To say this sign does NOT mean move over now

[DappledThings]

Roadworks going on near me, a section of dual carriageway is temporarily reduced to one lane. As you join that section from a roundabout there is this sign (except with only one black arrow for the one lane staying open not two).

The second lane closes in 800 yards. At the closure point there is a standard circular blue sign with a white arrow to the left indicating the lane closes there and to merge into the left lane.

So every day I do that, merrily overtaking 50 or so cars sitting in the left lane for the entire 800 yards.

AIBU to consider that this sign means lane closing in 800 yards and merge where the arrow tells you to and not please pointlessly queue from this point leaving the lane empty for the full 800 yards.

Nobody ever looks pissed off at the merge point and I wouldn't think they had the right to be. I don't understand why everyone queues from so far back. It's so inefficient.

You know those signs on the run up to an exit slip? The ones with the 3 dashes, then 2 dashes and then 2 dash? Those indicate that it is 300 yards, then 200 yards and then 100 yards until the exit.

If you drive in the UK then you know how long 100 yards is. Unless you're just clueless.

For those that won't allow people to merge, it's like having two tills open in the supermarket and choosing to join the biggest queue, then blocking the supermarket doors with your trolley so that someone who joined the shorter queue doesn't leave the store first.

I do the same as you.

@ZenNudist really?? Does the Highway Code communicate slight impressions and nuances of politeness?

The problem with AIBU posts when it comes to driving , is that those who think they are right, cannot ever be told fact.

It's their way or nothing, because their way makes rational sense to them based on their view of social norms.

We now have an entire practice which is overriding the Highway Code, just because so many uptight British people can't stand the though someone is 'cheating' or pulling in before them. It's so dismaying it's untrue.

This waves at entire thread and 50% of the people on it is why the UK could never have a universal basic income..

Because you lot can't stand the idea of someone getting in front of you in a car and being 10 seconds further up the road than you.

The idea that someone may get something you believe they don't deserve, (even though.. you'd get it too) is SO outrageously offensive to you.. you'd ACTUALLY rather everyone was fucked!

👏

Yep you're right, OP. It is beyond stupid to leave a great long lane empty, while all traffic crams into one lane earlier than necessary, and backs up various other traffic streams behind. It's also stupid how indignant the queuers get at people merging properly! You're free to do it too, you know!

The whole point is that you merge in turn, at the point where two lanes become one.

YANBU! ‘Merge like a zip people’ is what I’m usually saying as I drive down the empty lane and merge in turn. Also this is possible to do at a safe speed not the 70mph many of the PPs seem to suggest is the only alternative.

Oz and NZ do have some of the best driving sayings,m. Although my fave ever was in Fiji there was a road sign that said ‘drive like and egg, die like an egg’ now another of my fave sayings in the car!

People who don't leave gap for other cars to merge at the front making the whole bloody queue slower. If everyone just drove with a big enough gap between them and the car in front.....and knobheads didn't try and fill that gap before the merge then the merge would be a lot smoother.

In reality what happens in the UK is some people in the left lane approach the merge. Several idiots on the right see the sign and slam on their brakes and pull into the spaces on the left, other cars on the left have to brake because their stopping distance has decreased. Now everyone is on the left but going 20 mpg slower. Some new faster people have arrived in the right hand lane and are now slowing down and attempting to filter in between the cars on the left still about a week away from the merge. One of the slow lefties brakes to let a rightie in and then because they are all so close everyone has to break and now they are all doing 10 mph. Meanwhile a BMW doing 80 in the outside lane brakes sharply at the sight of the slow convoy of plonkers and pulls in just in time at the front of the merge. Another 20 cars have joined the back of the queue. They've all just watched the BMW whizz past and decide he's a cock and no one else is pushing in front of them. Now they stop letting people merge and a queue has formed in the righthand lane too. Traffic is now almost stationary whilst every pair at the front of the queue play out a game of chicken, inching in front of each other, bumper to bumper with the car in front, hearts racing at the fucking cheek of that knob head next to them to push in.

