Puff The Magic Wagon!

iTrader: (2)

Well, not the fact that people drive in the middle lane but the fact that some people cannot LEAVE the middle lane!


By this I mean the people that come up behind you in the middle lane, when you are not safely able to pull in, match your pace, then once you pull in, speed up and move past, keeping to the middle lane when its clear for them to pull in

Nowt queer about that but when the outside lane is completely and utterly safely empty during this exercise?



You really really wonder where they were when the Highway Code was being discussed...

Alas

Probably in the Middle Lane

Floyd

iTrader: (9)

If I pull into lane 1 the car behind me in lane 2 creeps past. I reach another vehicle in lane 1 but can't pull out because numpty is still creeping past at +1mph and not anticipated that I want to pull out again as I'm clearly gaining on the vehicle in lane 1.

Usually a Volvo with old man at wheel wearing cap (probably called James)

F

NotoriousREV

Come on, thats a bit harsh, I don't think James wears a cap

andrewdelvard

Hada brief chat about this once with someone who was giving me a lift AND hogging the middle lane. The reply was "It feels safer". Go figure. We travelled for about 50 miles in the middle lane and only changed lanes when we came to our exit junction.

Puff The Magic Wagon!

iTrader: (2)

Huh! Cheeky young whippersnapper!

Still do the lot of you in the twisties in my Volvo and the only cap I wear is my SWRT one

Floyd

iTrader: (9)

Good point Andrew, I had a lift with someone who did the same. Made me cringe and it was a very uncomfortable trip. They said "everyone does it" and "they had trouble pulling out again"!

F

alcazar

iTrader: (2)

And were both of them women, by any chance:

Alcazar

Old_Fart

If the middle lane is empty then it *is* safer...should a deer or drunk wander onto the carriageway you have an extra instant to react, this kind of positioning is often taught in motorcycle training, where you try to keep equidistant to hazards (opening car doors on inside and oncoming traffic on t'other).
****However you should always pull in when a car comes up behind.
Rgds
Cman

Peanuts

iTrader: (15)

make it a 3 point offence, it has to be the next legislation addition to the RToA

its the only way to get people out of the damn middle lane.
it frustrates me when Im driving in the inside lane and its clear for miles and I have to go to the outside lane to get past some moron.
If you decide to flash them on your way round and pull in to the inside lane, you get nothing but grief, like I did something wrong???!!

Puff The Magic Wagon!

iTrader: (2)

Driving without due care and attention...

Peanuts

iTrader: (15)

me or the MLMoron Puff?

Puff The Magic Wagon!

iTrader: (2)

Not you m8 the person sat in the middle of the road - inconsiderate driving, not paying attention to the conditions around them nor obeying the Highway Code...

speedking

Citroen's new Lane departure warning system can only make things worse

ALi-B

iTrader: (1)

This happens so often in spain. Cruising at 100km/h on a 120km/h road (very rare for me....hire company gave me a tank of diesel, I had one day left and was making the last 2 gallons last ).

Most autovias are just 2 lanes. So there I am in the outside lane cruising along. When a car will come tearing up behind me at 130km/h or so, then slows down, and sits right behind me nothing stopping him/her overtaking, tailgating me for a few kms and then decides to overtake wtf?

Good news though, I heard on the radio that the police are going to start paying more attention to middle lane road hogs.

'bout time if I say so...it's only been going on for the past 20years

ALi-B

iTrader: (1)

Oh hold on...when was the last time I saw a traffic car

Hmm, one was holding a laser gun on a bridge of a dual carriageway, the other was attending an accident on an A road, and the other was pulling some Chavs at a McDonalds.

I bets there's more Bentley Continentals on the motorway than Police cars

Vonzack

Had to use the M1 (Leeds - Nottingham) on Sunday around lunchtime, the new matrix signs were working and advising that people should move over to the left lane unless they were passing. Most pleasant Mway trip in a long time.

On the way back in the evening, the signs were all off and people were hogging the lanes as usual

Del mar

I am happy to drive in the left most lane unless it is blocked by a slower vehicle, when I will pull out to overtake. - I am sure this is in the highway code somewhere.

