Advanced Driving Hub

I'm not sure I see how being the last car in a queue in lane 1 is any different to being the last car when there's congestion. You are still at risk of the next vehicle behind you.

In such instances, I would go for what appears to be the safest option, irrespective of the law. There is no point in being dead but legally in the right. If taken by surprise, I would probably not join the queue on the hard shoulder, expecting a gap to form in lane 2 of the slip road and then, if no gap appeared, I would probably unhappily carry on.
Otherwise, exiting the motorway one junction earlier or one junction later sounds like an acceptable compromise.

GTR1400MAN wrote:I'm not sure I see how being the last car in a queue in lane 1 is any different to being the last car when there's congestion. You are still at risk of the next vehicle behind you.

I'd guess that people continuing in lane one would see the queue on the hard shoulder and expect everyone wanting to leave at the junction to be in that queue. They might then be a bit surprised when they see another vehicle stopped in lane one.

In congestion it'd be normally expected for all the lanes to start slowing down. In this instance, everyone else in lanes 1,2&3 expect to be able to barrel through at a constant speed, and if someones stopped in lane one could make moving out into two a bit more challenging.

IcedKiwi wrote:

GTR1400MAN wrote:I'm not sure I see how being the last car in a queue in lane 1 is any different to being the last car when there's congestion. You are still at risk of the next vehicle behind you.

I'd guess that people continuing in lane one would see the queue on the hard shoulder and expect everyone wanting to leave at the junction to be in that queue. They might then be a bit surprised when they see another vehicle stopped in lane one.

In congestion it'd be normally expected for all the lanes to start slowing down. In this instance, everyone else in lanes 1,2&3 expect to be able to barrel through at a constant speed, and if someones stopped in lane one could make moving out into two a bit more challenging.

When I saw it yesterday you would have needed nerves of steel (and a fair bit of planning) to start a new queue in lane 1. However, this stretch of the M11 itself can get quite slow and congested. This must lead to some interesting dynamics at times - I wonder if the hard shoulderers like giving way to those legitimately turning from a slow lane 1?

Worth pointing out for those not familiar with it that the M11 is only two-lane at this point.