merge point rule

[fred]

Two lanes merging into one. Arrows clearly define which lane merges into which. At the merge point who has the right of way ? I only ask because in certain parts of the country if a lane is closing and prior warning is being given all the sheep immediately abandon the about to be closed lane. Same sheep take great umbrage if one tries to merge at the head of the queue as recommended. (i..e) Zip merge as opposed to a comb merge) To me the obvious choice should be a one to one merge at the merge point but lots of pillocks take offence.

[Scott]

I am one of these pillocks. I don't expect you to push past a queue at the supermarket so why should you do so on the road?

[Martin Brown]

Because at least round here on major roadworks it says: "Use *both* lanes, merge in turn"

It is one of the very few things driving wise that Americans do better.

[Scott]

It doesn't always say that.

What you can do does not necessarily replace good manners. By your logic, if a sign says 'Give Way' and you are on the main road you should never allow the other vehicle in because strict interpretation of the Highway Code displaces good manners. I'm not surprised people take exception to OP if he forces his way in front of other drivers who have patiently waited in a queue.

[polygonum_on_google]

One to one merge at the point could be a good idea. But only if the vehicles in BOTH lanes have double the gap that would usually be required for the speed/weather/etc. Otherwise, at and after the point of merge, they end up having too small gaps. Also, only really can work if speeds are pretty much the same in both lanes.

Further, if there are are plenty of large gaps, is there a reason to defer merging until the merge point?

In other places I know where there is a merge in turn arrangement, there is often plenty of road ahead in case it is needed. If you wait until the last moment to merge, then any slight mistake by anyone results in much braking and annoyance.

What is, in my view, wholly unacceptable, is for those in the right lane to whizz past lots of slow or stationary vehicles and expect positive action to be let in.

[Jim GM4DHJ ...]

just do what Audi drivers do and push your way in....

[Andrew]

The germans do it automatically :-

<< Reisverschlussverfahren

Reißverschlussverfahren is the Germany word for late merge or zipper method. This is a convention for merging traffic into a reduced number of lanes. The idea is quite good and actually law in Germany. >>

[Fredxx]

What's wrong with that?

I was tooted yesterday for merging by a BMW driver.

[Jim GM4DHJ ...]

he either should have speeded up are slowed dowm not just into the side of me if I hadn't slowed dowm ...

[NY]

It may sound perverse, but I'd have thought that zip merging works best if it can be done at almost the normal running speed of the road - ie in advance of the lane drop. If you wait until the last few yards, as the HC says you should, both streams of traffic have to come to an almost complete halt to allow in-turn merging, because a car in the stream that is

*expecting* to go next (eg alternately) has to have room to stop if the other car doesn't give way.

The best solution is not to design roads with a lane drop, wherever possible, except at a place where traffic has to stop anyway (eg at a junction). That way you are not bringing all the traffic to a halt simply so two lanes can merge into one.

[Ian Jackson]

"Right turn on red" is another - as well as 'n5-type' speed limits (such as 35mph).

[Graham Harrison]

They've been doing work near the roundabout at Amesbury on the A303. Going east the signs say use both lanes. Last time I went past the traffic had merged about 5/600 yards before the merge point. Given the instructions I continued (at reduced speed in case someone decided to pull out) down to the merge point, found a gap, indicated and moved into the line with no problems. (I don't drive an Audi, BMW, Range Rover .........).

What would have had me do, given the sign telling me to use both lanes?

[Steve Walker]

If it tells you that, then that is what you should do. I wish they'd put that generally or write it into the Highway Code. However, if it does not say that, then merge early rather than at the point where you have no choice but to merge.

Normal road marking for a merge have one lane ending and an arrow and as the ones changing lanes, it is up to the mergers to give way to those who are not changing.

[Steve Walker]

That's the problem. It is not law here and the road layouts usually have one lane merging into the other, not two lanes both moving together into a single one.

The sensible thing would be for signage to tell drivers to merge in turn or, for long term roadworks with temporary markings, to equally merge the lanes; and for roads remaining marked with one lane merging into the other maintaining a requirement for the merging driver to give-way, as zip-merging and expecting other drivers to make a gap is perhaps not such a good idea on a high speed road.

[Steve Walker]

Zip merging makes sense where traffic will be queuing and/or moving slowly. On faster open roads, the speed differential between cars doing

70 and trucks or even tractors moving far more slowly is too great a risk and it makes sense for the one driver to adjust speed and find a gap, rather than both be responsible for merging - especially as the slow moving vehicle is unlikely to be able to make a rapid adjustment and likely cannot see far enough back (due to following vehicles) to plan for a much faster vehicle arriving at the merge point at the same time.

[Brian Gaff (Sofa]

Most of them have probably never looked closely at how a zip fastener works either. Brian

[tim...]

because if I don't do it, some other bastard will do it and push in in front of me

so the only way to avoid people pushing in, is if everybody does it

obviously it depends upon the length of the Q

if it's just 5 or 6 cars I get on the back

if it's 30 or more, I go down the outside

[tim...]

as I have explained before

right turn on red came about because it's normal not to find pedestrian phases on US lights

peds cross the side roads at the same time as traffic runs "across", so if you want to make a turn you can't do it then because the road is full of crossing peds

so right turn on red is allowed instead

[Scott]

This seems to me unacceptable for pedestrians, particularly anyone with vulnerabilities or disabilities who expect to be able to cross the road without worrying about moving vehicles.

They can't be relied on to comply with a straightforward 70 mph speed limit proposition so what makes you think they would drive at 65 or 75 mph?

[nightjar]

In law, neither has right of way, unless road markings and signs say otherwise.*

The AA advice is that it all depends upon the circumstances:

• I have seen this. The situation was a dual carriageway that ended and became a single carriageway on a left hand curve. Unfortunately, not everybody noticed that the dual carriageway ended there, resulting in a couple of fatal head-on crashes when vehicles travelling at high speed in lane 2 carried on round the curve as if it were all dual carriageway, ending up on the wrong side of the road. To avoid these accidents, the highways authority closed off the end of lane 2 with a physical barrier and put a give way line on lane 2 where the lanes started to converge. This made all traffic exit the dual carriageway in single file and did stop the type of accident that had happened before. Unfortunately, it also meant that a car in lane 2 trying to get to the give way line before a slower vehicle in lane 1 was forced into a rapid left - right - left manoeuvre. That proved beyond the capabilities of some, notably the teenage driver of a heavily overloaded car with almost bald tyres and badly maintained brakes, bringing other teenagers back from a party. He lost control coming out of the bend and went head on into a car coming the other way. The road has since been made dual carriageway up to the next junction, where they built a roundabout.