AIBU to think drivers should just obey emergency road signs and not be wankers.

[MythicalKings]

Seized by a fit of madness DH and I headed up the M6 to IKEA yesterday. The traffic was fairly heavy and we were in the outside lane when the traffic began to slow down and the overhead signs came on directing traffic from the third lane. As soon as he could DH moved to the middle lane. Most of the traffic in the third lane was blithely ignoring the signs.

Another sign directed traffic to the inside lane. We complied but other traffic continued to use the other two lanes. We on the inside were almost at a standstill by this point. Time passed. DH muttered about people not complying.

A lorry in the middle lane straddled the two outside lanes to stop traffic zooming up the outside lane. And we sat there, crawling along. The middle lane continued to move faster than we did, despite another 2 signs directing all traffic to the inside lane.

A van pulled onto the hard shoulder and drove off at speed then ground to a halt as traffic from a slip road tried to force its way in. An ambulance and a police car also zoomed up the hard shoulder but then they got stuck as well. It was utter chaos.

Eventually the middle lane ground to a halt and suddenly they were all indicating to pull into our lane. Those drivers who had obeyed the signs and had thus now been stuck in the jam for an hour watching them zoom past were reluctant to allow them in and there was much beeping and swearing. It was quite frightening watching cars and lorries ahead of us literally forcing their way into the inside lane.

DH let a few in but every time he did the car behind the one we let in tried to force its way in as well.

He commented that in some other countries they have a zipper sign meaning cars travel in 2 lanes until the obstruction then alternate into the single lane - much more sensible.

We heard a crunch behind us and saw a car from the middle lane had bashed into the side of the car behind the car behind us as it tried to force its way in. Which meant that all the traffic behind us was going to be stuck there for goodness knows how long, unless they pulled into the third lane to overtake.

Eventually we passed the accident and got to IKEA. DH says that next time he'll ignore the signs as well because the "cheating" drivers would have reached their destinations much faster.

I said that just because other people were idiots didn't mean he should be as well. Who was BU?

after years of behaving as your DH did i.e doing the right thing, I am sad to say that I would hve stayed in the middle/outside lane and gone right past you. I probably would not have left it as late as some to move back in though but plenty do as you have seen. That scenario is not unusual here in the south, I commute through the most congested city in the South and people just let you in with little fuss. You could say that the whole thing probably moved faster with 2/3 lanes for some distance but can't be sure if that is really the case. si, in answer to your question, YABU, sort of!

It's obvious who is being unreasonable

The problem may be that they put up the signs too early. Every driver has experience of obediently filtering due to roadworks signs, only to find that the works don't actually start for another half mile or more, so they learn to take the signs with a pinch of salt.

That's what DH said Gruntled. It's happened before but he's usually a mild-mannered obedient soul and shrugs it off.

But yesterday he was fuming.

I hope the guy on the hard shoulder obstructing emergency vehicles will get a huuuuge fine not be allowed to drive ever again what an idiot.

An emergency is different, but for roadworks everyone should stay in lanes and filter at the end, like the zipper effect you mention. This would keep the traffic flowing and lessen jams. The signs are warning you it's going to happen and prepare to filter, not move across immediately. Annoys me when I try to do the proper filter technique and I'm not let in!

YABU - not about using the hard shoulder - those that obstructed the police will almost definitely get a fine and points or summons in the post for that.

The Highway Code says this:
Rule 134
You should follow the signs and road markings and get into the lane as directed. In congested road conditions do not change lanes unnecessarily. Merging in turn is recommended but only if safe and appropriate when vehicles are travelling at a very low speed, e.g. when approaching road works or a road traffic incident. It is not recommended at high speed.

I do believe this has been done many times before on MN though, and there are still 2 schools of thought that will never be reconciled.

My own personal view is that it's better to have 1 mile of 3 lane tailback than 3 miles of 1 lane. If everyone follows the advice to merge in turn then there will be no sense that someone has queue jumped. I blame those that try and form a queue unnecessarily.

It would work better by using all the lanes until the obstruction and then taking it in turns. Until that becomes law you will always get those who pull over early and then get rage at the people who go past and not let them in, which leads to the people who do use all the road available to them to make progress having to force themselves in. It's a bit self fulfilling really.

FWIW if someone has gone out with actual little lane closed signs I try to filter with reasonable time to spare, if it's a stupid smart motorway sign, not so much. They are usually left on from earlier or turned on before they are needed round here.

It's actually much better to only merge when you need to (ie fairly close to where the lane disappears) because otherwise a section of road gets wasted (so long as everyone is going at roughly the same speed) and you get much longer queues. It sounds as if the roadworks and their signage were very poorly planned.

I currently live in Canada and we have major roadworks on a bridge here. There is a 'zipper' sign up at the merge, but the reason given for the sign is that it is because mostly people don't merge well as it's a small town with rarely any significant traffic unlike in countries like the UK where slow merging is pretty much an every day requirement.

Obviously there was a lot of bad driving going on and many frayed tempers but I'd not assume that your husband was necessarily in the right nor that the cars that continued for some way down the other lanes were 'cheating'. Oh and the people on the slip road had every right to push in (although they shouldn't have needed to). The person that drove on the hard shoulder was a complete idiot though.

