Stressful incident on motorway, scared

Ideally yes - but what if you find yourself going too fast to stop.
What if the car in lane one has been doing weird accelerating/slowing shit.

You are "allowed" to make use of the hard shoulder if the other option would be a collision into lane 1

I have had to stop at the end of a slip road if the main road is busy

Are you talking about motorways though? Motorways are designed so no one has to do this, it is dangerous to do this to be honest, as most the time you will never find a gap big enough to join from a standing start safely and you will be causing chaos for everyone coming down the slip road behind you.

There are lots of dual carriageways near me that have short sliproads though, in fact one is so short that you have to treat it almost like a t junction and stop anyway to see whether you can go or not.

If it has happened to you a few times on the motorway I'd be looking at why, as there is something going wrong there, maybe not going fast enough? Whenever I've seen other people do this it's because they aren't going fast enough to merge into a suitable gap.

No, it's good practice / good defensive driving to try and create more space around yourself.
It doesn't mean you can expect to be able to force other road users to give way to you.

You should have been trying to match the speed of the car in lane 1 and either speed up a little to go in front or slow down and merge in behind.
If course if you've got an idiot inexperienced driver in front of you who slows down when they should have speeded up, then that narrows your options.

I think you would benefit from one lesson with an instructor to practice merging - as others have said it is a skill and can be learned.

It didn't help at all that the car in front of OP stopped on the slip road. There's nothing worse trying to merge from a slip road when the car in front is going 20mph or stops. It then makes it really difficult for the car behind to merge smoothly.

Please don't worry OP. Yes it was a scary incident but there was no accident and noone will be reporting you.

Have you never had to join a motorway where traffic is at a standstill or crawling? I regularly face this where I live!

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.

However he isn't the only one so you'll need to remember that it's up to you speed up or slow down to get in front of or behind a vehicle in the left lane.

If an idiot ahead of you is slower than you, you should anticipate that and leave more distance to give you time to find a space

It's quite scary really, and I'm sorry you ended up in that position but it's a great learning experience as no one was hurt.

Don’t find yourself going too fast to stop them!

jesus. It’s clear. If you can’t merge then slow or stop!

Don't worry, OP. You just need a bit more practice gauging your speed and merging. Practise when it's quiet at first as you'll be able to build up your confidence before tackling busy motorways.
It's a good idea to give the car in front plenty of room so that essentially what they do doesn't affect you - or you have time to react if they do something unexpected.
And always always be prepared to stop if you absolutely must. Don't take the advice of posters on here who drive along the hard shoulder if they run out of slip road. That way disaster lies...
The fact that you've thought about this incident so carefully suggests that you'll learn from mistakes (there will be many!) and will end up a great driver.

Yes I think you can generally tell in plenty of time whether there’s going to be a gap

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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?

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.

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

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

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).

🙄

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

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.

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

Oh dear...

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