Safe Speed Forums

I'm not sure the rules need changing, but i do think they need to be more clearer, and more direct.

I also think that new drivers MUST receive a minimum of at least 5 hours motorway tuition before the magic ticket is issued.

... Lancaster north (Jctn 34) on the M6 for instance...

Not exactly practical if you live in Truro or Inverness.

:?

Well I've never read such a load of drivel from so called professionals in all my life!

Like some other contributors to this thread, I am also a wagon driver.

You can twist and turn the Highway Code rules as much as you want, but the fact remains that regardless of whether the dotted lines mean "give way" or "give priority" it's one and the same thing. If the vehicle in L1 doesn't want to move over to let you join then tough $h!t. Nowhere does it state that vehicles on the main carriageway MUST/SHOULD move over to allow slip road vehicles to merge; that is the responsibility of the merger to sort out.

What's cocked up this country's ways of merging onto motorways are the overly considerate wagon drivers that move over into L2 to accomodate the simpleton car drivers coming down the slip roads that don't know how to drive. If the wagons stayed in L1 then eventually the simpletons would get it into their tiny heads that if they want to stand a chance of joining the motorway then they need to engage their brains and adjust their speeds to merge properly, which of course is the main problem. This would then stop every merging vehicle bringing the whole motorway to a stand still because wagon in L1 moves into L2, which then causes the middle-lane hogging Rover driver doing 1mph more than the wagon to cack his load and move into L3 still doing 57mph, thus causing all the 90mph BMW drivers and rep mobiles to slam on and drop their razors into their cups of coffee that they've got balanced between their legs which has now slopped and burnt their nads....

For the record, on long down hill or flat slip roads I don't move into L2 for [b]anything. If you can't manage to adjust your speed to merge in 400yds+ of tarmac then you shouldn't be on the road. This doesn't just apply to cars and vans, it also applies to my fellow colleagues who seem to think that they've got some God given right to L1 and whatever is already in there MUST move out of the way to let them merge. [/b]
For short slip roads or a heavy stream of traffic on the slip road, I will move over if there's a gap to move in to, other than that I will attempt to maintain the same speed in the hope that the joiners will realise they're not going fast enough and get their toe down a bit more, but I will ease off slightly if necessary. What I won't put up with are the Rover and Peugeot 106 drivers that tootle along the slip roads at 30mph and then expect me to slow down or move over to accomodate them - that's just all wrong. If they do decide to risk their life and pull out in front of me to test my brakes then they're extremely stupid and are dicing with death and they'll instantly find their burrholes filled with 100dB of air horn plus quite possibly finding themselves pushed on to the hard shoulder as I come past them. If it's good enough for one.....

All that remains for me to say for now is this:

To those people who think they've got a right to join and cause vehicles on the main carriageway to slow down/move over : would you still drive the same way if it was a police car in L1?

Rixxy

ah well.... i moved from L1 to L2 on the M6 earlier today to allow a truck to merge.

guess i did wrong then?
being a pro, the guy in the truck would have understood perfectly if i'd have held my lane & speed to block him out and make him brake.

Odd how the truckers (ie those that spend more time on the motorways than anyone else on average) seem to all think along the same lines.

I wonder why Scratching Chin

Bit of thread deja vu creeping in here Ernest??? Laughing

Not exactly practical if you live in Truro or Inverness.

Yes. This comes up again and again in these forums. It's approaching the status of a golden rule.

suspend overtaking near slip roads

This is a bit of a culture shock for me, I'll have to think about it.

...
That WOULD sort out Lancaster, as I cannot see them building an extra lane over the canal and the Lune, just to accomodate a longer onramp!

So anyway, back to M6 J34, and what options remain? To me the only viable solution would be to change the priority of the slip road. That way the road can still run to full capacity except when someone is joining - ie most of the time.

am i right in thinking that the proposed idea out of sheer consideration and common sense is for lane 1 traffic to allow sliproad traffic to join?

bearing in mind that some of those in L1 could be doing 70 - 80 while the joining traffic could be doing as little as 30 - 40.

an ascent could mean that in a truck, that speed may not be within reach for some time if it is dropped back down from 50 to 40 which would create problems behind with traffic trying to get around it.

another solution to the original problem is to drop the speed limit in L1 to say 50 for 1/2 a mile or so at these junctions which leaves L2 (and L3 if there is one) to get on with it. at the same time, the sliproad traffic should be aware of the fact that they should be aiming to reach 50 where possible. therefore joining traffic and L1 are travelling at approx the same speed, merging is made easy!

It is simply down to education and nothing else.

Lets see how many bleat about it here.

This is fair enough in principle, but we've established in other threads that truck drivers take a while to overtake, and because no situation on the roads is entirely predictable, our overtaking manoevres may take place past several slip roads. Do we slow down whenever we see a slip coming up? That won't make us popular with traffic behind

It seems to me that the damn limiters must have desensitized truckers to the very real additional risks associated with driving alongside another vehicle.

Not exactly practical if you live in Truro or Inverness.

quite the contrary actually Paul. as i have said before, we are more aware of the risks than any other road users based purely on these facts:
1 trucks are wider and therefore have less room to escape within a lane never mind crossing lanes
1 trucks do not hold a steady line. wind affects them more than smaller vehicles. the bumps and potholes are emphasised in trucks due to the suspension. they use leaf springs unlike other vehicles. our comfort is given by an air sprung seat and an air cushion under the cab. they are very prone to being bumped around by the surface.

personally, i hate having a vehicle sat next to me. if i am in my car and about to overtake a truck, i hold back until the manouvre is clear ie the car in front has already cleared the truck

= the bumps and potholes are emphasised in trucks due to the suspension. they use leaf springs unlike other vehicles.