To realise very few people care about road rules or the Highway Code any more

Depends on how far the lorries are apart though. If you aren't passing one for a minute or longer... you are hogging and aren't paying attention to the road.

You can be fined for it incidentally.. they are starting to monitor it.

I passed my test 15 years ago and this is how I was taught. If a lane is left/right hand turn only then it is a dedicated lane and there is no obligation to indicate - I usually do, the same as if I'm driving on an empty road with no cars/pedestrians, makes sure it stays habitual.

Sorry but I’m what you would call a ‘middle lane hogger.’ Lane 1 is full of trucks going at 60 - why would I constantly want to weave in and out of them, going back and forth from Lane 1 to Lane 2, when I can comfortably sit in Lane 2 at 70mph? It doesn’t make sense. Lane 1 = trucks/slow drivers, Lane 2 = normal drivers at 70mph, Lane 3 = dickheads in Audis/BMWs going more than 70. Always the way and always will be.
You can use your own brain, and don’t have to follow rules blindly just because ‘they’re the rules.’ Agree with pp that in some cases it also does make sense to undertake - shock, that’s not in the rule book either!

dd has just passed her test.

I took her out a lot and I was surprised when she told me that her instructor says that at a junction and a roundabout if a lane is marked as left turn only or right turn only then you don't indicate.
(this is what she told me, so I have no verification of it)

So that may be where your first one is coming from.

If you are actively ignoring an open lane / checkout / ticket line (take your pick, any scenario works) next to you out of some misplaced sense of "fairness" and then get annoyed when someone else uses it correctly, it is a symptom of your own poor road use and judgement
I don't ignore it when there are 3 or 4 cars queuing on the other lane and indeed hope that it encourages others to do it. When there are over 20 cars, I don't anymore. I am annoyed but in the scale of things, a slight delay of a few minutes doesn't trump rudeness.

You can tell the entitled ones anyway. They don't pass going at a slow pace and then wait their turn to merge. They drive by at a too high speed for the circumstances and then push in front when they can't go any further expected to be let through as soone as the car in front moves.

As pointed out, the same people who do exactly the same passing through on turning lanes to aggressively push in front at the last second.

You are not wrong.

I think it’s largely that a lot (the majority?) of people have no interest in being skilled / courteous drivers - they just get in their car, turn on their choice of music, and want to get from A to B with the least possible mental effort they can expend.

That certainly accounts for the MLM’s who see it as everybody else’s job to drive round them.

I would be happy for everyone to have to have a mandatory day of advanced driver training every five years or so - with the tutor having the ability to refer people for mandatory remedial training if their driving fell below a minimum acceptable safe standard.

I continue to recommend the YouTube channel of ‘RegLocal’ - a former police advanced driving instructor - who has a very sensible (and useful) series of videos on ‘Advanced and Performance Driving’ that will likely make anyone who hasn’t done an advanced driving qualification (AIM/RoSPA/Police/etc.) a better driver.

Passing on the left can be a much less dangerous option than allowing frustration to build among a number of drivers stacked up behind a middle lane hogger who has no intention of ever moving over
Then the same principle applies to merging lanes. Passing a line of queuing people can result in frustration to build amongst those who are queueing and create accidents.

Just as passing on the right can cause the lane hogger to suddenly move to the left and miss the passing car invisible in their blind spot.

Two wrongs don't make it right as the saying goes.

Deciding to try and unilaterally decide what the rules should be based on being fair to people who don't know the rules or choose not to follow the rules in a way that makes traffic worse, increases the likelihood of accidents and blocks exits and expecting others to follow the arbitray rules you've made up in your head is objectively fucking stupid.

Passing on the left can be a much less dangerous option than allowing frustration to build among a number of drivers stacked up behind a middle lane hogger who has no intention of ever moving over. Middle lane hogging is a de facto offence under the careless driving laws; overtaking on the left is not. There's nothing illegal about passing on the left if the manoeuvre is carried out in a controlled, careful and observant manner.

Going through 'no entry' signs is rampant here. Near a school and a 'no entry' however, parents just go through the no entry to save going a slightly longer route around. Since they get away with it now hundreds do it, despite leaving the road going the correct way, impossible since so many come through the no entry so have to wait for all of them to exit. Madness, but it saves them 30 seconds

But it's not "acting fairly". It's acting dangerously and inconsiderately and in contravention of the road signage. By moving over early and creating a queue in one lane, you are directly contributing to that queue getting longer and longer, backing up into side roads and other junctions, and causing more congestion and hazards.

