Why do drivers do this??

scudzilla

This really really pisses me off, can anybody tell me if they do it and why


You're on a 2/3 lane motorway, and a sign says roadworks 1 mile ahead.

You're gonna lose the right lane in maybe 800 yards or so and cones start closing it off at 800 yards.

If the traffic is slow WHY DOES 1 IDIOT ALWAYS PULL HALFWAY INTO THE OUTER LANE stopping other drivers using the full 800 yards or so to merge into the other lane.

They just feckin sit there, stopping everybody.

This is much more of a habit in the UK.

Does anybody do this, and if so why???

The-Game

Hrmm cant say ive seen this alot, I have notice more of that one guy shooting up the right hand side as far as he can then hap hazardly merging in on top of whoevers nearest before he hits the cones!

scudzilla

The-Game wrote: »

Hrmm cant say ive seen this alot, I have notice more of that one guy shooting up the right hand side as far as he can then hap hazardly merging in on top of whoevers nearest before he hits the cones!

I gotta say that i haven't seen it as much in Ireland, but in the UK there's always 1 cnut who decides to do it.

T-Square

It is done so

The-Game wrote: »

that one guy shooting up the right hand side as far as he can then hap hazardly merging

at the top of the line of traffic and skipping past lots of cars

Guy:Incognito

scudzilla wrote: »

I gotta say that i haven't seen it as much in Ireland, but in the UK there's always 1 cnut who decides to do it.

Whole rows of people do it together here.

It was really obvious on the M50 between Clondalkin and Tallaght when the Ballymount junction had a short merge into the inside lane and the outside lane dissappeared at the same point. Huge amounts of people moved into the outside lane after the signs started to say the lane was closeing in X meters. The end result of this and peoples general inability to merge properly was that the 2 lanes that continued on to Tallaght came to a complete stop whiel people tried to merge from a standing start , with peopel changing back and forward from the inside and middle lanes, instead of maintaining speed and gaps where people could merge properly.

scudzilla

Stekelly wrote: »

Whole rows of people do it together here.

It was really obvious on the M50 between Clondalkin and Tallaght when the Ballymount junction had a short merge into the inside lane and the outside lane dissappeared at the same point. Huge amounts of people moved into the outside lane after the signs started to say the lane was closeing in X meters. The end result of this and peoples general inability to merge properly was that the 2 lanes that continued on to Tallaght came to a complete stop whiel people tried to merge from a standing start , with peopel changing back and forward from the inside and middle lanes, instead of maintaining speed and gaps where people could merge properly.

I particularly hate the people who move into the outer lane and just go slow, to stop peeps utilising the full lane merge

The-Game

T-Square wrote: »

It is done so

at the top of the line of traffic and skipping past lots of cars

I have no problem with someone overtaking at all, its the ones who are literally racing to get ahead, if they want to break speed limits then that's their choice, doesn't mean i have to like it.

Berty

The Limerick forum had a big issue with this with roadworks on our D/C towards Shannon. Got into the papers and everything.

Truck drivers would often block the overtaking lane by driving at 10kph. Mostly people in the left lane would block the "zipper effect" from occuring and by the fact they were accelerating and braking to bumper fvck each other they were actually causing the tailback.

If everybody was using both lanes equally and merging then....................BOOM no problem or tailbacks would occur.

It was eventually put down to the fact, Irish people will always be Irish people and assume everybody else is trying to get past them/get one up on them and decided to put a stop to it.

I once got blocked using a bus lane on a Sunday(Bus lane was Mon-Sat) by a guy driving half in my lane and giving me the finger everytime I beeped the horn and flashed the lights.

We are truly a backwards nation.

rccaulfield

Iv never seen it! Sounds like defensive driving to me, making sure drivers don't risk jumping up a few cars. Wouldn't bother myself!

ytareh

This drives me mad and is even worse than overtaking lane hoggers in my opinion.Its such a refelction on human nature .If everybody just stayed in the left lane the delay would be minimal .Instead people have to 'pull a fast one' and 'overtake' with the result that everyones at a walking pace....Grrr!

Encoder1970

Never seen this but I'd assume it's to stop cars to overtake everyone and then try to push in at the end?

Pkiernan

I applaud the drivers who do this.

It stops the inconsiderate wakners from barging up the right hand lane and cutting in at the last minute, because they are more important than everyone else.


When you see a BIG sign that says LANE ENDING IN xx METRES, thats a good hint to change lanes as soon as possible.

If everyone did this, the delays caused by road closures would be minimal, as the change from 2 to 1 lanes is spread out over a longer distance, and therefore much smoother.

Three cheers for the blockers! Hip-hip.....

