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.

If that "twat" got on to the motorway without dying in a multiple pile up, clearly there had to be a gap. Or else they couldn't have got on!

Or that twat has been lucky so far that the other drivers are paying enough attention.
I see those twats all the time and often have to break for them, as I often can tell that they are going to behave as twats. Quite often also without even signaling. It is not a HC advisory, it is not a rule, it definitely isn't even a tip for drivers to even begin to think that driving onto the hard shoulder is an official continuation of the slipway and is ok. It is absolutely exceptional - IF you are an idiot driver, IF you find yourself having to stop at the junction, it MIGHT be a better and safer thing to do to move onto the hard shoulder, build your speed up and join that way, rather than pull out from 0mph.

The problem is that this solution is being offered here as if it was ok to just continue from the slip road onto the hard shoulder if drivers can't merge on time.

Sometimes traffic is too heavy, too close and too fast. And you have to stop on the slip road. As I mentioned, an experienced driver won't stop at the very end, but towards the middle, though. But then, they will probably be driving very slowly to start with to spot a gap that they can join after speeding up to catch up with it.
A long enough gap with appear. There's no need to panic or call road recovery.

The only twats are the people who think it is ever acceptable to stop on the motorway ramp. It is not a little side road that you stop and wait patiently for a gap!

Although this thread does explain some of the appalling driving one sees on a daily basis.

The only twats are the people who think it is ever acceptable to stop on the motorway ramp.

So, you think it's better to continue driving up the hard shoulder, or push into a barely there gap making cars already on the motorway break?
Really?

No, I think it is better to drive properly and seamlessly enter the stream of traffic. You know, like a proper driver does?

FFS, I mean that I have gone slightly onto the hard shoulder, not driven up it for any considerable distance. That is obviously ridiculous! And this is sometimes caused by some drivers being dicks and shutting down any gaps and drivers in front not driving at the correct speed to pull onto the motorway. Believe it or not many male drivers do actually drive this way deliberately!

And yes, they always seem to be male!

No, I think it is better to drive properly and seamlessly enter the stream of traffic. You know, like a proper driver does?

But sometimes it's simply not possible. Too many cars, no safe gaps for a while.
What do you do, then?

Because what you may call a long enough gap, it's a safe gap you're entering, thus making the cars now behind you slow dow to regain that safe gap.
You are, thus entering the motorway dangerously, even if it seems seemless to you.

Most of us do it, but it's not particularly safe nor seamless.

As a learner this is my biggest fear, TBH! I remember googling it manically and finding the hard shoulder advice, but it does really freak me out. I am guessing that it's something which comes with practice.

Now RTFT. I can see some people strongly objecting to hard shoulder tactic. While I can see that it's dangerous, we are surely talking about an extremely rare occurrence, not an everyday thing. There wouldn't be "lines of people down the hard shoulder".

I'm really at a loss as to how you'd handle it if you'd stopped. How would you get going again?

I will ask my next instructor when I get back to lessons.

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.

The "twats" absolutely do not have to be male. There are shed loads of terrible women drivers too.

Beryl, no right-hand entries at Spaghetti. There's one at M60 J25 on the Manchester Ring Road though! Might be others too. As a road design it's frowned upon because it's at least unofficially the "fast lane", but local constraints mean they're sometimes used. Right-hand exits a bit more common than right-hand entries perhaps.

And then there's M6 J7 Great Barr, where the slip roads join/leave the motorway normally but two of them connect to the inside of the roundabout.

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

This has never happened to me either.

I did once have two HGV drivers that either didn’t notice me or didn’t want to let me in. I had to slow down and get in behind.

At every junction I check my mirrors and move if the slip road is busy and the motorway isn’t. If the motorway is busy I slow down to create a gap to let cars in. I thought that was common sense?

I did take motorway lessons though. After six months of passing my test and still driving several miles out of my way to avoid motorways it seemed like a worthy investment. It’s ludicrous really that motorway driving isn’t a compulsory part of the driving test.

ButteredScone

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

Thank you Buttered. I wish people would understand this fact.

No. This is poor driving. She never should have stopped. And calling the RAC, really?

It's happened to me just once a very short slip road but with a number of trucks all nose to tail and slow traffic no way to move onto main carriageway. As for using hard shoulder the I can think of four junctions within 30 minutes of me without this option.

The OP seems to think most fatal accidents are caused by nervous drivers. This seems highly unlikely. Certainly all the fatal accidents I'm aware of were caused by young men either driving too fast or in one case misjudging a junction. Plus you have all the pedestrian fatalities and cyclists knocked over which are unlikely to be killed by nervous drivers.

Let’s turn this around a little. I have driven many thousands of miles on motorways and never been in a situation where I couldn’t slow a little or move out to help out joining traffic if it’s busy. I find most drivers similarly accommodating. The issues seem to arise where people are either not making their intentions clear, or behaving unpredictably or trying to “enforce” some rules that often don’t actually exist

Less than a quarter of accidents involve those under 24 and while there are plenty of overconfident young drivers there are plenty of nervous youngsters who have just passed their test.

I doubt the nervous drivers are the ones causing the fatal accidents though Jamie, far more likely the over confident ones that lack the experience.

@Lweji if you’re still reading - I wasn’t clear. I meant if you’ve had to stop on the hard shoulder for an emergency, changing a tyre or whatever. In those circumstances you are supposed to gain speed on the hard shoulder before you merge into traffic.

Actually I am a very nervous driver and I always worry about what will happen if there’s no gap.

‘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.

In any case, I’d be more worried about stopping. A stranded car on the motorway is more vulnerable than a moving one.

M8 has a slip road onto the fast lane, that’s a fun one.