Is it right that I am then penalised for undertaking purely because somebody sits in the middle lane and does not pull over ?

If sitting in any lane you want is not illegal then surely overtaking in any lane shouldn't be either ?

Del

Peanuts

iTrader: (15)

undertaking is the most dangerous thing you can do IMHO, there was a motion not too long ago to make it legal to undertake but the research carried out proved too scary to take any further.

use the time you take to pull over to the outside lane to gesticulate to the offender and then as you pass in front to the nearside lane you can take the opportunity to reiterate your previous point with signage


I fukcing hate middle lane morons.

ps, what was that shyte about safety and bike riding?
my ***! if you apply the hazard awareness theory to a motorway the safest place to be is to sit in the outside lane all day, they took on board what you stated in the seventies,
WHEN THEY BUILT HARD SHOULDERS!

Peanuts

iTrader: (15)

Cman

TopBanana

That's what I do at night. I also straddle both lanes of a dual carriageway if there are trees on either side.

Del mar

I did used to gesticulate and flash lights, it never seems to get you anywhere and when they threaten to "punch you in the face" you quickly lose heart with that approach !!

I now work on getting past as quick as possible - safely ofcourse !


Del

Dracoro

Can you elaborate?

The argument USED to be that the person you are undertaking would move into lane 1 (without looking) and cut you up/crash into you etc. The problem with this theory is that the person who does this without looking is also the one that A) never uses the inside lane anway and B) is the type to pull into you when you are overtaking them in the outside lane. You lose either way. At least if it happens on the inside lane you have somewhere to go to avoid a collision (the hard shoulder).

I used to find it daft on the 4 lane stretch of the M25, that loads of people on lane 3 doing 70 or so, loads in the outside lane overtaking them at 75 and lanes 1 AND 2 completely empty. I'd just sit on lane 1 at 85, much easier, quicker AND SAFER as there's no cars there to interfere with my progress

Anyway, the only way to solve this is for the police to do some policing, the laws are already in place. As pointed out in previous posts, you hardly ever see traffic police these days (probably dedicating themselves to catching people doing a few mph over the speed limit elsewhere.

The situtation will NOT get better unless there's policing on the motorways & dual carriages.

Peanuts

iTrader: (15)

The argument USED to be that the person you are undertaking would move into lane 1 (without looking) and cut you up/crash into you etc. The problem with this theory is that the person who does this without looking is also the one that A) never uses the inside lane anway and B) is the type to pull into you when you are overtaking them in the outside lane. You lose either way. At least if it happens on the inside lane you have somewhere to go to avoid a collision (the hard shoulder).


thats all well and good and I wonder if the person who was cut from a 04 vectra last week on the M27 feels the same way now they have pulled the tractor out of his windscreen.

Dracoro

Why was there a tractor on the hard shoulder? Most sensible people would have decided not to undertake if there a vehicle in the hard shoulder.

Peanuts

iTrader: (15)

touche.

on a four lane section, tractor in lane 2 towing a trailor of hay.
vectra man goes for it in lane 1
tractor indicates to pull in and drags vectra man down the road a bit at about 6" clearence from his face.

Dracoro

Nasty. IIRC tractors aren't allowed on motorways ???

ALi-B

iTrader: (1)

I thought vehicles not capable of 30mph needed a police escort on motorways...

Unless it was a JCB fastrac...followed one round the lanes at 50mph the once

03-CTR

just to throw a spanner in the works


i had a mac (motor appreciation) course free with my type r and my tutor, an ex police grade 1 instructor, said that courtesy to other drivers is necessary but not at the expense of your own progress.

in a motorway situation where you are in the slow lane, if you are travelling faster than the traffic in your lane and observe approaching traffic in your wing/rearview mirror then, providing you don't cut traffic up, then you are well within your rights to pull out into the middle lane whilst maintaining your speed. if the middle lane traffic then pulls up behind you its tough as it is up to them to read the road and take appropriate measures to maintain their own progress. same goes for middle to fast lane manouvers.

Peanuts

iTrader: (15)

technically its a four lane A-road.
there have been a fair few deaths in the past few years and there is a campaign to get it motorway status for that very reason.
it was the m27 - a3/m link but m27 is easier to type