If you are someone who drives down a slip road towards a busy dual carriageway with no intention of stopping ….

[EvangelicalAboutButteredToast]

Where do you think the cars are going to go if they is no space to go into the outside lane?

There is a really bad junction I’m currently dealing with every day. He cars come down the slip road in convoy. No ability for me to slot inbetween and they show absolutely no sign of slowing down to wait to join the trunk road. If I have a car on my right, where do these people think I’m going to avoid a collision?

Many are badly designed short ramps on to 60 mph or 70 mph - the latter are often spot on - as mentioned by many one should always decelerate to allow in but equally joiner must look to ensure it's feasible for the driver on the road to allow in - Joiner should not automatically believe it's a right of passage

That third option has already been debated - c.f. my comments above - it adds complexity to the decision making and increases the chance of an accident...

You don't seem to have comprehended it, @N27.

Slowing down might have allowed room for some of the block of merging cars but not all.

Sometimes decisively speeding up can be the safest option, it sounds as though this was the case here.

I do a lot of motorway driving and have never encountered this. Surely you can just back off the accelerator a little bit and that creates plenty of space at 50mph+. In an ideal world the merging cars would spot their spaces well, but not everyone on the roads has the same level of perception.

Or, you anticipate and move over earlier than the junction if it’s something do regularly as it appears to be.

My priority when driving is to avoid an accident. Driving defensively doesn’t mean being right all the time. There is a vast defensive gulf between easing off the accelerator to let a car in vs slamming on the brakes when you’re travelling at the national speed limit.

OP has been clear that easing off was not going to make enough space for the approaching cluster of cars that were not adjusting to the conditions.

Do you think she’d have posted if it had been that easy? Speeding up created more space behind her but will have eaten into her braking distance so she’ll have needed to ease off to recover it. Before then leaving at the next slip road.

Some people just want to disagree I think.

Yes this.

OP was driving along happily - and chose to accelerate to avoid others causing an accident - no panic involved

it was cars joining the dual carriageway.. not taking part in a destruction derby, they managed to join with whatever cars were behind OP so your point there is pretty moot.

you misunderstand the law - the responsibility is on the joining traffic to do the adjusting

I'm not misunderstanding the law, the onus is on joining traffic to adjust their speed accordingly NOT to wait until the road is clear before coming out, it's not a give way, the nature of sliproads is they are going to pop out either before or after someone that is already on that road, normally depending on their position when they are parallel, if they are in front of you on the sliproad and matching your speed (OP says they were going faster than her actually), all OP would potentially have to is adjust her speed accordingly to maintain her stopping distance, depending how far in front they were she may not have even had to do that.

So no, you of course don't give way or zipper merge with people joining, but you shouldn't be braking or accelerating off either, or doing anything erratic, maintaining your speed and trajectory while adjusting for stopping distances being compromised by joining traffic is what you should be doing.

OP didn't carry on as normal, she quickly accelerated to get past them, this time it worked out okay, but if there was an overtaking car pulling in in front of her at the time she decided to so that, or if one of the cars on the sliproad had clocked her before she put her foot down and accelerated to get out in front, it could have caused an accident.. and it was all completely pointless.

I passed twenty odd years ago and I was frequently taken on dual carriageways and taught about everything they involve. In fairness apart from having more lanes the main principles are exactly the same with regards joining, leaving and the principle of overtaking lanes.

But maybe not everyone is taught dual carriageway driving? The amount of people who sit in lane two on the motorway blow my mind!

@sandyhappypeople

I'm not misunderstanding the law, the onus is on joining traffic to adjust their speed accordingly NOT to wait until the road is clear before coming out...

mmm - would love to see how you join a stationery motorway then 😁
how exactly do they join the motorway if the road is not clear even when traffic is flowing - if they are in your terms NOT to wait until the road is clear - that suggests that even if not clear they will still be joining?! Do you put your hand on your horn, or accelerate aggressively aiming to spin the other car out into lane 3 - do you have a different tactic if it is a lorry passing and therefore the road is not clear - or 6 lorries nose to tail...? Were you driving one of those cars on the slip road?! 😁

Of course the principle is to adapt and find a space where possible - but if not possible due to traffic levels, then the car doing the joining absolutely is obliged to stop if necessary - and to wait if necessary.

