Right of way

ALASTAIR SLOANE watches a near-miss on a busy suburban road and wonders: which driver was at fault?

TEXT MOST drivers have experienced it. A driver on the inside of two lanes merging into one speeds up to get in front of traffic on the outside.

An elderly woman was stopped the other day in the right-hand lane at traffic lights by St Thomas School on Kohimarama Rd, Auckland.

Traffic in the lane on her left can either turn hard left or go straight ahead.

Ahead, across the intersection, the two lanes, separated by broken white lines, merge into one lane, which veers uphill to the left. The centre line is a double yellow.

The lights turn green and the woman quietly accelerates away. The first two cars in the lane to her left turn hard left.

The third car, in this case a van driven by a 30-ish man, speeds along on the inside lane towards the point where traffic must merge, about 100m after the traffic lights.

The woman is a car length in front of him. But instead of slipping in behind the woman and in front of the car being driven by this writer, he speeds up to beat her to the corner.

He arrives on her inside - the road is one lane now - just as she is approaching the left-hand bend. Coming the other way down the hill is a container truck.

By now the woman and the van driver have reached the point of no return. She brakes, part of her Suzuki Swift forced over the double-yellow line. The truck driver blasts his horn; the van driver gives everyone the fingers and heads off up the hill.

Traffic following the woman stops. Her car is stalled. She starts it and stalls it again. After 15 or 20 seconds she moves off.

At the next set of lights we pull up alongside her. My passenger winds down the window and asks: "You all right, love?"

She looks across, smiles weakly and just shakes her head.

The law in New Zealand says the van driver was a goat. "Merging can be a bit of a grey area, in that we rely on drivers to use their commonsense, "says David Hebden, Land Transport Safety Authority executive and editor of the Road Code.

"By following simple procedures, a 'zipper' effect is created, minimising delays for everyone."

The rule book advises:

* Be aware of vehicles around you.

* Share the road and give other vehicles plenty of space to merge safely.

* Alternate with drivers in different lanes during merging.

* Do not attempt to overtake any vehicles if you see that lane markings are ending.

* Quickly adjust your following distance using the "two second rule."

* Always use care and courtesy.

But what isn't made clear in the section dealing with two lanes merging into one is that drivers in the left lane must, before the lanes merge into one, indicate that they are joining traffic.

Cars in the right-hand lane, which are of course closer to the danger oncoming traffic can pose, are not required to indicate, unless they are planning to turn right.

Therefore the woman in the Suzuki Swift did exactly what the law required of her. The van driver didn't even get close.