'Tired' Northampton motorist urges drivers to start doing this simple trick to stop big backlogs of traffic at roadworks

A ‘tired’ motorist has pleaded for hundreds of drivers to start follow a rarely used rule instead of ‘needlessly queueing’ on a major road in town.

The motorist posted a desperate plea across social media on August 3 asking drivers to start ‘zip merging’ at roadworks on the A43 at junction 15a of the M1.

They say they ‘doff their cap’ to the ‘English love for a queue’ but requested that they stop and instead started to filter properly.

The post reads: “This is getting tiresome. To everyone using junction 15a.

“Please feel free to use both lanes to queue for the roadworks. In fact, if you come from Towcester there are signs that say use both lanes and merge in turn i.e. when you get to the cones, zip merge at that point.

“Now I doff my cap to your stoic Englishness and your love for a queue, but the reason the queue is so long, threatening to block traffic on the ring road, is because you’re not using both lanes as you should.

“Please don’t confuse your love to needlessly queue for other’s ability to use the roads correctly. Stop trying to block others merging and give way.”

The developers expect the traffic management to be in place at this location until October 2023.

These types of incidents are also happening on the A4500 from Harpole to Upton, where the dual carriageway going into town goes from two lanes into one.

So what is the correct thing to do when two lanes become one?

The Driver and Vehicle Standards Agency (DVSA) pointed this newspaper to rule 134 of the Highway Code.

Rule 134 says: ‘You should follow the signs and road markings and get into the lane as directed. In congested road conditions do not change lanes unnecessarily. Merging in turn is recommended but only if safe and appropriate when vehicles are travelling at a very low speed, e.g. when approaching road works or a road traffic incident. It is not recommended at high speed.’

The RAC have a dedicated blog post advocating zip-merging.

A RAC spokesman said: “If we remove good old-fashioned British queuing etiquette from the equation taking all emotion out of the scenario, the plain and simple fact is that two lanes of slow moving traffic are better than one.

“So if cars use all of the space available to them on both lanes, it should result in the line of congestion disappearing, or at the very least reduced.”