To think if you don't let people join stationary traffic you're a dick.

[WhyBeADick]

I hate drivers who do this, I don't get why you'd be a dick for the sake of saving yourself 1 second.

Sat in stationary or slow moving traffic, if there is someone waiting on a side road to join I would always let them in, I can't go anywhere and I need to leave a gap for people in the opposite direction wanting to go up that road anyway so why not? After they'd gone, id move up and I imagine the person behind me would then let the next person in if anymore were waiting and so on...

Yet I see so many drivers speeding up on purpose if they see someone trying to join or not letting cars in when they can't go anywhere anyway. What's the point of being a cunt? It saves about 1 second of your journey!

....lanes are supposed to merge in turn in this instance, at the point where the lanes join together. Being in a long queue of meek people who don't want to "push in" doesn't make it wrong to go in the outside lane - it's literally how the system is supposed to work, like a zip. That's why there are big signs that say 'merge in turn'. They don't say 'don't push in' do they?!

I have to crawl past the entrance to a new build estate every morning. Almost all drivers let a car out of there as they reach it. The residents would be waiting until the end of rush hour if people didn't.

I agree with this. If you've been queuing for 10 mins to get along a road, and a car pulls up to a side road, do you think it's fair that they get to join ahead of everyone who's been queuing for 10 mins?

Yeah, read your Highway Code then change what you do.

That 'odd tosser' is the one driving correctly!

The signs say merge in turn....what exactly do you think that means? Because it definitely doesn't mean 'everyone sit in one long queue on the inside lane and tut when people drive in the other empty lane'

for you

www.autoexpress.co.uk/car-news/105986/70-per-cent-of-drivers-don-t-know-how-to-merge-in-turn?amp

Are you just annoyed you didn’t think to use the outside lane? You’re sitting in traffic when you don’t need to and then getting annoyed with people who have taken the quicker option. Ok…

That’s a lot of words. You could have just said you don’t know how to zip merge correctly. I hope the other replies have enlightened you.

We have a terrible junction for this OP. The only way to get out is go basically force your way out. If a learner is there it’s actually quicker to go another way which usually adds 5 mins on but the learner will (rightly) sit until there is a huge gap and, if in rush hour isn’t happening. I don’t get what people get out of being so inconsiderate on the roads.

Reading this thread I can see I and most CONSIDERATE road users piss a lot of arrogant drivers off!!! Good!!! The 600 yard marker is a warning the lane closes at that point, it's telling you to get in lane. People like you cause the jams because the rest of us have to halt to let those in. Although I really try not to!!!!

These threads are always a snapshot of why driving standards are so poor.

The number of drivers who don’t understand merge in turn and think that creating long queues hundreds of yards from the closure are always so full of indignation about people driving properly.

Worse is when you are trying to turn right and leaving a gap costa you nothing! The amount of drivers who block the right turn are in fact the real assholes.

Surely it's an unspoken rule that if traffic is crawling you let one car out and then you go and the next person let's one out then they go.

Depends. I’ll usually let people out. But not for example if I’ve been waiting for 20 mins to get through temporary traffic lights. That’s every woman for herself

You'd have thought so!

One of my bugbears is, after letting someone in in traffic, they don't say thank you - give a wee wave to acknowledge it.
So rude.

You are meant to do that. It's not supposed to be one long lane of cars and one empty lane. They are supposed to both be full and the merging lane gradually joins.

@Purplepeople12 You're wrong though! People have linked to the Highway Code up thread for you and you still don't seem to understand.

Merge in turn means traffic should merge at the point when the lanes merge. What's so hard to understand? Why do you think having one long queue and an empty lane is more 'considerate'?!

OP I agree with you, it's common courtesy to let people out.

You only lose a couple of second of your journey and make someone else's better. It's like holding a door open for someone.

It annoys me too, especially as I live in a side road that is just after a roundabout, so it’s really difficult to pull out of.

But, sometimes the person legitimately doesn’t see the car on the side road until it’s too late. I’ve been guilty of that, where I end up blocking the car when I come to a stop, only realising afterwards I’ve blocked someone’s exit. Also, it depends on the traffic. For example, if I’m stuck in a shopping centre exit lane, if I stop to allow the person in one of the many side lanes to join the queue, I get held back too much. Let one or two cars out, fine, but every car at every side lane is an inconvenience.

Depends on the circumstances. You're not just holding yourself up by 1 second, you are delaying every single person behind you in the queue. There's a balance between being considerate to the (usually tiny) group of cars trying to join and the (sometimes massive) queue of people behind you. If there are more cars joining from side roads than exiting the front of the queue then the people at the back don't move. At all.

I work on a big industrial estate with lots of people trying to join a slow moving queue at rush hour. I work in the office right at the back and it can take up to an hour to get out of the estate because of all the people letting "just one person" in over and over again in front of us. There's nothing cuntish about considering the impact on all the people behind you as well as the person in your eyeline.

I don't think I'm british enough, I hate queuing for no reason so yes I do what the sign says and merge in turn. It stops traffic jams as the traffic is supposed to flow rather than the whole of the left lane at standstill because they don't understand what merge in turn means.

I do let people out but sometimes you slow down (slower than what you're driving anyway) flash your lights to let them out (I know that is against the highway code but it's common practice to do so) and they don't go. It's so weird! When I get flashed I look to the other side, check it's safe and I'm gone.

You are so wrong, you merge at the closure point to stop the queues forming in the first place. Read the highway code

Years ago I knew one of the people responsible for the merge in turn concept and changing the dual carriageway to allow this.

The correct way is always to use both lanes right to the very end.

Technically you are the one contributing to bottlenecks by thinking that queuing in the left hand lane is polite.

It's been designed for both lanes to be used right up to the merge in turn area. This stops traffic backlog further back along the road.

So actually the 'cheeky' driver overtaking you on the right and expecting to be able to merge is doing exactly what they've been instructed to do.

Yeah with all this stuff it's much better to be laid back and generous. Being uptight about letting people in/ people pushing in makes you no quicker and just causes you to tense up and feel shit. Same with the merging in turn- if everybody stayed in the lane they were in and merged at the merge point things would flow a lot better but the main thing is just chill. You can't control what other drivers do and getting angry about it just hurts YOU.

It has taken me a lifetime of driving to learn this 😁 but I'm a lot better and safer driver as a result - and tend to arrive places feeling less like I've run a timed obstacle course than I used to! Adrenaline/anger plus sitting on your arse in a car is REALLY bad for you.

People getting in a rage because they don't understand the fundamentals of driving and think that because they've arbitrarily decided to merge 2 miles ahead of where they're supposed to is one of life's little pleasures.

Up there with people who think they can reserve spaces on pubic roads because they happen to live near that pubic space and can't fathom why strangers won't accept their dreamed up rules.