Slip roads on to Motorways
Is it just me or do others experience the slip road game you have with some drivers when your towing,
I think without exception on every journey when towing I find myself in this situation. I'll be doing 60mph on the inside lane and traffic is merging from the slip road at a junction, I look in my mirror and there is nowhere for me to go because of the faster traffic in the middle lane so I come off the throttle or cancel the cruise control to allow a gap for the car on the left to join the motorway, they don't, they start to slow, they are rapidly running out of slip road so I then have to start to lightly apply my brakes (were down to about 45mph now) invariably I end up overtaking them as they have slowed to a crawl and they then join the road behind me head straight to the middle lane and off into the distance.
Sound familiar to anyone 
Comments
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Yes, happens quite often, some drivers have no idea of how to join a motorway.
Another group are the "it's a caravan, I must get in front of it" brigade, who fling themselves out in front of us, without any thought as to the braking distance of an over 4 tonnes outfit.
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I totally agree with you post we have found the same , the responsibility for joining a motorway or dual carriageway is for the person coming down the slip road to adjust their speed accordingly to filter in where appropriate , it shouldn't be left to the vehicles already there.
But as you say it's becoming more common , is it people aren't experienced enough or they don't know the rule of the road or just don't care .
I've found that HGV drivers are the most considerate / willing drivers on motorways when dealing with caravans .
The watch word is drive for yourself , but keep an eye out for the idiots that drive on our roads too.
edit.........
In fact there's a video on YouTube that shows a blue transit type van taking out a car /caravan doing actually what you've described .....unbelievable😬
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It sounds very familiar. As Kjell says, people have no idea at all on joining a motorway, they expect you to give way to them. Another one is that, despite a very long slip road, they think they've to join lane 1 ASAP, so get in lane 1 at 50, instead of putting their foot down & matching the speed of the m/way they're about to join.
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It’s a very common experience and not just when towing!
I find that you have to not only anticipate what other drivers are doing / going to do, but more often than not, you have direct them as well.
I will admit that I do try and move myself over to the middle lane if possible when coming up to a slip road. This is two fold, as too many times someone has left getting into the near side lane to take the exit and dangerously cut across the front of me-in an attempt make the exit, causing me to break like mad to avoid them. Not fun solo, but hair raising when the caravan attached!
secondly, I watch for the hesitant drivers and ones that an extra pairs of eyes watching the rear of their vehicles as the join the motorway would be of help and “flash” to let them know I know that they are there and that their path in front of me is free to Join. Sometimes easing off my speed for them to join safely.
I know that a appreciate it when it’s done in return.
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This is probably the first and most important lesson the newly qualified drivers need to learn about motorway driving.
Perhaps we will see a marked reduction on drivers bullying there way onto m-ways when ( and If ) the lesson on Motorway Driving becomes an official part of the driving qualification for those within reasonable distance of these high speed roads.
Sadly those learners in remote parts of the country such as north and west Wales along with most of Scotland would need a couple of days to get this experience, purely due to the distances involved.
B
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It's amazing the number who will match your speed instead of giving it a bit of welly and slipping into the gap ahead of you. It's much easier to gauge your distance from a vehicle in front than guessing how close the one coming up behind is.
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We have some very good dual carriageways which would be perfect for teaching motorway driving. The idea of a learner on a motorway is horrifying. I don’t know what driving schools teach these days but there doesn’t seem to be as much “thinking driving” like we were taught years ago.
I nearly had a very nasty encounter with a lorry coming off a slip road, didn’t even slow for the junction, just came straight off the slip road into my path. It was very close and if there had been anything in the next lane I wouldn’t have stood a chance. Fortunately I wasn’t towing at the time.
Another time I was in the outside lane when a van came off the slip road, straight across the front of the van I was overtaking and into the lane in front of me.
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Those on the motorway, obviously, has right of way because of the speed.
