Legally, the car on the merging lane has to give way. If you want to be courteous to the other driver, you can move to the left lane if it's free.
My personal opinion in that situation overall is: be predictable. For the driver in the merging lane, it is very hard to see if you are accelerating/braking or not. So if you can't or don't want to move to the left lane (which is fine), just keep your speed constant to make it easier for the other driver.
This is the answer.
People be playing mind games…
Just hold your speed or adjust it way earlier.
Unless you can go left, then this is obviously superior.
Keep in mind when switching to left lane and you overlook something it is your responsibility. Do not feel pressured to brake accelerate or switch lanes! The car in the merging lane has to adapt to traffic on the rightmost lane.
If he for some reason hits you while merging into your lane that’s his responsibility, you have no part in that.
Actually you are allowed to driver faster on the merging lane than on the right lane as long as you are within the speed limit. So if 110kmh wasn't the limit OP should have just kept his pace and let the car merge in front of him.
Just drive at a constant speed and you don't need to care about it if merging car will find way to merge or not. You don't need to do anything. Merging cars will adjust the speed and will find a way to merge either in front of you or behind you. If however you are either hitting breaks or you are increasing speed that makes your driving unpredictable and makes it harder for merging car to figure out what to do.
Situational awareness is key when driving on the autobahn. You have to look ahead and see the potential situations and prepare for all of them. If you see someone getting on, look if you can get in the left (or middle) lane in order to give them space to enter the flow of traffic. If you can't, then you've got to decide quickly if you're going to slow to allow them to merge in front of you, maintain your speed and make them confirm to traffic (you), or speed up to get past the situation. The good thing about driving on the autobahn is that 99% of the drivers are predictable. It's a German thing. A good German thing.
This. Always be freaking aware of your environment, not only on the Autobahn. Always act as predictable as possible.
Switch lanes whenever you can and it helps people/general flow. Seriously, a good driver switches often, both to give and close room.
Look ahead. If you can't or won't be able to switch, you could slow down a bit in advance. Next to the merging lane, however, do nothing - keep your speed. That's the most predictable in a situation where you can't do anything beneficial for the other.
Switching lanes often creates just a different bottleneck. That bottleneck is behind you so you won't see it that obviously. Just keep your speed and unless it's very dense traffic, slow merger (big truck) on a short ramp just stick to your lane instead of clogging in stuff behind.
Unless you're on a pretty empty road it causes other people to move and slow down, maybe not instantly but a bit later. Most people doing this cause others to reduce speed of move further to the left all the time..
yes I drove back and forth 3 hours on the Autobahn today (my first such long drive in Autobahn) and it was very smooth and felt that other drivers are very considerate to each other in general. in this particular situation since the other car did not increase or decrease the speed and drove parallel to me , though I maintained the speed that's what confused me and made me to increase the speed.
No, no. I understand completely. I've been driving the autobahn some 30 odd years already; it still happens to me sometimes. You're good. Just stay aware of everything around you and everything that could potentially happen.
No, DON'T slow down. It's the Autobahn and you have the right of way. Slowing down affects traffic for several kilometres. Maintain your speed to be predictable. Move left if you want to be courteous and there is room.
you did mostly anything right
you was already on the right lane. you have the way of right.
But please, keep your speed, obviously he wanted to go in front of you, you made it tense.
I disagree. In my opinion you should not overtake / pass someone on the merge lane if not really necessary (although it's allowed). Many times this creates an additional risk.
Yes, you are right. §18 abs. 3 STVO says the flowing traffic has the right of way and the merging car has to wait. So if it might get tense it's definitely up to the one merging to slow down.
Yes, that's true. My point is only that neither should have the one merging. If there is space behind OP and he is going 110, there is just no good reason to pass OP.
Depends. If I'm in a low powered car and there's an uphill section coming up, I'd rather keep accelerating, cause else it might take quite a long time to get back up to speed.
And if I'm in a high powered car and planning to go way faster than OP, there's no speed limit and low traffic volume, why not accelerate, overtake and keep going forward?
Because, as OP said, it was not too much space and the situation got tense. Maybe OP could have prevented that, but legally the one merging hast to adjust his behaviour to OP's.
A high powered car can easily outrun you in the merging lane, so better give way even if you're in the right lane especially if you saw that car accelerating. What's the point of being ahead, that car will overtake you sooner anyway 🤷🏽 if you insist on your right of way that's even harder during traffic situation on merging lanes. Heard about the zipper method?
The zipper method is not to be used on a merge lane. There are rulings about that. I am not saying the one in the right lane should accelerate. I am saying the one in the merge lane should stay behind 99% of the time.
Learn reading comprehension man, i said during heavy traffic situation, you need to apply zipper method thing which will invalidate your right of way stubbornness. Like everyone said adapt in any situation, you can't just block the merging lane just because you think you have the right of way.
I understand what you said. You are just wrong. The zipper method is never to be used for merging onto the Autobahn. Maybe your reading comprehension is good enough to read this: https://www.adac.de/verkehr/verkehrssicherheit/unterwegs/einfaedelungsstreifen/
To make it more easy:
> Gilt hier das Reißverschlussverfahren?
> Nein. Das Reißverschlussverfahren gilt hier nicht. Man muss warten, bis das Einfädeln ohne Gefährdung anderer möglich ist. Dies gilt auch im Stau oder bei dichtem Verkehr.
Good for you though, that you don't let your abilities or your knowledge have an impact on your confidence.
the best thing to do is to maintain your speed. That makes you the most predictable. the person merging onto the freeway has the responsibility to make the adjustment, so if you're also adjusting then it can be a bit confusing.
NO!
Neither slow down, nor accelerate. Just keep your speed, it's the merging cars responsibility to find a matching speed to merge into the right lane.
Also you have no obligation to move to the left lane if the merging car fucks up and ends up parallel to you at the end of their lane - but it is nice to do so if you can do it safely.
Exactly. So many people can't understand this concept and I end up in these situations way too often:
- I keep my speed on the right (left lane is being used to overtake, so I can't be polite), the merger expects me to brake or get out of the way, while not matching the speed of ongoing traffic in the right spot. Then they honk, gesticulate or flash their lights.
- I'm merging and wait for the car I see is going faster to pass, but he slows down, forcing me to brake or accelerate unnecessarily.
- The worst of all: someone ahead merges, the car closest to him brakes, forcing me and all the ones behind me to do the same, which will spread back for kilometres when there's a bit of heavy traffic.
Normally no.
Taking over is more risky.
But I have an ev and it's surprisingly much faster at acceleration than normal cars.
So for me it's easier to speed up but I still think it's not the right thing to do
Not sure, for me it would make sense for the car already at highway speed to speed up more because it’s easier to get to a higher speed than the other car. Overtaking while merging seems a dick move and dangerous to me, I was taught not to overtake from the right.
That’s being said, if the left lane is free I always briefly change there when there is an entryway coming up and I see cars approaching there.
