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!

Merging - Highway code says:

• If traffic is moving at speed (30mph+?) it's better to start looking for a space early rather than have everyone charging down to the last meter and slamming brakes on.


• If traffic is creeping and crawling use all of both lanes as it keeps the back-log shorter.

Fairly simples? And no One Rule Fits All.

Side roads -
I'll let folk out when i can see they've been waiting for a length of time which means they deserve to be let out 😄Cars which have just driven to the end of a road and expect to be let straight into our stagnant queue - nopes.

This thread is a prime example as to why this whole thing of “everyone should drive” is a bad thing.

Some people shouldn’t drive because they’re incapable, or unwilling, to do so properly without just deciding which bits of the Highway Code apply to them depending on if they’re being “skipped” by someone driving properly or not.

Usually though the lane you need to merge into is filled with drivers convinced they've done it right and who will not be letting anyone in. So, if you try to merge 200 or 800m from the end, you end up sat with your indicator on holding up the lane that should be free flowing. I do generally try to merge sooner, but those who think they know best are determined to prevent it.

If both lanes are moving until quite close to the closure then yes, of course merge while the traffic is still free flowing, but that's not the situation posters here are so irate about

Ok so 200 of empty space wasted. Got it

And have you ever seen an actual zip??

I think most or at least enough people seem to let out one car - I think it just as irritating when you get someone who lets out 20 cars whilst you're waiting behind them. Definitely get the odd who will go out of their way not to do that though...glad I don't feel so powerless I have to grab that little bit.

What REALLY annoys me blocking mini roundabout e.g. your exit is blocked (traffic lights further up the road) but you enter the roundabout anyway and block the other two exits so no one can move. Happens so often in the one near me.

You obviously haven't got it.

Zips - y'know, the things that move together over a period of time as the zipper comes together and closes. Do zips in your world look like 2 bits of string that come together only at the top when you tie a knot in them?

The zip analogy doesn't work perfectly because when you are doing up a zip the point at which both sides join together is constantly moving. However it does work as a demonstration of each tooth of the zip joining together from alternate sides, one by one. If the two lanes are bring driven correctly so that each is of roughly equal length one car from each side can zip together in turn.

zips in my world merge at the point of the zip locking the teeth together, Not halfway up, some teeth choosing to lock early, others later.

hence the merging of cars at the point of the closure being called merging like a zip.

look I see your argument all the time, on here and in real life. It’s wrong but it persists. I’m not going to get you to understand so I’ll just bow out now before either of us get too patronising.

You need to think of it as the two sides of material being pulled through the zipper, the join point, rather than the join point moving. Then it works.

The zip analogy is just fine, people know what it means (or never heard of it judging by this thread) That's what it's called (before all the hair splitting re the mechanics of an actual zip on clothing)

www.rac.co.uk/drive/advice/driving-advice/zip-merging/

You need to think of it as the two sides of material being pulled through the zipper, the join point, rather than the join point moving. Then it works.
Indeed. Which is why it works best, both as an analogy and in real life if people are driving properly and using both lanes equally to the zip point.

You don't get many zips where one side is 20 times longer than the other!

When I did it today a pick up did decide to swing out to straddle both lanes about 30m from the zip point to stop me getting to it appropriately. Now that's bad driving.

I understand this frustration but actually it can be really dangerous not to let people in, and you don't know that they are 'pushing in', sometimes it is just a mistake.

I find like is a lot easier/ more pleasant for me if I choose to believe people have good intentions rather than not.

Think of the teeth as the cars - they come together (merging) in the run up to the end of the zip (lane closed point). They come together at the same speed gradually in turn, and the traffic continues to move. They don't exist as 2 separate lines hanging down that only come together at the very end as you knot them.

They do exist as 2 lines who merge when they reach the zipper. Imagine that is stationary and the 2 lines are being pulled through, merging neatly at the same point, then going on their way combined.

youre thinking that the merge point moves, but it doesn’t. It’s fixed.

if you insist on the string then yes, 2 stings, which get knotted at a fixed point, then again and again as they come through. Always at the same point, not earlier in patches.

Think of the teeth as the cars - they come together (merging) in the run up to the end of the zip (lane closed point). They come together at the same speed gradually in turn, and the traffic continues to move.
Exactly, zipping at the zip point, not earlier, is the only way to keep the lanes moving at the same speed. So not moving over early is the correct and most effective way to do it

@onelittlefrog you might be the only person thinking rationally on this thread tbh

Oi 😀

It depends on how long I've been in the queue. If it's been a while then no, a few minutes then yes. As for those that merge from the right, I'll let one in but usually the dick behind them also decides that they should also be allowed to go in front.....I don't let them, they can wait their bloody turn, arrogant pricks.

Well, no offence meant. There is of course a correct way to do these things but ultimately the main thing is for everyone to get where they want to alive. Even better if they don't have some kind of schism later thanks to getting regularly wound up into spittling rage with no way of releasing it! Much better to assume people are mistaken than being dicks.

No offence taken I was being lighthearted.

agree with you 😀

But you want a gap left so people can go up the side road? So if you have left a car-sized gap for this, but you think it’s perfectly reasonable for a car to come out FROM the side road and go in front of you, then where is the gap for the cars to go up the side road now?

Also, it isn’t always a “1 second” delay caused by letting someone in. I often find that a person in front of me lets another driver in in front of them and they usually turn out to be the sort of dozy twat who doesn’t go when the lights turn green, or when there’s a gap at the roundabout. Then you or others have to beep your horn to wake them up and they go and just make it through the lights but you don’t. Then you sit there for two full minutes waiting for the next cycle. Seething.

I'm pretty good about letting cars in, unless they're SUVs. Drive a dickhead car, get treated like a dickhead.

what's wrong with an SUV?
It's like people have never heard of towing/farm/horse people that need them
I said earlier people treat me differently whether I'm in my actual car which is a polo, or in a Range Rover and this thread shows why

But you want a gap left so people can go up the side road? So if you have left a car-sized gap for this, but you think it’s perfectly reasonable for a car to come out FROM the side road and go in front of you, then where is the gap for the cars to go up the side road now?

Diagram of what I mean attached.

There was still a gap for another car to turn up the side road when the other car came out. DH (dickhead) sped up and closed this gap so the other car couldn't get out. Petty as hell.