It's much more sensible to stay in the outer lanes until the actual obstruction and merge in turn then. If everyone did this it would be impossible to queue jump as everyone would join the shortest queue when they arrived at the traffic jam, and all lines would move at the same rate. People sitting in the left lane while the other lanes are still moving are part of the cause of the problem - if all traffic was spread across 3 lanes it would be impossible for anyone to speed past anyone else.

The person who blocked emergency services by queue jumping in the hard shoulder should be prosecuted.

As someone said above, this is one of those scenarios where people are diametrically opposed. I am with you OP - when you see the signs, you move over. But other people simply can't understand why you would move over so early when you can filter at the end but people do leave it until the very last minute and that is super-annoying. I see that as "pushing in", they see it as "sensible filtering". Quite honestly I don't know what is quicker and which leads to less queuing - once you have everyone in one lane the traffic moves - if people are pushing in late, it doesn't. Some places have "merge in turn" signs but most don't and of course in the situation you describe, it's not a regular "2 lanes going down to one" scenario (if you travel on the A303 regularly you get this all the time). But it's true that signs are often left on when they are not needed, so I do understand why they get ignored where it's a temporary situation as opposed to a dual carriageway ending.

I didn't actually know that it's dealt with in the Highway Code, although even then it's not very clear first of all it says "get in lane as directed" and then it says "merging is recommended".

I have to confess that I do "push in" in one scenario - in a town near me I use a car park which is approached via a two-lane road. The lane nearest the car park is always blocked. I refuse to queue when I want the car park and not the road that everyone is queuing to get on, so I do go up the outside lane and then ask to be let through a gap into the car park. People do let me through but I'm not sure if they are that pleased with me!

Sometimes there's no point in being right when the rest of the world is wrong.

When we visit DH's family in Guernsey there are a load of yellow box junctions. The hatching doesn't meant the same as in Britain but means "filter in turn" i.e. alternately. It's such a civilized and polite way to drive. Could do with some of that attitude.

Driving on the congested motorways has shown me that it is better to keep traffic flowing slowly in three lanes and bottleneck further down then having lanes stationary and people switching lanes and causing mini-bottlenecks all the way down.

I would move when traffic is very slow in all lanes, on the Aroad that happens on a lot by me people are far more politer and take it one by one when an obstruction is seen.

Those that slow down traffic in all the lanes are not usually let it with such politeness.

Usually though on the motorway it says 'congestion, stay in lane' until close to the obstruction- that or the zipper are better.

I think neither of you are unreasonable, it is about judging the situation and everyone being less impatient.

I would suspect the car crunching was due to an impatient person forcing in which an equally impatient and frustrated one thought fuck you I'm not letting you in.

Motoways are hell though but then so is IKEA.

Motoways are hell though but then so is IKEA.

I think that's what made it worse.

The ting I took form your post is that some total fucktard was using the hard shoulder and caused an obstruction to emergency vehicles. Hope he never has cause to need speedy emergency assistance after a crash...

for roadworks everyone should stay in lanes and filter at the end, like the zipper effect

This IMO.

If everyone did swing suddenly over at the point of the first sign you'd all still be sat crawling along for ages, but with an empty lane next door for miles. What's the point of that?

Plus, i'm interpreting the highway code extract as backing this up:

You should follow the signs and road markings and get into the lane as directed. In congested road conditions do not change lanes unnecessarily. Merging in turn is recommended but only if safe and appropriate when vehicles are travelling at a very low speed,

Don't change lanes unnecessarily.

Goes without saying the hard shoulder van driver was an ignorant prat.

I'm another vote for 'use all available lanes for as long as possible, then merge in turn'.

I am an old lady so forgive me... but you are supposed to go to the end of the lane and then filter in. It is that very American Zipper Merge that keeps as much of the road as possible in use and speeds up transit passed road closures.

So the knobs were the people on the inside lane not allowing this to happen!

But hey! I am female, over 50 and I drive a BMW sports car, what would I know?

I am a firm believer in using all lanes until the obstruction and then merging in turn. Otherwise you get huge long tailbacks.

I had recent experience of this but we even had signs saying to use both lanes and merge in turn. I still had angry motorists refusing to let me in when I used the outside lane until the closure!

Some still insisted on joining the back of the very long queue rather than continuing in the lane that eventually closed despite the signs saying to do so!

The signs directed the traffic into 2 lanes and then into 1. No directions to filter, just arrows. One of the overhead signs said, "Incident!"

There was a curve in the road so no one could see what was happening until almost at the accident.

I wish they would use the zipper sign, but maybe they were trying to keep the lanes clear for ambulances and police.

If it's a "smart" motorway you are meant to move out of the lane as soon as you see the first red X. It's illegal not to and can lead to prosecution and fines. Highways Agency hand over all the CCTV to the police to investigate.

The problem is that most people drive like wankers and won't let anyone in. If people automatically did the zipper merge then it wouldn't be a problem. I see similar on an A road near me where people will literally barge into the other car rather than let them in. Bonkers mentality

There were red Xs but they just ignored them. That's why the inside lane drivers wouldn't let them in easily.