Roanmore

I remember once on the N25 near Midleton there was a big sign saying one lane was closing ahead so everybody slows down and nearly everbody goes into the left lane, there was no lane ending. Both lanes fully open. Then there was mayhem when everbody realised and started to accelerate and move into the second lane.

ytareh

Im with pkiernan on this .I actually thought the OP was complaining about the opposite habit!If everybody just pulled in to the left this would be a non issue ...instead it can cause mile long tailbacks and half hour delays because of selfish idiots...It REALLY is the essence of negative human nature to do this ...a bit like the story/parable told in The Crying Game (!) about the scorpion getting the frog to carry him across the pond on his back and stinging him so that they both drown ...He couldnt help it -it was 'in his nature'...

Alun

Zip merging FTW. Forget all this 'merge as soon as soon as you see the warning sign' crap, and use both lanes right up to the merge point and merge one by one. It's not being selfish, 'pushing in' or rude, it's using all the available road space for as long as possible. It's now mandatory in many countries on the continent, but as usual in Ireland we know better :rolleyes:

Tea 1000

Berty wrote: »

The Limerick forum had a big issue with this with roadworks on our D/C towards Shannon. Got into the papers and everything.

Truck drivers would often block the overtaking lane by driving at 10kph. Mostly people in the left lane would block the "zipper effect" from occuring and by the fact they were accelerating and braking to bumper fvck each other they were actually causing the tailback.

If everybody was using both lanes equally and merging then....................BOOM no problem or tailbacks would occur.

It was eventually put down to the fact, Irish people will always be Irish people and assume everybody else is trying to get past them/get one up on them and decided to put a stop to it.

I once got blocked using a bus lane on a Sunday(Bus lane was Mon-Sat) by a guy driving half in my lane and giving me the finger everytime I beeped the horn and flashed the lights.

We are truly a backwards nation.

That's the problem though, take the Dublin DC that links with the Cork DC in Limerick. Always a tailback in the morning due only to the fact that the right lane people won't merge in time. They want to get as far ahead as they can then all comes to a halt because they have to merge. No traffic should ever have to go much under 80kph on a motorway that is linked to another by a slip road, however in Limerick we come to a complete standstill just to let the right lane merge. If everyone merged half a mile back while the traffic is still moving, then nothing would even slow down much. So annoying.

rccaulfield

Alun wrote: »

Zip merging FTW. Forget all this 'merge as soon as soon as you see the warning sign' crap, and use both lanes right up to the merge point and merge one by one. It's not being selfish, 'pushing in' or rude, it's using all the available road space for as long as possible. It's now mandatory in many countries on the continent, but as usual in Ireland we know better :rolleyes:

Yea thats not dangerous- we'll all pile in at the last minute at motorway speeds!:rolleyes:

blinding

I do it because it annoys some guy with access to a computer:D

Now that I know that it annoys some folks I am going to cruise around looking for the maximum number of opportunities to pull off my dastardly practice.:p

ytareh

This whole thing is kinda like the opposite of when a car enters a motorway ...spending Christmas here in England and of course here they can merge in 50-100m and are allowed to do so ...In some cases theres actually a barrier at the end of the slip lane entering the Motorway after 200m or so .Can you imagine that in Ireland ?!There would be a wall of crashed cars at the barrier where they werent allowed merge onto the motorway by the "Im irish ,cant change lanes/wont change lanes brigade"

blinding

ytareh wrote: »

This whole thing is kinda like the opposite of when a car enters a motorway ...spending Christmas here in England and of course here they can merge in 50-100m and are allowed to do so ...In some cases theres actually a barrier at the end of the slip lane entering the Motorway after 200m or so .Can you imagine that in Ireland ?!There would be a wall of crashed cars at the barrier where they werent allowed merge onto the motorway by the "Im irish ,cant change lanes/wont change lanes brigade"

Have you ever driven on a motorway in germany

Its a case of force your way in and damn quick or crash:eek: (on slip roads)
particularly the old Autobanns.

Jaysoose

Loving this thread, was coming back from belfast towards newry he other other day and there is a portion of the road that changes from dual carriageway to single lane and as the road was busy enough a bit of a queue started to form. As expected a 07-D-Audi-repmobileMan tries to fly up to the top and force his way in as expected by A4 drivers (being much more important than any other driver on any road) .....he was still trying to get in when i drove past him laughing

Whats the probem with people just not taking the merge at the earliest oppurtunity? surely the only advantage is to get the length of a couple of cars ahead at best....there are some truly pathetic human beings allowed to drive who seem willing to crash their vehicle in these situations.

PEB

I agree, if everyone merged in plenty of time there'd be no problem. What is it with the determination of road users in this country to do anything (including break every rule in the book) to get to their destinations a minute or two earlier?

