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 plan ahead. Adjust your speed to create a gap, or move over well in advance. Why do you not know how to merge?

Its a zip merge, both cars are responsible. The slip road traffic matches speed to slide into a gap, if there is no gap then the drivers on the carriage way need to adjust speed to create one. Every car lets one in, like a zipper closing.

Stopping on a slip road shouldn't happen, it's really dangerous.

Absolutely this! If cars didn’t drive nose to bumper so often, there would be space for those joining to merge. But when you’re trying to join a dual carriageway or motorway and the cars are driving completely bunched up, if doesn’t matter what speed you are doing, you can’t join where there is no space. It’s incredibly dangerous, and that part is down to those drivers already on the road, not following the Highway Code.

If you can’t safely adjust speed slightly to create a gap for a car joining then you are probably too close to the car in front of you.

cars coming down a slip road need to judge their speed to join the dual carriageway. It would be incredibly dangerous to join what sounds like a busy dual carriageway from a standstill

It sounds like the drivers coming onto the trunk road that the OP is already on are coming down in a line of cars and then all trying to push onto the dual carriageway. If the drivers on the trunk road can't move into the right then the drivers coming down should be adjusting their speed, using the whole of the slip road and merging in turn - so many don't though. The drivers on the trunk road should be leaving enough of a stopping distance so that the drivers merging can slot into the gap in turn - and then all slow down to recreate the stopping distance.

I don't think so. I passed my test in 1988 and I always understood both those things should happen. Those on the slip road match the speed of the road, those on the road make space.

The onus is on the incoming traffic to merge into the existing traffic regardless of whether the existing vehicles can move over or not. It's nice if they can/do, but the job is still the same.
As an incomer you should be indicating asap and adjusting your speed and point of joining to match existing conditions. Making sure your mirrors are adjusted to give you the fullest view is a must. I have little round wide angle mirrors stuck onto my side mirrors which seem to give me an earlier view

Are you indicating to move over to the right to let them merge? I find around motorway junctions most drivers will allow cars from the left to merge into the righthand lane if they are indicating as everyone understands the need for drivers joining to have as much space as its possible to provide.

If you are just ploughing on in the left hand lane then of course nothing is making space for you. I tend to try and move over in advance but if that's not possible I'll slow or increase my speed a little to make space.

Agree with these two pps^^ - my understanding is that you need to take action to allow them to join. The reason they are trying to do so "at speed" is because it is dangerous to join a busy dual carriageway going slowly (I would think).

This is one of the reasons you get middle lane hoggers. They don't want to deal with merging traffic.

I’ve had cars casually whizz down the slip road reaching the same speed as the existing traffic but apparently oblivious of the need to head for a space. They could slow a little and slot in nicely behind, but they seem to aim for the space I’m already in. It’s quite bizarre. Not often- but more than used to be the case.

Well said. Judging by posts so far a lot of people need to reread the Highway Code.

They’re designed for drivers joining to match their speed to the traffic on the dual carriage way/motorway. You absolutely shouldn’t be planning to stop on a slip road unless the traffic you’re joining is at a stand still.

Its dangerous to not be up to the speed of the moving traffic when you join.

There is a horrible short slip road onto a busy dual carriageway that I have to use sometimes. The left lane is often busy with HGVs and once I had to stop because there simply were no gaps and none of them were moving over to the overtaking lane. I got beeped at by a series of irate drivers behind me as if my only option was to plough into an oncoming HGV.

Indicate early enough and cars in the outside lane should clock that you need to move over to allow cars to join from the slip road and let you in, unless you indicate they might not realise, there’s no point just driving along towards a busy slip road and making no effort to give a gap, that’s just bad driving decision making.

No, don’t accelerate to get in front, drop your speed and let them in, the driver behind you will see you’re breaking and realise why.

Have you considered doing an advanced driving training course? It might help if this is an issue.

It seems the problem here is that the vehicles on both the trunk road and the slip road are all driving too close together, so the latter can't zipper into the former.

From the ops description of a 'convoy' I'm wondering if the problem is being compounded by lights somewhere before the slip letting in a wodge of cars together?

So, slow down a little before the merge point to open up a gap allowing one or two vehicles to join ahead of you, the rest of the 'convoy' needs to adjust as apt too.

My post isn't disagreeing with that - I was responding to the poster who said slip roads weren't designed for slowing down. They absolutely are for slowing down if the traffic on the trunk road is going slower than the speed you're coming down the slip road at.

if the traffic is moving at 50-70mp then stopping distance is fifty to ninety odd meters so there should easily be enough space between cars to let another car in. not four, obviously if four come at once they should each merge into a different gap. in very heavy rush hour traffic cars on the main road should collaborate with those joining and not be dicks just because they have right of way.

Yes ideally you see them coming enough in advance to anticipate and adjust speed if you can’t move over

We have so many of these locally. The custom, if you can't change lanes, is for the motorway driver to reduce speed to allow you to filter in.

Cars on the slip road should give way to cars on the main carriageway. And indeed, if a car joining the carriageway were to collide with a car already on the carriageway, it'd be the joining car driver's fault.
However, relying on cars to do that is, at best, discourteous and, at worst, outright dangerous.
If you're in lane 1 on the carriageway and know that there's a busy junction ahead then it's wise to move to lane 2 ahead of time. If that is impossible or impractical then you should carefully adjust your speed (either faster or slower, as appropriate) to allow merging traffic to join, like a zip (aka merge in turn).

Step daughter had this in her recent driving test and was told you shouldn't "hog" the right lane. You could move before the slip road, not "well in advance". Alternatively, you adjust your speed down to accommodate arriving cars from the slip road. But those on the slip road should be judging the speed and traffic levels and driving accordingly.

If there are big gaps between you and the cars in front and behind, maintain your speed and the cars in the slip road should adjust their speed in order to merge.
If your lane is busy, try to adjust your speed to let one car in front and one behind.
Of course, if you’re able to safely (not dramatically) accelerate or brake slightly to let them in this is useful, but the merging cars are the ones who should be adjusting their speed accordingly.

I'm amazed that there are so many drivers thinking they have right of way when joining a road they're not yet on.

Imagine this is a motorway. The cars whizzing along the motorway can't keep slowing down every time there's a slipway joining it, to let the new cars in.

In reality it's a bit of both but the cars joining the flow need to be aware of the speed of the traffic already on the road and whether there's a gap in the traffic for them to join.