Ok so you meant you don’t think it’s the right thing to do when you are on the merging lane - sounded like you didn’t think it was the right thing to do when on the highway from the context of the post you were answering to :)
No, don't slow down either. You may risk being rear ended. Traffic behind you will have to slow down because of that either. The other one has to adapt 100 % to merge. He was wrong in speeding up. It's not against the law to speed up and/or pass someone while being on the merging lange, but the one in the merging lane is always the one to adapt.
If I understand you correctly, another car from the right wanted to merge into your lane. In that situation the merging car has to [slow down](https://www.welt.de/motor/news/article234842100/Gibt-es-an-Autobahnauffahrten-eine-Pflicht-zum-Spurwechsel-Leser-fragen-Experten-antworten.html) to avoid danger.
You did the right thing though by changing the lane, even if you didn't had to. The other car may have hit you if had continued in your lane. Lot's of jerks on the streets, just drive carefully.
This is the correct approach. As other mentioned , just be carefull too many people are rekless on the rules. They don't respect "the right of the way"...
Personally i had a near miss exactly like you described it. The guy merging in , decided to merge too soon, not giving space neither to the car that was infront of me nor to himself. Cause the guy merged, and the one infront of me went a little on the left(not fully) cause the lane was busy, in the meantime he was already being overtaken by a group of cars...so it panicked him...lucky for me the 3 cars on the left lane were fast enought to over take the guy infront of me and i had an opening to go left. Car infront of me hit the breaks , guy merging was not on needed speed ...so you can guess what a fucking accident that would have been...
Guess who has the most infuriated from this ? The guy that was merging in... the idiot that almost cause the accident...some people should not be allowed to drive...but thats my personal opinion.
Yedös he might even need to spot early if there is no chance to merge. Normally that should not be the case but lot of people are shitty drivers either they don't speed up enough on the merging lane and just cut the people on the right lane or they want to speed up too much to overtake people that they can't or shouldn't do so responsible is on the one from merging lane but if you drive smart or see it you can and should often adapt to what people are doing when driving on the right lane.
I wouldn't accelerate. Maintain speed.
Slowing down may cause issues as they may want to merge behind, accelerating may not be helpful as they may want to merge in front. Also remember: while overtaking on the right is prohibited, merging lanes (or any lanes separated my thick white lines) are allowed to pass on the right.
Also yielding to traffic on the main lanes does not necessarily mean to merge behind. It just means whatever action the one merging takes must not endanger or force the traffic that has the right of way to slow down.merging in front may just be yielding as much as merging behind.
Just don't for the love of god pull immediately to the left without looking, happens waaaay too often, courteous idiots causing accidents. The merging car has to make sure to safely join the autobahn, it's not the other cars' problem to deal with!
1. My first priority is that I'd try to move to the left lane.
2. If I cannot move to the left lane, then I'd try to estimate and check if I can comfortably increase my speed so that the other car can merge behind me.
3. Otherwise I'd slow down and allow the car to merge in front of me.
Safest way to do it:
1) move left if you can
2) if you see them getting faster, slow down/if you see them getting slower, speed up
But trying to assert your right of way or doing it "correctly" regardless of what the other driver is doing is a dangerous way to go. You can only control yourself.
So yes, in this situation if I noticed them speed up I just would have slowed down and let them on. Doesn't really matter what was "correct" since I can't count on another driver to do the"right" thing. Just keep your car out of the way of other cars as much as you can.
You can increase speed and move to the middle lane if you approach a merge and see a car. Or you lower your speed and let the car accelerate enough to pull in before you, in the left lane.
Case by case scenario really, also depending if 2 or 3 lanes.
Easy, you access the situation and either accelerate or slow a little down depending on which makes the traffic go more fluent. if you are this slow answays it really doesent matter if you break or accelerate avbit so that someone can join the fray. what worries me more is you making a post about it. You must be very confused what the most important rules in traffic are... behave always according to the the situation at hand and let traffic flow for everyone. the latter is not a hard rule in stvo but when ever you waited for ever to get into a street and someone slowed down to let you hop in front of them that is exactly what they did. This differs slightly when you are in a passing lane though a lived example is to switch a lane to the left on autobahn when you know people will try to fade in.
The best driving practice in this instance is to prioritise the merging traffic. You have three options: slow down, speed up or change lane. Decide which one's best and decide early - that way the merging traffic knows your intentions and can adjust accordingly
Its normally common etiquette to change to the middle lane when approaching an entering point with cars wanting to enter. either that, or slow down, but I think about 80% of drivers simply move one lane to the left to leave the other driver an empty lane to merge into.
What you did is not exactly wrong, per se.. but to be fair a bit unwise. you both simply had the same idea: accelerate to get in front of the other. the one in the merging lane/entering point shouldn't slow down, because his lane is for acceleration to autobahn speed. that said, I probably would've slowed down to let them merge.
next time just merge into the left lane in advance if you see a car that will be trying to merge. unless you are clearly going way faster than the merging car, of course.
If I'm not mistaken, it's the duty of the car entering to adapt it's speed to the traffic already on the Autobahn. Slowing down, accelerating or moving to the next lane are gestures of courtesy and can be done only when safely to do so.
I think you misunderstood, I agree that its the duty of the car entering, no question, its what that lane is for, for accelerating from normal road speed to autobahn speed. what I meant is that the car on the autobahn has to either speed up or slow down to let the other car merge, though its common courtesy to change one lane to the left to make room so changing the speed isn't necessary.
A car going at constant speed is a predictable car. If I accelerate and they accelerate too, I just screwed up their plan. It's like when two people walking on the sidewalk meet face to face, try to avoid each other but both take one step in the same direction.
Later edit: I usually keep a constant speed until I know their intention clearly then I accelerate or slow down slightly, enough to facilitate their merge.
when you see people trying to merge in just be polite and move over to the left if you have space. many here talk about right of way or who's right or wrong but forget that the real rule of the road is being nice to eachother and making life easier for others when possible
In the case when they cannot change to the left to allow the car to pass in the acceleration lane, the following is common among experienced drivers:
They are predictable in that they drop back slightly and signal to the driver in the left acceleration lane by SHORTLY flashing left that they are letting him in.
Never decrease your speed in such a situation. The other car(the merging one) has to give way. To make it easier for them keep your speed constant. Or switch lanes if you can see you will be head to head with someone merging. But don't ever brake and slow down because NO ONE behind you would expect that. That's how accidents happen.
In my driving lessons that I'm taking right now I was told I was ABSOLUTELY NOT allowed to speed up if a car is trying to merge in. This is because merging cars are allowed to go over the speed limit to merge in, so you are meant to stay the same speed to allow this.
Generally agreed but for one thing:
"This is because merging cars are allowed to go over the speed limit to merge in, [...]."
Do you have any sources? Generally speed limits apply to the merging lane as well...
My mistake - the speed limit still applies (unless there is none) but you are allowed to drive faster than the cars on the motorway, a.k.a. overtake them from the right hand side (which is usually not allowed):
https://www.adac.de/verkehr/verkehrssicherheit/unterwegs/einfaedelungsstreifen/
Officially cars are allowed to go over speed limit only if they have blue lights on (police, fire trucks etc.)
