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?

No, they really don't. No motorway slip roads have "give way" double dashed markings nor "give way" signs. Most dual carriageways don't have them either. It's pretty rare and unusual for a dual carriageway to have the "give way" double dashed line and road sign at the end of their slip roads, usually only where the slip road is very short or at a 90 degree angle to the road itself, otherwise if it's a gradual and long slip road, no need for "Give way" signs nor markings.

Ozanj · Yesterday 15:08

You should be moving to the right hand lane well before that junction. If you’ve failed to plan then of course you need to slow down so the cars can merge. Stopping on a slip road is dangerous.

Only because of careless idiots, who don't look and plan ahead. It's more dangerous to brake hard on a dual carriageway, or motorway. You should match your speed to what's on the main carriageway, but stop at the give way line, if it's not safe to join.

Yes, that dotted white line at then end of a slip road is a give way line.

Meadowfinch · Yesterday 15:20

This. Slip roads are to allow people to adjust their speed and filter in. Cars on the slip road aren't meant to stop, OP.

Sometimes, you have to and I was rear ended doing that 5 years ago. The alternative was to drive under one of the many lorries, driving nose to tail. The young idiot who crashed into me wasn't very popular with the Police, who told me I'd done exactly the right thing.

OP is talking about a dualed A road so you want Rule 172.

Sorry this is rubbish. The law hasn't changed at all. It is still up to the merging traffic to give way to to traffic on the major road. They should prepare to accelerate/ slow down to merge. However. It's defensive and courteous driving, if the traffic on the major road can move out to the overtaking lane or accelerate/ slow to accommodate them.

You can't stop at the line and then pull out in first gear

🙄

https://www.gov.uk/guidance/the-highway-code/using-the-road-159-to-203

Rule 172: "The approach to a junction may have a ‘Give Way’ sign or a triangle marked on the road. You MUST give way to traffic on the main road when emerging from a junction with broken white lines across the road."

"May" means that the approach doesn't have to have these marks, so their absence doesn't prevent a slip road from being the approach to a junction.

When you leave the slip road and join the dual carriageway, you are "emerging from a junction with broken white lines across the road". You must give way.

There's no such thing as "local rules" that you get from Facebook and anyone claiming there are is endangering other road users because people from outside the area can't possibly these so-called "local rules". Whether you drive in Land's End, John O'Groats, or anything in between, there's one set of rules for all of us and it's called "The Highway Code".

This. I generally change lane well before an anticipated slip road, but if I'm not in time I watch the joining cars' speed and take my foot off the accelerator to create a gap without needing to slow down much

Yes, and the poster could shall go faster than the speed limit briefly, as long as she then travel under it for a little way so that her average speed stays within the limit.

It seems that some people don't understand averages.

1. When the traffic is nose-to-tail on the dual carriageway, you have to. You'll tail-end someone if you don't.
2. The purpose of a slip road is to allow you to match speed and slot into a gap under less-congested conditions. That you cannot do that under congested conditions doesn't mean you should barge in and hope that others will just move for you. I appreciate that lorry drivers can find that more challenging and will appreciate the traffic already on the dual carriageway making a space if it's safe to do so, but most of us on this thread are car drivers and don't have a 0-60 measured in minutes, so shouldn't under any circumstances be ploughing on down the ramp and hoping existing traffic will move aside.

It’s amazing how there are so few accidents after you realise how many people actually dont know the Highway Code….

@MaidOfAle I’m often moaning at truck drivers but tbf i found they usually quite good at merging ‘properly’ when the traffic is heavy

If you are doggedly sticking to 70 and causing a car to come to a full stop on a slip road

You're not causing them to full-stop on a slip road. They've done that to themselves by not using their right door mirror to see where the gaps are and slot into one.

Fair point. Rules re priority remain the same though.

You've got this wrong. The first part of collective responsibility for road safety is having a set of rules so that we all know who is responsible for doing what at any given time.

