How can you NOT get onto a motorway?

[purplecurtaindog]

I have driven on motorways for many years and avaerge 15,000 miles some years as I drive for work. I consider myself a very confident yet safe driver. I have experience driving lorries and an extended professional license.

Never in my 20+ years of driving have I had trouble getting onto a motorway...

Yet my friend told me today that she was not able to join a motorway today, that she matched with speed of traffic but there were 'no gaps.' She got stranded at the end of the slip road, DC in car, and ended up getting a vehicle recovery service to come out and get her car as she was too scared to move onto the motorway from a stop.

She says it was not her fault and that this was not due to fault of her driving.

However I can't see how you could fail to get onto a motorway if you were merging correctly?

I've always matched my speed with the traffic, indicated right, ended up on carriageway. If the traffic is slower, you still match your speed! My guess is she want too fast or slow. Yet she insisted this was not her fault.

So AIBU to not see how a safe and competent driver can get stranded at the end of a slip road? And AIBU to ask if this has ever happened to anyone/ if they've witnessed it?

I personally never have in all my years of driving.

Friend has been driving for ten plus years. I did mention that this shouldn't happen and that it was very dangerous, but I wasn't harsh or rude.

Thank you.

Possible when busy as some people's breaking gaps can be atrocious and people can be unwilling to let you out. Unless of course your friend was willing to be a bit more agresive in her driving style (not that I would recomed that per se). But a hesatent, unduly slow or passive style of driving dosent always encourage road hogs with a bad attitude to help make space

It is all to do with perception of gap size. I close my eyes and pray to any god when getting on the motorway with my sister. THAT WAS NOT A GAP.

@DianaPrincessOfThemyscira

Sure. That makes sense. But only for a short while and preferably only with good visibility.

The thing I find most incredible is your friend told you that she'd done this, imagine phoning the breakdown service, how embarrassing, I'd be mortified

What if all the traffic on the motorway is standstill or snail pace? Surely you stop on slip road then.

Slight change of topic, but somewhere in the UK there is a particular slip road that joins the motorway in the fast lane. Can't remember where - might be spaghetti junction.

There's one on the M8 through Glasgow. It's horrible. But I've still never had to call out the RAC to assist me!

A slip road that joins the fast lane?! Omg 😱

A friend of mine had a panic attack on a motorway and now refuses to drive or be driven on it, and feels uneasy on others.

We can only hope that we never have such reactions, but sometimes we can't control them.

Honey - that's just common sense though isn't it? If the traffic is at a standstill then there isn't going to be a gap any further along anyway so there would be no sense in driving along the hard shoulder. But I think if it was very slow/completely still I'd still indicate, turn towards the row of traffic and basically hope for someone to make room in the queue, even if I had to wait at a standstill while the cars in front inched forwards. I wouldn't just park up on the slip road - that would be dangerous to anybody else coming down it.

(Learner so not entirely sure if correct!)

Well, the motorway I join every day has traffic lights on the slip road (on the hill leading up to the motorway) right before you are about to join the motorway, so it can't be that bad to stop on the slip road! They are only activated if the traffic is really busy, I assume to limit the number of people on the slip rd trying to get on the motorway. . If they're red you hardly have any distance to build up speed...

There is a massive difference between aggressive and assertive driving.

Timid drivers are possibly as dangerous as aggressive ones.

There might not be a gap on joining a motorway, but merge correctly and a gap will naturally form, due to the experience of the drivers allowing the joiner to merge.

Terrifying, too many drivers just can't master the basics.

J15 of the M8 cathedral street you leave from the fast lane. The stretch through town is a 50 mph limit though and traffic pretty much sticks to that. You have to keep your wits about you.

I love people who think you should always stop at Give Way signs. Well, I don't love them, but when following people I've learned to look out for them.