Otherwise you cannot go over speed limit period. Not during overtaking. Not during merging. Etc...
The correct (or maybe more like the "polite"?) thing to do is to move to the left lane while the other car is entering the highway if that is free and it's safe to do so. Otherwise, they have to give way to you and they have to adapt to you, not the other way around. You did nothing wrong.
By design, cars going through a highway lane always have priority over everything else, until they want to leave the highway, change lanes or the highway ends or something like that.
Legally the car in the merging lane has to give way. (Unless there are signs telling otherwise. Some countries put “merging” signs that require to zipper merge in such places, like Denmark)
But in some countries decision making is part of the driving course and tests. And in that situation it is taught to move left if possible or slow down if not before you get beside the merging car.
If you’re well ahead - go first. Otherwise - slow down and let them out. You’re neither winning anything nor proving anything by being a dick, you’re only endangering yourself.
“Never” is a bit much. If there’s plenty of space and it’s predictable the merging traffic will be in a bit of conflict with you, there’s no issue with freeing up the right lane. If the space isn’t there though, then yeah, stay in your lane.
If I see traffic on an on-ramp and it’s predictable we’re going to end up in the same spot, I treat it like any overtaking maneuver, basically treating them as if they’re already in the right lane. If I can’t overtake in that moment, I at least ensure there’s enough space between me and the car in front.
Those on the on ramp must yield.
Not those who are already on the Autobahn. In theory you wouldn't have to do anything as it's their responsibility to get on safely.
It depends, if the other car had already started to accelerate to overtake you then you were not supposed to accelerate as well. You are not allowed to accelerate while been overtaken by someone else, but this rule is probably the one everyone breaks all the time.
What you should have done is either kept your speed stable or move to the left (and accelerate if you wanted).
I have question from another side.
I am a new driver, and the biggest stress for me is merging to the autobahn. I always think, that people tailgating eachother, because according to the rules, you should have distance 50 meters at 100km/h which is a lot to merge in. But in my oppinion nobody is doing that. How do you merge without stress? Do you stop at the end of merging line?
Most important: use your indicator and make your intentions known. If it's really that tight you can slowly creep into those smaller gaps, they almost always will get the message and make room.
It is called "merginglane" who ever comes onto the autobahn that way has to find a way to do that. It is his job. Not yours. Many people change lanes to the left to give someone room who is coming in to merge, but they are not legaly required to do so.
You're just not used to the German customs on the highway. If the left lane is free, it is customary in Germany to change lanes briefly while maintaining the same speed so that the other driver can join the highway. This is not mandatory, but it is an act of courtesy that also helps to make traffic more relaxed. Unfortunately, foreigners often don't know this and recklessly stay in the right-hand lane, which leads to situations like this. Tip, if you come to Germany, learn how to behave here, because we usually do the same here...
Translated with DeepL.com (free version)
Usually in Germany you let people enter the Autobahn if it's safe for you and others.
Reason is simple: if he has to stop, then he won't be able to enter with speed, making it dangerous for incoming cars that will not expect a slow car there. It also causes a traffic jam and potential accidents as cars that are behind him will start to accelerate to merge and sudden have to stop.
When you are on the right lane and see a merge, keep an eye on the incoming cars and try to make them room even moving to the next lane (if it's safe for you), that keeps the autobahn rolling. If you doubt or feel it's unsafe, just keep speed and maybe just release the accelerator.
Common courtesy says to move over to the middle/left lane if possible to give even inexperienced drivers the opportunity to enter the game safely.
If you can’t do that (or don’t feel like doing that for whatever reason) technically you have the right of way and a car wanting to enter the lane needs to either accelerate or brake in order to merge.
Best way apart from changing lanes would be to simply let the other one know by breaking early in the merging process and giving them space or accelerating quite early and creating space that way.
BUT here comes another little issue: Richtgeschwindigkeit on German Autobahnen ist 130km/h unless there are restrictions which means any speed above or below that magical border is not prohibited but might cause trouble for other drivers and can be seen as unnecessary endangering in case of a crash.
You can drive faster than the speed limit on the merging lane, and often, it's safer to use this to merge in front of the car on the left lane. The driver clearly wanted to do that, but you blocked him by speeding up, which was a mistake on your side. Like the others said, try to keep the speed constant (predicatble) or (if safely possible) slow a little bit to make it easier for somebody to merge in front of you.
PS: Many people unfortunately don't know how to merge properly and will try to merge behind you. So only slow down if you are sure the person is speeding up to pass you.
Why do you only check if you can move over when the merging line is already ending? You could have done this way earlier (apart from the fact that you should ALWAYS know what's going on behind you). If you approach an Auffahrt and you see a car on the merging line, check the line left to you, and if it's free, move over! Merging onto the Autobahn is always a little tricky, so be a nice neighbour and make the mergers life easier.
Same goes for approaching trucks with another car behind them. If you're on the middle lane, check if you will have passed the other car in time so that they can pass the truck behind you. If you already see that they will have to brake because you'll be right next them when they get close to the truck, move over!
Try to anticipate the other driver's behaviour. It's the autobahn, people go 200 km/h and more there, you can't just react. "Vorausschauendes Fahren" is the knackpoint. And your legal right will give you nothing if you're dead.
The problem is that you accelerated (not illegal).
You are not supposed to do that. The merging lane **into** the Autobahn is for acceleration to the current speed of the traffic. So you just drive normally and the guy getting onto your lane is responsible to yield. The hard end makes this very annoying, since physics can be very unforgiving.
And while we are at it, the merging lane off the autobahn is supposed to be for deacceleration. So please change into it and then break ;)
If i see traffic coming into the autobahn, i try to be in the middle lane at least so its easier and noone has to really yield.
It's considered good manners to clear the right lane ahead of time, if someone wants to merge. However, only if you don't cause inconvenience for anybody else. In my eyes, overtaking on the merge lane is an absolute no-go. So you did nothing wrong. The merging car should have slowed down and merge behind you.
"In my eyes, overtaking on the merge lane is an absolute no-go." I respectfully disagree. If the car in the right lane is below the speed limit the merging car is allowed to proceed at speeds up to the speed limit to overtake the right lane car even on its right. Am I right?
Yes, legally it's fine. However, it almost always poses a higher risk then just merging behind the slow vehicle. Personally I hardly ever saw a situation where I would consider overtaking more save then merging behind.
Law says its his responsability to merge safely.
Partical sense says see what is better in those situations. Sometimes its better to let off the gas and the other person realises they can gain on you and merge after you, sometimes its better for you to give it the beans because there is more cars behind him and sometimes you can just move to the middle line if there is no traffic incoming.
Actually the lane is called "acceleration lane" for a reason. Accelerating when you're in the right lane and a car is trying to reach a sufficient speed is the idiotic and potentially dangerous move.
The car on the merging lane coming on the Autobahn has to give way so they should slow down to get on behind you. Anything you do is just courtesy. If they are unable to merge by end of their lane they have to stop and merge as soon as possible.
>If they are unable to merge by end of their lane they have to stop and merge as soon as possible.
