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?

You miss the point. The kind of driver who thinks of a "fast lane" and not an "overtaking lane" needs to read the Highway Code again because they aren't understanding how dual carriageways work in this country.

Is this taught by DVLA accredited instructors, or well meaning relatives and friends?

Because it is wrong. The end of every slip road is a give way line. This gives the priority to the traffic in lane 1. Not the traffic joining.

Drivers will be taught to, tested against, and be expected to drive to, the Highway Code. Rule 259 is very clear and states the following.

"When you join the motorway you will normally approach it from a road on the left (a slip road) or from an adjoining motorway. You should

• give priority to traffic already on the motorway
• check the traffic on the motorway and match your speed to fit safely into the traffic flow in the left-hand lane"

Rule 151 explicitly tells drivers in standing traffic not to block side streets, so the law isn't on your side if you do that.

But do please carry on telling us all how to drive when you don't know the written rules of the road yourself.

The Highway Code is at https://www.gov.uk/guidance/the-highway-code for FREE, zero of your Earth pounds, in its entirety. Gone are the days of buying a paper copy from W H Smiths and it going out-of-date.

You can even sign up for email alerts so that you can read it once and then be told about future rule changes instead of having to check.

There's no excuse in 2024 for not knowing the rules of the road.

wrong again, the law is on your side actually.. as it says you 'should not' block junctions

the terminology in the highway code is quite specific, the term should/should not means it isn't a legal requirement, and will only come into play if there is an issue of liability.

the term 'must/must not' IS a legal requirement

Thank you for the wrong info though, feel free to take your own advice.

Here's the relevant section for you:

Wording of The Highway Code Many of the rules in the Code are legal requirements, and if you disobey these rules you are committing a criminal offence. You may be fined, given penalty points on your licence or be disqualified from driving. In the most serious cases you may be sent to prison. Such rules are identified by the use of the words ‘ MUST/MUST NOT ’. In addition, the rule includes an abbreviated reference to the legislation which creates the offence. See an explanation of the abbreviations . Although failure to comply with the other rules of the Code will not, in itself, cause a person to be prosecuted, The Highway Code may be used in evidence in any court proceedings under the Traffic Acts (see The road user and the law ) to establish liability. This includes rules which use Contents highwaycodeuk.co.uk 3 AAATHE advisory wording such as ‘should/should not’ or ‘do/do not’.

Where did I say that I don't know the rules.

I am saying that the rule people are quoting is for motorways.
Because you may have noticed that dual carriageways don't always have slip roads.
Some are junctions.
Some are small roads that aren't slip roads.

Yeah, I'm not disputing the fact slip road drivers can't just charge on. But, drivers on the carriageway should be aware and, if they can accommodate it, should make way for drivers joining the carriageway.

Well said, take a bow

Oh pedant's corner is in session, let's all sit round and learn the right way to say things...even though everyone that has ever driven a car in the UK understands what a fast lane issue.

The HC is still setting a standard of expected behaviour here, and is explicitly doing so.

The HC is also explicitly setting an expected standard of behaviour in rules 137 and 138 where we are told to drive in the left-most lane unless overtaking. Moving right in anticipation of vehicles joining from a slip road is not overtaking. The expected standard here is that vehicles already on the carriageway will stay on the left even when passing an "on-ramp" slip road.

Please point me to the explicit rule telling people that they should or must move into an overtaking lane to let people on a slip road join a motorway or dual carriageway. I'll wait.

When failure to comply with the expected standard of driving kills, pendantry is justified.

Words matter. If we call it the "fast lane", we are reinforcing the idea that it is for driving fast. It's not: it's solely for overtaking slower traffic.

And here is the issue.

As demonstrated by this thread, some drivers WILL charge on because it’s not ‘accommodating if they can’ but the ‘rule’ has become ‘they should or have to accommodate me’
Thats what all the zipper comments are about. One after the other and you have to make space for me, the car on the slip road,

And until all drivers have fully understood that moving onto the other lane or slowing down is something nice people can do rather than something to be expected, there is no room for ‘but it’s nice and why on earth do you want to insist on staying because you are right and just want to prove it’

Moving right in anticipation of vehicles joining from a slip road is not overtaking.

Do you even drive on motorways?! Of course it is overtaking if you can see cars joining from a slip road, I nearly always move out if I see people joining up ahead because I don't want to lose my stopping distance or be held up by traffic moving slower than me in lane 1 (which consists of either people joining at a slower speed, or people slowing to adjust their stopping distance)

That is how motorways are designed to work (in case you weren't aware), cars move into lane 2 and lane 3 to overtake other cars joining the road ahead or using the roads at slower speeds, then the idea is to move back across when you have the room, it is nothing to do with 'giving way' to slower moving traffic as you aren't required to give way to them, or to people joining, if you are going faster than them, then you just overtake them?

You seem to be trying really hard to prove a point about a nonexistent rule, but the onus has always been on the people joining to look for a suitable gap to merge into.. so let's talk 'gaps'.. the average gap that should be between cars travelling at 70mph is between 63 and 93 metres, so a 4 metre car joining from a sliproad should have absolutely no problem seamlessly pulling into that gap, problems arise when people are travelling too close to the car in front and not adjusting for other road users/upcoming hazards and are then not prepared to overtake a slower moving joining vehicle ahead because 'they don't have to give way'.. You can't have it all ways, well you can I suppose, but it makes you a dick, and insisting people must stop on the slip road, because you are not leaving enough of a gap and not driving as the motorway is intended to be used, makes you incompetent quite frankly.

Overtaking is when there is someone in my lane in front of me who is stopped or slower than I am and I move out into the lane immediately to my right to pass the slower/stopped vehicle.

Someone on the slip road is not in my lane, so I am not overtaking them.

@ComingBackHome

And until all drivers have fully understood that moving onto the other lane or slowing down is something nice people can do rather than something to be expected, there is no room for ‘but it’s nice and why on earth do you want to insist on staying because you are right and just want to prove it’
If you are driving with the legally mandated space between you and the car in front then there would not be a problem. The problem is that you drive too close to the car in front thus leaving no space for merging. You are the problem.