So I was driving up the M1 last night with pretty heavy traffic from about J14 upwards and they were closing lanes 2 and 3 for roadworks.
Filtering was taking ages and of course airsole after airsole was flying straight to the front of the queue until eventually I saw 2 trucks somehow arrange between them to block lanes 2 and 3 and stay level with the same car that they had been behind, all the way up to the cones. So no one else behind could get to the front until they had. To be honest I was pretty impressed with that and I’ve never seen that happen before, just wondered if that sort of thing happens often?
How would pushing the merge point backwards make the queue slower? And even if it did I’d much rather a fairer queuing system with a slightly longer average queue time than an unfair one with a shorter average queue time.
I personally have no issue with drivers using the other lanes to get to the cones, all three lanes are open and available to everyone so how is unfair? It was the drivers sat in lane one that chose to be in that lane.
Us Brits love to que. We’re known for it. That and being a nation of shopkeepers.
So if there are no ques available, we employ special operatives to create them, HATOs. Cones are a favourite.
Tesco supermarkets (always with a cultural finger on the pulse) are the boss for this. They realise when their customers are deprived of the queuing experience, so they deliberately call away the till staff to do things like staring at marmalade jars on aisle 12. This leaves 5 tills out of 30 manned. Doris through to Michael through to Enis can then que away! The moaning is all part of the cultural experience
CleanFifthWheel:
To be honest I was pretty impressed with that and I’ve never seen that happen before, just wondered if that sort of thing happens often
Cheers
Used to be quite common but truckers have evolved slightly now to realise that although they are helping themselves and traffic in front out by holding the que back, it creates just as many bottle knecks behind and also a false blocking situation, also the small matter of coming a cropper if an emergency vehicle is trying to get through.
Nice to hear theres still a few muppets left but these folk are the type who get very upset if someone wants to cut in and prefer to block em off. They cause more problems than they solve.
Talking of impressive muppetry, you would love my going right at a roundabout and doing a 360 to turn left technique (this isnt the same as Audi / BMW shenanigans turning left from the right hand lane) and just this morning joining the M6 south from the M5 I undertook a mile of traffic and used the A34 feeder lane which to be fair is a better option.
I also like to trickle forward at traffic lights to give the vehicle alongside the illusion they are rolling backwards, if done right this panics em into grabbing the handbrake. Amuses me no end in a small things satisfys small minds type of way.
CleanFifthWheel:
To be honest I was pretty impressed with that and I’ve never seen that happen before, just wondered if that sort of thing happens often
Cheers
Used to be quite common but truckers have evolved slightly now to realise that although they are helping themselves and traffic in front out by holding the que back, it creates just as many bottle knecks behind and also a false blocking situation, also the small matter of coming a cropper if an emergency vehicle is trying to get through.
Nice to hear theres still a few muppets left but these folk are the type who get very upset if someone wants to cut in and prefer to block em off. They cause more problems than they solve.
Talking of impressive muppetry, you would love my going right at a roundabout and doing a 360 to turn left technique (this isnt the same as Audi / BMW shenanigans turning left from the right hand lane) and just this morning joining the M6 south from the M5 I undertook a mile of traffic and used the A34 feeder lane which to be fair is a better option.
I also like to trickle forward at traffic lights to give the vehicle alongside the illusion they are rolling backwards, if done right this panics em into grabbing the handbrake. Amuses me no end in a small things satisfys small minds type of way.
After a particularly rough night I was a passenger in a car when someone did this. I chucked my guts up! If it was you, I thank you sir.
CleanFifthWheel:
So I was driving up the M1 last night with pretty heavy traffic from about J14 upwards and they were closing lanes 2 and 3 for roadworks.
Filtering was taking ages and of course airsole after airsole was flying straight to the front of the queue until eventually I saw 2 trucks somehow arrange between them to block lanes 2 and 3 and stay level with the same car that they had been behind, all the way up to the cones. So no one else behind could get to the front until they had. To be honest I was pretty impressed with that and I’ve never seen that happen before, just wondered if that sort of thing happens often?
Cheers
There are still a few idiots who think that the queue is constant and nobody should dare to pass instead of all lanes still being open and zip merging near to the cones.
With all these management gantries nowdays - perhaps it’s time for the Cameras to snap everyone going through the red 'x’s and give them all a bloody ticket!
It boils my ■■■■ seeing all those “I’m superior to all others” types drive right up to the end of the cones, and then cut in.