In all my years of driving (40+) I have only been in this situation once, when a driver got in a similar position to the one described in the OP, and stopped at the end of the slip-road. I was directly behind them, but luckily had left enough room to slow down, "undertake" them, and use a bit of the hard shoulder to then safely join the motorway. I know my action was not legal, but it was (in my opinion, split second decision) the safest option.

Changing the subject slightly, but even after all my experience of driving, I still have good days and bad days, although everything is relative, and my bad days are usually experienced as my inability to park in a space I would normally do blindfolded. This is not me just getting older either, because I noticed it when I much younger, and dare I say much cockier, than I am now. Maybe it is my bio rhythms, or something!

There might not be a gap on joining a motorway, but merge correctly and a gap will naturally form, due to the experience of the drivers allowing the joiner to merge.

Lots of assumptions there.
Not least of all that drivers on the motorway are experienced or even paying enough attention.

Slight change of topic, but somewhere in the UK there is a particular slip road that joins the motorway in the fast lane. Can't remember where - might be spaghetti junction

I think if you join the old M6 from the "new" (toll) M6 going north you join in the fast lane but I'm not sure it's a slip road, it may just become a new lane.

But I think there is one in the Midlands - on the M42 perhaps?

lottieandmia22

‘The Highway Code tells you to carry on driving on the hard shoulder at the appropriate speed until a gap appears...you should never stop’
Thank you for this! It has made me a bit less anxious in the event I can’t get on.

I don't know which OP told you this, but the HC does not say this. Please do not carry on believing that it does, nor think the hard shoulder is there as a continuation of the slip road.

In absolutely exceptional circumstances, only if you are a terrible driver and have screwed up your entry onto the motorway (in over 20 years of driving I have never once not found a safe gap to move into btw), advanced drivers recommend that as a safety step it might be a safer option for the awful driver and other drivers around them if they continue on the hard shoulder to build up their speed to match those in Lane 1, rather than stop on the slip road and cause a potential accident to those approaching them from behind who will be accelerating, and also attempt to join fast moving traffic from 0mph standstill. Only, only, only, in exceptional circumstances is it advised (not in the HC, not any official book) that this might be a safer option to avoid a collision and danger to others.

Once you've stopped I can see how you'd feel forever trapped because cars coming up behind you on the slip road will be carrying on, so how will you ever be able to get on in front of them without forcing them to brake?

Would never drive on a motorway now partly because of this issue. I thought it was only me who thought it was difficult, so very interesting to read this thread! Thank goodness for trains and other public transport!

Slip roads with traffic lights make me tense. It's not that it's not possible or that I'm not capable but it seems - I don't know - unnecessary awkward.

I actually failed one of my driving tests by freezing on a slip road I was exiting the motorway (not in UK) onto a slip road for a dual carriageway, except in my nervous state, I just saw the Give Way sign and my brain went "Can't see, have to stop!" I just completely failed to process that it was another merge. I was probably also in UK mode expecting a roundabout. I had driven that road lots of times I do think there should be a different sign for "merge" rather than Give Way though, because I have always thought that Give Way means stop if necessary - whereas you should never ever stop when merging, it's actually important to speed up and match the speed of traffic.

My work is connected with RTAs. I can promise you: fatal road accidents are rarely the result of people going too slow.

No, they’re mainly the result of shit drivers failing to look properly

If an on-slip has traffic lights then the lights themselves and possible signposting should be prominent. While I can imagine still being nervous, you're a lot less likely to be hit from behind compared to just being stopped on any old slip road. I would also hope that there's enough slip road after the stop-line to accelerate to 70 in all but the slowest cars, though I know bad road design means that might not always be the case.

Surely a lot of RTAs are caused by cars stopped in unexpected places? Blind bends, crests of hills, motorway slip roads, that sort of thing.

Given the level of aggro on the other thread about undertaking on motorways I'm not surprised some pps find them intimidating places to drive. Tailgating is dangerous and the biggest cause of accidents. Why can't every one just chill the fuck out and stop thinking they're better drivers than every one else.