Motorway sliproad...who is supposed to yield?

M

micamaca

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I really don't know who is supposed to yield anymore...I find myself yielding if i'm on the sliproad merging onto the motorway, which I would think is right. But if sliproad ends what the hell are you supposed to do? It can be very busy at peak-times, some sliproads are very short and I often find I'm at the end of the sliproad and no-one is letting me in... What are the rules here?

And today I was driving on M1, in the left lane. A sliproad brought a van and two motorcycles down who coming to the end of sliproad did not slow down and were waiting to slip in to this left lane and here am I ....this time I moved into the right lane as there was just about room... but its ridiculous I'm yielding in both cases! I do make room if I can but if I had not been able to move into the right lane, would they be entitled to drive in front of me....ie do I have to brake completely to let them in or do they ? Someone please point me in some direction...this is one area that should be covered in driving test as then I might know! It scares me!
 
Traffic on the slip road is meant to yield. Drivers on the main road are meant to show some degree of consideration for traffic trying to join the road.
 
From [broken link removed]

These slip roads are designed to give drivers the time and space to merge smoothly with traffic already using the Motorway and in particular the nearside land.

Your aim as a good driver should ensure that you do not cause other drivers to alter course or speed.
As vehicle on the Motorway have priority and may not be able to move over, thereby allowing you to enter your skill with regard to early vision, good planning and acceleration sense should allow you to merge safely.
Extremely heavy traffic or poor planning may cause you to stop in the acceleration lane.
 
Grand thanks, well at least I know what is expected of me now. I honestly wasn't sure if am I supposed to stop...and its intimidating sometimes with rush hour traffic sitting behind me and I don't know what the right procedure is. At least if I know what I'm supposed to do, I can safely take time to merge and stop in sliproad if necessary.

I'm afraid in these days of increasing traffic and delays, consideration for other drivers is at a minimum. Had someone overtake me on a thick white line coming up to a roundabout, which was a new one on me! And I wasn't driving slowly considering the roundabout up ahead! People are very scary!

The slip road I have to use is very short, its from M50 to M1 Northbound. It seems as soon as you come down the sliproad and can just about start seeing traffic in your side mirror, you're supposed to be entering the lane. Other sliproads are a decent size, this one is a quarter of the size of others. And the traffic does be manic! But thanks, at least I'm armed with the knowledge now.
 
micamaca said:
But thanks, at least I'm armed with the knowledge now.
Click to expand...

hehe, still wouldn't always trust drivers in the slip road to obey this...
nearly had an accident from exactly this scenario in front of me this morning when the driver before me on the slip (also on a mobile at the time) didn't yield (or time his entry, just had to slow down for a few seconds and could have entered perfectly safely) and only the quick reactions of the oncoming driver (a female Polo driver - if she's reading "Good work!") stopped a crash.
 
Eeek!!!! said:
Can you provide a link to support that?
Click to expand...

As a motorist you are obliged AT ALL TIMES to give way to traffic joining a motorway. The reason for the overtaking lane is to allow you to move in to it for the purpose of overtaking. If you find yourself stuck in the inside lane, unable to move safely into the overtaking lane, you MUST yeild to traffic joining your lane.

If you want links. I can post you any junction up to the west LINK if you like, where idiots think it's fair game to force joining traffic to stop rather than letting them filter in.

We've finally managed to get a few motorways in this country but most of the idiots driving on them think they should either sit in the outside lane doing 70Khms or refuse to let other join at junctions.

Is just basic ignorance!
 
magunkey said:
As a motorist you are obliged AT ALL TIMES to give way to traffic joining a motorway. The reason for the overtaking lane is to allow you to move in to it for the purpose of overtaking. If you find yourself stuck in the inside lane, unable to move safely into the overtaking lane, you MUST yeild to traffic joining your lane.
Click to expand...

The rules of the road would disagree with you. Traffic already on the motorway has priority.
Joining a Motorway When you join the motorway by way of a slip road you must give way to traffic already on the motorway
Click to expand...
 
HI,

As Berni and Eeek!!!! have posted, traffic on the Motorway have priority. However, they should show wee bit of courtesy and allow traffic to join.

In an ideal world, nobody should overtake approaching a slip road. Overtaking lane would then be free for traffic on the Motorway to move over to allow merging traffic to join.

Here is the full section on Motorway driving in the proposed new Rules of the Road http://www.drivingschoolireland.com/motorway.html
 
I had a truly horrible experience of the yield/not yield dilemma not long after I passed my test some years back.

I was joining the M50 Southbound at the Liffy Valley junction and approaching the end of the slip road, the left motorway lane was completely clear and just as I was about to join, a white van in the overtaking lane decided he wanted to undertake the line of traffic ahead and barrelled up the left lane just as I was about to merge - also behind me on the slip road was a car tailgating me as I drove at approx 65MPH gaining speed - to make matters worse there was at the end of the slip lane a car was parked in the hard shoulder.

