This x100. Daily life for us out there. Having to slam on the brakes or swerve in behind a car in lane 2 to avoid some moron blindly joining from a slip road is a daily occurrence. From our point of view we're always checking for space to 'escape' into lane 2 on approach to an on slip, but some people just shouldn't be on the road clearly. The amount of times I've been beeped at by people joining in heavy traffic forcefully when there's no possible gap is astounding.
Joining/Leaving the Motorway
- Thread starter BYTEr
- Start date
This x100. Daily life for us out there. Having to slam on the brakes or swerve in behind a car in lane 2 to avoid some moron blindly joining from a slip road is a daily occurrence. From our point of view we're always checking for space to 'escape' into lane 2 on approach to an on slip, but some people just shouldn't be on the road clearly. The amount of times I've been beeped at by people joining in heavy traffic forcefully when there's no possible gap is astounding.
Yeah, understood. I think all you can do is hang back to give yourself as much time as possible on the slip.
I do this in the mornings sometimes - there's a sliproad onto the dual carriageway, but you you occasionally get big 20-ton trucks using it as well, coming from the cement works a few miles up the road. If I time it badly I'll get stuck behind them on the slip road, and they can barely get up to 35-40MPH before joining. So i hang back early up the slip road so they can get as far ahead as possible, then I can use as much of the sliproad as possible to accelerate.
Only time slip roads annoy me is when a truck wants to join the motorway but cares none that there is a car in lane 1 on the motorway, some seem adamant they wont change speed and they want the exact spot you currently occupy.
I can definitely see why short sliproad are a hazard, few in wales where your going from 30 to 70 within only 100 meters, requires a large gap in traffic for you to be able to speed up.
I can definitely see why short sliproad are a hazard, few in wales where your going from 30 to 70 within only 100 meters, requires a large gap in traffic for you to be able to speed up.
Don
The skill level of drivers has dramatically dropped over the past few years. Is it because cars are becoming more 'intelligent' and drivers don't have to 'do' as much meaning less concentration? I only have a 30 minute trip to work but it's very rare that I don't encounter some idiot on the road. I drove to France a couple of weeks back and the amount of middle lane ***** was infuriating, I thought they were clamping down on this? Common sense is just none existent.
Sorry, slightly off topic rant.
Sorry, slightly off topic rant.
Problem is it is all users on and off the motorway when it comes to approaching joins/exists that cause the problems - not that long ago when joining the M5 at Taunton a lorry moved out into the middle lane to make space for people joining while someone behind them in the middle lane who was doing like 1 mph faster instead of just slowing up a bit which they had plenty of time and space to do pulled out into the outside lane causing issues for people coming up fairly fast on the outside lane and a couple of people swerving into the left and middle lanes defensively which panicked someone joining into stopping at the end of the slip road resulting in the person behind them who was in the process of slotting into a gap they could see on the motorway going into the back of the stopped driver right beside me.
While the drivers on the slip road have some blame it was basically all down to the selfish **** who was probably using cruise control and too lazy to adjust.
While the drivers on the slip road have some blame it was basically all down to the selfish **** who was probably using cruise control and too lazy to adjust.
Soldato
You should be using mirrors all the way down the slip and pick your gap as early as possible.
If you run out of slip road or are in danger of causing a hazard it is acceptable to use a short section of shoulder if you can see it is clear ahead.
And yes it should be a ticket and fine if you purposely do not accelerate to the speed of the traffic flow when joining or fail to do mirror signal manouvere as in the highway code.
Most mway slips in the UK are long enough to join at 80+mph and are longer than in Germany and most continental mways.
If you run out of slip road or are in danger of causing a hazard it is acceptable to use a short section of shoulder if you can see it is clear ahead.
And yes it should be a ticket and fine if you purposely do not accelerate to the speed of the traffic flow when joining or fail to do mirror signal manouvere as in the highway code.
Most mway slips in the UK are long enough to join at 80+mph and are longer than in Germany and most continental mways.
Soldato
- Joined
- 22 Feb 2014
- Posts
- 2,779
Exactly this.
I do quite a lot of mileage nowadays and see more and more stupid driving as a net effect of that.
