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.

I would have an issue and I suspect many others would too.
Your issue with me following roadsigns and driving safely and correctly being.....?

Stupidity?

People queueing in only one lane before a merge happens the other way round as well. The photo shows the typical situation on a road I sometimes use. The left hand lane is only a bus lane in rush hours - see the sign, but even outside these times, such as when the photo was taken, 90% of vehicles queue in the right hand lane. The road merges to one lane about 50m beyond the left hand curve, and all the cars in the right hand lane have to "push in" when their lane ends.

In my opinion, it shows up two of the worst annoyances of UK drivers - failing to use bus lanes that aren't in operation, and queueing in only one lane.

"Don't be a dick! Merge like a zip!"

love it. IF I stay the the left hand lane I tend to let 3 maybe 4 cars in front of me till I get to the merge point where I would only let 1 car merge with me

agree the ridiculous left lane queues cause congestion on other roads due to the drivers inability to follow the Highway Code

The simplest solution is to update the signage to "queue in both lanes" and then left and right laners will both be happy 🙃

There's a few roundabouts near me where straight on is marked in lane 1 & lane 2 with a short space to merge after the roundabout. It's just too dangerous to use lane 2 because of the high chance that a lane 1 driver will decide you're a cheeky fucker for having the audacity to jump the queue use the lanes as marked, undertake and attempt to leave you with nowhere to go other than into oncoming traffic in the middle of the road.

We have a merging system around our one way system in our small town. Merging depends on everyone driving at the same speed with a decent gap so everyone keeps moving. It has taken many years for old school drivers to not stop and create a huge log jam.
If applied correctly to your situation OP what you should do is slow down to the same speed as the traffic in the lane you are merging into and move over when it is safe to do so. This can be at the end of the lane or anywhere in the 800yds leading up to it it. Driving at 70 mph when everyone else is doing 30mph means that you saturate the merging lane ( more cars trying to merge into too few places - do the physics calculation) and create congestion.
On motorways you often get lorry drivers moving into the lane that is closing down to deliberately slow the speed of merging traffic. They are professional drivers who have seen far two many BMW drivers ( who are exempt from Highway Code rules) drive into the blue sign when they run out of road.
The M5 has a fantastic arse clenching merging point just south of Bristol. It’s a permanent feature and frequently catches BMW drivers out. It’s a clever test if your driving skills, judgement and observation. As a frequent flyer on that part of the M5 I have a little chuckle every time I see an idiot thinking they are being clever on the outside lane, breezing past at 90mph. You only do it once.

Queues would be FAR shorter if people drove properly and used all lanes until the closure, like the OP does.

I have just taught my son to drive so have spent the last 4 months immersed in the Highway Code and driving skills.
During one memorable commute to school we were stuck in traffic due to temporary lights. We eventually got to the front of the queue and had to stop at the lights. All good lots of points learned about patience and arriving safely. Then the lights turned off. MyDs slowly turned to me wide eyed and slightly panicked and said “ what the f*ck do I do now mum” I was thinking the exact same thing. Visions of Madge from Coronation street’s demise flashed briefly in my head ( I’m very old you may need to google it), but since “mums know everything I had to come up with a solution. Fortunately we could see the oncoming traffic so in my best authoritative tone I calmly told him to treat it like a long row of parked cars.
In all my 40 yrs of driving I have never had a set of traffic lights temp or permanent switch off in front of me.

The zip method works if both lanes and queuing. If everyone has already merged into one lane at, say, 400yds out, then you're just a dick to speed along the outside lane and bob in at the last minute. At that point you're not helping the flow of traffic at all. You're just demonstrating you think you're more important than everyone else.

When all lanes are stop-start is when it works perfectly and safely. The Blackwall tunnel northbound reduces from 3 to 2 lanes just before the entrance, it's actually the leftmost two lanes that merge with each other, and almost every time I go through it the traffic is stop-start, and every single driver in lanes 1 and 2 lets one car from the lane go between them and the car that was in front of them in their lane.