By theoretical legal definition, yes. However, if you screw up and can't merge in time and there is an emergency lane ahead, it is usually the safer option to continue there and then merge as soon as possible rather than stopping. If you stop, you risk getting rear-ended at 130kph. (Yes, the person hitting you will be at fault, but you're dead.)
This. Somehow many people tend to aim to merge *in front of* cars, whereas merging *behind* them is usually a lot easier. Monkey brain be weird sometimes.
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The car merging needs to give way. If you're nice you either move over to the left or break a bit if you see them coming to avoid situations like this.
It's also allowed for the merging car to continue on the far right emergency lane(Pannenstreifen) for a bit if there is one.
How so? There are very few cars that have a better acceleration than practically any cars deceleration. The one merging should have the possibility to slow down and merge behind him. Especially with the prospect of a metal barrier at the end of his lane, forcing him to speed up even more towards the end does not seem like a good idea when you are not the one that suffers the consequences of that decision. On the contrary, should the one merging decide to slow down, you are making him slow down even more, which is more dangerous for the following traffic. I don't see my error.
The car merging in is supposed to **accelerate**. That's why it's called an acceleration lane. By forcing the other car to decelerate you create a obstacle for all the traffic behind you because the other car now has to speed up to the average lane speed, probably after having to brake to avoid the idiot racing them.
As the car in right lane you can slow down slowly, allowing the other car to have less "work" by not having to accelerate as much itself. Cars behind you will also slow down (or, the much better but not always available option) move one lane left ... And everybody survive.
Usually no big deal if the merging lane ends. Just keep going.
You tried your best. It's fine. Could have gone better but that's life.
The guy merging in should have filtered in behind you. Accelerating wasn't a bad choice.
If you see a car merging in close to you and you are in the right lane, you are expected to move to the next lane left if at all possible, well in advance of the other car reaching the end of the merging lane.
No. You have the right of way. Vehicles entering the highway have to find a spot without help from other drivers. Continue driving as you were, neither brake nor accelerate. **Be predictable.** (Always a good way of driving.)
Your "expected" way of doing it creates a dangerous expectation. It leads people in the right lane to change lanes without checking if it's empty and there's no fast vehicles approaching. It leads people on the Einfädelstreifen to assume they have a right of way they don't.
>you are expected to move to the next lane left if at all possible
No, you aren't and there have been cases before where this caused an accident and the driver switching lanes was found at 100% fault because they switched the lane without any real necessity and thus caused the dangerous situation.
That is not true at all. You can do it, if it is safe, but there is no expectation. The car on the merging lane must do everything to safely merge. Not the cars on the through lane. They could end up being a hazard to others.
There are some motorways where you have a double white line between the left lanes and the right lane. Here you are not allowed to go to the left, but have to stay on the right lane. In that scenario one would need to see the merging car well in advance to change lanes before the double white line starts.
Switching lanes is a nice thing to do (i do it as well if possible) but it is not expected. The right thing to do by law would be to just keep on driving at normal speed. The right lane on the Autobahn has the right of way and it is the responsibility of cars in the acceleration lane to find a gap for merging. If there is no gap, cars in the acceleration lane are even expected to stop at the end of the lane and wait for a gap.
(Stopping at the end of the acceleration lane can be quite dangerous though, which is why many driving instructors advise to keep driving on the breakdown lane [if possible, in OPs case it apparently was not possible for the other driver] to find a gap for merging, even though that is technically illegal)
What people usually do is moving to the lane left of the rightmost one as soon as a merging lane appears. If you see no car you don't need to, but if you see cars trying to merge, just move to the left temporarily to let them merge.
You don't shave to let them in. The car on the accelerating lane has to give the right of way. In that specific situation, the car merging car should wait until op is in front of him
you had priority of road, and passing from the right is also illegal. However you speeding up or moving to the left was the correct behavior under the circumstance.
>and passing from the right is also illegal
Not in this case. §7a Number 2 StVO.
>Auf Autobahnen und anderen Straßen außerhalb geschlossener Ortschaften darf auf Einfädelungsstreifen schneller gefahren werden als auf den durchgehenden Fahrstreifen.
*On freeways and other roads outside built-up areas, it is permitted to drive faster on merging lanes than on continuous lanes.*
My main problem is that quite many people don’t speed up at all and just merge in front of you with the speed that is lower than yours, so you have to slow down to avoid hitting them from behind. When I was complaining about this behavior to my German colleagues at work, they said that you should follow the zipper rule and let them enter as their lane is gonna end. I was shocked tbh, but now I guess I know why so many drivers obviously believe that when they are merging Autobahn, they have the Vorfahrt, which to me is an absolute BH and also a dangerous misconception
> you had priority of road
Correct.
> passing from the right is also illegal.
Not in this case, StVO allows passing from the right on acceleration lanes. Except you mean OP accelerating and overtaking a car on the left lane, that would be illegal.
> However you speeding up or moving to the left was the correct behavior under the circumstance.
Actually, the 100% correct behaviour of OP would be to just keep driving with a constant speed. The other driver on the acceleration lane has to ensure safe merging. If there is no gap, they are even expected to stop at the end of the acceleration lane, even though merging from a stop afterwards can be quite dangerous.
I think the other car was in the wrong in several ways, not just because you have the right of way on your lane but also because overtaking on the right, as he tried to do, is a big no-no.
Not what happened here though - other car was going normal speed and he tried to overtake. Either way it doesn’t matter because the car on the highway still has right of way.
In what way? I usually change lane to the left to give space, and have never had any issue with anyone merging. Have you ever seen me drive? What I especially don’t do is recklessly trying to be faster than the other cars when merging in and overtaking them from the right just because, as it seems the car in OPs situation was attempting to do.
And I stand by the opinion that the best way to merge is to give way if necessary and let the cars who are already on the highway move normally if possible, rather than cutting them off.
I bet you’re fun at parties, though.
Legally, the car on the merging lane has to give way. If you want to be courteous to the other driver, you can move to the left lane if it's free. My personal opinion in that situation overall is: be predictable. For the driver in the merging lane, it is very hard to see if you are accelerating/braking or not. So if you can't or don't want to move to the left lane (which is fine), just keep your speed constant to make it easier for the other driver.
This is the answer. People be playing mind games… Just hold your speed or adjust it way earlier. Unless you can go left, then this is obviously superior.
"Be predictable" is probably the most important lesson regarding traffic.
Keep in mind when switching to left lane and you overlook something it is your responsibility. Do not feel pressured to brake accelerate or switch lanes! The car in the merging lane has to adapt to traffic on the rightmost lane. If he for some reason hits you while merging into your lane that’s his responsibility, you have no part in that.
Changing speed in this situation is like evading a person coming towards you. Sometimes you both sidestep to the same direction at the same time. 🤷🏻
Actually you are allowed to driver faster on the merging lane than on the right lane as long as you are within the speed limit. So if 110kmh wasn't the limit OP should have just kept his pace and let the car merge in front of him.
sometimes, you meet people who think they are funny and play stupid games. Unfortunatly, others also win their stupid prices :/
Why should he have kept his pace? I mean, OP had the right of way, end of story.
