artic doesn't wipe then out form behind at 60mph. The merge at point thing is still a bit annoying.

I have seen in the states 6 lanes go down to 2 in fairly moderate traffic and everyone manages to get over way before the merge and it all keeps flowing,(i was staggered) this will NEVER EVER happen here as a good 25% of cars will bomb up the empty lanes and nip in 10 ft before they hit the cones causing a big tail back until all the lanes are full. Its very antisocial, if you did it at a supermarket checkout (ran to the front and nipped in the queue) you would probably get a black eye. IMHO most UK drivers have good manners until they get behind a wheel, and then its fk everyone

[48k]

chunder27 said:

Also, when you have a roadworks section on a motorway and it goes from outside to in, they will often straddle the two outer to stop idiots basically following the cones all the way down to the join.

The idiots are not the drivers who drive up to the cones to merge.

[mickmcpaddy]

Once the two lanes have merged to a single lane at the pinch point the single lane of traffic moves much quicker than the 2 lanes before and at the merge point, more than twice as fast anyway. If people got into the single lane whilst it was still flowing there wouldn't be any queue at all. Its the ones that force the queue to brake that cause the problems.

[mcpoot]

mickmcpaddy said:

Once the two lanes have merged to a single lane at the pinch point the single lane of traffic moves much quicker than the 2 lanes before and at the merge point, more than twice as fast anyway. If people got into the single lane whilst it was still flowing there wouldn't be any queue at all. Its the ones that force the queue to brake that cause the problems.

Have you worked out who the ones are causing the problems because I don't think it's who you think it is?

[catso]

Riley Blue said:

theboss said:

Can we have more “merge in turn” or “use both lanes” signs?

Yes please! That way the lemmings might actually do what they're supposed to do! I think I've only ever seen three or four 'merge in turn' signs in the UK.

Indeed, there is a two lane DC that goes down to one lane near that I use frequently and it has such a sign. It is about the only time I see people merging in an orderly fashion and as such, despite being a busy road into the city, the traffic flows reasonably well.

[mickmcpaddy]

mcpoot said:

mickmcpaddy said:

Once the two lanes have merged to a single lane at the pinch point the single lane of traffic moves much quicker than the 2 lanes before and at the merge point, more than twice as fast anyway. If people got into the single lane whilst it was still flowing there wouldn't be any queue at all. Its the ones that force the queue to brake that cause the problems.

Have you worked out who the ones are causing the problems because I don't think it's who you think it is?

Well if there was no merge in turn there at all and it was just a single lane then it would flow normally, if its two lanes but the traffic is fairly light it will flow ok, the problems start when one person wants to go faster so he goes in lane two and merges near the front, this will cause the car in lane 1 to brake a bit, the one behind it brake a little bit harder the one behind that harder still until the left lanes virtually stops.

Someone further back thinks fk this and overtakes and merges near the front, causing the already slowly moving car in lane 1 to come to a complete stop to let him in, this obviously causes all of lane 1 to stop dead.

All I'm saying is if people merged whilst the traffic was still flowing then it would free flow through the pinch point and you wouldn't have to worry about backing up onto the roundabout because there wouldn't be a queue to speak of.

[Chrisgr31]

Mandat said:

The effect that the stradling HGV is creating (i.e. both lanes of equally full traffic) should be what happens natrually at the merge point.

Those people who merge too early and too far away from the merge point are the ones that actually create the problems.

Yes but thats the problem, the merging works as long as traffic is light the problem comes where there is a significant difference in speed between the traffic pre merge, and the traffic post merge, because then you get a queue. Generally most people try to merge in turn, but as they do so the merge point moves further and further back because the traffic has no slowed enough approaching the merge point.

If more people did what the HGVs are doing earlier in the process then the merge point would remain in the right place.

[Centurion07]

Chrisgr31 said:

If more people did what the HGVs are doing earlier in the process then the merge point would remain in the right place.

There really is no hope...

Pray tell, how is the merge point remaining in the right place, i.e. AT THE CONES, if bellends are artificially creating their own by blocking an empty lane?

That "significant speed difference" is caused by people getting into the "queue" far too early leaving a nice empty lane for people to continue at 70mph.

Edited by Centurion07 on Tuesday 21st November 22:16

[Chrisgr31]

Centurion07 said:

Pray tell, how is the merge point remaining in the right place, i.e. AT THE CONES, if bellends are artificially creating their own by blocking an empty lane?

It will be quite simple because at some point the HGVs will be at the front of the queue and though the pinchpoint themselves, at which point the merge point will back at the pinch point

[Centurion07]

Alternatively, if everyone continued in both lanes up to the ACTUAL merge point, it would remain in exactly the same place the whole time...

[petrolbloke]

matjk said:

Its very antisocial, if you did it at a supermarket checkout (ran to the front and nipped in the queue) you would probably get a black eye.

Your analogy doesn't work. It's more like this:

Consider you're at the supermarket and 2 checkouts are open. Checkout 1's conveyor belt is full with 3 customers in the queue. Checkout 2's conveyor belt is 1/3 full with one customer in the queue. You arrive at the checkouts and to go Checkout 2. Are you pushing in front of the last person to join Checkout 1? If you were the second customer in the queue at Checkout 1 would you block any other customers arriving at Checkout 2 to prevent them leaving the supermarket before you?

For those who think using all the available road space up to the merge point is 'pushing in', please read Highway Code rule 134, then direct me towards any other bit of the highway code which suggests merging before the merge point. Also interested if you can point me towards anything that supports the actions of those who block lanes before the merge point.

There's a bit of road on my commute where people try to 'police' the r/h lane and all the sheep are sitting in the left hand lane. The bit of road is the A505 exit from the A11 southbound in case anyone wants to look it up on Google Maps. If there's too many sheep & 'police' around then the traffic can back up onto the A11 - then you potentially have stationary/slow moving vehicles on the slip road and vehicles doing NSL on the A11, making it more difficult/dangerous for traffic to join/leave. If everyone used both lanes and merged in turn it would greatly reduce the chances of traffic backing up to another junction.

[mickmcpaddy]

How is it possible to merge into the left lane without making the left lane slow down?