I think the icy conditions recently really opened my eyes to how ignorant people are, you either had people driving at 5 MPH or you have the complete opposite end of the spectrum where people didn't seem to notice how bad the conditions were and just drove as normal i.e. 4cm from your rear bumper despite the fact their stopping distance had multiplied by 10

Alun

rccaulfield wrote: »

Yea thats not dangerous- we'll all pile in at the last minute at motorway speeds!:rolleyes:

Yeah because those crazy Europeans don't know anything about driving, or road safety do they :rolleyes:

You clearly don't have the foggiest notion of what what zip merging is. You don't all "pile in" at the last moment. Leading up to the merge, cars on the inside lane are supposed to leave a sufficient distance between them to allow cars in the outside lane to merge. At the same time, the cars in the outside lane position themselves so that they can merge into the spaces made available by the inside lane drivers. It actually works perfectly well in practice, although it requires something called discipline, something sadly lacking here.

Here's a page describing it all (very badly translated from Dutch to English by Google Translate) http://translate.google.com/translate?js=y&prev=_t&hl=en&ie=UTF-8&layout=1&eotf=1&u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.wegcode.be%2Fwet.php%3Fwet%3D106&sl=nl&tl=en

daveharnett

Alun wrote: »

Zip merging FTW. Forget all this 'merge as soon as soon as you see the warning sign' crap, and use both lanes right up to the merge point and merge one by one. It's not being selfish, 'pushing in' or rude, it's using all the available road space for as long as possible. It's now mandatory in many countries on the continent, but as usual in Ireland we know better :rolleyes:

Zip merging is lovely and all, but the fact is that it isn't done here. Given the tendency for morons take advantage of people merging early, causing phantom jams in the process, the defensive tactic the OP describes makes a certain amount of sense.

I would quibble the benefit of the zip too. If you think of the road as a pipe, the overall flow is determined by the narrowest point. There is no benefit at all in having a bigger pipe before the restriction.
If the road is busy, and narrows to one lane, the average speed will be no better than if it was a one lane road all the way. So why not treat it as a one lane road and merge early? That empty stretch of road isn't 'wasted', because it is of no benefit to overall traffic flow.

diamondtooth

I always block both lanes when the road is becoming a single lane. Why should some people sit in traffic for ages while other w*nkers shoot up the fast lane and drive in front of everyone? Have these people no manners? I'll continue to do this whenever I can!

stealthyspeeder

Everyone piling into 1 lane as soon as they see a merge ahead creates a tailback in that lane in heavy traffic and unnecessary congestion.

Zip merging is great, the only problem with it is the inconsiderate tossers who have a pathetic attitude along the lines of

"I've already merged (well before I had to), so im not going to leave space for drivers travelling faster than me in the overtaking lane to merge into my lane"

These people are total tossers and they are the ones who cant use the roads properly. Flash the lights and sit on the horn until they adopt the correct road position.

P.C.

The way I see it - you have two choices

1.) Merge early, and moan

2.) use all of the road available

/Thread

diamondtooth

I think the main problem is tossers trying to merge AFTER the outside lane has already closed and they try to bully their way into the other lane. I won't let people in who have not tried to merge ON TIME.

rccaulfield

Alun wrote: »

Yeah because those crazy Europeans don't know anything about driving, or road safety do they :rolleyes:

You clearly don't have the foggiest notion of what what zip merging is. You don't all "pile in" at the last moment. Leading up to the merge, cars on the inside lane are supposed to leave a sufficient distance between them to allow cars in the outside lane to merge. At the same time, the cars in the outside lane position themselves so that they can merge into the spaces made available by the inside lane drivers. It actually works perfectly well in practice, although it requires something called discipline, something sadly lacking here.

Here's a page describing it all (very badly translated from Dutch to English by Google Translate) http://translate.google.com/translate?js=y&prev=_t&hl=en&ie=UTF-8&layout=1&eotf=1&u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.wegcode.be%2Fwet.php%3Fwet%3D106&sl=nl&tl=en

Yea leave it to the last minute to ZIP (lol) in. Go for it- have a nice drive!:rolleyes:

Alun

rccaulfield wrote: »

Yea leave it to the last minute to ZIP (lol) in. Go for it- have a nice drive!:rolleyes:

For the last time, it's not just "piling in at the last minute" .. it involves all parties preparing and positioning their vehicles well in advance the actual merge point, and then merging, safely, one by one, just before it. It works, full stop.

So you reckon that the Dutch, for example, haven't got a clue and are just doing this for fun and laughs then? FWIW there's been some serious research showing that zip merging does indeed offer many advantages and reduces congestion, but hey, let's just ignore the research and experience of other countries where they actually know how to drive and keep on doing it our way shall we? After all, Ireland is at the very bleeding edge of traffic research and good driving isn't it? LOL indeed :rolleyes: