To think you should move across on the motorway when other cars are joining?

[MyFairyKing]

I am about to leave to go to work (on the motorway) and I was having a discussion with my housemate.

When I see cars joining from a slip road, I move across because otherwise, how the feck are they meant to join? She said I am wrong and it is their responsibility to join safely and I don't have to move to the middle lane.

A brief glance at the highway code suggests the slip roads are for accelerating to gain speed to join safely.

So, who is BU?

what - no, I said he got the minor for not moving over because he slowed down.

I believe it's the slowing down that did it - if the car in front had been going fast enough he hadn't needed to brake it would have been ok (does that make sense?).

That's even more bizarre then. Particularly as the HC says "slow down and hold back if a road user pulls out into your path at a junction. Allow them to get clear. Do not over-react by driving too close behind to intimidate them".

I guess the tester might have thought he was being too cautious if there was plenty of space to overtake, and should have anticipated it.

It's not bizarre at all. It's very common to get minors for slowing down inappropriately.

The Highway Code is written assuming you do the right kind of slowing down!

(Translation: I bet the silly twit panicked and braked far more than he needed, when he could just have slid across a lane. My brother took, oh, I don't know, seven tests? I got very, very familiar with all the ways you can fail. )

Maybe I've just got a different picture in my head of what happened then.

I do move in my car but in the old camper I don't as it doesn't go over 60mph and I'd likely get a speeding powerful Audi or BMW at 90 up my arse.

Id move over in some situations as a courtesy but wouldn't automatically attempt to move over in readiness as soon as I'd passed the off-slip. Depending on how many cars were coming down the on slip/how many were in the inner lane and their distance from me/how fast/close the cars were to each other in the middle lane. For example, if one car was coming down the on slip & the middle lane was free flowing at a faster speed than me with smaller spaces between the cars, I wouldn't tend to move across.

Traffic coming down the on-slip should give way to traffic already on the motorway, they don't have a God-given right to just join so from that point of view, if my moving across was going to cause middle lane drivers to significantly slow down to accommodate my driving speed/I was going to have to speed up a lot to fit in with that lane's driving speed, then I wouldn't.

YANBU, but I do see so many cars joining a motorway make absolutely no effort to match their speed to the prevailing traffic, or to find a space to fit in to. Too many expect those on the motorway to make way for them when they make no effort. That annoys me. Joining a motorway behind someone doing 50mph on a slip road is dangerous.

This drives me mad. I live near the A1 and I always move into the right hand lane if it is safe to do so. So many times I've joined the dual carriageway from the slip road and had to wait and a queue form behind me while cars speed by and there's nothing in the other lane. It's good manners to move.

or a hat-wearing oldie.

I know I shouldn't rise to the bait...but is it any easier to see past a hat wearing person in their 20s or 30s, going at the same speed?

"bastard lorry drivers on the M25"

No offense to most lorry drivers who I am sure are perfectly lovely but I seem to come across some very twatty lorry drivers on the M25. I hate the M25.

Agree that you should move over to the middle lane provided that it's safe to do so.

But what really annoys me is drivers who force their way into the road at the end of a slip lane regardless of what's happening on the road they're joining.

There's a single carriageway near me. One of the junctions on has a slip road. Drivers at this junction routinely drive onto the single carriageway whether there's a gap or not, forcing drivers on the single carriageway who have right of way to brake sharply or swerve onto the wrong side of the road in order to try and avoid collisions with drivers coming off the slip road

Whilst it is the responsibility of cars joining the slip road safety, it is certainly courteous to make it easier for them to do so. Your flatmate sounds very inconsiderate.

As well as moving to the right lane if necessary I also avoid overtaking when a joining slip road is coming up. Other people seem not to do this and so are faced with speeding up to allow someone in behind them or slowing down to let someone in front of them.

Am I alone in my approach?!

I was in a similar situation recently. I was joining the motorway from a slip road, had built up my speed to 50, motorway was clear apart from one car in the left hand lane. There were three lanes, the man was doing around 40mph, so it would have been no problem at all for him to move.

Did he move? Nope. So I merged on, he was still a safe enough distance behind me, no chance at all of a collision or him having to break. Then he flashed his lights at me, and I could see him and (I assume) his wife shaking their heads in my rear-view mirror. Some people are just rude.

Joining on slip roads is my biggest fear. I have to do it every day in order to pick my children up - I hate it. The alternative is a large detour which means I wouldn't make it on time - it's actually a very quiet motorway too. It does affect my life as it puts me off driving to visit my elderly mum and means I usually wait for OH to drive me. i am otherwise a confident driver.

Given that I've had to do it most days for the last 2 years, I am slowly getting more used to it.

I always appreciate it when someone moves across or flashes me to let me know that he has seen me and is letting me on. It's common curtesy and while on the Motorway, I move if I can, or adjust my speed to allow a space for others to join if it's not possible.

imo. I think people joining the Motorway should indicate as although you can take the point that what else would they be trying to do, i think it is good practice and also makes the car on the slip coming down more visible to those on the main road.

I do what's appropriate in the circumstances, if there's one car and plenty of room, they should be adjusting their speed to join the flow. If there's a few cars I'll pull into the next lane.

But what if you can't move across?
I was nearly side-swiped by a lorry yesterday. I couldn't move across as had a car coming up the outside. I think as I was actually on the motorway should have been allowed to carry on, he obviously thought as he was bigger and heavier he could just pretend I didn't exist. I (and dd) nearly didn't :(
And it was a junction after a bend so I didn't really have a chance to see it coming up and anticipate.

As an interest are cars towing caravans allowed to move over?

Once a long time ago not long after I passed my test I was driving home from work one summer night and I was joining a dual carriageway. There was a car towing a caravan who refused to move out. I thought that they would be moving and they just didn't and used hand gestures to suggest because they had the caravan they weren't allowed to go into the overtaking lane. There were very very few cars on the road that night and there was plenty of room for them to move. Ive wondered this ever since.

Yes you can move out when towing. However you can't go above 60mph. And depending n your towing combination and the road conditions you might not want to do 60mph.

I'll only do 55mph for instance if there's a bit of a downhill, even a slight one. Because I tow at nearly 100% and the van gets a right weave on if I'm not careful.

You also get idiots who won't want to pull out as they don't bother with (legally required) towing mirrors and then can't see to change lanes safely.

I did once have to do 200miles down the a1 and didnt dare pull out when I first got my caravan as when I did my indicator checks on leaving the caravan site I realised my right indicator wasnt working. I knew to do the checks but hadn't thought I might need spare bulbs!

Downy That driver sounds a right twat. Vehicles already on the motorway obviously have priority. Sometimes it is impossible to move across safely. I just think that if you can move safely and appropriately, then out of courtesy, you should.

I think YABU but that's possibly because I have been driving for a very long time and when I was taught, the mantra of The Highway Code was to NEVER assume that other drivers had seen you or are going to accommodate you; to always drive assuming the worst about other drivers on the road.

I agree with your point Mintyy. I learned to drive at 17 but gave it up for a few years because I hated it. When I started driving again, I developed a huge amount of confidence because I stopped assuming that if I drove well everything would be ok. I realised that I needed to be hyper aware of arseholes on the road.

Yes you should and when the left hand lane becomes clear, pull back into it.

Probably less of an issue if a driving licence was a privilege and therefore about half the drivers would not have one either because of conduct, medical reasons or because they never passed the test.