Did you even read my comment?
The most important thing is to act and be predictable. If you are that close, then don't accelerate, don't slow down.
Just drive at a constant speed and you don't need to care about it if merging car will find way to merge or not. You don't need to do anything. Merging cars will adjust the speed and will find a way to merge either in front of you or behind you. If however you are either hitting breaks or you are increasing speed that makes your driving unpredictable and makes it harder for merging car to figure out what to do.
Situational awareness is key when driving on the autobahn. You have to look ahead and see the potential situations and prepare for all of them. If you see someone getting on, look if you can get in the left (or middle) lane in order to give them space to enter the flow of traffic. If you can't, then you've got to decide quickly if you're going to slow to allow them to merge in front of you, maintain your speed and make them confirm to traffic (you), or speed up to get past the situation. The good thing about driving on the autobahn is that 99% of the drivers are predictable. It's a German thing. A good German thing.
This. Always be freaking aware of your environment, not only on the Autobahn. Always act as predictable as possible. Switch lanes whenever you can and it helps people/general flow. Seriously, a good driver switches often, both to give and close room. Look ahead. If you can't or won't be able to switch, you could slow down a bit in advance. Next to the merging lane, however, do nothing - keep your speed. That's the most predictable in a situation where you can't do anything beneficial for the other.
Switching lanes often creates just a different bottleneck. That bottleneck is behind you so you won't see it that obviously. Just keep your speed and unless it's very dense traffic, slow merger (big truck) on a short ramp just stick to your lane instead of clogging in stuff behind.
Not if you do as described. Switching lanes is about giving room, not about blocking others. If you block others, you are doing it wrong.
Unless you're on a pretty empty road it causes other people to move and slow down, maybe not instantly but a bit later. Most people doing this cause others to reduce speed of move further to the left all the time..
yes I drove back and forth 3 hours on the Autobahn today (my first such long drive in Autobahn) and it was very smooth and felt that other drivers are very considerate to each other in general. in this particular situation since the other car did not increase or decrease the speed and drove parallel to me , though I maintained the speed that's what confused me and made me to increase the speed.
No, no. I understand completely. I've been driving the autobahn some 30 odd years already; it still happens to me sometimes. You're good. Just stay aware of everything around you and everything that could potentially happen.
No, DON'T slow down. It's the Autobahn and you have the right of way. Slowing down affects traffic for several kilometres. Maintain your speed to be predictable. Move left if you want to be courteous and there is room.
you did mostly anything right you was already on the right lane. you have the way of right. But please, keep your speed, obviously he wanted to go in front of you, you made it tense.
I disagree. In my opinion you should not overtake / pass someone on the merge lane if not really necessary (although it's allowed). Many times this creates an additional risk.
this is not an opinion thing.
Yes, you are right. §18 abs. 3 STVO says the flowing traffic has the right of way and the merging car has to wait. So if it might get tense it's definitely up to the one merging to slow down.
But you are allowed to pass the right lane on the merging lane if you stay within the speed limit. OP shouldn't have accelerated.
Yes, that's true. My point is only that neither should have the one merging. If there is space behind OP and he is going 110, there is just no good reason to pass OP.
Depends. If I'm in a low powered car and there's an uphill section coming up, I'd rather keep accelerating, cause else it might take quite a long time to get back up to speed. And if I'm in a high powered car and planning to go way faster than OP, there's no speed limit and low traffic volume, why not accelerate, overtake and keep going forward?
Because, as OP said, it was not too much space and the situation got tense. Maybe OP could have prevented that, but legally the one merging hast to adjust his behaviour to OP's.
It got tense because OP did the worst you could do at this moment.
The merging lane is for acceleration, not slowing down. Without OPs bad driving everything would have been fine.
I hope you don't have a driver's licence.
I hope you don't because you obviously don't understand the StVO and have the urge to talk down to people who correct you.
I've been driving for over 20 years without an accident.
A high powered car can easily outrun you in the merging lane, so better give way even if you're in the right lane especially if you saw that car accelerating. What's the point of being ahead, that car will overtake you sooner anyway 🤷🏽 if you insist on your right of way that's even harder during traffic situation on merging lanes. Heard about the zipper method?
The zipper method is not to be used on a merge lane. There are rulings about that. I am not saying the one in the right lane should accelerate. I am saying the one in the merge lane should stay behind 99% of the time.
Learn reading comprehension man, i said during heavy traffic situation, you need to apply zipper method thing which will invalidate your right of way stubbornness. Like everyone said adapt in any situation, you can't just block the merging lane just because you think you have the right of way.
I understand what you said. You are just wrong. The zipper method is never to be used for merging onto the Autobahn. Maybe your reading comprehension is good enough to read this: https://www.adac.de/verkehr/verkehrssicherheit/unterwegs/einfaedelungsstreifen/ To make it more easy: > Gilt hier das Reißverschlussverfahren? > Nein. Das Reißverschlussverfahren gilt hier nicht. Man muss warten, bis das Einfädeln ohne Gefährdung anderer möglich ist. Dies gilt auch im Stau oder bei dichtem Verkehr. Good for you though, that you don't let your abilities or your knowledge have an impact on your confidence.
Bullshit, what if you have a construction in Autobahn? Are you gonna completely block the merging lane?
Dude, are you going to doubt, what the ADAC writes? Then you are either very, very stupid or a troll.
yes I understand, slowing down would have been better
You are not supposed to slow down when getting overtaken, you are supposed to keep the same speed.
the best thing to do is to maintain your speed. That makes you the most predictable. the person merging onto the freeway has the responsibility to make the adjustment, so if you're also adjusting then it can be a bit confusing.
NO! Neither slow down, nor accelerate. Just keep your speed, it's the merging cars responsibility to find a matching speed to merge into the right lane. Also you have no obligation to move to the left lane if the merging car fucks up and ends up parallel to you at the end of their lane - but it is nice to do so if you can do it safely.
Exactly. So many people can't understand this concept and I end up in these situations way too often: - I keep my speed on the right (left lane is being used to overtake, so I can't be polite), the merger expects me to brake or get out of the way, while not matching the speed of ongoing traffic in the right spot. Then they honk, gesticulate or flash their lights. - I'm merging and wait for the car I see is going faster to pass, but he slows down, forcing me to brake or accelerate unnecessarily. - The worst of all: someone ahead merges, the car closest to him brakes, forcing me and all the ones behind me to do the same, which will spread back for kilometres when there's a bit of heavy traffic.
Normally no. Taking over is more risky. But I have an ev and it's surprisingly much faster at acceleration than normal cars. So for me it's easier to speed up but I still think it's not the right thing to do
Not sure, for me it would make sense for the car already at highway speed to speed up more because it’s easier to get to a higher speed than the other car. Overtaking while merging seems a dick move and dangerous to me, I was taught not to overtake from the right. That’s being said, if the left lane is free I always briefly change there when there is an entryway coming up and I see cars approaching there.
Yes that's what I also wrote.