As it all happened so quickly, it left me being faced with the prospect of having white van man or tailgating renault attaching himself to my rear bumper or come to an abrupt halt at the end of the slip road thanks to the car in the hard shoulder - in the end as the car tailgating me finally slowed down so I could decrease my speed while rapidly approaching the blocked hard shoulder as white van refusing to slow down his undertaking move, was able to slot in behind the white van - was not a very nice experience!!

From that day on, have never expected even the slightest bit of courtesy from most road users of the M50!!
 
The real problem is the mickey mouse so called "motorways" in this country do not have proper slip roads. Mainly they are too short and angle of connection is too tight.

Whatever the rules of the road says, to help free flowing traffic one should move to the fast lane if it is safe to do so. Anyone used to driving on the continent will have experience of how this works.
 
magunkey said:
As a motorist you are obliged AT ALL TIMES to give way to traffic joining a motorway. ...Is just basic ignorance!
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From the draft revised version of the Rules of the Road for public consultation (the full text can be found here http://www.transport.ie/upload/general/7604-0.pdf):

Joining the motorway
When you join the motorway by way of a slip road you must give way to traffic already on the motorway. Use the acceleration lane to build up your speed before merging onto the motorway. Motorists must obey road signs and road markings and must not drive on hatch markings before merging with traffic. Watch for a safe gap in the traffic in the left-hand lane and adjust your speed as you join the motorway in order to match, as near as possible, the general speed of traffic in that lane. Only move into one lane at a time. Stay in the left-hand lane long enough to adjust to the speed of traffic before attempting to overtake.

Again magunkey, can you provide a link to back up what you say?
 
I have driven on motorways in many countries outside Ireland and the norm there is for traffic to move over to the overtaking lane so merging cars can enter the motorway at the correct speed. It worked well and very rare to have to brake sharply like on the M50. However the volume of traffic on the M50 doesnt facilitiate this here. Neither does the attitude of many other drivers, who view it as an offence for others to move into the mis-named 'fast' lane to facilitate the slip road users and even more heinous to then proceed to drive at the speed limit until safe to move back into the left lane. I think the government should do a TV advert campaign for motorway use as noone is sure of how 'Irish' motorways work!
 
Eeek!!!! said:
From the draft revised version of the Rules of the Road for public consultation (the full text can be found here http://www.transport.ie/upload/general/7604-0.pdf):

Watch for a safe gap in the traffic in the left-hand lane and adjust your speed as you join the motorway in order to match, as near as possible, the general speed of traffic in that lane.


Well anyone reading this would know it was not written with rush-hour traffic in mind. From 4pm onwards, you have heavy volumes of traffic and very few safe gaps to join from the sliproad, especially at the one I mentioned earlier. but at least if i know I'm expected to stop in the sliproad if necessary to avoid crash, that's better than my not knowing!
I do my best to make room for people when on motorway, check my mirrors to see is anyone approaching on the sliproad etc but unfortunately it's not often the way for me. :( I put it down to stress people are under coping with bad congestion on a badly planned traffic system...and some very ignorant people too! But mostly, I think people are stressed from commuting and you can hardly blame them. But I still don't want to have an accident because of them! I really don't enjoy driving here.
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magunkey said:
The car on the motorway must yeild to oncoming traffic!
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You have this wrong. Traffic on the motorway must show consideration, traffic on the slip road MUST yield. (Current rules)
[broken link removed]

Joining the Motorway

When you join the motorway by way of a slip road you must give way to traffic already on the motorway. Watch for a safe gap in the traffic in the left-hand lane and adjust your speed as you join the motorway in order to match, as nearly as possible, the general speed of traffic in that lane. Stay in the left-hand lane long enough to adjust to the speed of traffic before attempting to overtake.
Click to expand...
 
Magunkey - you are wrong about this. In addition to the other references :

When you join the motorway by way of a slip road you must give way to traffic already on the motorway
Click to expand...
from [broken link removed]
 
John_DI said:
In an ideal world, nobody should overtake approaching a slip road. Overtaking lane would then be free for traffic on the Motorway to move over to allow merging traffic to join.
Click to expand...

I disagree with you here insofar I don't think it should be legally forbidden. Unnecessary weaving causes "phantom jams" at motorway intersections
On another note, did anyone notice that gantries on the Southern part of the M50 unnecessarily direct south bound traffic into the overtaking lane?
[broken link removed]
 
Having driven in a few countries in europe, most motorway junctions (with regard to joining slip roads) safely operate on a 'zip' style format, i.e get our speed up on the slip rd as much as possible to motorway traffic's speed and blend in safely. With more dual carriageway and motorways in ireland with 3 lanes and more, iI recommend a pair of 'blind spot mirrors' which are small self adhiesive mini mirrors which show idiots undertaking and aso help you to keep an eye on those vehicles which hover behind your pillar out of sight.
 
jdwex; couldnt agree more. used the M11 for the first time few weeks back. Coming from M1 to M50 to M11. Unfamiliar with road and so was the motor behind me ( also LH reg) we both kept weaving in and out as I ( and probably the other driver) thought that I was going to be 'slipped' off the the left if I didnt enter the RH lane. Took me about 3 junctions before I realised that the LH was perfectly ok to continue on in.
 
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