Puff The Magic Wagon!

iTrader: (2)

3 lane M'way, clear for 1/2 mile in front of muppet of traffic in all lanes & only me coming up behind him.

Move out to o/side lane as I come up & when he realises I'm there, moves into middle lane. I go past & pull into i/side & muppet immediately goes to o/side lane again

WTF is all that about???

This happens to me all the time on the M11 & the 2 lane section is even worse

Unbelievable & I'm getting more & more in favour of re-tests every three years...

Seamus300

I agree, I drive 50 miles of motorway each way everyday. 6:00am a couple of mornings ago I approached a Volvo V40 sitting in middle lane, no traffic in front for at least half a mile. Me in inside lane, had been for 2 miles, so I undertook him and carried on. As I went past he gave me the w4nker sign and then main beamed me.

Sitting in lanes like that should carry at least a big a penalty as speeding IMO.

Elvis Presley

I swear this is happening more and more often.

Tw@ts who simply have no idea about lanes. Why can't people keep to the left unless overtaking like the highway code says?

I often end up undertaking usually after following them for 2 miles. I don't usually bother flashing them as this is "aggressive", but simply move into the left hand lane so that there is still a lane between us, and then cruise past. I'll be pissed off if I get done for it.

These idiots are ususally the same ****** who have had their rear fog lights on since they bought the car 5 years ago.

Just last night I was stuck at 50mph for about 10 miles whilst the que of about 50 cars in the fast lane went past some fool stuck in the middle lane even though the slow lane was free for another 1.5 miles ahead.


GGGGGRRRRRRRR!!!!!!!!!!


(Been looking forward to using one of these)

Jolly Green Monster 2

I think the no training on the motorway is the cause of the problem... I also see this all the time..

The other day I was in a rush and going up a two lane slip road to join a 3 lane dual carridge way...

There was one car ahead on the slip road doing about 70mph, I was going *cough* in the outside lane of the slip road... nothing on the dual carridgeway except a car quite a way back..

As I approach the other car on the slip road he moves to the outside lane of the slip road so he can join the dual carridgeway straight away rather than a 100yard empty slip road that the inside lane has... he didn't indicate or look..... then he wondered why I had my light up on main beam and sounded my horn..
yeah okay I was speeding but come on...

The worst thing I find with this is that they don't even know they are doing wrong... it is like the I am doing 70mph so I can sit in the outside lane if I like brigade!... at least if someone cuts you up and you moan they acknowledge they did wrong and say sorry... sometimes...

chuckster

Call that an experince?! Me, monday morning on A13 on the bike, cruisin at 70mph in outside lane. Truck pulls from centre into inside lane, catches bumper of car already in inside lane, spins car directly into my path a pair of broken forks and a few somersaults later I get up and find I haven't been run over and have a small bruise on my hip. The truck has done a runner. I'm on the train for a while whilst the insurance works this one out.
There is scum out there [img]images/smilies/mad.gif[/img]
Chuck

Elvis Presley

Damn Chuck. That is real sh!tty!

Just lucky you weren't badly hurt. Did you report it to police?
Are there any cameras on the road?

Colin Berry

Chuck, you sure that old Suzi twin does 70mph

Glad to hear you're ok tho. Do 120 miles a day on the M25 and evry day I seem to have a near death experience

Jolly Green Monster 2

Gez Chuckster... glad you are okay!

My closest call was not a close as that... was following a jeep in the outside lane at about 70mph on my bike and there was a lorry in the middle lane that we were passing...

All of a sudden the wheels on the lorry's trailer locked up and a metal wheel arch off another lorry shot from middle lane to central reservation which was a high sided bank of grass and embedded itself in the bank.. if passed between the Jeep and me.

further along was a lorry stopped with a wheel arch missing off his trailer and a car with a big dent (knocked the wheel arch off) and about 3 cars further up with flat tyres from running the arch over...