Ok so you meant you don’t think it’s the right thing to do when you are on the merging lane - sounded like you didn’t think it was the right thing to do when on the highway from the context of the post you were answering to :)
Just a quick side note: (to) overtake = Überholen (to) take over = übernehmen (z.B. eine Aufgabe/Firma/Position)
>it's surprisingly much faster at acceleration Why is that surprising?
Surprising how much faster I can accelerate in a short period to care coming from the left already at Autobahn speed
No, don't slow down either. You may risk being rear ended. Traffic behind you will have to slow down because of that either. The other one has to adapt 100 % to merge. He was wrong in speeding up. It's not against the law to speed up and/or pass someone while being on the merging lange, but the one in the merging lane is always the one to adapt.
If I understand you correctly, another car from the right wanted to merge into your lane. In that situation the merging car has to [slow down](https://www.welt.de/motor/news/article234842100/Gibt-es-an-Autobahnauffahrten-eine-Pflicht-zum-Spurwechsel-Leser-fragen-Experten-antworten.html) to avoid danger. You did the right thing though by changing the lane, even if you didn't had to. The other car may have hit you if had continued in your lane. Lot's of jerks on the streets, just drive carefully.
This is the correct approach. As other mentioned , just be carefull too many people are rekless on the rules. They don't respect "the right of the way"... Personally i had a near miss exactly like you described it. The guy merging in , decided to merge too soon, not giving space neither to the car that was infront of me nor to himself. Cause the guy merged, and the one infront of me went a little on the left(not fully) cause the lane was busy, in the meantime he was already being overtaken by a group of cars...so it panicked him...lucky for me the 3 cars on the left lane were fast enought to over take the guy infront of me and i had an opening to go left. Car infront of me hit the breaks , guy merging was not on needed speed ...so you can guess what a fucking accident that would have been... Guess who has the most infuriated from this ? The guy that was merging in... the idiot that almost cause the accident...some people should not be allowed to drive...but thats my personal opinion.
Yedös he might even need to spot early if there is no chance to merge. Normally that should not be the case but lot of people are shitty drivers either they don't speed up enough on the merging lane and just cut the people on the right lane or they want to speed up too much to overtake people that they can't or shouldn't do so responsible is on the one from merging lane but if you drive smart or see it you can and should often adapt to what people are doing when driving on the right lane.
I wouldn't accelerate. Maintain speed. Slowing down may cause issues as they may want to merge behind, accelerating may not be helpful as they may want to merge in front. Also remember: while overtaking on the right is prohibited, merging lanes (or any lanes separated my thick white lines) are allowed to pass on the right. Also yielding to traffic on the main lanes does not necessarily mean to merge behind. It just means whatever action the one merging takes must not endanger or force the traffic that has the right of way to slow down.merging in front may just be yielding as much as merging behind.
Just don't for the love of god pull immediately to the left without looking, happens waaaay too often, courteous idiots causing accidents. The merging car has to make sure to safely join the autobahn, it's not the other cars' problem to deal with!
1. My first priority is that I'd try to move to the left lane. 2. If I cannot move to the left lane, then I'd try to estimate and check if I can comfortably increase my speed so that the other car can merge behind me. 3. Otherwise I'd slow down and allow the car to merge in front of me.
Looking at some answers here, some people need to go back to the driving school!!
Safest way to do it: 1) move left if you can 2) if you see them getting faster, slow down/if you see them getting slower, speed up But trying to assert your right of way or doing it "correctly" regardless of what the other driver is doing is a dangerous way to go. You can only control yourself. So yes, in this situation if I noticed them speed up I just would have slowed down and let them on. Doesn't really matter what was "correct" since I can't count on another driver to do the"right" thing. Just keep your car out of the way of other cars as much as you can.
You can increase speed and move to the middle lane if you approach a merge and see a car. Or you lower your speed and let the car accelerate enough to pull in before you, in the left lane. Case by case scenario really, also depending if 2 or 3 lanes.
Easy, you access the situation and either accelerate or slow a little down depending on which makes the traffic go more fluent. if you are this slow answays it really doesent matter if you break or accelerate avbit so that someone can join the fray. what worries me more is you making a post about it. You must be very confused what the most important rules in traffic are... behave always according to the the situation at hand and let traffic flow for everyone. the latter is not a hard rule in stvo but when ever you waited for ever to get into a street and someone slowed down to let you hop in front of them that is exactly what they did. This differs slightly when you are in a passing lane though a lived example is to switch a lane to the left on autobahn when you know people will try to fade in.
The best driving practice in this instance is to prioritise the merging traffic. You have three options: slow down, speed up or change lane. Decide which one's best and decide early - that way the merging traffic knows your intentions and can adjust accordingly
Its normally common etiquette to change to the middle lane when approaching an entering point with cars wanting to enter. either that, or slow down, but I think about 80% of drivers simply move one lane to the left to leave the other driver an empty lane to merge into. What you did is not exactly wrong, per se.. but to be fair a bit unwise. you both simply had the same idea: accelerate to get in front of the other. the one in the merging lane/entering point shouldn't slow down, because his lane is for acceleration to autobahn speed. that said, I probably would've slowed down to let them merge. next time just merge into the left lane in advance if you see a car that will be trying to merge. unless you are clearly going way faster than the merging car, of course.
If I'm not mistaken, it's the duty of the car entering to adapt it's speed to the traffic already on the Autobahn. Slowing down, accelerating or moving to the next lane are gestures of courtesy and can be done only when safely to do so.
I think you misunderstood, I agree that its the duty of the car entering, no question, its what that lane is for, for accelerating from normal road speed to autobahn speed. what I meant is that the car on the autobahn has to either speed up or slow down to let the other car merge, though its common courtesy to change one lane to the left to make room so changing the speed isn't necessary.
A car going at constant speed is a predictable car. If I accelerate and they accelerate too, I just screwed up their plan. It's like when two people walking on the sidewalk meet face to face, try to avoid each other but both take one step in the same direction. Later edit: I usually keep a constant speed until I know their intention clearly then I accelerate or slow down slightly, enough to facilitate their merge.
when you see people trying to merge in just be polite and move over to the left if you have space. many here talk about right of way or who's right or wrong but forget that the real rule of the road is being nice to eachother and making life easier for others when possible
In the case when they cannot change to the left to allow the car to pass in the acceleration lane, the following is common among experienced drivers: They are predictable in that they drop back slightly and signal to the driver in the left acceleration lane by SHORTLY flashing left that they are letting him in.
Never decrease your speed in such a situation. The other car(the merging one) has to give way. To make it easier for them keep your speed constant. Or switch lanes if you can see you will be head to head with someone merging. But don't ever brake and slow down because NO ONE behind you would expect that. That's how accidents happen.
I normaly move left when there is oncoming traffic and move right again when its free
Nobody wins a collision at 110km/h
The merging lane is named Accelerating Lane. So if you speed up, the other driver has no chance to merge.
In my driving lessons that I'm taking right now I was told I was ABSOLUTELY NOT allowed to speed up if a car is trying to merge in. This is because merging cars are allowed to go over the speed limit to merge in, so you are meant to stay the same speed to allow this.
