To think you should join a fast road at speed?

[MamaPain]

Or at least at the speed the traffic on the road is currently moving and that the onus is not on those currently on the road to get out of the way?

I hate people who do this and sadly have to commute daily on one of the most dangerous A roads in the region and join it on one of its shortest slip roads (lucky me eh!)

I've been caught behind tractors, elderly drivers doing 15mph because they're too scared to join in their J reg banger that simply doesn't accelerate, learner drivers, dolly birds in cars too big for them, all of whom either crawl down the slip road or stop at the bottom of it.

The worst thing of it is the road joins 3 lanes of traffic and the near side one is a long merging lane to an off slip so you have people joining it from before the junction and slowing down to 30mph 2 miles before they leave the road.

I hate my commute

The non-driver makes the same mistake as, unfortunately, many drivers nowadays do.
That second lane is the overtaking lane. You shouldn't be in it unless you are moving past existing traffic. Many accidents and loads of congestion are caused by people driving along in that second lane even when the inside lane is clear. If you are passing a group of slower cars you are permitted to stay in that lane until you have passed them all. Then you move back into the inside lane.
If such roads were designed for traffic to join at slow speeds, they would not have slip roads (acceleration lanes). You are supposed to observe ongoing traffic conditions as you travel along the slip road and adjust your behaviour accordingly. Your driving behaviour should not cause any other driver to have to take defensive measures, such as braking or changing lanes.
DSis (in her Austin Allegro) was once stopped by the police on the M23 for driving in the second lane when there was space in the inside lane. Her explanation that she was worried that a rabbit would run out onto the road so was acting to protect wildlife cut no ice.

Jesus Christ those spouting "people go too fast"
"People should move over" etc
"70s a limit not a target"
Please don't drive on motorways/dual carriageways, because if you don't end up killing yourself, you will cause someone else to die behaving like that.

Also applys if you middle lane hog. Fuck off to the left when you can. If you aren't making safe progress, abandon your overtaking manoeuvre and get back to the fucking left

YADNBU.

Having said that, my lowest point was when I was driving up a slip road to join a fast-moving M25, only to find the driver in front of me was slamming on the brakes and reversing back up the slip road towards me, at speed.

I had to brake and swerve to avoid them, and then the driver had the nerve to give ME a death stare

I once saw a car right lane/ 'fast' lane hogging

We had just joined at the start of the motorway, no cars in sight on any of the 3 lanes and he pulled all the way over to the right!

I decided he might not have been a UK native and thought he belonged in the 'fast' lane?

"X is limit not a target".

Funny, that isn't what I was taught when I was learning to drive and passed my test, within the last 10 years. It was - aim to drive to the speed limit if traffic and weather permit it.

Everything Catswiththumbs said.

Some ridiculous comments on here. A car is getting onto the slip road, possibly having stopped at the lights prior. A slip road is mostly uphill and from a stop, it's quite impossible for some cars to reach a 'fast' speed prior to accessing the motorway. Regardless, I have an OK car and would probably get up to 70 mph on the slip road but no way would I attempt to just fly on there! It's my responsibility to check that I can safely access the slip road and not expect everyone to move out of the way.

There are drivers of certain makes of car that believe their rightful place is in the right hand lane irrespective of what the traffic in the left lane is doing

There's usually quite a gap between the lights and the end of the slip road though.

I don't think the idea is to be doing 70mph exactly at you get on to the motorway as a definitive rule, but accelerating at a speed that is going to match the cars already on the motorway quickly.

Even my little 1 litre city drive around car can hit 60mph going uphill from lights on a slip road as long as there's not some twat doing 30mph ahead of me.

"A slip road is mostly uphill"

I do a lot of motorway driving and most slip roads are downhill in my experience. The interchanges tend to be on bridges over the motorway rather than underneath. I know that some are under motorways, but where I drive they tend to be above.

Ididnt

Coughjagdriverscough.

I had once chase me from Swansea to Cardiff...to my street a few years ago. Because I had the audacity to be in the outside lane in his way . The fact I was going significantly faster than the cars in the middle lane seemed lost on him and apparently I should have just pulled in and killed myself and someone else.

I think he was mostly incensed a young woman in a shitty cleo (as I then drove) got in his way. His wife was mortified, I felt sorry for her.

alis in my experience it's drivers of German audis cars

There is a slip road here onto a dual carriageway with a bloody traffic light on it. How is that a good idea? It is usually turned off so I suppose that they only have it going when it is really busy and the traffic is slow anyway but it strikes fear into my newish-driver heart.

Just after I passed my test, I went for a motorway lesson with an instructor. his advice: get up to the ambient speed of the dual carriageway while you're on the slip road, so you can just slot seamlessly in.

I have always done this, except when stuck behind some moron who is trundling along at 40 as the M-way inside lane whizzes along at 60. If I can, I hold back to give myself more thinking time and then adjust my speed to slot in. I have done this in all sorts of cars, laden and unladen, including clapped-out old wrecks and 1-litre runarounds.

I have also been known to go past a middle-lane hog in the outside lane, and then cut back across to the inside lane a safe distance in front of them. Some of them get the hint.

Ididntsee, second you on Audis German cars. There is a phrase in this house: "doing the full Audi" = "tailgating like a moron". Which is very unfair to all the sensible Audi drivers: ten of them are always outweighed by the one idiot filling the rearview.

Oh those too Ididnt!

Volvo drivers tend to be the slow ones. Which is just as bad, just on the opposite end of the scale.

I find it's Nissan micra's and Honda Jazz's alongside the volvos but only when driven by the blue rinse brigade

It is most certainly the responsibility of the driver joining the mway to get their speed up to merge safely and most (joining)slip roads are downhill to aid acceleration, yes there are uphill ones but not that many in comparison.

If you think your car can't accelerate up to speed on a slip there's something seriously wrong with it (or you?)!

YANBU. You get up to speed and look for a safe gap join in, then drive at the speed that will get you safely into it without interfering with any other driver, you don't expect the other cars on the road to do your thinking for you by swapping lanes or speeding up/slowing down to accommodate you.

Fluffy you sound like a bit of a liability as a passenger if you are grabbing the dashboard in fright, it would be very distracting for the driver and likely to put them off and drive less safely.

Or perhaps you are in the car with the wrong person and it's them that's to blame rather than everyone else on the road. You can see enough from most slip roads to judge what's going on with the traffic you are joining, so if they have come tearing down the slip road into slow moving traffic then that's their own fault for not looking or driving to the conditions on the road, not everyone else's road for being in the lane they are supposed to be in.

If you are thinking of learning to drive, you should be aware that you can fail your driving test by causing another car to have to avoid you by breaking or forcing it to change lanes etc, and that's something to bear in mind even after you have passed the test.

Os

I just move out for people joining from slip roads. I don't understand the significant minority (not saying you are one of them!) who don't. Causes traffic jams in the long run.

When driving on a motorway you should be aware of any traffic on an approaching slip road and, if necessary and it is safe to do so, move to the second lane to allow them to join without the need to brake or accelerate sharply.

Drivers joining the motorway should find an appropriate slot on the traffic travelling in lane one, match their speed to the surrounding vehicles and indicate to show their intention to join at that point. They shouldn't cause the other vehicles to brake or accelerate sharply to avoid them.

Neither difficult if you are a safe and competent driver. If you're not, the last place you should be is a motorway.