Lane closures and merge in turn question

[largelunchbox]

Firstly I’d like to point out that I’m in the merge in turn camp or zipper merge for our usa friends. So on the m27 yesterday ( applies to any motorway) and lane 3 gantry has a lane close Red Cross so I pull over to lane 2, lots of other cars ignoring Red Cross and continuing , now afaic the lane is closed from the gantry and at this point drivers have no way of knowing why lane is closed, ( except regulars I spose) could be an accident/ object in road/ animals or road works etc. now after about half a mile temporary road works signs are now visible with count down intervals 800 yards 600 and so on. So the cars that ignored the Red Cross continue till the cones and merge in turn, now some cars are moving out of lane 2 and into the faster moving lane 3. At this point I’m tempted to do the same as I’m in the merge in turn camp but stay in lane 2 as I’m thinking the Red Cross supersedes the temporary signs. So the question is , is it ok to go back into lane 3 once you see that it’s only road works and nothing else and merge in turn. I understand that the Red Cross was a warning but it just impacted on the closed lane being empty for far longer than it needed to be, also the other gantry signs reduced the speed down to 40 so there was plenty of time to slow down at the 800m sign as normal, no need for the Red Cross imo.

[MustangGT]

largelunchbox said:

Firstly I d like to point out that I m in the merge in turn camp or zipper merge for our usa friends. So on the m27 yesterday ( applies to any motorway) and lane 3 gantry has a lane close Red Cross so I pull over to lane 2, lots of other cars ignoring Red Cross and continuing , now afaic the lane is closed from the gantry and at this point drivers have no way of knowing why lane is closed, ( except regulars I spose) could be an accident/ object in road/ animals or road works etc. now after about half a mile temporary road works signs are now visible with count down intervals 800 yards 600 and so on. So the cars that ignored the Red Cross continue till the cones and merge in turn, now some cars are moving out of lane 2 and into the faster moving lane 3. At this point I m tempted to do the same as I m in the merge in turn camp but stay in lane 2 as I m thinking the Red Cross supersedes the temporary signs. So the question is , is it ok to go back into lane 3 once you see that it s only road works and nothing else and merge in turn. I understand that the Red Cross was a warning but it just impacted on the closed lane being empty for far longer than it needed to be, also the other gantry signs reduced the speed down to 40 so there was plenty of time to slow down at the 800m sign as normal, no need for the Red Cross imo.

It is an offence to use the lane past the red cross. Yesterday coming down M6 was reduced to one lane, red crosses over lanes 1 & 2. Pleased to note dozens of idiots getting flashed by the camera on the gantry.

[C69]

largelunchbox said:

I understand that the Red Cross was a warning...

Eh? It's an instruction. The lane's closed. You must not drive in a closed lane.