If simply easing off the accelerator slightly to widen a gap allows someone to merge at an appropriate speed, then why wouldn't you?

Because the person you move for starts thinking that they have a right to join without finding a gap and the next time they join at that junction they will expect to be let in. See also: people pulling out in front of others from side streets because they've got used to people on the main road stopping to let them out.

But I get the impression some people will grip the steering wheel and drive relentlessly alongside someone trying to merge because they don't have right of way.

If I ran the internet, people who talk about "right of way" other than in the context of the right to use public footpaths, bridlepaths, etc across private land would be banned from commenting on traffic threads. There's no "right of way" in the Highway Code, only "priority". It's everyone understanding when you have or don't have priority at a junction that enables all of us to navigate that junction without needing CB radios to coordinate ourselves. It's understanding who has priority and when that allows us to be flexible when the situation justifies it (e.g. leaving a gap in front of you in the queue for the lights so that someone else can exit a side street into that gap) because we know who is responsible for communicating the intention to be flexible to whom.

Agree.

Yes, they do remain the same.

I was anticipating someone saying "this is a dualed A road not a motorway so motorway rules don't apply" as if it was some kind of gotcha that negated your argument, when in fact there's a comparable rule for all non-motorway roads.

If simply easing off the accelerator slightly to widen a gap allows someone to merge at an appropriate speed, then why wouldn't you?

What actually happens is

• people on the slip road assume you’ll slow down and tend to then force their way in each time
• or people on the slip road assume they dint have priority, slow down so they get behind you but you’ve slowed down so actually there is still no gap etc….

Thats why you have rules and everyone should follow them. Because when you dint, it’s getting messy and much complicated than it should be.

You need to drive according to the law and rules as they are, not as you think they should be.

If I tried to live as I think the law should be, I'd be in jail for roasting catcalling men with a portable flamethrower.

This. The whole point of the rules in yhe Highway Code is so that in the 99% of straightforward, relatively light traffic situations, we all know who should be doing what automatically.

In the congested situations where strict obedience the rules start to become less helpful, such as zip merging being needed to stop the slip road from becoming a linear car park, we are all moving slowly enough that we can "wave"§ people into gaps etc with minimal risk. Even then, the rules still apply: the traffic already on the dual carriageway still has priority and thise drivers are choosing to make the gaps and choosing to "wave" drivers on the slip road into the gaps. Because there are rules, we all know who is responsible for doing the "waving" and who should wait to be "waved" at.

§ Is there a proper term for the informal vocabulary of facial expressions and hand gestures used to tell another driver that the gap in front of you is intended for them to creep out into?

I leave a massive gap in front of me. I watch both lanes to see if I can move over. I plan ahead for such stretches of road.

Generally if the volume of traffic is such that joining isn’t possible, the whole motorway/dual carriageway will have slowed anyway, so the issue of ‘joining a 70mph line of cars from zero’ won’t arise.

this thread explains why (1) there are so many issues with entitled drivers who think they have the ‘right’ to pull on and (2) why some drivers think that the car already there should pull over to allow this and (3) why there are knights of the road pulling over from lane one to two irrespective of need and middle lane hogging (4) and why knights of the road cars pull over from lane one to two, cutting up the car in lane two who may not have anywhere to move to themselves.

i join a 2 lane motorway often and position myself in the right hand lane of the slip road to give myself the best visibility of the lane I am joining. I frequently see HGv’s forced over and the car they have let in merrily proceed on their left preventing them rejoining the left lane. This junction is a short distance from the next and I also see drivers who have pulled over unable to pull back and make their exit.

Op they should'nt stop at the end of a slip road! You should be slowing to create a gap for a car to join the carriageway or moving to an outside lane before you go past the slip road exit to allow space for cars to get onto carriageway.

Oh dear lord…

You need to leave a bigger gap between you and cars Infront also!!!