To think it's ok to want to travel at 70mph on the motorway...

It is an interesting stat that only 10% of the post think YABU, when I am out driving it so often feels like more than 10% of the population don't have a clue how to drive or use lane discipline.
I guess like most things in life it is the minority that make life hell for the rest of us.

Lots of dual carriageways have "somewhere" to go on the left, whether it be a grass verge, shrubbery etc. They tend not to have metal barriers right at the edge of the live lane.

Sometimes for several miles. An absolute pain in the arse if you are towing and can’t use lane 3.

If the road is quiet enough, you can always play doughnuts. Accelerate, overtake in a further out lane, pull back to the inside land, let them overtake you, and repeat. See how many times it takes them to notice they're always overtaking the same car / same car overtakes them.

I've had a couple of friends who have been squished trying to pass a vehicle from the left hand side. Not a chance in hell I'll be doing that, thanks.

Middle and right hand lane hogs - it was ever thus. Some of them wake up out of their middle lane daze once I've passed from left to middle to right to middle to left to overtake them. Some don't.

Many other drivers agree. Coming up the M6 yesterday there were long sections where hardly anything apart from an odd truck was using lane 1. It'd be better if it was marked closed as you suggest. I'm pretty sure that's what the original pilots did.

Plus, 3 lanes are needed because of HGVs etc. One of those laboriously overtaking a slightly slower one can block lanes 1&2 for quite a while.

But that's not how they work (which is why many consider them unsafe.) They're no different from most dual carriageways in that sense, which also have a 70mph speed limit, and no hard shoulder.

For Smart motorways, I think Lane 1 (previously hard shoulder) should only be marked as open if there's a speed limit in force, say 50 or less. It's too dangerous for traffic at 70 in Lane 1 with nowhere to swerve to the left if there's a blockage. Having to swerve into lane 2 and almost certainly into an other vehicle is highly dangerous. If the normal 70 speed limit applies, then lane 1 should be "X" 'd off and blocked for traffic.

NRTFT, but we drive on smart motorways a lot. I do not want to drive in lane 1, previously the hard shoulder because I’ve found it can be quite hard, moving at speed to realise a vehicle ahead is stationary; and it can be difficult to move out into lane 2, when there a fair amount of traffic close together.

Smart motorways are not built and supervised as it was envisaged. IMO, they are downright dangerous if your car cuts out, some way before a refuge point!

Also, when we are in lane 2, we use interactive cruise control. If we have set it for 70, but the car decides to do 60 mph, as it’s the safe breaking distance from the car in front, what do you suggest we do:

1. override the car, drive 70 mph, but not at a safe distance from the car in front
2. leave the car to it, and maintain a safe breaking distance

Surely if everyone drove in the inside lane, any motorway would need only 2 lanes.

But if it's busy, a 3 lane motorways has capacity for a higher volume of vehicles than a 2 lane motorway. It depends on the purpose of the motorway, I suppose.

At the end of the day, if someone can undertake you in the left hand lane, you should have been in that lane yourself! You should only be in any of the right hand lanes if you're actively overtaking. (Unless coming up to a junction and signage tells you to be in a different lane for going ahead).

It's only "not wrong" to drive at 70 in the right hand lane if you're actively overtaking a slower vehicle. If you're pootling along at 70 and not actively overtaking, you shouldn't be in the OVERTAKING lane at all. It shouldn't concern you what speed other drives choose to drive at - you're not the police, it's not your job and dangerous for you to try to influence what other drivers wish to do.

I drive a lot for my job and am up and down from the south coast to London a lot for family.

I've only ever seen this ire for Middle lane hoggers on MN. It's not ideal that there are people who drive at 60 in lane 2, but they are generally overtaken without hassle, given that lane 3 is available for this very purpose, and that maintaining a faster speed in lane 1 is acceptable.

Most motorways I use are choc full of lorries/caravans/horseboxes/tractors etc and slower drivers doing under sixty in the inside lane. Like fuck am I going to weave in and out of that hot mess continuously when I can drive at 70 in the middle lane, and use the outside lane to overtake any hoggers I come across.
This seems to be the way the majority of people drive - Ideally we'd all get up to 70 in lane 1 but as that is impossible, drivers create a two tier system.

Surely if everyone drove in the inside lane, any motorway would need only 2 lanes.

If people left decent gaps with the car in front then it makes it easier for someone to join from slip road.
It horrified me to see people in the outside lane going very fast with less than a car length gap.
Btw I always thought the motorway speed limit was 79mph (70 + 10% then add on 2 for luck to allow for speedometer variations 🤔)

😂 chavs drive at a particular speed now 😳

Learners have been able to go on motorways for the past six years. 🤦🏽

This bit about "male German car owners who like to exceed the speed limit" is quite a generalisation and you risk having the mn police after you.
Like, you can write this, then this must also be correct???:

Nissan micras are driven at 20mph by little old ladies on their way to garden centre/bridge/church.

Peugeot are driven by old men who can't drive.

Persons of oriental heritage are the worst drivers in the world.

Teenagers are idiotic drivers.

Africans always drive in the middle lane and speed up and slow down erratically.

We could go on, the above are actually generalisations and it only actually applies to 80% of each category.

Not everyone does what they are supposed to do and moves into lane 2 in order to let traffic join from the slip road.

Crikey. 🤦🏽

The blind spot in the left shouldn't be an issue if you are driving properly in the middle lane though should it?
You are actively overtaking the vehicles to the ieft of you ( so using your mirror) whilst looking ahead for the space on your left to pull in.

If a car is in your blind spot you should have been going faster or you should be in the spot that car is in already, as there's space. The car would never be in your blind spot long as they would overtake you or you would realise your error and speed up. If it's too busy in the middle lane to speed up, the other driver won't have room to undertake you anyway so there's no issue.

I went on dual carriageway as a learner. Learners weren't allowed on motorways at all then, not even with an instructor and dual controls,, but the nearest one was about an hour away anyway. But you can go at 70mph on a dual carriage way, so it's not that different.

YANBU. People do this because they are inconsiderate, self-absorbed or maybe just bad drivers. 60mph might well be optimum fuel consumption but get in the inside lane! I agree that middle lane hoggers should be fined with 3 points on the licence; this would make them rethink their inconsiderate and dangerous driving. The lack of self-awareness and where they are in relation to other drivers makes them a liability on ALL roads.

A good instructor will take you on multi lane A roads, teaching how to change lanes. I learnt those skills on the A2

@Borninabarn32 my son was taught to drive in a 70 on our local A roads.

I find it insane that learners can't go on motorways. You're never actually TAUGHT lane discipline or safe motorway driving. You're taught to drive at 30/40mph. Pass your test pottering around housing estates and doing a 3 point turn then all of a sudden barrelling down a motorway at 70. Motorway driving should be part of the test.