Poll: Merge in turn - why does nobody get it?

[squerble]

Hi all. I'm getting a bit salty reading the comments and the wording in this article.

The article using phrases like "sneaky driver" and "tries to avoid the queue", and the sheer stupidity in the comments just shows how little people understand this concept.

 

[squerble]

Merging in turn is recommended but only if safe and appropriate when vehicles are travelling at a very low speed, e.g. when approaching road works or a road traffic incident.

Doesn't have to be signposted. Why you'd use any other method anyway is beyond me - it couldn't be a fairer system.

 

[squerble]

Surely if you merge before you hit the single lane there wouldn't be a traffic jam.

What if there's traffic lights, busy roundabout or a combination further down the road? (Which there is in this case - Switch Island, joining two motorways and a few routes in/out of Liverpool)

 

[squerble]

Thanks for the poll, but the wording is not helping - the Merc driver isn't "skipping" the queue.

 

[squerble]

But by merging earlier - like all the other morons - he would be incorrect, and be contributing further to the already dire state of that traffic jam. The queue would be half that length if people merged properly.

This sort of thing annoys me more than I would like to admit.

:Edit: Ok Squerble, good point, fixed.

Thanks, Zefan.

Most things on the road I'm happy to let go (being cut up, people pulling out on roundabouts), but this one really annoys me.

 

[squerble]

Your just fall off it and don't like it when pointed out you posted something wrong.

Thanks for the new sig.

 

[squerble]

This and getting back over to th left if you aren't overtaking anything could really do with hammering home somehow, too many don't get it.

And the 40mph-EVERYWHERE brigade

 

[squerble]

Should have crashed into the back of him and claimed whiplash.

If it weren't for the video and/or witnesses, then the Merc would have been deemed at fault in this scenario.

 

[squerble]

It doesn't help that you get so many people getting in the empty lane and flooring it up to the very end and forcing their way in rather than merging slowly beforehand, politely. This just taunts and aggravates everyone.

It's this kind of attitude that isn't helping the situation. The lane is empty because people aren't using it correctly; you don't merge before hand. You then get the people in the non-closed lane that think "look at this idiot trying to 'queue jump', I'm not going to let them in" and close up to the person in front. Not leaving enough space in front of you causes traffic jams when people brake even slightly. All that happens is the problem is exacerbated on many levels.

 

[squerble]

I do wonder how different the poll would look if I'd just posted this in GD. It's skewed in here as most people actually understand how to drive

 

[squerble]

Merc driver is a ****.

Cannot stand people whom drive down when they should merge.

Do you even have a license? The Renault driver is in the wrong. Everyone who has already merged is in the wrong. Merc driver is in the right.

 

[squerble]

Based on the situation in the video it is. It's rude and antisocial expecting to not wait your turn, why should someone be entitled to go straight to the front and cause everyone else to wait longer.

I guess this raises 2 questions:

1) how would you feel if you had moved in to the lane along with everyone else, waited 5 minutes and saw someone fly down the inside making your wait time longer?

2) would you do the same as the Mercedes driver?

Why aren't you understanding this?

1) I wouldn't be moving into the lane because I understand how to use the road.
2) Yes

"Why should someone be entitled to go straight to the front and cause everyone else to wait longer?" That's the rules of the road. Use both lanes until the merge point.

FWIW - I'd be frustrated if I was waiting and someone went down the inside and I'd waited patiently like everyone else.

It's quite interesting that a handful of cars moving over too early would cause this issue, if a group of cars had approached this and merged in turn this situation would never have arisen. Most people have seen the cars in front pull over too early and done the same. I guess on another day it could have ended up entirely different depending on the volume on the traffic and how early people move across.

You're waiting stupidly like everyone else.

 

[squerble]

We are British, not German.

British like to queue, Germans push to the front.

The majority of UK drivers move to the inside lane at the earliest opportunity when they see a closed lane.

Leaving the cheeky, important ones to race to the front and 'push in'.

The FACT is, if you are sat in the inside lane, be prepared for a long wait as you watch people pass you repeatedly.

As soon as the outside lane is blocked (usually by a HGV straddling the lanes) Everyone moves faster.

I fully understand what merge in turn means, but in reality I've never seen it work.

You never see it work because stubborn, dense people like you don't ever try to use the technique properly and just cut off drivers attempting to use it because you're the one who thinks you're more entitled to go first.

 

[squerble]

Related query - the Merc's "flashing" brake lights? Is this because the brake lights flash intentionally or something to do with the camera's recording speed/fps?

Usually due to the camera but newer Mercs/BMWs seem to flash the brake lights under heavy breaking.

 

[squerble]

I think it's a culture thing, we do like to queue as has been pointed out. Anything else is perceived as being rude even it is more efficient (in the first phase but not when traffic has been backed up like this).

Actually, it's the most efficient when the traffic is like this. It's a completely fair system.

 

[squerble]

There was also no need for him to jump the queue. As much as the self-professed highway code experts want to massage their egos about being right about merge-in-turn at the point of the obstruction, it clearly wasn't being followed by the majority of those there. The merge point was behind the point of the queue.

So in effect what the Merc driver was doing by jumping the queue was slowing the majority down, because the queue would have to stop at the obstruction to let him merge because he was too ignorant and/or impatient to merge earlier.

Please hand in your drivers license at the nearest police station. The merge point is at the cones. It doesn't magically move because idiots like yourself move too early. Additionally, he's not "queue jumping" in any manner. The queue doesn't have to stop at all, it only stops because people drive too close and cause everyone to stop.

This is the simplest ******* thing in the world yet you're still refuting it.

 

[squerble]

They reacted badly to a situation that shouldn't have happened in the first place - the Renault driver was a **** and caused the situation because he doesn't know the rules of the road.

There is nothing more to this video.

 

[squerble]

Jono8, you keep banging on about "as signs direct", but none of the signs in the video tell you to merge. They are simply informing you that the lane closes at the specified distance down the road. They do not tell you to merge.

 

[squerble]

What?

All I am saying is that I sort of semi agree with the quote from that guy who works with temporary traffic management - in that ideally you should try and be in the correct lane a decent distance before lane stops.

Don't get me wrong, obviously both lanes should be used in situations like this and you should merge in turn, but I also think bombing (probably speeding) up the lane that closes in 200 yards to get in front of the queue isn't the wisest thing to do because whilst you follow the "merge in turn" highway code situation you end up contravening all the other things the highways code says

The guy in traffic management doesn't understand the Highway Code then. You should, and can, be in the correct lane at a decent distance if the traffic is flowing freely - people leaving a suitable gap to the car in front means others can slot in easily. It isn't in this video. He isn't contravening the Highway Code because it explicitly says that approaching roadworks, use merge in turn and that if traffic is moving slower on the right hand lane, you can pass on the left.

The Merc drivers speed differential (you can't just use his speed alone) is, IMO, too high on his approach though - I can agree with you on that

 

[squerble]

There really aren't many tbh.

Most are saying that the Renault diver is at fault but the Merc driver isn't completely faultless, in that he was driving like an idiot once the Reanult had blocked him.

To be fair, the poll questions are centred around the blocking, not the subsequent behaviour; realistically, it should have been 100% in favour of the Merc.