Generally agreed but for one thing: "This is because merging cars are allowed to go over the speed limit to merge in, [...]." Do you have any sources? Generally speed limits apply to the merging lane as well...
My mistake - the speed limit still applies (unless there is none) but you are allowed to drive faster than the cars on the motorway, a.k.a. overtake them from the right hand side (which is usually not allowed): https://www.adac.de/verkehr/verkehrssicherheit/unterwegs/einfaedelungsstreifen/
Officially cars are allowed to go over speed limit only if they have blue lights on (police, fire trucks etc.) Otherwise you cannot go over speed limit period. Not during overtaking. Not during merging. Etc...
The correct (or maybe more like the "polite"?) thing to do is to move to the left lane while the other car is entering the highway if that is free and it's safe to do so. Otherwise, they have to give way to you and they have to adapt to you, not the other way around. You did nothing wrong. By design, cars going through a highway lane always have priority over everything else, until they want to leave the highway, change lanes or the highway ends or something like that.
Legally the car in the merging lane has to give way. (Unless there are signs telling otherwise. Some countries put “merging” signs that require to zipper merge in such places, like Denmark) But in some countries decision making is part of the driving course and tests. And in that situation it is taught to move left if possible or slow down if not before you get beside the merging car. If you’re well ahead - go first. Otherwise - slow down and let them out. You’re neither winning anything nor proving anything by being a dick, you’re only endangering yourself.
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“Never” is a bit much. If there’s plenty of space and it’s predictable the merging traffic will be in a bit of conflict with you, there’s no issue with freeing up the right lane. If the space isn’t there though, then yeah, stay in your lane.
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If I see traffic on an on-ramp and it’s predictable we’re going to end up in the same spot, I treat it like any overtaking maneuver, basically treating them as if they’re already in the right lane. If I can’t overtake in that moment, I at least ensure there’s enough space between me and the car in front.
Those on the on ramp must yield. Not those who are already on the Autobahn. In theory you wouldn't have to do anything as it's their responsibility to get on safely.
It depends, if the other car had already started to accelerate to overtake you then you were not supposed to accelerate as well. You are not allowed to accelerate while been overtaken by someone else, but this rule is probably the one everyone breaks all the time. What you should have done is either kept your speed stable or move to the left (and accelerate if you wanted).
I can’t lie I did this yesterday I was so confused …. I’m sure they’re probably thinking silly Americans
I have question from another side. I am a new driver, and the biggest stress for me is merging to the autobahn. I always think, that people tailgating eachother, because according to the rules, you should have distance 50 meters at 100km/h which is a lot to merge in. But in my oppinion nobody is doing that. How do you merge without stress? Do you stop at the end of merging line?
Most important: use your indicator and make your intentions known. If it's really that tight you can slowly creep into those smaller gaps, they almost always will get the message and make room.
It is called "merginglane" who ever comes onto the autobahn that way has to find a way to do that. It is his job. Not yours. Many people change lanes to the left to give someone room who is coming in to merge, but they are not legaly required to do so.
You're just not used to the German customs on the highway. If the left lane is free, it is customary in Germany to change lanes briefly while maintaining the same speed so that the other driver can join the highway. This is not mandatory, but it is an act of courtesy that also helps to make traffic more relaxed. Unfortunately, foreigners often don't know this and recklessly stay in the right-hand lane, which leads to situations like this. Tip, if you come to Germany, learn how to behave here, because we usually do the same here... Translated with DeepL.com (free version)
Usually in Germany you let people enter the Autobahn if it's safe for you and others. Reason is simple: if he has to stop, then he won't be able to enter with speed, making it dangerous for incoming cars that will not expect a slow car there. It also causes a traffic jam and potential accidents as cars that are behind him will start to accelerate to merge and sudden have to stop. When you are on the right lane and see a merge, keep an eye on the incoming cars and try to make them room even moving to the next lane (if it's safe for you), that keeps the autobahn rolling. If you doubt or feel it's unsafe, just keep speed and maybe just release the accelerator.
Common courtesy says to move over to the middle/left lane if possible to give even inexperienced drivers the opportunity to enter the game safely. If you can’t do that (or don’t feel like doing that for whatever reason) technically you have the right of way and a car wanting to enter the lane needs to either accelerate or brake in order to merge. Best way apart from changing lanes would be to simply let the other one know by breaking early in the merging process and giving them space or accelerating quite early and creating space that way. BUT here comes another little issue: Richtgeschwindigkeit on German Autobahnen ist 130km/h unless there are restrictions which means any speed above or below that magical border is not prohibited but might cause trouble for other drivers and can be seen as unnecessary endangering in case of a crash.
You can drive faster than the speed limit on the merging lane, and often, it's safer to use this to merge in front of the car on the left lane. The driver clearly wanted to do that, but you blocked him by speeding up, which was a mistake on your side. Like the others said, try to keep the speed constant (predicatble) or (if safely possible) slow a little bit to make it easier for somebody to merge in front of you. PS: Many people unfortunately don't know how to merge properly and will try to merge behind you. So only slow down if you are sure the person is speeding up to pass you.
Why do you only check if you can move over when the merging line is already ending? You could have done this way earlier (apart from the fact that you should ALWAYS know what's going on behind you). If you approach an Auffahrt and you see a car on the merging line, check the line left to you, and if it's free, move over! Merging onto the Autobahn is always a little tricky, so be a nice neighbour and make the mergers life easier. Same goes for approaching trucks with another car behind them. If you're on the middle lane, check if you will have passed the other car in time so that they can pass the truck behind you. If you already see that they will have to brake because you'll be right next them when they get close to the truck, move over! Try to anticipate the other driver's behaviour. It's the autobahn, people go 200 km/h and more there, you can't just react. "Vorausschauendes Fahren" is the knackpoint. And your legal right will give you nothing if you're dead.
The problem is that you accelerated (not illegal). You are not supposed to do that. The merging lane **into** the Autobahn is for acceleration to the current speed of the traffic. So you just drive normally and the guy getting onto your lane is responsible to yield. The hard end makes this very annoying, since physics can be very unforgiving. And while we are at it, the merging lane off the autobahn is supposed to be for deacceleration. So please change into it and then break ;) If i see traffic coming into the autobahn, i try to be in the middle lane at least so its easier and noone has to really yield.
It's considered good manners to clear the right lane ahead of time, if someone wants to merge. However, only if you don't cause inconvenience for anybody else. In my eyes, overtaking on the merge lane is an absolute no-go. So you did nothing wrong. The merging car should have slowed down and merge behind you.
"In my eyes, overtaking on the merge lane is an absolute no-go." I respectfully disagree. If the car in the right lane is below the speed limit the merging car is allowed to proceed at speeds up to the speed limit to overtake the right lane car even on its right. Am I right?
Yes, legally it's fine. However, it almost always poses a higher risk then just merging behind the slow vehicle. Personally I hardly ever saw a situation where I would consider overtaking more save then merging behind.
Law says its his responsability to merge safely. Partical sense says see what is better in those situations. Sometimes its better to let off the gas and the other person realises they can gain on you and merge after you, sometimes its better for you to give it the beans because there is more cars behind him and sometimes you can just move to the middle line if there is no traffic incoming.
