Joining Motorways at Crawling Speed
Discussion
I don't know if I've just had a bad run, but, in the last 7 days I've been behind someone (distracted, looking around in their car for stuff) who joined the free flowing M4 from Reading services at 20 MPH, I had to move around them on the inside and onto the hard shoulder and accelerate to motorway speed.
On the M6 I had two instances of people pulling off the hard shoulder without accelerating at all. Just putting on the indicator and pulling out into lane 1 of the late evening fast flowing traffic.
Whilst trying to avoid a 'everything has gone to the dogs and nobody can drive anymore except me' Meldrew moment, what's wrong with people?
On the M6 I had two instances of people pulling off the hard shoulder without accelerating at all. Just putting on the indicator and pulling out into lane 1 of the late evening fast flowing traffic.
Whilst trying to avoid a 'everything has gone to the dogs and nobody can drive anymore except me' Meldrew moment, what's wrong with people?
This is my pet hate. There's hardly any cars out there now that can't be doing motorway speeds by the end of the slip road. Just bloody get on with it!
Cars which pull off the hard shoulder without picking up speed has to be the most dangerous thing out there. When I was truck driving there's nothing more scary than seeing that right hand indicator come on a crawling car when you're doing 56 MPH and weighing 44 tonnes. If it comes out in front of you and the next lane is occupied the only place you can go is up the hard shoulder or straight over the top of them.
It's about time motorway driving became part of learning to drive.
Cars which pull off the hard shoulder without picking up speed has to be the most dangerous thing out there. When I was truck driving there's nothing more scary than seeing that right hand indicator come on a crawling car when you're doing 56 MPH and weighing 44 tonnes. If it comes out in front of you and the next lane is occupied the only place you can go is up the hard shoulder or straight over the top of them.
It's about time motorway driving became part of learning to drive.
I saw an idiot do something like this yesterday. He accelerated up the slip-road at a reasonable pace to about 60 then as he approached the (free flowing but fairly busy) main carriageway, he slowed to about 40 then barged his way out into the traffic and straight across into the middle lane. You could see the shock ripple back down the motorway as people stood on the brakes, given the amount of traffic, it would probably have only taken one person not paying attention to turn it into a fairly serious accident.
How can you expect people to put their foot down? SPEED KILLS, dontcha know?
Current propaganda makes "speeding" as morally unacceptable as drink driving is.
I should imagine that 75% of drivers these days have never had the loud pedal down to the carpet.
I usually overtake the 40mph dawdlers on slip roads only to get a barrage of flashing lights, horn blowing and general apoplexy.
Is it because I "pushed in"? Is it because I scared them? Who knows?
Current propaganda makes "speeding" as morally unacceptable as drink driving is.
I should imagine that 75% of drivers these days have never had the loud pedal down to the carpet.
I usually overtake the 40mph dawdlers on slip roads only to get a barrage of flashing lights, horn blowing and general apoplexy.
Is it because I "pushed in"? Is it because I scared them? Who knows?
Does my absolute nut. This is usually combined with people who expect first-laners to move over for them to join, without realising they're meant to be matching the speed and merging between us. If it's not safe for me to move over for you, I won't. Especially not if there's sweet f
k all behind me and you can't read the damn road.
k all behind me and you can't read the damn road. romeogolf said:
Does my absolute nut. This is usually combined with people who expect first-laners to move over for them to join, without realising they're meant to be matching the speed and merging between us. If it's not safe for me to move over for you, I won't. Especially not if there's sweet fk all behind me and you can't read the damn road.
you need to be careful about that.k all behind me and you can't read the damn road. Like any junction if you can see theyre coming out and are unlikely to stop and you do nothing about it you're as likely up for without due care as them.
You can see the slip road is about to tail off for them, they're going to join the motorway, you're behind them and can see what's happening. Instead of getting upset about it, just find a way of letting them join so you can both go happily on your way
Rich Boy Spanner said:
On the M6 I had two instances of people pulling off the hard shoulder without accelerating at all. Just putting on the indicator and pulling out into lane 1 of the late evening fast flowing traffic.
In the US there's a now widely enforced "move over" law where you have to do this for emergency vehicles (which are much more common on their major roads than on ours).
Rich Boy Spanner said:
On the M6 I had two instances of people pulling off the hard shoulder without accelerating at all. Just putting on the indicator and pulling out into lane 1 of the late evening fast flowing traffic.
