Bad manners on wheels
I was on the M1 yesterday where judicious use of 40 mph speed limit lights ensures regular congestion as a fair proportion of drivers have to virtually stop to read the signs - I wonder if their lips move as well. Eventually after a few miles of stop-go for no apparent reason an all clear sign appears and traffic moves freely again.
Amid all this though are the drivers who perceive the lane next to them is moving a few feet an hour faster so have to change, forcing their way in, and then when the lane they were in starts to move faster they have to change back again. One such in a Honda must have gained about fifty yards in two miles with four changes yesterday.
And while we are on about drivers who treat everyone else with contempt, we also have those who when given a mile or so warning of a lane closure accelerate down the soon to close lane, past all those who heeded the warning and merged with the adjacent lane, with the sole intention of forcing their way in when the road finally runs out. Don't you just love 'em..
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Roger Clarke - Birmingham’s very own Grumpy Old Man on what gets right up his nose.
Best to just ignore it - You'd go mad otherwise!
If a lane is about to close the idea is to MERGE at the point where it closes. The car in the lane about to close simply merges into the the lane that is still open. This obviously relies open the driver in the open lane to allow the merging driver the right of way. If all drivers realised this there would be no hassles.
And the tooth fairy still leaves 20p under your pillow. We are not talking merging here we are talking overtaking slow moving and frequently stationary traffic at high speed in a lane that has become empty because sensible people have already merged in good time.
Now you might say that the people who have queued patiently in a line of traffic, often for a considerable time, watching cars zoom merrily past them should give a cheery wave and invite these people in like long lost brothers in front of them when their lane eventually runs out.
You might say it is right of way whereas I might say it is sheer arrogance and inconsideration to other road users. Far from merging we are talking here about cutting up and, to put it politely, taking the Michael. It is queue jumping, plain and simple.
And, if we are getting all technical, the outside lane of a motorway, officially, is for overtaking so no merging is necessary. If there is nowhere to go then you should not be in the lane in the first place.
It is the same attitude seen when drivers consider themselves far too important to queue so undertake on the A34 towards Perry Barr to cut in on some poor soul as close as they can get away with to the overpass, or those who go down an empty right turn lane at lights in an attempt to beat a long queue of traffic going straight across at lights. Now if those drivers with an attitude problem learned to play nicely with all the other drivers on the road then there really would be no hassles. Until then don’t expect any favours from the rest of us.