Family & Relationships1 min ago
Motorway etiquette?
I was driving on a motorway recently at 70mph in the left-hand lane, in very heavy traffic. There was a sliproad coming onto the motorway from the left, a lorry uncomfortably close behind me and a small gap in front of me. A car came hurtling down the sliproad faster than my 70mph (it soon moved alongside me) and obviously wanted to get onto the motorway, but I felt unable to break because of the lorry behind me, and I wasn't able to move into the middle lane. The car drove onto the hard shoulder to get infront of me and onto the motorway, and started waving at me suggesting that I was a maniac driver.
Now could someone please tell me what was right or wrong. I felt that the driver should have slowed down to come onto the motorway because it was a junction, and that drivers were supposed to wait for a space, not force their way onto the road potentially causing accidents. Thank you for any comments.
Answers
No best answer has yet been selected by Plocket. Once a best answer has been selected, it will be shown here.
For more on marking an answer as the "Best Answer", please visit our FAQ.The driver joining the motorway must merge as best he can with what's already there, the vehicles on the motorway should try and cooperate in the merging process, there are no hard and fast rules you both have to merge. The one golden rule for the car joining is NEVER EVER EVER stop, but you'd be suprised at the number of people who do stop on slip roads, not just on motorways.
In this situation get into the middle lane as soon as you see that a junction is comming up. that leaves more room for joining vehicles.
The highway code theory about joing a motorway has long since been brushed under the carpet and people joining the carriageway have been pushing in and expecting people to brake for a long time now.
Other highway code madness is stopping distance from the 60s and the use of flashing ones headlights to let people know you are there.
When in the outside lane in heavy traffic i try to leave 2 cars worth and it annoys the hell out of me people who see it as an opportunity to jib in.
I wish more people thought about their driving as much as Plocket does.
Has anybody ever tried stopping on a slip road and then joined the motorway from standstill with traffic flowing at 70mph? My car's quick but not that quick.
Also if your supposed to be able to stop surely there would be give way markings at the junction? Heres a snippit from the code....
244: You MUST NOT stop on the carriageway, hard shoulder, slip road, central reservation or verge except in an emergency, or when told to do so by the police, an emergency sign or by flashing red light signals.
What I hate is when somebody refuses to move into the middle lane and then matches your speed. You brake they brake.....you speed up they speed up...grrrr
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