Hope the insurance pay put quickly.

ragtop

Oh dont get me started on Middle/Fast lane hoggers... I too travel 90 miles a day to and from work.. The amount of ppl who believe that because they're doing 70, they have a right to sit in the fast lane.. especially Freelanders & Disco's... GGrrr..

If only the motorway was included as part of the driving test, I reckon it would improve tenfold..

At the end of the day, the motorway has a completely different set of rules to a normal road, and ppl who spend most of their time in Sainsbury's carpark haven't got a clue.. Lane dicipline is the main cause of start-stop traffic, with ppl moving into the fastlane @ 69mph to overtake a van doing 68, cuz the van refuses to move over... I'm sure they haven't got a clue that they've just caused 35 cars behind them to pile up.. Bloody idiots...

If I were a copper, I'd bust middle lane hoggers & fog light offenders BIG time... Speeding just isn't the cause of accidents 80% of the time, its clueless Muppets...

Luv
Chrisie...

Sorry to winge on my first SN post.. But they really wind me up, especially as we get blamed for everthing cuz we go a bit faster than them...

TaviaRS

I thought that if you were in "traffic" you could undertake if your lane was moving faster than the other lanes. Who defines "traffic"?

Annoys the hell out of me, I do at least 200 miles per day and the standard of motorway driving is definitely getting worse, especially the middle laners. Mind you, in the past month I've seen 3 people pulled for it.

ANDY330

"I know that it's not approved of but is it technically illegal to undertake?"

dunno, but ive done this once and got caught and i simply told the office that i DIDNT -undertake- the car in the third lane, but i simply 'overtook' the car in the first lane confused him that one did

also bear in mind, if you change to the second lane and wait there for a few seconds 10+ is better, and THEN go past, you arent overtaking as you simply switched lanes and THEN decided to go a bit quicker due to your new lane being clear (after all, if you are in the 2nd lane and behind a car, then you change to the 3rd, go past but DONT come back to the 2nd, did you overtake? or did you simply switch lanes? After all, if you are not allowed to change lane from 3rd to 2nd and then decide to go faster, then when the 3rd line gets built up, no one in the 2nd or 1st should be allowed to go past the last car

Also annoy the copper, make him come to your car, make him call you sir, make him where his hat before you speak to him, and remember that although he has pulled you up, you dont have to wait for his permission to drive off, he may pull you again, but i dont think you are obliged to stay there until he tells you to, although he may follow you and then tell you to stay the next time round

Elvis Presley

Undertaking is illegal unless driving in "slow moving" traffic?

I know people who have got done for undertaking.

Even when you try and tell people to move over when they are in the middle and you're in the fast, they just look at you with clueless expressions.

The same expressions you get when you try and explain that they have their fog light on.

Maybe they just aren't good a lip reading?

....especially when I speak greek.

Colin Berry

Just for the record:-

There is no such thing as a fast lane and slow lane since the speed limit is identical in all lanes. Its nearside and offside!

Puff The Magic Wagon!

iTrader: (2)

Chuck

Glad you're OK Sorry it happened

My M11 "trick" is to follow the line of cars in the o/side lane on the i/side lane nearly level with the bumper of tail end charlie.

When they all slow up or brake - which they inevitably do - I sail up the inside lane at my previous steady speed That is not illegal.

We get the next problem when after you've whizzed up the i/side lane legally, you get the muppet who then won't let you out to overtake a lorry by speeding up to close the gap when you indicate to move over

I normally find it doesn't work for them as I'm in the dodgy old Vectra

Jolly Green Monster 2

Clueless Experision... yeah like the woman last week following me without any lights on... despite me turning mine on and off and flashing foglights then moving over and slowing down and letter her overtake and flashing her, lights off and back on several times.. dunno why I bother she just looked at me as if I was mad..
with that "What could I be doing wrong look of cluelessness"
so I overtook and pi55ed off, didn't want to be behind her when someone didn't see her.

