Why do people queue in one lane?

Iamzod

Iamzod

Iamzod

Soldato
Joined
7 Dec 2002
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UK
We have had 7 months of roadwork's here on the roundabout at the end of my street where the A60 & A57 join. Part of it is a dual carriageway that right at the end goes down to one lane due to the works & all the way down there are massive signs saying "Use both lanes to queue" however every time there is somebody sat in the clear lane matching the speed of the full lane with about 600 yards to go.

Why do people do this?

Today someone did it about 900 yards from the cones, the road is only 1000 yards long so traffic ended up stuck on the roundabout at a standstill as people were stuck behind him.

Do any of you guys do this & why?
 
People feel awkward having to filter down into one lane thinking people won't let them in. Probably something to do with our obsession with queuing politely?
 
I think it is the British politeness, except it has gone to more than that now. If you try to merge in turn you're "******* scum".

There is an upgraded road configuration near me that now has two lanes on approach to a roundabout, around the roundabout, followed by a merge in turn immediately after the roundabout, where as before it was one lane all the way. But everyone still queues in the one lane, meaning the queue leads back onto the slip road.

The most annoying thing is the junction capacity modelling assumes both lanes are in use, so the junction would probably operate fine if everyone used both lanes and merged in turn. But people are morons :(
 
Because people don't know how to use the roads properly, and those who do know that they are seen as rude if they overtake all the idiots, and stand a good chance of not being allowed in, so they join in with the queue...

When I drive the Skoda however, I will slowly force my way in if you try and block me out... Feel free to crash into me, I probably care about the condition of my old Skoda less than you do your 2014 BMW so I recon there will be a point when you give up being a knob. ;)
 
Because they don't understand merge in turn. Thus, they sit nose to bumper, ensure there's no room for traffic to merge, so merging traffic has to force it's way in as best it can, then these people complain about others "pushing in".
Then they defend their misunderstanding of how the road network is designed to work with an erroneous analogy about queuing at a supermarket, or some such nonsense.
 
To be fair, it doesn't help that most people who "skip" the queue absolutely gun it down the empty lane, right to the end of the point of merging, where they come to a stop and then force their way in, instead of calmly driving down the empty lane and merging over the length of the mergy bit.
 
I still reckon that in situation like this the people setting out the roadworks should do more to alleviate the situation. Rather than closing one lane (effectively giving the 'open' lane priority and encouraging the numpties to queue in it) they should funnel both lanes of traffic into the middle of the road straddling both lanes, then take that single lane of traffic to one side as necessary.
 
almoststew1990 said:
To be fair, it doesn't help that most people who "skip" the queue absolutely gun it down the empty lane, right to the end of the point of merging, where they come to a stop and then force their way in, instead of calmly driving down the empty lane and merging over the length of the mergy bit.
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They are driving down the empty lane to the merge point because that's how it's supposed to work - the lane is empty, so you proceed along it to the merge point. They have to force their way in because at the merge point, people who don't understand merge in turn are taking this pathetic "I'm not letting him in!" attitude, when in reality if everyone just left a car length in front of them, traffic would be able to merge quickly and efficiently and traffic would flow more smoothly.

kaiowas said:
I still reckon that in situation like this the people setting out the roadworks should do more to alleviate the situation. Rather than closing one lane (effectively giving the 'open' lane priority and encouraging the numpties to queue in it) they should funnel both lanes of traffic into the middle of the road straddling both lanes, then take that single lane of traffic to one side as necessary.
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A good idea, but it's a lot harder to set up, especially on a busy road.
 
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almoststew1990 said:
To be fair, it doesn't help that most people who "skip" the queue absolutely gun it down the empty lane, right to the end of the point of merging, where they come to a stop and then force their way in, instead of calmly driving down the empty lane and merging over the length of the mergy bit.
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You're meant to merge at the end. That's how a merge in turn works.

I like the lane policemen who like to straddle both lanes to stop people doing a merge in turn at the end.

I'm still somewhat torn to do with a daily dilemma on my commute. A dual carriage way comes to a roundabout, left lane is marked left and straight on, right lane is to turn right. The left lane has the vast bulk of traffic queueing a long distance up the dual carriage way, whilst the right is always clear. Loads of people take the right lane and either just force in on the roundabout or go right round the roundabout. When I queue I feel a murderous rage for all those not queueing but taking the right lane feels bad.
 
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had to filter into one lane once going to work due to an accident.

Once I realised I indicated to move over trying to 'do the right thing' only to be stopped by a 'white van man' being a child!.

Was that annoyed I screamed down to the merge point some 1/4 mile away and pushed my way in, opened my window and told the Policeman helping filter traffic that the white van man in the queue was being aggressive and drinking behind the wheel before driving off!
 