So if everyone else has refused to follow the rules if you follow the rules you are the one in the wrong?

Sounds like the logic of the girls behind the bike shed trying to convince me to smoke because everyone else does it.

Every driver lets one car from the other lane, left out "other".

Most drivers will just let you in, roll their eyes and focus on their driving. Merging further down makes perfect sense - adjust your speed down (where on earth are you driving that allows you to do 50mph up to the lane closed point?) then merge in turn so that you and all the other cars in the right hand lane slot into moving traffic (which won’t be going at 15mph) before the lane closed point. It’s so easy, it’s not affected by varying speed levels, does away with bunching (which I have seen many times - surprised you haven’t) and works in practice as opposed to what ‘should’ happen in theory.

If you merge at the blue sign it is likely that you will have stopped or slowed down so your speed is less than the moving traffic. To allow you in they have to slow down to allow you time to merge at a slower speed thereby slowing the whole lane down. Far better to merge at the speed of the lane of moving traffic when it’s safe than expect the traffic to slow for you at the blue sign. Again work it out.
It’s exactly the same principle as people who continually Wesson lanes on congested motorways. When you move out of a lane that lane has less cars in it so will move faster. The lane you move into will have more cars so will move slower. Obviously the effect is more marked the more cars that do it.
Modern traffic management on motorways now enforces staying in the same lane when going into speed limited contra flows for this very reason. It keeps the traffic flowing rather than constant, dangerous stop start traffic.

Wesson?? Swop

Oh - and for merge in my post substitute change if that helps. Merge/change/swap/etc - go into the lane that’s remaining open from the one that is closing up ahead

I believe the big blue sign is actually there for drivers who have no idea what the closed lane means. It’s telling you to “MOVE THE F**CK OVER BEFORE YOU TOTAL YOUR CAR”

The only thing they’d be demonstrating would be that they were the only person in the vicinity that knew how to drive properly.

This thread is basically highlighting why driving standards are so low - the number of clueless people is quite shocking.

I use roads like this everyday and can't understand the mentality of queuing and will happily use an empty lane. If everyone stayed in the lane they are in until it's time to merge there wouldn't be the bad feeling from the people who like to queue as no one would be passing them at speed and would get to the merge point about the same time as the car you were near at the first sign. Curious that people don't understand that.

Merge is a bit of a strange word for traffic management, “move into the lane remaining open ahead” is possibly more explanatory but at 70mph you probably wouldn’t see it.
The modern theory test is actually a brilliant addition to the driving test because you do have to learn what all the signs mean.

I believe you would benefit from redoing your driving theory...

But the point where you change lane is not relevant. The blue sign is the last point at which you can change lane. Some drivers appear to have a little bit more common sense and look for a space to move into as soon as it is safe to do so when they recognise that their lane is closing.

If everyone followed the zip method all would be hunky dory. Unfortunately you get jerks who fly up the outside lane then slam on their brakes and swerve into your lane causing you and the guy behind you to slam on your brakes in order to let them in. Just merge when it's safe to do so. It's not hard.

Exactly this. There’s absolutely no point in cars in the right lane driving faster than the cars in the left lane, then coming up to the lane closed point, leaving it till the last minute to brake, then all trying to squeeze into traffic that is by that point going faster than them. It just doesn’t work. Use a bit of common sense - you don’t need to change lanes the second you see the 800, but if you change somewhere between there and the 200 means traffic moves smoothly forward at the same speed through the closure.

The biggest hurdle most learner drivers face is working out the difference between safe a correct.
You may have right of way at a junction but if another car is breaking the law re right of way you don’t blindly ignore them and claim the accident was their fault despite being able to take avoiding action.
This concept was the hardest thing to teach my DS. Just because you have right of way doesn’t mean it is safe.
Good drivers anticipate and accommodate bad drivers which is why people let you in. I’d rather let someone in than have them drive into me regardless of whether they are right or wrong. This is why bad drivers constantly get away with it.
We are not being polite, we are driving defensively.