Those that merge halfway down the queue are just as bad as those who refuse to merge in turn/block each other at the pinch point.

Merging early is queue jumping as you slow down the queue you join and speed up the queue you left.

If you correctly use the lane that is closed up to the merge, at least have the decency to stay in it until it ends!

When a driver behind me prevents someone from merging correctly by tailgating me, I tend to slow down and wave the driver in the other lane past and allow a couple as well just to rub it in 🙂

You can’t merge like a zip early unless there is a sign saying ‘merge here’ everyone will try and merge at different points. And its dangerous as you get queueing traffic and potentially high speed traffic in the other lane.

Forget temporary ones, what about 2 lanes into 1 on the A64 into York, only ever used it twice and people seem to have a serious problem with merging in turn on there too. Most preferring to queue in the left lane and glare at anyone who continues to use the right hand lane (despite both being stop start)!

Merging too early makes the tailback longer, which can have an impact on roads further back and people who aren’t even going that way.

Or to quote Adam Hills, just don’t be a dick !

I was driving home yesterday, and there was a queue almost back on to the bypass at Lothianburn. Get to the front eventually, and it was because some total useless bints has decided that if they couldn’t get the pump they wanted at the gas station the best thing was to QUEUE FOR THE PUMPS ON THE BUSY A ROAD. So everyone had to wait for a gap in the oncoming traffic to get past them. Unreal ! If somebody had fire-bombed them no jury would have convicted.

For the hard of thinking, the correct procedure in this situation is KEEP DRIVING TO THE NEXT GAS STATION.

Not me, a (ahem) friend. If one of those ‘prostitute murderers’ (© Clarkson) pulls out and forces my friend to stop, on occasion, he may have overtaken them (when safe) and gently slowed to 20mph for a bit. Who knows what effect this then has on their collesterol filled arteries 😀

For the hard of thinking, the correct procedure in this situation is KEEP DRIVING TO THE NEXT GAS STATION.

Do they have gas stations in Lothianburn? And what if you needed ‘gas’ right there, right then, carry on till you run out of fuel?

#awesomedriversthread

Pondo, why?
Is it because you’re unfamiliar with merging or is it a power-trip thing to make you feel important at others’ expense?

Just wondering as it’s fairly inexplicable behaviour to most people.
Well, I’ll tell you how it works from my perspective and you can all rip it apart at leisure. 🙂 I don’t fully understand why people merge early for a motorway lane closure, but I accept that they do. If I block the traffic in the unblocked lane, we all roll towards the blockage at the same speed and can merge in turn. If I don’t block the traffic in the unblocked lane, the unblocked lane will move faster to the detriment of the two unblocked lanes, and I don’t really see a compelling reason not to try and stop that happening. So it’s for the greater good, really. 🙂

Errrm Pondo, does that reduce total capacity and therefore throughput slowing down all lanes? Just a thought. Do you drive a waggon as well? 😀

Why do I find that so amusing? I think I’m going Friday nuts.

Well that what my girls call it, I don’t actually know what its called. 😳

Errrm Pondo, does that reduce total capacity and therefore throughput slowing down all lanes?

Errrm no, it just moves the merge point.

Errrm no, it just moves the merge point

thus reducing capacity

thus reducing capacity

Isn’t capacity limited by the amount and rate of vehicles that can fit past the blockage?

Yes it moves it back, and the best place to merge is as late asap as then you (in theory) should get uniform merging. If you dictate where the merge point is then the whole process falls apart which is generally what happens. Would be a lifetime ban in my book!

That isn’t the point tho pondo – it moves the line of traffic further back thus increasing the impact on other related traffic flows. You have 2000 metres of road to the merge point. You can fit all those cars into 1000 metres of road if you use both lanes. Depending on the surrounding on-ramps and interchanges this may cause an impact to other traffic.

The time it takes to merge is quicker if everyone merges in turn as they should, as everyone knows what is going on and the traffic flows better, rather than randomly indicating and asking to be let in at the point you think is about right for what a polite and right-thinking person you are, lets call it the Passive Aggressive British-ness co-inefficient !

We need a public information film to educate the nation on the correct way to go about this situation.

Anyone who tries to obstruct you at the point of merging in turn should be taken to Calais and traded for a migrant.

Well, I’ll tell you how it works from my perspective and you can all rip it apart at leisure.

I suggest you read the previous thread I listed, where it was discussed at length. Basically, you’re causing an artificial roadblock for no reason whatsoever, and potentially causing problems further back up the road as it forces standing traffic on joining roads too.

Have we included the German car (BMW/Audi/Merc) quotient in the calculation?

And of course, if both lanes were full up there wouldn’t be a queue as such, just two lanes of traffic. Join whatever one you want, they are both moving at the same speed. I sometime think people just like to queue, moan and be sanctimonious. And watch cricket.

Erm… At what point does a lane become a queue?

Merge in turn would be great if as a nation, we were any good at it. We like to queue and therefore see any attempts at merging in turn as someone being a dick and skipping the queue.

My nightly misery is getting off the M74 onto the M73 south of Glasgow where the single lane slip road is shared with an exit lane and has an entry slip road filtering into it 500 metres further ahead. People get into the right lane early as there are no signs, or reasons to suggest merging in turn, so a start – stop tailback is created for miles with people “jumping the queue” and those defending the queue rather than merging in turn.

