To want to scream 'We're all going to die!' when going on a motorway slip road

[housebuyingnewbie]

I've been driving for three years and consider myself a fairly competent driver but the thought of going on a motorway slip road fills me with horror. I was cheerfully ignoring this and going the long way round anytime I needed to do a longer journey but dc1 has been invited to a party next week and my options are:
1 x junction on the motorway (15mins)
1 x single lane country road (30 mins)
1 x big A road (35 mins)
The motorway is a no brainer but how do I get over the fear and fast?!

point taken jimmyhill

Scotland? What's different about Scotland? The Highway Code is not specific to England

I drive on the motorways every day. My slip road tips :

1, If you can see that traffic is moving freely on the motorway, accelerate to 60, but don’t change up to top gear. You will find it easier to accelerate into a gap, if necessary, in a lower gear.

2, Signal your intention clearly well before you move. Most experienced drivers and truckers will make room for you if you let them know what you want to do. Communication with other drivers is very important on motorways.

3, Check your mirrors, obviously, but also always turn and look over your right shoulder. That way, you can be sure no other cars are in your blind spot. Then, match your speed and blend into the traffic in lane 1.

4, Don’t drive on the right-hand side of Left-drive European trucks. You will be sitting in the driver’s blind spot, and he won’t be able to see you.

5, Don’t drive too slowly. 60-65 is fine, but any slower and you will be forcing the truckers to sit on your bumper or overtake you which will be stressful for you and cause chaos for other road users.

6, Get out and practice when it quiet.

It will be fine OP. The only time you will really struggle to get on is when the traffic is gridlocked and going slow enough not to scare you. As soon as you hit the slip road, foot down on the gas up to 70 and off you go.

I had to drive on one of the busiest parts of motorway 2 days after passing my driving test. There’s nothing to it- honestly.

Ideally filter at matched speed. However:

End of a slip road is Give way. If need be you stop; as traffic in lane one has priority as per Highway Code* 259*

Practice. I live in texas and drive on freeways every single day including one that is 10 lanes in each direction. Drivers here are aggressive assertive.... Added to this, in the USA the "on ramp" is just before the "off ramp" so traffic leaving has to cross traffic entering the freeway and vice versa. After 5 years, I am unfazed and can cross 6 lanes in a few thousand feet (from toll lane to exit) with no problems at all....

I was saying to DH earlier, give me motorway driving any day of the week, over regular roads.

The more you do it, the less of a monster it will become. It's just a big road.

Actually there are quite a lot of Smart Motorway sections on the network now so if you don't use motorways often, take the time to learn when to use the hard shoulder and what to do if you break down

There is no actual sign saying "entering Smart Motorway" you can only notice the emergency refuges, overhead speed limits and (sometimes) no hard shoulder i.e. no solid white line.

Smart Motorway leaflet

Smart Motorway map Ok that's my public service announcement over

Try joining the M60 at Stockport East (Bredbury). You come down the slip road and get dumped into the outside lane with cars doing 80mph+ zipping past on your inside. You have to really give it some welly to safely merge across.

@housebuyingnewbie: if the slip road you come in on has two lanes, you may well find that the left) hand one turns into a motorway lane in its own right.

Much of the M25 is like that and if you are going one junction you wouldn't have to merge in, or indeed change lane, at all, if you didn't want to.

Depends what you're driving and whether or not you're in Scotland

We all drive horses and carts up here, didn't you know?

If you have s driving licence, you should be competent enough to get on the motorway. If you're too scared of motorways, I'd argue you shouldn't be driving at all.

Dithering, indecisive drivers are downright dangerous.

I had this fear for years and in fact wouldn't drive on a motorway after an experience as a relatively new driver in which a POS middle aged man decided to draw level with me in the slow lane while I was trying to join the M3 at 60 mph, cackling wildly at me through the window as he was not letting me get into the lane. I had to emergency stop at the end of the slip lane. I couldn't believe there were such arse holes about.

I have to circumnavigate the M25 several times a week now so have had to get over it.

These threads make me depressed every time so many drivers are afraid of/avoid motorways even at increased time and cost to themselves. Is it a problem with the driving test

Yes I think it is because you don't have to drive on a motorway as part of the test. And driving on some motorways is diabolical and some drivers break the speed limit and go far too fast and have no lane discipline. Add in the so-called smart motorways that expect you to weave in and out of lane one depending on whether it's the hard shoulder or not at that particular moment, and lorrydrivers who read/text while driving along and it becomes an ordeal.

In addition to pps, its also useful to remember that NO ONE wants to be involved in an accident, so even if they have to slow down because you are not at the correct speed, or need to brake because you are a tit, they are unlikely to just continue as normal and hit you 😐
Disclaimer for MN picky people : I am not endorsing bad driving, merely stating a fact 😁

Plus all the multitasking of checking mirrors, blind spot etc - my brain just can't cope with that level of processing!

Without meaning to sound too harsh, you shouldn’t be on the road if that’s the case.

I was the one to say as a back up have the hard shoulder as a mental possibility.

Firstly don't worry I don't have a driving licence so I'm not endangering anybody because I'm not driving. I have done quite a lot of merging though with an instructor in a dual control car due to learning in a country which isn't the UK and doesn't ban learners from motorways.

But - I said this because other people said to stop, and surely planning to stop is much MORE dangerous, because if you have stopping as your back up plan then if you panic, you're likely to slow down in preparation for the end of the slip road coming up and this is much more of a problem because it causes three separate issues - first if you slow down you definitely won't be able to merge safely, secondly you're endangering yourself from someone speeding up behind you (and endangering them too) and thirdly if you do actually stop then you're potentially stuck with no way to get back up to speed safely.

Whereas if your back up would be to continue onto the hard shoulder, you won't have any reason to slow down, and then 99.999% of the time you'll find a space before you get anywhere near the end of the slip road anyway, so you'll never go onto the hard shoulder but in the meantime if you panic you won't have stopped in the middle of a sliproad. It's more of a hypothetical back up than an actual strategy to be used. Most of merging is simply having the confidence that it will work out.

Much less scary than having to do 50 on a country lane with barely enough room for two cars, littered with potholes, ditches each side and ridiculously sharp bends so you have no clue who's zooming round the corner.

I love motorway driving to get to our Ds house involves motorway driving .I live in the sticks so most my driving is rural country roads with some A roads .You will be fine op have confidence in yourself.

I said this because other people said to stop, and surely planning to stop is much MORE dangerous

Well stopping at the end of a slip road is actually what you are supposed to do if you can't get out, what with it being a giveway line and all...

Advising people use the hard shoulder is downright dangerous and there isn't any way to justify that post, despite your efforts.

We all drive horses and carts up here, didn't you know? hmm

Scotland? What's different about Scotland? The Highway Code is not specific to England

Lower national speed limit for HGVs in Scotland, look it up

Well stopping at the end of a slip road is actually what you are supposed to do if you can't get out, what with it being a giveway line and all...

This ^^
If you don't know the rules of the road.. walk.

jimmy not sure why you have quoted someone else's post above the quote of mine but thanks for the info re HGV in Scotland. I didn't know it was different. I don't however drive one, so that's ok!

I once had an idiot sitting in the left lane (road completely empty) so I slowed down to join after him. So he decided to slow down to match my pace. So I slowed down more. So did he. I stopped because I was running out of slip road. So did he. In the middle of the road. He was stock still in the fucking middle of the road until I pulled out in front of him. Slip reads work well when the road isn’t over crowded and other drivers are competent but this isn’t always the case. My advice would be to stop at the top of the skip road until you see a big gap you feel confident slipping into then floor it. That way you don’t end up stuck at the very end of it.