I’ve been part of one of these rolling road blocks as decscribed in this thread - but I’m too chicken to be the guy who crawls along in the fast lane, bearing in mind Plod is still going to take a dim view to me even being in it!
This is one of the things I have never really understood about British drivers and have argued the point with others many times.
I lived in Germany for years. Whenever there was a lane closure it just worked. Everyone in the outside lane just carried on to the end of their lane and the next car on the inside let them in - zipper style. No argy-bargy or trying to ignore the driver to your side trying to get in or any lane blockers taking it upon themselves to stop other vehicles.
I regularly ride my bike in France/Germany/Spain/Italy/Portugal and see this zipper system working great (most of the time). It actually avoids delays - or seems to.
The big problem is those that decide to dive out of the lane early and then punish those trying to cut in at the end of the lane because they didn’t bail out early like they did.
Winseer:
It boils my ■■■■ seeing all those “I’m superior to all others” types drive right up to the end of the cones, and then cut in.
They’re not being superior, they’re using the open lanes until the point at which they’re officially closed, it’s how zip merging works.
If everybody got into one lane immediately then they are still in effect zip merging but needlessly moving the queue further back up the road.
winseer:
I’ve been part of one of these rolling road blocks as decscribed in this thread - but I’m too chicken to be the guy who crawls along in the fast lane, bearing in mind Plod is still going to take a dim view to me even being in it!
He won’t take a ‘dim’ view of you being in the outside lane, he will actually book you for it, and hopefully do you for obstructing traffic too.
CleanFifthWheel:
So I was driving up the M1 last night with pretty heavy traffic from about J14 upwards and they were closing lanes 2 and 3 for roadworks.
Filtering was taking ages and of course airsole after airsole was flying straight to the front of the queue until eventually I saw 2 trucks somehow arrange between them to block lanes 2 and 3 and stay level with the same car that they had been behind, all the way up to the cones. So no one else behind could get to the front until they had. To be honest I was pretty impressed with that and I’ve never seen that happen before, just wondered if that sort of thing happens often?
Cheers
I think both they and you ought to have a good read of the zip method manual…
A bit like two drivers from the same firm some years ago blocking off the lanes 1 and 2, 3 was chock full of cars, on the approach to an incident (2 lane closure) just passed Sedgemoor services on the M5. I am ashamed to say I as did a LOT of other drivers ended up using the hard shoulder (not proud of it) to go around them. It wasn’t good, but if I tell you that we still had a good 2 miles to go til we reached the services. I was actually delivering to the services, and they still hadn’t gone past when I completed. Now think how much longer that queue was because of their actions.
Several car drivers this morning on the approach road to Marsh Barton estate in Exeter from the M5 direction, trying to block off both lanes on the approach to a lane closure, only problem was all of the traffic that was coming off the roundabout from the Dawlish direction were being backed up completely unnecessarily, causing further delays then there would have otherwise been.
All they are doing is causing an obstruction to the movement of traffic.
Currently on the A414 there is a lane closure on both carriageways at the London Colney roundabout. The queues are horrendous, because they see a sign that says lane closure 800 yards, and everyone fights to move over immediately.
Only when you hit the 200 yard marker, does it say “merge in turn”. Today there was a DHL rigid that had clearly crawled along at 1 mile a hour for the whole of the approach, he was ■■■■■■■ upset when I passed him at the merge sign, he knew he had just wasted 15 minutes!
Only in the UK do we overcomplicate things and actually cause a larger tailback. The best way is to drive in all lanes to the cones and merge in turn. These drivers were selfish pr!cks and as others pointed out self appointed traffic wobbles.
Drive to the cones and merge in turn, why can’t we figure that out over here? Do we like queuing that much that we increase the queue on purpose?
Maybe some here are really into self flagellation?..……
People keep quoting ‘The Zip Model’ but in reality that method is never adopted. If it was then lane 2 would be stationary because it receives the same number of vehicles per cycle as it loses.
I just think given that closure is signposted from 800 yards (presumably for this very reason) then it’s good etiquette to get into the lane that we all ultimately need to be in, at the earliest opportunity. And yes it will push the merge point backwards but I can’t see why that would increase the journey time from before the queue to after the roadworks so I don’t know why some people seem so keen to highlight this as a bad thing.
I use the same sort of courtesy when I let people out at junctions or slow a little to let someone join on the slip road to save them braking harshly. Some people only care about themselves and will routinely drive past every queue right to the front, but to think badly of that I must be crazy.