Conscript said:
Because they don't understand merge in turn. Thus, they sit nose to bumper, ensure there's no room for traffic to merge, so merging traffic has to force it's way in as best it can, then these people complain about others "pushing in".
Then they defend their misunderstanding of how the road network is designed to work with an erroneous analogy about queuing at a supermarket, or some such nonsense.
Click to expand...

This IMO, is one of the biggest causes of congestion. People butting up to the car in front who then have to stop to let a car in at the last possible point which then has an effect on the following traffic.

I have absolutely no issues leaving a large gap from the car in front to allow other cars to merge in. Too many people are concerned with other cars taking up 'their space'

Don't get me started on the utter cretins who sit across both lanes to block traffic coming from behind.
 
agw_01 said:
This IMO, is one of the biggest causes of congestion. People butting up to the car in front who then have to stop to let a car in at the last possible point which then has an effect on the following traffic.

I have absolutely no issues leaving a large gap from the car in front to allow other cars to merge in. Too many people are concerned with other cars taking up 'their space'

Don't get me started on the utter cretins who sit across both lanes to block traffic coming from behind.
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It's utterly pathetic, and embarrassing that people can't work out that their behaviour is contributing to the very problem they complain about. As with a lot of things in the motoring world, another case where people should leave their pride at home.
 
SC0TTRS said:
had to filter into one lane once going to work due to an accident.

Once I realised I indicated to move over trying to 'do the right thing' only to be stopped by a 'white van man' being a child!.

Was that annoyed I screamed down to the merge point some 1/4 mile away and pushed my way in, opened my window and told the Policeman helping filter traffic that the white van man in the queue was being aggressive and drinking behind the wheel before driving off!
Click to expand...

That wasn't pushing in it was doing what you are meant to and by trying to "do the right thing" you would have been effectively adding to the queue of traffic stacking it back further.

Merge in turn is the thing that people consistently don't get but the merge in turn signs round here have helped the problem. The route to work has been made two lanes merging to one so the traffic doesn't stack up onto the roundabout and grind the whole lot to a halt in every direction. 80% of people still queue in lane one though, stopping dead just off the roundabout to get their place in the queue. Then you get those that sit on the bumper of the car in front to stop you merging or even worse the hero's that block both lanes 500 yards before the merge point.

I find the whole situation much less stressful with a company car, I simply drive to the merge point and aim at the back of the car I need to merge behind, if the other driver is really determined to cause an accident, go ahead.
 
People just seem to be such hostile and offensive drivers in general. I'm always one to leave a good distance between me and the car in front. What gets me is on motorways when you can clearly see someone is just sitting a healthy distance behind the person in front whilst overtaking yet the ****** in the car behind flashes you becasuse they want to go past.

There is only one instance that where I admit I will hog a lane merge. There's a very busy roundabout by me that one of the exist (the main one) is two lanes for maybe two car lengths. I come to this roundabout on a daily basis from the 4 o clock position in the right hand lane. The exit is at the 11 o clock position. There is another two lane exit at the 6/7 o'clock position. So many people will sit in the right hand lane then go all the way around the roundabout to the 11 o clock exit. I purposely block those people, I know I'm just as bad as them as I add to the chaos on the roundabout but these people going all the way round completely block the entire roundabout it.

It's just idiotic.
 
I used to do things like that all the time in London, to exit New Malden quickly at rush hour I'd cut through some suburban roads to bypass the main road, then go all the way round the next roundabout using the "wrong lane", then do the same on the next roundabout, then at a junction where the right lane would queue after that, I'd use the left lane to take the left turn, go down the road a bit, turn in a side road, and go back the other way and slip in in front of the queue...

It usually shaved half an hour off of my journey... I'd not block any junctions/roundabouts to do it though!

Worked like clockwork every day, and nobody else seemed to do it...
 
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What gets me is people who, when merging in, speed up specifically to close the gap and block you from doing so.

Should be legal to ram them off the road then claim off their insurance
 
You equally get the people that go down the empty lane but dont want to merge in turn. The car in front of them moves into a gap and they also try and move into the same gap instead of trying to get a gap one car back i.e. 2 cars going into same gap... Equally as selfish as people not allowing others to merge in turn
 
There's a roundabout near me that I use on daily commute similar to above I.e. it opens upto 2 lanes just before the roundabout then goes back down to one after the roundabout. Unfortunately due to some traffic lights about a mile away merge in turn doesn't work due to the backlog of traffic, if traffics lights I got right lane and straight on but if it's heavy I'll still use the right lane but go all the way to come back off at the 1st exit. Such a poorly designed roundabout.
 
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