The whole point of the highway code and how it is structured is that it puts the onus on one party not both by giving the other party the priority - so the joining traffic adjusts if it can and otherwise stops.

Oh yes, been there.

It’s called an acceleration lane! That’s because the joining cars should be accelerating to match the speed of the traffic on the carriageway and merge into it. Cars on the carriageway should be aware of those joining and behave accordingly - not put their foot down to beat the joining vehicles as OP freely admits she did!

Another vote for this. Slow down, make a gap between you and the car ahead of you. The traffic on the slip road shouldn't be stopping.

Well there is no motorways close to where we live so my 2 dcs didn’t go on a motorway 🤷‍♀️🤷‍♀️
But as you say learning about driving in a dual carriageway has been enough for them to know how to drive on a motorway. It’s not different.

What should have been my ‘behaving accordingly?’ Are we back to holding my nerve and seeing what happens 🙈

Thank you. Particularly for the use of your word ‘cluster’. Described it perfectly.

I could have braked for one car. If I’d braked for four I could have caused an accident so I accelerated infront of the cluster instead. I wonder if I’d held my nerve and the van had ploughed into my side whether the advice on here would have been that I should have accelerated away from them lol. What a shit driver not have taken evasive action etc etc etc

"I was travelling on an average speed road where you either adhere to the speed limit or get fined"

You can go slower than the speed limit, you just can't go faster. So, you slow down so there's room in front of you.

They were on top of me and I either had to accelerate away to get infront. Brake hard and leave a gap for four cars or get in the outside lane and hit the vehicle already there.

I was pondering it today as I did a one hour journey to Stansted and was thinking the road I’m describing isn’t the kind of slip road that runs alongside the trunk road like a hard shoulder. It’s a road that sweeps in from the left in a curve so there’s no gentle merging to be navigating. The cars kind of appeared on a curved down ramp which I’m sure changes the situation and reaction times for all.

It’s also called a slip road and you should adjust your speed downwards as well as upwards as needed - ie you adjust your speed according to the traffic on the trunk road. If the traffic on the trunk road is doing 45 you don’t accelerate to 60, for example. Remember also that the cars on that road have priority and shouldn’t be forced to brake to accommodate you.

The fact that people don’t know this is worrying.

No local 'rules' in driving.

No; OP is on the main road, dealing with people on slip road not adjusting their speed.

Yes, me too.
If I'm not able to do that, I'll let the driver in from the left and I would expect vehicles behind me to do the same.

The lines at the bottom of the slip road mean “give way” therefore if there is not room to pull out safely then those on the slip road should legally stop and certainly slow down or yield to traffic on the main carriageway.

Good drivers will adjust and judge the speeds of those around them and aim to keep a safe distance whilst maintaining the flow of traffic.

Bad drivers will do whatever they want regardless.

There are drivers out there that see themselves as good drivers and judge others by what they ought to be doing… this can mean they are inflexible… in some cases they are just as dangerous.

In reality people need to drive defensively and expect the unexpected.

OP if this keeps happening then by all accounts you should be able to anticipate it and take action in advance to try and reduce the risks for yourself and others.

That’s exactly what they should do! Read your Highway Code again. It’s up to the joining driver to adjyhis speed and slot in…if there is space to do so. If it has a filter lane, then that is different, but in general, slip roads have a give way sign at the end.

Exactly, if you’re approaching a slip road, expect people to be coming out of it, merge, anticipate people pulling out in front of you drive accordingly. It’s no good pointing at the Highway Code if you’re all dead.

@MamaLazerou

The lines at the bottom of the slip road mean “give way” therefore if there is not room to pull out safely then those on the slip road should legally stop and certainly slow down or yield to traffic on the main carriageway.

Depends if it's single dashed line or double dashed line. It's the double dashed line that means "give way", usually accompanied by the "give way" road sign. Motorway slip roads don't have double dashed lines, just single, so aren't officially "give way" signs at all. Nor are most dual carriageway slip roads, though some are.