Love them or loathe them, it is a fact of life that on a regular basis most drivers have to use a part of the national motorway network.
It may be a short hop between two junctions as the quickest way to get to the out of town retail park or a long inter-county journey to go on holiday, visit relatives and friends, to get to your place of work or visit clients.
I remember seeing black and white footage of the opening of the inaugural section of the M1 in the late 1950's , that iconic but now often slow and congested main artery of the country.
The three lanes in each direction as depicted in the newsreel were deserted apart from a very old looking truck and a saloon car, perhaps representative at that time of the only people who had the inclination and means to run a vehicle, hauliers and bank managers. I also recall news items about the abuse of the empty expanse of newly smooth and unblemished carriageway by the owners of sports cars taking advantage of the absence of any speed restrictions, in particular the running of AC Cobra's in excess of 150mph with no sanctions.
On a good day of light traffic the motorway can be a pleasant enough experience bowling along at or around the national speed limit. The fluidity of the flow is a marvel to see and you may not actually feel it necessary to overtake anyone apart from the slower HGV's and a few souls who still adhere to 56mph as the most fuel efficient speed for a car to be driven at. That was certainly the case in the days of leaded fuel and poorly aspirated engines back in the 1970's but with modern engineering and fuel quality the ideal cruising speed in sixth gear is considerably higher.
There are certainly some reluctant users of a motorway.
This is no more apparent to other road users than in the manoeuvre to descend the slip road and attempt to enter and merge with the flow of traffic.
The worst excess of behaviour is from the aggressive motorist who careers down the slip at breakneck speed in order to launch not just into the inside lane but as quickly as possible into the fast lane.
In stark contrast is the very hesitant, almost pedestrian approach to merging at around 40mph to 50mph causing a bunching of vehicles behind and a mass panic amongst those occupying the inside lane who frantically seek to get out of the way of the crawler.
Perhaps worst of all is the nonchalant driver who regards the slip road as being the motorway itself and just carries on regardless of any other road user. There is no forward planning or observation involved as they firmly believe that they have an entitlement to just arrive and for everyone else to just take on the responsibility for evasive action. Nervous drivers should just consider taking a trunk road or even a scenic route to reach their intended destination. Better still why not just take the bus or a train. There are just too many thought processes required to successfully negotiate onto a motorway and some people are just not genetically disposed to such an exercise.
Taken to the extreme I have witnessed what I thought was a car towing a trailer down the slip road onto the M62. There was no visible gap between the two parts of the dark shapes just in view above and behind my left rear wing. As the lights got closer I realised that they belonged to two separate vehicles. As they sped alongside and ahead on my inside it was clear that the rear car was tailgating not out of road rage but in order to keep in view of that evenings episode of Coronation Street playing on the headrest mounted screens for the rear seat occupants.
Distraction at a key stage in a driving movement is common. The action of accelerating and judging when to enter the traffic flow may coincide with the irresistible urge to eject and reload another CD, adjust the Sat Nav, make a call or answer the phone, eat a salad filled baguette, take a drink or engage in an animated discussion, argument or joke with your passengers.
The stance of the driver at the point of merging can be both interesting and amusing. Some crouch forward pensively and are obviously wound up as tight as a spring under the impression that increased personal momentum will help in the forward motion of the vehicle. Others must have a weird jointing system around the midriff as they appear capable of rotating the upper torso through 180 degrees whilst maintaining a perfectly sat position from the waist down.
Stiff necks seem quite a common affliction during a long driving journey based on my observations of very laboured and painful attempts to turn the head at all.
The proliferation of the STOP! POLICE type programmes on TV do rely on incidents, some incredulous, on slip roads and many just confirm my own experiences over the years. If a slip road is entered by mistake and would appear to involve a long detour to get back to the intended route via the next or successive junctions then it appears perfectly natural and justified to try to reverse back up the slip with no regard for those scattering to avoid a collision.
Given the potential for mayhem and chaos involved in just trying to get onto a motorway let alone use it there may be some solid sense in just abandoning the car and joining the nervy, unpredictable and scatty individuals peering out from under their safety blankets on the National Express Coach Service as it creep along in the inside lane.
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