Re: Slip-roads
Posted: Fri Jun 06, 2014 5:23 pm
GJD wrote:TheInsanity1234 wrote:Do you stop at the end of the slip-road, or do you slow down and treat the hard shoulder as an extension of the slip-road if it's clear?
Well both are (undesirable) options. I don't think there's any benefit to trying to decide a rule in advance that you would always do one or always do the other.
With fast-moving traffic and a proper motorway slip road I don't think I've ever stopped on the slip road. I can remember one occasion (someone had done what you describe - moved from lane 2 to lane 1 and nabbed my spot) where I extended onto the hard shoulder a short distance. I was accelerating, not slowing down though. Are you talking about continuing onto the hard shoulder while you still haven't figured out yet where you are going to merge into the lane 1 traffic? That's very different to planning a normal merge, losing your slot and then deciding that the best option now is ahead even though you won't quite get there before the slip road runs out so you'll need to extend a short distance onto the hard shoulder.
No, I mean in that situation, and you can see a space ahead that is very close to the end of the slip, and there aren't any clear spaces behind. Do you gun for that space, or do you slow down and hope another one will form alongside you.
Probably would never happen to me over my whole driving lifetime, but now I've said that it's probably going to happen every 5 minutes