Well all the ones I listed are two lanes down to the actual motorway and quite often have two lanes of traffic in them. They don't merge into one so you can expect to have a car or lorry next to you by the time you get to the bottom. If you are lucky the motorway will be clear enough for those on the right to either move into L2 immediately or else just try and stop you joining.
They don't join as new running lanes either (except M6 j7 AFAIR)
I am beginning to wonder if you drive on motorways. You certainly don't drive on the urban motorways around the midlands.
I always drive on the left except when overtaking, I tend to avoid overtaking on the slip roads. Not everyone does.
You can anticipate what you like, it doesn't mean it can't happen and it doesn't mean there is a viable alternative to it. You could anticipate an airliner crashing into the motorway and hence never travel on one but its not a sensible option.
No, its a 4x3 trailer but you are still limited to the same speeds.
I don't honestly care which evidence you provide. I simply want to know whether or not your assertion is backed up by _any_ real evidence. Or if it is simply what you think from your recent experience of the subset of junctions you happen to use.
M6 J1 Two lanes merging to one before joining the motorway
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M6 J2 Motorway interchange Southbound two lanes merging to one before joining the motorway. Northbound single lane.
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M6 J3 Two lanes merging to one before joining the motorway
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M6 J4 Motorway interchange Northbound single lane. Southbound two lanes separated by a double white line.
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M6 J5 Limited access two lanes merging to one before joining the motorway.
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M6 J6 Motorway interchange. Southbound two lanes merging to one before joining the motorway. Northbound two lanes separated by a double white line.
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M6 J7 Southbound two lanes merging to one before joining the motorway. Northbound single lane.
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M6 J8 Southbound two lanes separated by double white lines
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Northbound two lanes separated by double white lines with lane 1 becoming new motorway lane
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M6 J9 Two lanes merging to one before joining the motorway
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Your observational skills evidently need work.
At most of those junctions, you should have merged with the other traffic on the slip road before reaching the motorway and should not have anybody on your right. All the evidence is pointing to you not really knowing how to drive on a motorway.
I am beginning to wonder whether you know anything about what is going on around you on the road.
If there are two lanes, there is no reason for traffic in lane 2 not to be travelling faster than traffic in lane 1.
He has just posted that, where a slip road merges from two lanes into one before the motorway, he always goes down it in lane 1 then fails to merge with the other traffic on the slip road and ends up with traffic on his right in the single lane section. Little wonder he sometimes finds himself on the hard shoulder.
Thanks Colin. It looks to me as if there has been a change of design criteria which means that the "two lanes all the way" are being converted to "merge before carriageway" or "separated by double white" across the country. My ignorance is how far that process has gone. (Which also appears to be someone else's ignorance. :-) )
It would be obvious to do this when other maintenance is already scheduled or where there is a particularly strong case on road safety grounds (maybe a history of accidents). It could be quite a few years before they have all been converted.
There are also quite a few junctions where the separation is not only double-white but also an extensive area of hatching.
These are compulsory now in parts of Europe. We carry two in all cars. Very useful as one tends to look like a policeman from a distance, amongst other things
useful as one tends to look like a policeman from a distance, amongst other things
From a quick look around, it appears the one is compulsory in France, one for each person in Italy. But there are question marks over the specifications - is orange acceptable? Do they have to have reflective bits as well as hi-vis?
We have two - but we almost never carry passengers so that should cover us. And one is stowed in a little space beneath the steering wheel for easy access. That seems also to be important in conforming to the rules.
Possibly introduced with TD22/05 (part of the Road and Bridges Design Manual) in February 2005, although I don't have a copy of the 1986 document it replaces to be sure. The notes to TD22/05 state that it has reduced the range of options for diverges and merges. However, memory suggests that the layouts I mentioned have existed for a very long time, so it may be that the revision only removed some lesser used options.
It would only need white paint to change a slip road that had two lanes all the way into a 2 lane urban merge. I suspect that most motorways have needed to have their white lines repainted in the past eight years.
Aka a ghost island, but they are, legally, double white lines.
It might be reasonable to hope that traffic in accelerating lane 2 should merge with any slower traffic in lane 1 rather than force them on to the hard shoulder? As has rightly been said, ghost islands solve this problem.
My problem with J10 M1 is due to motorway construction through a pre-existing urban environment. The circulating round-a-bout is below the carriageway and space for the access lane very limited. Now that the widening program has been completed this may have been cured. My Google maps is sick, perhaps someone could kindly check?
It might only need white paint on the ground (and removal of some existing white paint), but I guess that they have to go through some processes of design and approval as well.
Thanks - I knew they were to be treated as double-whites but not the name.
Merging involves both parties and sometimes that means giving way when you shouldn't need to, rather than ending up in a dangerous position.
However, the choice of junction is dictated by the traffic flow levels and, as they need a lot of space, ghost island merges are only used where the traffic justifies them.
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