I try not to get wound up by bad driving but my mood/level of tiredness directly relates to my patience, particularly behind the wheel
Couldn't agree more, and now they want to push these self driving cars? Can you imagine taking the idiots we already have, removing their only regular driving practice and then putting them in a regular car every 3 months when their car goes in for a service. It's going to be manic. We really are dumbing the human species down to a point where people are incapable of thinking any more. It just beggars belief really. This is what we're becoming:
A lot of this would be solved by having longer exit slips. There's only a couple of junctions that i know of that have this, and i drive the M4/M5/M6/M56 pretty regularly.
By having the exit slip start about a mile before the junction, rather than a couple of hundred yards, it means traffic intending to leave the motorway can move over and stay clear of the inside lane. This in turn means lorries don't need to move into the middle lane to keep pace, and then prevents a build-up of traffic as cars in the middle lane are now trying to overtake.
Anyone live in Stoke?
The worst entrance slip I've ever seen is M6 southbound at J15. It's a sharp left turn then a very short downhill slip before turning uphill slightly to join the motorway.
Basically, when the motorway is busy, you need to gun it after the left turn to get up to speed but 99% of people trundle along without a care in the world and then suddenly find themselves trying to merge onto the motorway at 40mph when they run out of room.
The worst entrance slip I've ever seen is M6 southbound at J15. It's a sharp left turn then a very short downhill slip before turning uphill slightly to join the motorway.
Basically, when the motorway is busy, you need to gun it after the left turn to get up to speed but 99% of people trundle along without a care in the world and then suddenly find themselves trying to merge onto the motorway at 40mph when they run out of room.
Soldato
I have these issues all the time. The sliproads over here are really long and give you plenty of time to get up to speed but as soon as you get to the bottom it ends and you have to merge. You can see what's coming all the way down the slip road but people feel the need to slow down to 30mph (I've actually had someone come to a stop before). More often than not it's old people. It's particularly unnerving joining at 30mph because you have trucks flying along there at 80mph+
They should have speed cameras at the bottom of the ramps that ticket people for going too slow
They should have speed cameras at the bottom of the ramps that ticket people for going too slow
Soldato
Short slip roads? Come at me. I'm going to be using this most days when I buy my new house, maybe I shouldn't get rid of the ST after all
Soldato
I know that road, spectacular stretch through the tunnels! The slip is a bit scary mind with the speed some people drive along there at times, despite often quite rigorous speed enforcement.
Associate
This is one of the most annoying differences I have between my two cars. One takes the whole slip road to get up to speed (if that car can get to 60/70 any car from 1990 should be able to ) so anyone going slow makes it a right pain to merge. The other its not really an issue.
Ive been there also!
I know that one well from driving south, you have to really keep an eye open as the slip lane does appear out of nowhere and all of a sudden you might find yourself needing to jump into lane 2.
Kind of similar for northbound, although thankfully you can easily see what's coming down the slip-lane.
Soldato
This is a daily frustration for me too, people join at at 40 - 45mph on the M27 when it is busy but moving (at 65mph). The slip road is plenty long enough, and downhill, and i have no issue reaching 60 or so in my 15 year old 70hp golf. I think it is timidness or ignorance from the drivers that do it.
But on the topic of crap sliproads, Ringwood on the A31 has some belters:
Two way slip road
Two way, very short, uphill slip road
Whatever this is (current improvements to this junction are out for consultation)
But on the topic of crap sliproads, Ringwood on the A31 has some belters:
Two way slip road
Two way, very short, uphill slip road
Whatever this is (current improvements to this junction are out for consultation)
I don't think retesting will solve the issue we see.
unless you happen to have a short motorway slip road, or its incredibly busy and you have a merge in turn. Then retests aren't going to do a lot. People are also more likely to change attitude if they actually understand the reason behind it, which was never looked at in the test or at least many moons ago when I did mine.
I think tv and youtube adverts would be far more effective.
and there's no reason to join at such sow speeds, I've driven some sheds with no acceleration and you can still join at a reasonable speed, you just need to put your foot to the floor and not change gear so early.
ffs I mean the other day stuck behind someone who actually joined the motorway at 30. on a downhill decent size slip road.