Stressful incident on motorway, scared

It sounds like you did the right thing and you avoided an accident so try not to worry about it.

There’s no such thing as a slow lane, just two overtaking lanes.

If the hard shoulder is clear you can carry on on that and merge as soon as you can behind the person whose car is blocking you from getting on. I was told it's much better/safer to carry on at a decent speed on the hard shoulder than completely stop at the end of the slip road.

We've all done it. Even those of us driving for decades. Sometimes things don't align. Sometimes people on the motorway aren't helpful in allowing people onto the motorway (we have a super short gap between junctions in a place I go regularly and people don't want to move over and get stuck in the middle lane when they want the immediate next junction).

But importantly don't panic and don't think you're the only one it's ever happened to. Making a mistake and learning from it makes you a better driver. Ignore the sanctimonious pricks who hyperventilate at the idea a stranger made a mistake and asked for advice to prevent it happening again.

European motorways I've been on have arrows/markings to direct/suggest to those people already on the motorway more from the 'slow' lane to the middle lane - thus making it easier and safer for those to join.

Good idea - something we should adopt here.

We don't mean M-way traffic at a standstill or crawling. That's just slightly tedious and not scary at all. We mean motorway traffic trapping along at 60 or 70 ridiculously tight together and drivers either oblivious to the plight of the would-be merger, or realising that there are slipway mergers but so stubborn that they will not slacken an inch, or have someone so far up their arse that they literally cannot slacken enough quickly enough to create any gap, or worst of all the arsehole men adding to their wank bank by cat and mousing the merging woman.

All off a short slip road that is perhaps round a curve and up a bit of an incline for most of the way so the sight lines are not great, with the next cars coming up it doing and least 50 and accelerating. I know you are meant to stop on the slip road but that's dangerous and you have zero chance of getting a gap from a standing start to 70 so you are going to foul up a motorway roundabout in rush hour till the traffic cops come to sort it out.

My plan B, which I never had to enact, was to continue onto the start of the hard shoulder then if nobody realised really quickly "oh shit that poor girl is stuffed" and made it really obvious that they were creating a gap for me to edge into (whilst checking that nobody in the other M-way lane thinks oh goodie , a gap for to slot into to get off at the next junction!), hazards on, slow down smoothly, get clear of the junction so that of the same happened to another slip road car they weren't into the back of me, come to a halt with the wheels turned into the side a bit so a shunt wouldn't push the car into 70mph traffic, climb out the passenger grabbing coat and phone on the way, get up the bank and look up the number to call for when you are stuck on the hard shoulder. Came close a couple of times though.

Who is going to report you, for what and to whom? If everyone who beeped someone when they were driving reported the (to the police?) there'd be hundreds of thousands of reports a day and the police would not care less. So don't worry. Unfortunately driving's like this now, where there used to be courtesy (or pulling over from the left lane when people are merging) there is now just entitlement and aggressiveness. You'll need a thick skin, sadly.

Interestingly I was listening to some psychologist talking about driving behaviour. He talked about men (specifically) not giving way - in many situations. And how it's a sort of sign of their lack of confidence / beta style personality. They'd be the sort of person to bring people down, not raise them up etc. Makes sense. For women too but it's usually men.

Not on motorways, A roads can be more difficult.

If you are unable to merge onto a motorway without everyone moving out of the way you shouldn’t be driving, simple as.

Some slip roads are simply not long enough for many cars to reach 70mph.

Oh dear...

I’m guessing you aren’t the best driver 👍🏻

If all else fails, remember that where the slip road meets the main road is actually a give way junction. You can just stop, if safe to do so, and join when safe.

This is exactly why I don’t drive on the motorway 🙈

🙄

Agree with those - and also dickheads moving into a previously safe gap. Especially when it's at high speed and wet (not merging just in general).

It isn’t dangerous if he maintains the same speed, unless you are incapable of merging.

People merging too slowly are the issue here. If it happens you need to give yourself space on the slip road so you can speed up to merge. The traffic on the motorway has right of way.

Bad motorway driving in order:

Tailgating
Slow merging
middle lane hogging

But for some reason the third is always the one people moan about

My original comment was in response to a few posters saying they had never had to stop on a sliproad. I said I was surprised as I have had to do this lots of times “if the main road is busy” so I don’t know why it wasn’t clear what I meant or why you’re implying there is something wrong with my driving for acknowledging that sometimes you have to stop at the end of a slip road and not attempt to join a road by expecting someone else to move or driving down the hard shoulder as others have said.

Astonishing - 'Sadly some people don't accommodate drivers merging onto the motorway, my DH is one of them and I've given up telling him that while it isn't mandatory it is common courtesy.'

I agree with you - wth does he say to justify his moronic / dangerous / selfish driving?

YANBU to have stressed about the situation, driving can be stressful, especially with so many selfish / thoughtless drivers. YABU to think you'd be reported, it's something that happens every day I'm sure. Busy slip roads can be a quagmire.

Of course, but that is not what OP is referring to when she says she stopped at the end of the slip road, and not what I'm talking about when I mean going too slow to join, a motorway crawling or at a standstill is even easier to join because you would have minutes rather than seconds to get in somewhere before you run out of slip road.

The whole point is to match speed, if it's in full flow the motorway can be anywhere from 50-70mph in lane one.. whenever I have seen people not merge effectively it is because they are going slower than the flow of traffic, even someone going 60mph when everyone else in lane one is going 70mph will have a hard time joining, you have to match the speed, not hope for the best.

So my point still stands, if you feel you have to stop on a sliproad of a motorway that is in full flow, because you can't merge then something is going wrong.

I think it's the person in front of you on the slip road who slowed down at fault here, you were confidently building up speed to join traffic and would have been fine if you had not needed to slow down op.

The driver on the motorway had right of way. You didn't. The safe merging of your vehicle on the road was your responsibility.

IME, slip roads are commonly used incorrectly and very unsafely these days. They are there to enable drivers to reach a speed where they can merge safely. Instead, drivers crawl down them far too slowly causing an obstruction and causing traffic on the main carriageway to brake or slow down, which is expressly against the highway code.

It's very dangerous.

No. The car in front did it right. Stop if you can’t merge. It’s on the car behind to see that unfolding ahead and be able to also slow or stop.