VEHICLE CONTROL METHOD AND VEHICLE CONTROL DEVICE

A vehicle control method including: detecting (S1), on a planned travel route of a host vehicle (20), a merging section (23) in which a travel lane (21) in which the host vehicle (20) is traveling merges with another lane (22); determining (S2) whether or not to execute merging assistance control for assisting the host vehicle (20) to change lanes into the other lane (22) in the merging section (23); and when the merging assistance control is determined not to be executed in the merging section (23), controlling (S4-S8) the speed of the host vehicle (20) to be a predetermined speed (v0) or less before the host vehicle (20) passes through a starting point (24) of the merging section (23).