It is illegal to undertake unless the traffic is slow moving.. which I take to mean below about 50mph...

slippyr4

I have to confess that sometimes I'm a middle lane man. But this is only ever because on some stretches of the M1, the left lane has such deep grooves carved by lorry tires that my car is practically on rails with tramlining.

carl

Seamus -- slip roads! Why don't people understand that the reason we have slip roads is to allow you to accelerate to the speed of the traffic on the motorway so you can join with a low speed differential? They are not for pottering down at 40mph and stopping at the end and then trying to join a traffic flow moving at 60/70mph...

devils_ad69

Please bear in mind, though, that when joining a motorway from a slip road, you must give way (i.e. stop) if you can't join safely.

99% of the time it will be safe but you will get the odd occasion when it isn't. It maybe that people who are looking for a gap decide that 40/50 MPH is more appropriate until such time as they have a clear gap and they can accleralte into it.

I've lost count of the number of time I've seen people come flying down a slip road to find that they have nowhere to go. End result being they slam their anchors on!

carl

You can brake quicker than you can accelerate, so far better to have a +30 mph speed differential than a -30 mph one

Seamus300

But are they considering by doing 40 mph the 5 cars behind now have nowhere to go? Not being argumentative, I agree that sometimes it is necessary, sometimes though people do it because they are simply afraid to drive on motorways etc It was situations where all traffic is moving fast where the problem lays. If someone is going down a slip road slower than the lorries that are on the motorway then that to me is seriously dangerous.

devils_ad69

Carl,

Wrong!

devils_ad69

Seamus300,

Not sure where you mean by 'nowhere to go'? Surely they'll just try and join the motorway at a suitable safe point.

carl

devils_ad69 -- no, right. Compare the 60-0 time of any car against its 0-60 time.

Elvis Presley

And then there's the cats who slow right down before moving into the filter lane when leaving a road.

Again, the filter lane is to slow down in. Why do these idiots have to slow right down before moving into the slip road? (assuming they even use the slip roads)

devils_ad69

Seamus300,

>If someone is going down a slip road slower than the lorries that >are on the motorway then that to me is seriously dangerous.

But what happens when the person doing 70 MPH gets to the end of the slip road and find that they don't have a gap?

Better to look for a gap, accelerate into it when if/it appears but if it doesn't, still be able to stop safely in the same lane in the distance they can see to be clear.

devils_ad69

Carl,

>devils_ad69 -- no, right. Compare the 60-0 time of any car against its 0-60 time.

Sorry. I should have made myself clearer. I don't doubt the 0-60 and 60- figures.

You stated it was better to have a speed differential of +30MPH rather than -30MPH.

It was *this* that I was saying (IMHO) is wrong!

devils_ad69

Elvis,

Agreed. The reason they don't ever know that they are doing anything wrong is that the level of tuition they receive on dual carrigeways is normally low and non-existant on Motorways.

If the authorities genuinely wanted to improve UK accident/casualty statistics, they would get the police to target bad driving, in terms of both education and enforcement.

Will it ever happen?

carl

You should be able to assess the gaps in the traffic when you're at the top of the slip road. Then match speed to catch up with a gap or allow one to catch up with you. If it's nose-to-tail when you start down the slip road then you may have to stop at the bottom (though it's unlikely to be nose-to-tail at 70mph because that would mean the lorries were travelling in convoy and that's illegal).

[Edited to mention that the +30mph bit was tongue-in-cheek, as indicated by the smiley ]

And edited again to suggest that maybe people would have less trouble merging onto motorways if they actually used their necks and looked over their right shoulders when joining, rather than relying solely on mirrors?



[Edited by carl - 2/7/2002 12:04:38 PM]

devils_ad69

Carl,

I agree with all that. The bottom line being it doesn't matter at what speed people join the motorway as long as it is done safely and if there isn't an obvious gap it is quicker to brake from 40MPH than it is from 70MPH.

'Be ready to go but be prepared to stop' type thing.