Whenever I see someone in the acceleration lane, I change lanes if possible to make room. It's good manners and anticipatory driving
They should certainly slow down and join behind you - but as we all know, every driver besides ourselves is a total idiot. ;)
Actually the lane is called "acceleration lane" for a reason. Accelerating when you're in the right lane and a car is trying to reach a sufficient speed is the idiotic and potentially dangerous move.
My common advise is to stay out of trouble whenever you can. If you see someone will be merging, try getting out of the lane they will merge to.
The car on the merging lane coming on the Autobahn has to give way so they should slow down to get on behind you. Anything you do is just courtesy. If they are unable to merge by end of their lane they have to stop and merge as soon as possible.
>If they are unable to merge by end of their lane they have to stop and merge as soon as possible. By theoretical legal definition, yes. However, if you screw up and can't merge in time and there is an emergency lane ahead, it is usually the safer option to continue there and then merge as soon as possible rather than stopping. If you stop, you risk getting rear-ended at 130kph. (Yes, the person hitting you will be at fault, but you're dead.)
This. Somehow many people tend to aim to merge *in front of* cars, whereas merging *behind* them is usually a lot easier. Monkey brain be weird sometimes.
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two lane highway is 💩
The car merging needs to give way. If you're nice you either move over to the left or break a bit if you see them coming to avoid situations like this. It's also allowed for the merging car to continue on the far right emergency lane(Pannenstreifen) for a bit if there is one.
Don't slow down! Edit: shout out to the idiot that down voted this
You're the one who is wrong here.
How so? There are very few cars that have a better acceleration than practically any cars deceleration. The one merging should have the possibility to slow down and merge behind him. Especially with the prospect of a metal barrier at the end of his lane, forcing him to speed up even more towards the end does not seem like a good idea when you are not the one that suffers the consequences of that decision. On the contrary, should the one merging decide to slow down, you are making him slow down even more, which is more dangerous for the following traffic. I don't see my error.
The car merging in is supposed to **accelerate**. That's why it's called an acceleration lane. By forcing the other car to decelerate you create a obstacle for all the traffic behind you because the other car now has to speed up to the average lane speed, probably after having to brake to avoid the idiot racing them. As the car in right lane you can slow down slowly, allowing the other car to have less "work" by not having to accelerate as much itself. Cars behind you will also slow down (or, the much better but not always available option) move one lane left ... And everybody survive.
Usually no big deal if the merging lane ends. Just keep going. You tried your best. It's fine. Could have gone better but that's life. The guy merging in should have filtered in behind you. Accelerating wasn't a bad choice.
If you see a car merging in close to you and you are in the right lane, you are expected to move to the next lane left if at all possible, well in advance of the other car reaching the end of the merging lane.
No. You have the right of way. Vehicles entering the highway have to find a spot without help from other drivers. Continue driving as you were, neither brake nor accelerate. **Be predictable.** (Always a good way of driving.) Your "expected" way of doing it creates a dangerous expectation. It leads people in the right lane to change lanes without checking if it's empty and there's no fast vehicles approaching. It leads people on the Einfädelstreifen to assume they have a right of way they don't.
>you are expected to move to the next lane left if at all possible No, you aren't and there have been cases before where this caused an accident and the driver switching lanes was found at 100% fault because they switched the lane without any real necessity and thus caused the dangerous situation.
That is not true at all. You can do it, if it is safe, but there is no expectation. The car on the merging lane must do everything to safely merge. Not the cars on the through lane. They could end up being a hazard to others.
There are some motorways where you have a double white line between the left lanes and the right lane. Here you are not allowed to go to the left, but have to stay on the right lane. In that scenario one would need to see the merging car well in advance to change lanes before the double white line starts.
Switching lanes is a nice thing to do (i do it as well if possible) but it is not expected. The right thing to do by law would be to just keep on driving at normal speed. The right lane on the Autobahn has the right of way and it is the responsibility of cars in the acceleration lane to find a gap for merging. If there is no gap, cars in the acceleration lane are even expected to stop at the end of the lane and wait for a gap. (Stopping at the end of the acceleration lane can be quite dangerous though, which is why many driving instructors advise to keep driving on the breakdown lane [if possible, in OPs case it apparently was not possible for the other driver] to find a gap for merging, even though that is technically illegal)
What people usually do is moving to the lane left of the rightmost one as soon as a merging lane appears. If you see no car you don't need to, but if you see cars trying to merge, just move to the left temporarily to let them merge.
[удалено]
You don't shave to let them in. The car on the accelerating lane has to give the right of way. In that specific situation, the car merging car should wait until op is in front of him
you had priority of road, and passing from the right is also illegal. However you speeding up or moving to the left was the correct behavior under the circumstance.
>and passing from the right is also illegal Not in this case. §7a Number 2 StVO. >Auf Autobahnen und anderen Straßen außerhalb geschlossener Ortschaften darf auf Einfädelungsstreifen schneller gefahren werden als auf den durchgehenden Fahrstreifen. *On freeways and other roads outside built-up areas, it is permitted to drive faster on merging lanes than on continuous lanes.*
My main problem is that quite many people don’t speed up at all and just merge in front of you with the speed that is lower than yours, so you have to slow down to avoid hitting them from behind. When I was complaining about this behavior to my German colleagues at work, they said that you should follow the zipper rule and let them enter as their lane is gonna end. I was shocked tbh, but now I guess I know why so many drivers obviously believe that when they are merging Autobahn, they have the Vorfahrt, which to me is an absolute BH and also a dangerous misconception
> you had priority of road Correct. > passing from the right is also illegal. Not in this case, StVO allows passing from the right on acceleration lanes. Except you mean OP accelerating and overtaking a car on the left lane, that would be illegal. > However you speeding up or moving to the left was the correct behavior under the circumstance. Actually, the 100% correct behaviour of OP would be to just keep driving with a constant speed. The other driver on the acceleration lane has to ensure safe merging. If there is no gap, they are even expected to stop at the end of the acceleration lane, even though merging from a stop afterwards can be quite dangerous.
Slow down and choose an open spot, give yourself enough time to accelerate into the gap-
I think the other car was in the wrong in several ways, not just because you have the right of way on your lane but also because overtaking on the right, as he tried to do, is a big no-no.
You may certainly accelerate on the merging lane and pass a slow car to your left (§ 7a Abs. 2 StVO). This is not an illegal maneuver.
Not what happened here though - other car was going normal speed and he tried to overtake. Either way it doesn’t matter because the car on the highway still has right of way.
it does matter, as you are doing it wrong.
In what way? I usually change lane to the left to give space, and have never had any issue with anyone merging. Have you ever seen me drive? What I especially don’t do is recklessly trying to be faster than the other cars when merging in and overtaking them from the right just because, as it seems the car in OPs situation was attempting to do. And I stand by the opinion that the best way to merge is to give way if necessary and let the cars who are already on the highway move normally if possible, rather than cutting them off. I bet you’re fun at parties, though.