...to think it's either ignorance or willy-waving?!

[stillawip]

Slightly provocative title for attention, but I'm honestly wanting to know the answer to this!!
I've just got home from a car trip down a dual carriageway, and yet again when there are roadworks and signs telling you to merge in turn 800 yards away, there was some k**b who decided to block the outside land from the full 800 yards so that no-one could go past and fill that lane. This has not only incensed me for years, but also genuinely puzzles me, so I've decided to try & find out why...

So, help me out here....if you're a man reading this or you have a male partner who does this (it's always men), could you please tell me...is it because they genuinely are unaware of the Highway Code saying that you should use both lanes right up to the merge & then merge in turn or is it, just a power trip for people, to know that they are controlling all the people behind them, & so they feel really big & powerful??
I would just love to know the reasoning behind people doing this!!

Just little nerds on a power trip I think. Desperate to feel important. I can imagine them sitting in their car feeling like a superhero.

Well that’s what I suspected, but am open to alternative suggestions!

Both me and dh merge at the very last opportunity..
Dick move if you don't.

It might be the lack of sleep but I'm struggling to picture this? How can one car fill 800yds of lane - surely you just me onto the lane in front it behind him? (I'm probably being really dim here I admit!)

I also don't understand. Is he straddling both lanes?

I also try to merge as late as possible but it does feel very un-British to whizz down an almost empty lane and get ahead rather than joining the nice orderly queue 😂

Yes, sorry, he was straddling both lanes!!

My DH doesn't block the lanes (straddling both so no one can overtake) but he gets incensed when people trawl down a closed lane (more so when it is showing big red X and they're still driving on it) but also gets annoyed at last minute mergers - despite knowing technically it's the right thing to do.

I don't think he's a dick, he feels it's not in the spirit of queueing, and sort of cheating the system.

I don't care either way and tend to get in a queue but don't get annoyed with mergers.

You don't have to blank out the word 'knob', OP.

I think what people fail to understand with this is that it's you only use one lane as soon as you see a merge it's happening, you make the queue much longer as you turn a dual carriageway into a single carriageway long before it needs to be. I genuinely think people do not know that this is what you are supposed to do. I only found out in my 40's

🤣🤣 it just seemed too rude!

Yes exactly, & people can’t get to turn- offs/lay-bys that they would otherwise be able to access if the queue was double width & shorter!

Yes, I can understand that, but the Highway Code does say you should have 2 queues. “Cheating the system” tho, that’s a good explanation of why some do it, maybe…

I think it is entitlement more than anything.

I have a fast car and I'm always getting middle aged men trying to race me or speed past me trying to show off. I think they feel intimidated by a younger woman in a nice car.

I think it’s a sort of group mentality thing. We’re hardwired mostly to lay by rules to be accepted by the herd.

so if I approached a bus stop and a big sign says “NO queuing, we don’t honour ques please fill the whole space evenly” and I look around and everyone has formed a neat orderly Que anyway I’m going to look/be perceived of as an arse for waltzing to the front and standing next to the front of the Que.

I’m technically right but societal pressure might get the best of me!

in real life I know the right thing to do is to drive down the empty lane but in reality unless I’m in a rush I usually don’t 😂🫣 and the majority seem to agree with me!

I was once stuck in traffic on a motorway, left hand lane was closed (big red X so not merging) and we were sat in the middle lane... every now and then I saw some blue flashing lights and wondered why they didn't come past... after the third or fourth time I realised there was a police car a few cars behind us and every time someone decided to go down the left hand lane they'd pop out and flash their lights causing the perpetrator sheepishly move back into the middle 🤣

ETA: having seen OP's update I'm going with knob.

It certainly isn't always men. I saw a woman in a large delivery van do this last week.
Apart from that, I have no idea why they do it.

It’s when someone doesn’t understand how it should be done, coupled with the arrogance of deciding to police the roads themselves. It really annoys me.

not always men but more often tbh.

also you see threads on this from time to time and there’s always a few posters saying it’s fine and people shouldn’t queue jump!

I agree thst there’s a problem with many drivers not understanding the Highway Code but I don’t think they men are any worse than women with poor comprehension and driving.

I think you're doing what my slightly paranoid OH does which is assume that behaviour of others is designed to be about someone else, aimed at someone else, in response to someone else, attacking someone else.

When in reality most of us and most people just go about their merry way, perhaps making misjudgements and mistakes, perhaps getting things wrong.

Perhaps he just isnt a very good driver and doesnt understand the situation.