Motorway lane-hogs 'cut capacity'

[schrickvr6]

Dont start me on middle lane hogs.

Altho the french are not my fave peeps - they know how to drive on a motorway.

Slow lane until they wanna overtake - overtake, then slow lane. No hanging around in the middle lane.

English muppets

I like their use of the right indicator in the fast lane, give me more lanes lol, but it does work

[Lowe]

I keep left, but swoop (carefully, watching for faster traffic etc) to overtake the middle lane hogger before returning to the left (undertaking is illegal).

I do this, along with a flash of the lights to give them a hint. Sometimes if it's a normal driver they realise what I'm doing and pull over. 9 times out of 10 though it's a muppet who hasn't got a clue and they carry on in the middle lane causing havoc to faster moving traffic.

As for leaving a gap, I do as best as I can. Unfortunately, as soon as I leave a decent stopping gap, some **** soon uses my safety gap as somewhere to drive, forcing me to ease up a little and make another one.. which is pinched, etc. Vicious circle.

[spazman]

All of this can be cured by allowing undertaking on the motorway. And maybe a mandatory bit in the test about how to drive on a motorway. While learning to drive, not once did anybody mention anything about motorways too me, untill i had passed when it was 'Pay us more and we will teach you to drive on a motorway'. Also middle lane hogger are generally 65+ years old and driving a Rover/Volvo every time!

[Twigman]

Yeah...
I love the continental idea of using indicators for overtaking
i.e. I want to over take you indicate right even if there isnt a lane.

The vehichle being overtaken, indicate left if its clear, right if somethings coming (doesnt really apply to motorways, but useful for tractors on normal roads etc).

Also this must be the country with the most well preserved horns in the world. I dont know anywhere else where horns are used less. A quick beep normally wakes people up.

[dkmech]

A blast of the horn may cause a gentleman to spill his tea. Sir.

[Howard]

I see no problem with driving in the middle or outside lane It's done by everyone. If you're going along at 70 then I see no problem. If someone's doing 50 in the middle lane then that's a different story. But if they're doing 70 then to overtake you have to break the speed limit, which is more of a road offense than being in the "wrong" lane!

Sorry it just makes no sense to me

People driving too close however is silly. If they're the right distance then the traffic flows nicely. You see the person slowing down, you ease off. No need for all this sudden braking

[Richie]

Note about undertaking -

Undertaking is officially classed as when a driver moves to the left hand lane, passes a car and then moves out again i.e. the reverse of overtaking. If you happen to be in the left hand lane and pass cars in the right hand lanes then thats NOT undertaking as you are simply moving with the speed of the traffic in your lane.

"Swooping" from left lane to outside lane (on 3+ lane motorways) is far more dangerous than staying in your lane and passing the cars that are hogging the middle lane.

But if they're doing 70 then to overtake you have to break the speed limit, which is more of a road offense than being in the "wrong" lane!

What makes it a worse offence ?? Its certainly not "more illegal" than hoggin the middle lane.

Yeah, the limit is 70 but the law also states (roughly) to pull into the left most lane when possible. Hogging a lane simply cause "I am doing the speed limit so I aint moving over as the ppl behind me are breaking it" is just selfish and causes aggravation for other drivers.

If the other driver wants to break the speed limit and you can pull over then DO so and get them out of your way so you can get back to your nice safe driving speeds.

Forgive me if I am wrong but its the job of the POLICE to stop ppl breaking the law which includes speeding, NOT the job of Joe Public who has a self important attitude and decide to hold ppl up by not letting them past.

It is NOT difficult to pull into the left most lane when you are not overtaking anyone.


Please note, throughout my post I have stated that ppl should pull into the leftmost lane when POSSIBLE AND SAFE. If its not, and someone is wanting past because they are breaking the speed limit then thats tough luck you are fine to stay where you are and not let the driver intimidate you into going faster BUT, when it IS safe, then pull over.



THAT makes sense to me

[TeePee]

Undertaking is simply passing somone on the left. It is illegal unless you are in a slow moving traffic queue, in which case if you're lane is moving faster then by all means undertake. Of course, how you define a slow moving traffic queue is up to you. Passing on the left is MORE dangerous than a carefully performed swoop, since traffic in the middle lane does not expect to be undertaken, and often the drivers are so dozy they will have no idea whats going on behind them. A swooper (assuming he's not swooping with disregard for other drivers as in the description above) has the responsibility on him to be aware of other traffic and to swoop in a safe manner. The swooper doesn't rely on other drivers to drive safely.

[Alex]

Im with Shad on this one, having just got back from 2 weeks of driving around America, and the busy disneyland part, I can say that the system where undertaking is allowed works very well, the traffic is just a lot smoother even though there are a lot more cars on the road. It would take next to no money to implement, and does work to reduce some of the problems mentioned in the OP.

The other one I liked from the US which may help a bit is their 'turning right on red' rule (or left, as it would be over here), whereby it is perfectly legal to turn right on a red light, assuming you have come to a complete stop first, and there is no oncoming traffic, and there is no sign saying 'no right turn on red'.

[Jiff Lemon]

It is NOT difficult to pull into the left most lane when you are not overtaking anyone.

Indeed it isn't. I regularly drive to and fro from Milton Keynes to Manchester, a journey of some 180 miles. Last time I decided to see just how often I spent in the middle/outside lanes.

In the entire 3 hour journey, I never spent more than 30 seconds in the outer two lanes. Cruise, overtake, get back in. Simple innit?

[Lowe]

You'd of thought so...

[Rob]

Most muppets seem to be scared to pull back in in case the following muppet just draws alongside, matching the 'terminal muppet velocity', hence leaving him trapped in lane one.

[spazman]

Richie the link to the site in your sig is www.www.gsvgaming.net and dosent work.

[[GSV]Trig]

Thats cos hes a Northerner..

www.gsvgaming.net

[Richie]

Fixed.. Ta

[Big RICHARD]

It is, in fact, illegal to drive in the OVERTAKING lanes unless you are OVERTAKING.
The left lane is the driving lane and all the other lanes to the right of this (on motorways and dual carriageways) are overtaking lanes.

One of the reasons lane hogging happens is the morons of this world speak of the 'slow lane', the 'faster lane' and the 'fastest lane' and assume that because they are doing 60 mph they are going quite fast and should be in the 'faster lane' (ie NOT the slow lane, where the lorries are doing 56 mph) which, to them, happens to be the middle lane.