Just leave a bigger bloody gap and stay in your lane till the end!!!

You are supposed to use the lane and merge. But the English do like a queue.....

Going in early AND driving past stationary/very slow traffic to get in at the front BOTH cause congestion. Equally.

If all the drive past everyone else drivers slowed right down, the congestion would ease off and there wouldn't be a problem.

To me I would start looking for a convenient gap but yes merging at the end is fine.

BTW I have nothing against BMW drivers....my dh is one!

If all the drive past everyone else drivers slowed right down, the congestion would ease off and there wouldn't be a problem.
I should slow down from 50 to about 15 to move veeeeeeeeeeery slowly in an empty lane past a full lane? That would be plain weird.

You're in the right. I do the same. People queueing for miles and getting annoyed at people who merge in later are so weird. Nothing stopping them doing the same quite legitimately. It would actually make the queue much shorter if people used all available lanes. And when they childishly won't let people in. Dangerous!

If both cause congestion then both cause congestion for the same reason, because people aren't using both lanes equally and merging properly

The drivers on the right aren't causing the congestion, its still the drivers on the left causing it if they have pulled over too soon

It depends. If the drivers on the right are going too fast then they can’t merge in turn without having to brake hard to get in - which causes a stop/start in the left lane because it’s very difficult to time it right if you’re going at 60 and the left lane is going 30. If the left hand drivers aren’t leaving enough space to let the right hand drivers in then they can’t merge in turn and the two lanes can’t move forward smoothly. It’s a traffic situation which has so many different permutations and requires all drivers to behave in a certain way - which of course they don’t and it’s why it goes tits up so often.

And yet it would work. Both lanes at the same speed = easy merging.

I do this. You'll find the left Lane people have no issue letting you in when you are nearer their speed.

I do this. You'll find the left Lane people have no issue letting you in when you are nearer their speed.
The people in the left lane also have no issue merging correctly with me at the merge point at the end of the queue so not sure why I would anyone to "let me in" at any point let alone at a point where I would then have to join the unnecessary queueing

How do you know they have no issue - have you asked them? They’re letting you in, yes, but if you had slowed down and merged in turn at their speed further down then you and all the other right hand lane drivers wouldn’t be bunched up at the zip point - you’d already be in the left lane and everyone would be moving forward at the same speed.

Completely agree! It’s very British not to push in at the front.

How do you know they have no issue - have you asked them? They’re letting you in, yes, but if you had slowed down and merged in turn at their speed further down then you and all the other right hand lane drivers wouldn’t be bunched up at the zip point - you’d already be in the left lane and everyone would be moving forward at the same speed.
Well there's been not a single flash, angry gesture or expression, passive aggressive keeping unnaturally close to the car in front to prevent me merging appropriately so yes I'm making the assumption that despite insisting on sitting in one lane themselves they generally recognise I'm just merging in turn as I should.

"Merging at their speed further down" makes no sense. Firstly you cannot merge except at a merge point where 2 lanes become one. It's changing lane, not merging. Secondly that would mean travelling the 800 yards at about 15 miles an hour rather than 50. Everyone choosing to do that is just bonkers.

There is no bunching the merge point because hardly anyone else chooses to drive correctly so it's usually just me overtaking everyone and then merging at the end. And if lots more people drove better and there were two full lanes which then merge in turn it wouldn't be bunching either, just everyone travelling at roughly the same speed but in a layout that causes fewer issues down the road.

If I were selfish I'd prefer it to stay as it is so I can still flypast all the voluntary queuers. But I'm being terribly nice alerting people to the idea that they can and should take up both lanes. If everyone does it better I'll lose my own advantage!

I would have an issue and I suspect many others would too.

But not following the highway code...

You can debate the hypotheticals but the reality is people should use both lanes and merge at the merge point.