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

Who was in the right?

  • I agree with the Renault driver, he was right to block the Mercedes driver.

    Votes: 34 11.4%

  • I agree with the Mercedes driver, there was no need for him to be blocked like that.

    Votes: 263 88.6%
  • Total voters
    297
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Adam said:
I can't disagree with the fact that the lane was vacated far too early, you can see how much ground has been covered by the Mercedes driver. I know how the roads work, in an ideal world everyone would let one another in and take turns to ensure its a smooth transition through the blockage.

But given the situation I can see why people have got annoyed at the Mercedes driver. Everyone else is queuing patiently and the perception is that the Mercedes driver is trying to jump the queue to reduce the time he needs to wait for high increases the wait time for everyone else.

I'm sure everyone would be annoyed if you were in a 10 person queue at the supermarket and someone sails to the front when you have been waiting. Given how this has panned out with everyone merging too early, that's essentially what's happening here.
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This is more like there being 10 people in line for one till and none for the one next to it. Then everyone getting annoyed when someone goes to the till with nobody using it.

I said it above, if the lane wasn't there to be used it would have been coned off further up the road
 
Adam said:
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?

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.
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It's not "waiting patiently", it's silly. It'd be like queueing up for a cash machine when there's an unused one next to it, and getting annoyed when someone goes to use it. It's just nonsensical.

That answers 1), and as for 2), yes I would.
 
Jokester said:
The FACT is, both lanes should have 50% of the traffic in them.
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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.
 
I agree with neither of the drivers in the case above.

No one argues when a 32 tonner does it, like I said, bit of a fail in a Renault MPV.
 
I've been called a 'pregnant fish', gentleman sausage, retard, and all manner of things for disagreeing with the actions of the Renault driver in various discussions around the internet. One guy thinks I'm a pregnant fish because 'people like me' stop the flow of traffic by using both lanes instead of queuing in one lane.... No, I couldn't work that one out either. :o
 
SkodaMart said:
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.
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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.
 
Adam said:
I can't disagree with the fact that the lane was vacated far too early
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So your solution to seeing this problem is.... just to sit in a queue behind them all?

Adam said:
But given the situation I can see why people have got annoyed at the Mercedes driver. Everyone else is queuing patiently and the perception is that the Mercedes driver is trying to jump the queue to reduce the time he needs to wait for high increases the wait time for everyone else.
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It's because people are like sheep. They really are. In everything. The general public will do what the person in front does. If *everyone* used both lanes, there wouldn't be this whole "OMG YOU'RE PUSHING IN". Unfortunately when one or two people start queuing everyone else does.

Adam said:
I'm sure everyone would be annoyed if you were in a 10 person queue at the supermarket and someone sails to the front when you have been waiting. Given how this has panned out with everyone merging too early, that's essentially what's happening here.
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As I said previously, at the supermarket it is like 10 people waiting at Till 2, and none going to Till 1. You turn up and say "oh, well i might as well use Till 1 then?" and then everyone queuing at Till 2 going "OMG! YOU SHOULD HAVE WAITED YOUR TURN AT TILL 2 LIKE WE ALL DID!". Most people would laugh at that scenario and say "that'd never happen" but if you substitute the word "till" for "lane" - you're saying you can suddenly understand people's anger? How?!

I have tried to put it in the most simplistic terms as possible there, and if you don't understand this or choose not to understand it because you have some fundamental love of needlessly queuing for things, then I am pulling the eject cord.
 
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SkodaMart said:
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.
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The irony in your example is, it's the people in the left lane hugging each others bumper afraid to let the big willy people in that causes it to move slowly. If everyone travelled at say 30mph and left 2 car lengths infront of them, the road would flow like butter and the lanes would merge perfectly.
 
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). I'd describe this as a second phase as the damage has already been done. I wonder what would have happened if 10-15 cars had followed the Mercedes and created a new merge in turn situation which we all agree is the ideal situation?

The supermarket opening a new lane analogy doesn't work as the blockage isn't being removed. The lane that's blocked in the video isn't suddenly being opened up to allow more volume through.

The cash machine analogy doesn't work as in the video you'd be relying on someone who has queued patently to let you in or use the cash machine. That would be like walking to the front and hoping someone is kind enough to let you use the cash machine ahead of them. Probably unlikely to happen but as we are shielded by a car we get that bit braver and cheekier than the average person would be face to face :D
 
Adam said:
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).
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Actually, it's the most efficient when the traffic is like this. It's a completely fair system.
 
SlyReaper said:
But nowhere near as long a wait as you would have had if you'd joined the main queue immediately. Sooner or later, there will be one who lets you in. And the guy behind that person will be screaming at them for letting you in. :p
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You have misunderstood my post.
 
Adam said:
The supermarket opening a new lane analogy doesn't work as the blockage isn't being removed. The lane that's blocked in the video isn't suddenly being opened up to allow more volume through.

The cash machine analogy doesn't work as in the video you'd be relying on someone who has queued patently to let you in or use the cash machine. That would be like walking to the front and hoping someone is kind enough to let you use the cash machine ahead of them. Probably unlikely to happen but as we are shielded by a car we get that bit braver and cheekier than the average person would be face to face :D
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Who cares about an analogy.. You don't need one.

It's simple enough to understand.
 
Stretch said:
The vast majority of people in the UK are queuing anoraks. In most situations, if people assume a single point of queuing, they form a single line queue. You don't merge when queuing at the shops for example.

Most of the drivers see the road going down to a single lane, so form a single queue. People instinctively don't trust a queue merge because no matter how fair most people are when the time comes to merge, they will always be the odd **** who aggressively tries to jump their turn.

The only fully fair queuing system is FIFO, so that's what most people do.

Most people in this thread seem to support the Merc driver, and legally he's done nothing wrong.

Personally, I'd much prefer to live in country full of the people queuing in the outside lane, and the Renault driver only done what most other people were thinking.
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Then find such a place and move there. Take all like-minded individuals with you.
 
If both lanes are used and everyone lets 1 car in front of them in then it's efficient. We all know that doesn't happen in the real world. The video is just a catalogue of poor driving and how not to approach a lane closure for a variety of reasons.

No one likes queuing. No ones likes thinking they are losing out.
 
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