I can't beat them so should I join them?

[Pumpwater]

I travel to my son's home at Consett most days, often at around teatime when there's a lot of traffic. Near the town centre there is a long two lane road ending at a roundabout. Left lane to the centre (& ahead) & right lane for traffic going ahead & right. Most cars are in the left lane & the queue can be quite long.

I am a true Brit with a well established sense of fair play & so stay on the left, inching forward to go to the centre, the right lane is often empty but people are zooming up to the roundabout in that lane (German cars mainly .... ahem!) speeding right round the quite big roundabout & heading to the centre, thus further holding up traffic waiting on the left. This is becoming so prevalent now that other cars & white van man are breaking out of the queue to do the same

So annoying, but should I do it too, it's dog eat dog out there!

[macafee2]

I have been know to do it, makes me smile and feel sneaky

macafee2

[neilll]

Why dont you stay in the right lane, go right round the roundabout and come of at your desired exit? That way you are not pushing in and you can sit there with a smug look on your face knowing that you have done nothing wrong.
Neil

[Hopeso13]

We have a similar problem near here and the police have been known to stop cars that have done just that particular manoeuvre.

It holds up those that have stayed in the correct lane and personally I detest those that do it just to save a few minutes but at my expense.

[planenut]

Originally Posted by neilll

Why dont you stay in the right lane, go right round the roundabout and come of at your desired exit? That way you are not pushing in and you can sit there with a smug look on your face knowing that you have done nothing wrong.
Neil

I have carried out this manouevre (not at this location) several times with one passenger telling me "you cannot do that", and I just replied that there was nothing illegal and complies with all signs and markings - I know that smug feeling.

[Pumpwater]

I am somewhat surprised by the replies, certainly not illegal but doesn't fit in with the British way of queuing patiently & waiting our turn. As greater number of drivers do it it holds up those waiting patiently even more & so the resulting frustration will result in more doing it which is what is happening.

[Gazmo65]

Everyone should do it which means the left lane will have fewer cars in it and those doing it will help ease the congestion 😆😆

[MSS]

Originally Posted by Pumpwater

I am somewhat surprised by the replies, certainly not illegal but doesn't fit in with the British way of queuing patiently & waiting our turn. As greater number of drivers do it it holds up those waiting patiently even more & so the resulting frustration will result in more doing it which is what is happening.

I cannot say that I am surprised by the replies, but my views and approach to life actually resonate with yours. Unfortunately most people do not think about fairness, just what they can get out of the situation. Personally, I am never in such a hurry to get anywhere that I have to jump a couple of car spaces. I find leaving 5 minutes early to get to my destination is quite sufficient.

We often have a situation on the A14 at a major turning into Ipswich during the rush hour where traffic has queued up on the inside lane of the A14 to turn off to Ipswich. The outside lane is clearly marked for straight ahead traffic only, which includes northbound traffic for the A12 as well as all the traffic to Central/East Ipswich and Felixstowe docks. During the rush hour we often get drivers who want to jump the queue waiting to turn left by driving in the outside lane right up to the turning. Sometimes they cannot get in because the traffic in the inside lane is not moving so they block the whole of the A14 whilst waiting in the outside lane to get in. It would be well justified to use traffic cameras to fine/award points to these drivers as they cause serious obstructions on a major road and are a danger to other road users.

On the whole, what you are observing is now the way of the world. In this world, there are some cheeky ways of achieving a quiet grin in situations such as the one you describe. For example, are you prone to occasionally stalling your car in the right hand lane approaching the roundabout and then having difficulty restarting it?

[andymc]

If it's clearly signposted that the right lane approaching the roundabout is for turning right only, then yes one should stay in the left lane on the approach to the roundabout in order to go straight across. If however the signage indicates that the right hand lane approaching the roundabout is intended to be used for going straight across as well as for turning right, it's a waste of infrastructure not to use it as intended. There is no rudeness or unfairness in doing so.

The same principal applies at temporary lane closures on the motorway/dual carriageway. For simplicity's sake, assume the outer lane on a two-lane carriageway is due to close, and the usual "countdown" signage is there to warn drivers of this, e.g. 1 mile, 800m, 600m, 400m, 200m, 100m. There's no point in having a long queue in the left-hand lane half a mile (or however long) before the merge point, leaving an empty-but-usable outside lane. The most efficient way of maximising the capacity of the road is for both lanes to be used right up to the merge point, and people should have the wit and wherewithal to merge in turn, aka the zipper movement (oo-er missus!).

Problems arise when some people who have moved into the inside lane as soon as they saw the first sign believe, wrongly, that anyone continuing to use the outer lane up to the merge point is somehow being rude or selfish, and deliberately obstruct them from entering the inner lane. This stems from the psychology of queuing, of course, and it's true that no polite person standing in a queue would barge ahead of someone else. However the two scenarios are simply not the same.

I am far from a boy racer or aggressive driver - my overall attitude is to make it easy for people to merge ahead of me and indeed to make it easier for other people to share the road with me generally (including pedestrians, bikers, cyclists, buses, HGVs, horse riders ...). My philosophy is that a little courtesy and consideration goes a long way. However I will never feel guilty about making full use of the infrastructure, which has been put in place at our collective expense, for its intended purpose!

[Comfortably Numb]

When I see traffic rushing up the outside lane, and preventing traffic from merging from the inside lane because they leave no gaps, I sit on the white line blocking both lanes from overtaking me, so both lanes are slowed to the same speed, and so are able to merge equally. After all, the important thing is to keep all traffic moving safely at the same speed. It's the speed difference between the outside lane traffic and the blocked lane 1 traffic that causes the problem. With your roundabout problem, buy a Landrover with big girder bumper, and just edge out slowly onto the roundabout, anyone coming right round the roundabout is going to stop and let you go first. The more battered the Landrover (other4x4s are available), the more effective it is. My brother used to have an old battered Series Landy in London, at the same time as an Elan S2. He got around far quicker in the Landy! I get fed up with drivers who wait for a big gap at roundabouts, I'll jump into a big enough gap, and make drivers on the island er... adjust their speed to accomodate me. Who suffers more frustration, - 10 drivers waiting 6 seconds, or 1 driver waiting a minute? Answer- the latter, as frustration grows exponentially with time.