More often than not this happens normally when overtaking anyway, people just bang on the indicator and pull out then check their mirrors. Some doddery old fart nearly wiped me out yesterday on the M25 doing this. I'm coming up on his right doing at about 65 (on bike, slow moving traffic), and when I'm about 12 feet from him he sticks his indicator on and it manages to flash once before the fker pulls out by which point I'm about 6 feet from him. The MB behind brakes heavily and drops right back (don't know why, he wasn't that close) and I brake like a madman and swing out in the next lane which was thankfully empty. I get alongside him and - nothing. The wker just stares straight ahead with his rheumy eyes, utterly oblivious. I must admit I was properly pissed off and for a nano second thought about booting his door but obviously didn't and just got out of there.People's awareness of what they're doing and how it effects other drivers is just completely absent and I genuinely struggle to understand what goes in people's minds sometimes.
marshalla said:
Any particular reason why you can't back off, create a gap to accelerate into (if safe) thus making a situation where you can join at a more appropriate speed, then overtake them on the preferred side ?
Thats exactly what I do. If I see a car coming on to a slip road I think is going to slow, or the traffic looks heavy, I give plenty of room to them by backing off then accelerating.Osinjak said:
The wker just stares straight ahead with his rheumy eyes, utterly oblivious. I must admit I was properly pissed off and for a nano second thought about booting his door but obviously didn't and just got out of there.
Been tempted to do that so many times, but then remember it will probably be more of a danger for me.ker just stares straight ahead with his rheumy eyes, utterly oblivious. I must admit I was properly pissed off and for a nano second thought about booting his door but obviously didn't and just got out of there.What really gets me about these people is the amount of times someone does something dumb and when you hit your horn whilst slamming on your brakes for someone who is cutting you up rather than pulling back in they carry on out then give you the finger as if you are at fault for them cutting you up.
Edited by SteveSteveson on Friday 5th September 11:14
Ive had people brake infront of me on a slip road when joining. The ability to judge speed and space to filter in is obviousy lackin in a lot of people.
Even had someone brake and cut across the chevrons to get in behind a truck that i then passed while still on the sliproad with plenty of room to get in.
Morons everywhere.
Even had someone brake and cut across the chevrons to get in behind a truck that i then passed while still on the sliproad with plenty of room to get in.
Morons everywhere.
I had the worst extreme of this afew months ago. I was accelerating up to 50 following a van and a Polo onto the M6 at Junction 13. Come to the end of the slip road, the Polo driver decides to treat Junction 13 as a normal junction, and slows to a halt at the very end of the slip road. The van had to take evasive action and swerve into the M6 (lucky they found a gap), whilst I stood on the brakes and just managed to miss her on the hard shoulder. She then slowly pulls onto the M6, causing an artic to slam it's anchors on.
Looking at the driver, she seemed completely unaware of the carnage she had caused......
Looking at the driver, she seemed completely unaware of the carnage she had caused......
saaby93 said:
romeogolf said:
Does my absolute nut. This is usually combined with people who expect first-laners to move over for them to join, without realising they're meant to be matching the speed and merging between us. If it's not safe for me to move over for you, I won't. Especially not if there's sweet fk all behind me and you can't read the damn road.
you need to be careful about that.k all behind me and you can't read the damn road. Like any junction if you can see theyre coming out and are unlikely to stop and you do nothing about it you're as likely up for without due care as them.
You can see the slip road is about to tail off for them, they're going to join the motorway, you're behind them and can see what's happening. Instead of getting upset about it, just find a way of letting them join so you can both go happily on your way
Yes this is a real problem. I came to the end of a sliproad the other day to find a van (which at first glance I thought was parked) pulling on to the dual carriageway at literally walking pace. There was much chaos and concern as all the traffic in lane 1 suddenly had to do an emergency stop, then merge with lane 2 which was still doing 70 
.
My mother does this too, she thinks it's dangerous to join a motorway at more than 35 or so as it would be more difficult to stop at the end of the sliproad
. It's bloody terrifying being in a car doing this.
.My mother does this too, she thinks it's dangerous to join a motorway at more than 35 or so as it would be more difficult to stop at the end of the sliproad
. It's bloody terrifying being in a car doing this.Gassing Station | General Gassing | Top of Page | What's New | My Stuff