When I passed my driving test, some 40 years ago, the first thing my driving instructor asked for was another payment for another hour of instruction and he promptly took me on the motorway and gave me lessons of going on/off motorways and driving and overtaking vehicles on said motorway. I've never forgotten it.
Apparently, this is coming into force for learner drivers to actually be allowed to drive on the motorway with an instructor to learn the basics before passing their test
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Oh boy I have just read the OP to my OH, its one of his pet hates. We have the added joy that sometimes we tow a small car behind our m/h.
The amount of times we have had drivers pulling out from the slip road, not seeing the car on the back and almost driving into it
the other day coming back from Stonehaven we narrowly escaped one of the OP's examples, the car on the slip road slowed down so much that the car behind him almost hit him, which would have knocked him into the dual carriageway, OH was not best pleased. 0 -
Our worst fears is just this. Every slip road the OH watches them come down and utters her incantation to the joining traffic to "get your foot down"! I have learnt to check mirrors every time in the hope that should I need to i can where possible, pull over to the outer lane as the car joining matches our speed and expects us to slow down to let them in! ... and then shoots past us later after we pull back in casting 'that look' at us!
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I always instilled on my daughter to make use of the length of slip road rather than pull out as soon as she considered safe. My reason is that we all make mistakes, might miss a vehicle in a blind spot. If we do and we are using the length of slip road to join smoothly rather than pull onto motorway early we are given that possibly unseen vehicle time to react to our failings should they occur
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Very familiar. Another scary problem is when the driver of a vehicle coming down the slip road shows no intention of giving way to traffic already on the motorway. Frequently I have been in the nearside lane, with fast traffic passing me on my right, and a hulking great HGV close to my tail. So I can't pull out into the second lane, and no way am I going to brake suddenly in front of that following wagon.
One of two things usually happens - either the driver on the slip road rapidly accelerates and uses the hard shoulder to get ahead, or brakes at the last minute, sometimes giving abusive hand signals and his mouth working overtime. What does he expect me to do differently? I do watch for traffic coming down (or up) a slip road, but these approaches are not always visible from the main carriageway. It is very often the case that vehicle(s) on the slip road are moving faster than my permissible maximum of 60mph, and these drivers never seem to try to adjust their own speed so as to be able to drop in behind said wagon.
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Know what you mean, but I don't have a real problem with the odd single vehicle because I make a habit of keeping a good distance behind the vehicle in front (for 2 chevrons clear road, read 5 or 6 for me) - it is when a line of vehicles all try to get out of the slip road in one go that things get dicy.
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The slowing down on the motorway that is described at the start of the post is very dangerous indeed.
Vehicles already on the motorway should maintain speed. This is what other drivers are expecting and when anyone slows down suddenly there is a chain reaction behind it. Now, the driver of the vehicle immediately behind will be hopefully aware of the situation ahead and also slow down, or brake, accordingly. But for five or six further back there will be much less awareness of what is developing ahead and the driver with part attention on other things finds the gap with the vehicle ahead has reduced dramatically, and panic brakes. This may stop a collision with the vehicle in front but makes a collision from the rear extremely likely.
Meanwhile, the person who braked in the first place is driving on, blissfully unaware and exchanging insults with the driver of the joining vehicle.
As an aside, the newly qualified learners in Scotland get to drive on motorways with no hard shoulder, two lanes, and no accelleration lane.
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There will always be valid reasons for slowing down on a M-way, and drivers should always be ready for such events. There is no indication in the H C that one should maintain speed regardless. The optimum speed is 70 mph maximum, subject to road/weather conditions, but there are also HGVs and towed trailers in any form which are limited to 56 and 60 mph respectively, and these vehicles can legitimately, and do, use lanes 1 and 2. So, for vehicles permitted to do 70 mph, those drivers must always be prepared to slow down at times.
Slowing down, or braking "suddenly" should not happen and, unless it is caused by a vehicle having an emergency due to a serious mechanical/electrical fault, the cause will be due to a driving too close to the vehicle head.
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