As well as the multi-million pound roadworks to improve this section of the M8/M73/M74, berpahs they can spend a little bit of dosh educating people about merging in turn.

Slowoldman, when the traffic is crawling or stopped.

Part of the problem is half of the muppets that have managed to obtain a driving licence don’t understand merging (the newer road signs people mention will hopefully help). Mind you the odd audi driver tosser merging from right but trying to queue jump (as in following the car in front into the gap not waiting for the next gap) raises everyone’s stress levels and people start leaving gaps too small to merge and it all goes to pot.

Merge in turn would be great if as a nation, we were any good at it. We like to queue and therefore see any attempts at merging in turn as someone being a dick and skipping the queue.

People can think what they like tbh.

I’m not going to join in with the idiots, and end up waiting longer than I have to, just to appease some nobbers with incorrect views on how things should be done.

Slowoldman, when the traffic is crawling or stopped.

So how fast are your two lanes of traffic going?

12.7583 kms per hour. Anything over that is a lane.

If you dictate where the merge point is then the whole process falls apart which is generally what happens. Would be a lifetime ban in my book!

Two lanes get to the blockage quicker, one lane gets through at the same pace as the other two lanes. As opposed to one lane getting to the blockage quicker and two lanes getting there slower.

I think the average throughput is the same no matter what, it’s just that people taking advantage of those who merge early don’t benefit.

That isn’t the point tho pondo – it moves the line of traffic further back thus increasing the impact on other related traffic flows. You have 2000 metres of road to the merge point. You can fit all those cars into 1000 metres of road if you use both lanes. Depending on the surrounding on-ramps and interchanges this may cause an impact to other traffic.

Basically, you’re causing an artificial roadblock for no reason whatsoever, and potentially causing problems further back up the road as it forces standing traffic on joining roads too.

I’m talking more specifically about a lane closure on a stretch of motorway so’s to theoretically disregard the effect on junctions. I totally accept those as valid points but I think it’s a different aspect.

The other issue with arbitrary merging is it’s chaotic; people changing lanes randomly, tempers raising, people deliberately winding others up with their piss poor driving (pondo), it’s an accident waiting to happen. And the place where you really want an accident is right before a roadworks.

Drive to the merge point or move over, but stop being a hazard.

Erm… At what point does a lane become a queue?

So how fast are your two lanes of traffic going?

do you have some sort of “killer” point to make as to why filtering at the pinch point isn’t the right thing to do ?

The other issue with arbitrary merging is it’s chaotic; people changing lanes randomly, tempers raising, people deliberately winding others up with their piss poor driving (pondo), it’s an accident waiting to happen. And the place where you really want an accident is right before a roadworks.

Now that I do refute. Randomly changing lane behind me or a lorry or whatever blocking an empty lane is pointless as all the traffic’s travelling at the same speed. And I don’t do it to deliberately wind people up – if that happens, so be it, but that’s not why I do it.

I think the thrust of the point is that some people drive in a way that ensures traffic is moving freely and merging sensibly, whereas others see a queue and an open lane and simply queue jump under the guise of ‘merging in turn’.

There is a line in there somewhere and some drivers see the line at a different place than others.

And I don’t do it to deliberately wind people up – if that happens, so be it, but that’s not why I do it.

Do you do it because “you know best” 🙄

pondo – are you that cockwomble who ended up trying to ram me?

Now that I do refute. Randomly changing lane behind me or a lorry or whatever blocking an empty lane is pointless as all the traffic’s travelling at the same speed.

If no-one ever did pointless things, we wouldn’t be having this discussion.

And I don’t do it to deliberately wind people up – if that happens, so be it, but that’s not why I do it.

So why do you do it? What possible benefit does it have to you or anyone around you?

Do you do it because “you know best”

No – for me it’s much more –

There is a line in there somewhere and some drivers see the line at a different place than others.

pondo – are you that cockwomble who ended up trying to ram me?

Not knowingly! 🙂

I think the thrust of the point is that some people drive in a way that ensures traffic is moving freely and merging sensibly, whereas others see a queue and an open lane and simply queue jump under the guise of ‘merging in turn’.

Your fundamental misunderstanding is that there isn’t “a queue and an open lane,” there’s a queue comprising of two lanes.

But regardless of what you, I, or anyone else may think, the cold hard fact is that you’re supposed to use both lanes and merge in turn. On longer-term fixtures they put signs up telling you to do it and everything. If you were supposed to merge a mile down the road, that’s where they’d have coned off the road.

Ha ! You are tandemjeremy and I claim my £5 !

The countdown to the Edinburgh Defence commences.

There is a line in there somewhere and some drivers see the line at a different place than others.

The line is where those bright orange cones are. That’s what they’re for. It’s really not difficult. It doesn’t matter what “some drivers see.” Some drivers think the middle lane of the motorway is the “cruising lane,” they’re just as wrong.

So why do you do it? What possible benefit does it have to you or anyone around you?

Roughly speaking, if I block the empty lane…

Two lanes get to the blockage quicker, one lane gets through at the same pace as the other two lanes. As opposed to one lane getting to the blockage quicker and two lanes getting there slower.

I think the average throughput is the same no matter what, it’s just that people taking advantage of those who merge early don’t benefit.

Yes Cougar has the point. It’s not for drivers like Pondo to dictate the merge point. There’s a specific place and that’s the one that should be used.

Simple really?! But it seems many just don’t get it…..