Someone ... please invent a merge in turn camera!

[rypt]

Forget speed cameras, they don't solve anything.

What we need are merge in turn cameras, so that the ***holes who are incapable of this very simple concept get some nice fines!

There are roadworks going on en route from me to my GF's place, on a stretch of road between two roundabouts there is a sign informing you that in 500yards the right hand lane is closed.
To me, that means that at that point you merge in turn ... seems that no other driver on the road around me knows that. EVERY single car is queueing in the left hand lane (in almost stationary traffic).

So ... I'm happily driving down the right hand lane, at around the speedlimit (it's still 50mph as the 30 limit does not kick in until the point where the lanes merge).
I'm about to pass some builders truck (a proper truck, not a van/pickup) ... and the **** moves into the middle to block me. Causing me to emergency stop.
If my car wasn't light, with good tyres and decent brakes (that were warmed up) I'm not sure I would have stopped in time, as he made the move almost as I was level with the end of his truck.




So yer, can we have some good driving cameras please?
And why do people not comprehend how to merge in turn?

 

[rypt]

And if you weren't passing a queue of stationary traffic at 50mph you wouldn't have had to perform an emergency stop in the first place.

Nothing wrong with doing the speedlimit past stationary traffic in the other lane

 

[rypt]

Where in Oxford is this, the bit coming into Bicester on the A41 by any chance?

Nope, the new roadwords around Heyford Hill (Sainsbury's) / Littlemore / Kennington roundabouts on the ring road

 

[rypt]

I'm talking people who push right to the front, not merging in turn, usually with 2-3 other people on their tail and all 3-4 cars try to push in front of the furthest car forward in the left lane as they can not taking turns to merge in - I'm guessing in some regards its a response to people in the left lane closing ranks but still.

The problem is for every person that understands how to use merge in turn and willing to use the right hand lane, you get another person who just abuses the system. Its a bad system because no one likes queue jumpers and it looks like queue jumping even to people who understand merge in turn.

Merge in turn is supposed to work at the front, like a zip. You have 1 car from left lane, 1 car from right lane, 1 car from left lane, 1 car from right lane, and so on


But I guess this thread also illustrates how useless the majority of UK drivers are, given the wrong interpretations of how merge in turn works that have been stated above.

 

[rypt]

MoNkeE, actually it DOES mean merge in turn.

...where lanes are restricted due to road works, merge in turn (see Rule 134)...

In congested road conditions do not change lanes unnecessarily. 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. It is not recommended at high speed.

Given the fact that the overall speed of the traffic was slow due to the roadworks, Merge in Turn is the correct method to use in this instance.

 

[rypt]

A shame about the speed of the bell end in the outside lane though....

If the lane is empty what do you want me to do, crawl along at 10mph to the merge in turn point?

 

[rypt]

No, you anticipate what could (and did) happen, and travel at a more appropriate speed.

What could and did happen is not something that should happen, as is against the instructions of the Highway Code

 

[rypt]

nice piccy, 1st car merging has left it a little late though

I'm not sure about that, to me the idea was that you simply follow the lines of the cones that force you to merge

 

[rypt]

The reason dim people hate merge in turn is because of people like you.

That is no reason at all, given the fact I'm doing the move correctly by merging at the pinch point ... just like a zip.

If they made the move correctly then there would not be an empty lane for me to drive down to begin with

 

[rypt]

I went driving down an empty lane at the speedlimit, a perfectly safe move.

The fact that the person pulled out in front of me with no indication (and on purpose KNOWING that I was there) is no reason at all.

If anything that move is enough to get the trucker charged with DWDCA or Dangerous Driving were any police present

 

[rypt]

Thank you for proving you have zero anticipation skills. People change lanes all the time and its important to be ready to react.

Except for the fact that the change in lanes is against the highway code which tells you to not change lanes while queuing for a merge in turn.

This is before we get to the fact that straddling lanes is illegal
and before we get to the fact that pulling out knowing that someone is there in order to block them is illegal
and so on

 

[rypt]

What exactly happens at a 2mph + 50mph zip? Is that when we hear a sound more like rypt than zip as you bounce through the cones as you cant stop in a pseudo gap?

Who said anything abut merging at 50mph? You slow down at the merge point, but you drive up tot he merge point at whatever speed the traffic is moving.

In my case, since everyone decided to not use L2, the traffic for L2 was moving at the speedlimit.

Were the cars using the two lanes correctly then there would be no issue

 

[rypt]

But cars were not using the two lanes correctly, creating a potential hazard which you ignored because as per usual, rypt is the champion of the universe.

There was no potential hazard created as even if cars are all in L1, you should still not pull out into L2 without indicating, you should still not pull out into L2 period as you are queueing for a merge in turn, you should still not pull out into L2 on purpose to block someone and nearly cause an accident ... and lastly ... you should still not straddle lanes.


I broke a total of 0 rules, and drove safely.
Which is more than what can be said for the idiotic truck driver ... do they not test understanding of the rules of the road when it comes to HGV tests?

 

[rypt]

Oh. So you didn't need to perform an emergency stop then? You wouldnt need to if there was no hazard. So are you telling lies?

The hazard was caused by someone purposely getting in the way.

Let me ask you a question Fox, do you ALWAYS leave a gap big enough to stop in should the car ahead emergency brake?

Before you answer that, consider the fact that cars have different braking abilities, a light weight sports car with very good brakes and tyres can easily out brake a 3/5 series by a fairly large margin.

Do you take that into consideration when leaving a gap to the car ahead? If no, then you are not driving safely


As for your comment about pedestrians and slowing whenever you see them on the sidewalk ... no I don't. If they are suicidal enough to jump out in front of my car, they are welcome to do so.

 

[rypt]

An MR2 is hardly a light weight sports car compared to the real ones, elises and what not Besides, of the two mk3's I've owned and my girlfriend's that I've driven, the stock brakes are pretty **** after a month or two of general use. Hell, I had no faith in my old yellow car's brakes after it had the V6 transplanted in. Judging by Fox's 60 - 0 speed in the wet, I'd be gobsmacked if yours could beat that.

MR2's brakes don't really start shining until you uprate them, and by that point they're hardly the "MR2's" brakes.

Stock they are decent, ... but ... Good job mine are upgraded then

The point is, you never know what the car ahead has as his setup, so how much of a gap should you leave?

Deceleration 60-0 (secs)
MR2 : Braking, 60-0 mph: 106 ft

Deceleration 60-0 (secs)
BMW 5 series 530d (E60 (03 - )) 109 ft

yep thats a massive margin, I didn't even cheat and grab the M5 - thats from http://www.motortrend.com

Those figures have no relation to my car though, given the fact that the tyres, disks, pads on it are not stock and are all better than stock