Motorway lane-hogs 'cut capacity'

[aeonf242]

Just saw this news article and it's the 1st time I've official seen this sort of driving analysed....

Up to a third of motorway capacity is being wasted by drivers' poor lane discipline, according to research by the RAC Foundation.
"Selfish" middle-lane hoggers and outside-lane blockers are the worst culprits, said RAC head Edmund King.

"If we can encourage these drivers to practise better lane discipline it would be equivalent to adding 700 miles of new motorway capacity," he added.

Police have the power to pull drivers over for bad lane discipline.

'Phantom jams'

They can even prosecute lane-hoggers in certain circumstances.

But a reduction in traffic police means many atrocious drivers get away with their behaviour, the RAC said.

TOP 5 BAD MOTORWAY HABITS
Tailgaters: over 40% of drivers are guilty of tailgating, which limits motorists' ability to react to events ahead
Middle-lane hoggers: a major cause of road-rage on motorways
Failing to indicate: considered a nuisance and a danger to other drivers
Swoopers: who cut across lanes with little regard for other motorists
Chatterboxes: people who talk on hand-held mobile phones while driving, which is banned
Source: RAC
It said traffic jams were being caused by too much "red-light braking".

A car changing lanes or exiting the motorway sometimes leads tailgating motorists to brake.

This can lead other cars behind to brake hard until they all eventually come to a standstill.

"Poor lane discipline wastes the scarce resource of road capacity, encourages road rage and leads to dangerous tailgating," Mr King said.

"We would like to see more traffic police on motorways pulling drivers over for hogging the middle lane."

He said perhaps "courtesy cops" who advised drivers how to use the lanes on the new dual carriageways and motorways in the late fifties and early sixties should be re-introduced.

The study of 15,000 motorists in July was carried out by the RAC as part of National Motorway Month.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/3586474.stm

[Stoo]

yup, I noticed this when I started driving.
People don't leave enough of a gap between cars, they just drive right up to the car in front and slam on their brakes which causes the traffic to bunch up and stagnate.
If people left a nice gap, then most of the time you almost *never* have to brake, all you have to do is take your foot off the accelerator to maintain the gap, which results in smoother traffic flow which means everyone gets there quicker

[SilentDeath]

I dont drive yet...
"Middlelane hogging" I assume means everyone trys to use the middle lane of the motorway and not the other two lanes...? Ive noticed people do this loads...

[Richie]

If people left a nice gap, then most of the time you almost *never* have to brake...

Well you do cause leaving a nice gap means that some joker ends up pulling into it thereby cutting your gap right down.


My real pet hate for driving is lane discipline. How hard is it to pull over to the left most lane when you are NOT overtaking anyone and it is safe to do so ??

[Steve]

People are lazy.

I was watching the news (BBC) this morning at about 7AM and they were talking about this. I passed my test recently, but of course as a learner you never go on a motorway. Sometimes it's not knowing that leads to poor motorway usage, other times impatience and laziness.

I hate people who get too close behind you, it distracts you from other things because you're concerned about them being too close...

Oh, the wonders of the highway.

[Theo]

There are some motorways/dual carriageways with those 2 chevron systems. They seem to work quite well in any time other than rush hour.

Anyhoo... I'm off to Scotland. In a bit chaps :>

[[GSV]Trig]

Yup, one of pet hates is lack of lane discipline

[GAteKeeper]

Yup I cant stand the Middle lane W***kers - temped to get one of those scrowlling message boards and programming with something tastefull to tell them.

GK

[[GSV]Trig]

I just slowly undertake them and stare at them as they look over...

[Rob]

I just slowly undertake them and stare at them as they look over...

Heh, me too. Aint it frustrating that to get past these morons, we have to break the rules.

Ah well, I'm off to work in a mo. At least I wont see many this morning .

[Rave]

More traffic cops pulling people over for bad driving is the answer.

Rich :¬)

[[GSV]Trig]

Yes but the police dont care, they'd rather have less cops on the street and more camera's, makes the figures look so much better...

[TeePee]

Some of the other problems are caused by poor lane disipline. Tailgating occurs where traffic bunches up, normally because everythign must cram into lane 3 to pass a middle lane hogger at 60mph. Swoopers who cut accross lanes.. I've done that, although I do have regard for other motorists. 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).

[Shad]

I think they should do as the yanks do and allow passing on either side on motorways. This would almost certainly be a more sure-fire way around the problem than trying to educate the problem drivers

[schrickvr6]

i must admit i do get a bit close to other cars sometimes but only when they are needlessly hogging the middle or fast lane, a dose of main beam normally shifts them tho

[EvilMunky]

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