If you are actively ignoring an open lane / checkout / ticket line (take your pick, any scenario works) next to you out of some misplaced sense of "fairness" and then get annoyed when someone else uses it correctly, it is a symptom of your own poor road use and judgement.

Both lanes should be used for as long as they are open. If everyone does this, then no-one can jump the queue. If you move over too early it is your own fault.

They shouldn’t be patiently waiting. They should be following the rules of the road.

As an equestrian the one that gets me is passing horses wide and slow we seem to get the barrel of abuse “you shouldn’t be riding on the roads” unfortunately with more developers building on fields ect we are being forced to ride on the roads unless you have the luxury of a horse box!

It's merge in turn at the point of the closure and NOT "half a mile before"
So you think that because some people don't understand the rules, decide to act fairly, it gives the higher above who know the rules the right to avoid the queue, avoid the frustration of waiting, making it 20 second quicker to their destination?

I know the rules, but I still don't think it gives the right to cross before many people who have been patiently waiting. Just like I don't pass middle lane huggers on the left, or rush from the back of the queue in a supermarket when a new till opens, because rightly or wrongly, it is rude and entitled to think you shouldn't wait when others do.

I agree. The reason I suspect is lack of consequences. If carelessness/thoughtlessness comes with no comeback, it morphs into an entitlement. Unfortunately it is impossible to have anywhere near enough traffic police to make the risk of being caught for careless driving high enough that people will THINK and consciously avoid doing it.

One pet hate of mine you missed off, the slip road trundlebunnies. They enter a slip road in front of you leading to a free flowing motorway with traffic doing 55-70 mph, and they drive at 35 mph all the way to the merge point before trying to merge in with that traffic, and I am talking about slip roads with a decent straight acceleration lane here. If you are behind them, you have the fun challenge of trying to merge in traffic with a 20+ mph speed differential and/or a convoy of HGVs barrelling along lane 1 and closing fast. Good luck with that.

The lack of zip merging on UK motorways is appalling, and it is way worse in SE England. Much of the congestion on busy motorways like the M25 is due to people who can't/won't zip merge, which slows everyone down.

It's merge in turn at the point of the closure and NOT "half a mile before".

It is not a question of taking turns, if everyone is queuing at one checkout in a supermarket and I go to the other checkout that's open but being ignored by everyone else then you wouldn't say that's queue jumping as that's nonsensical.

It is the fault of everyone who moves over too early which creates an empty, active, open lane which others then use, correctly. The fact there is a lane which other drivers can use to "skip the queue" is the fault of all those who don't know how to merge in turn or read road signs correctly.

This chap on Instagram explains it quite well: https://www.instagram.com/reel/DM4_dULokrZ/?igsh=MWRzbzVzbmlzcGQ4eQ==

When I left the army I was going to join the police to become a traffic officer spending my time on the M5 pulling over middle lane hogs. That was nearly 40 years ago and the problem is still ongoing.

Merge in turn at a lane closure is not difficult. Use all available road space just exactly as you do the rest of the time you are driving.

I trained as a driving instructor and and taught to use indicators when there was someone there to signal to, rather than just blindly putting the indicator on whenever you made a turn. The idea was to get learners to look for who they needed to indicate to, be it vehicles, cyclists or pedestrians. My DH still doesn’t get why I don’t always indicate - I tell him there was no one around to signal my intentions to except for him, and as he is in the car with me, he’s coming too! It really does make you look properly.

And I still cross the white lines without hitting the cats eyes if I can, having been taught by a staff car driver and a police instructor back in the day 😁

It's the sane principle than lane hoggers. They are so annoying but it doesn't make passing them on the left the right thing to do. You either pass them on the right or you slow down behind however frustrating it is.

When it comes to ‘merge in turn’ would a better solution not be to make the stretch of road running up to it a 30 then only giving warning to merge 100m before?
Absolutely!

People not following the code using both lanes doesn't make passing everyone ok.

Merge IN TURN means that. Take your turn, not pass everyone so you are ahead of the cars who were there before you.

They need to make their signage better so that people understand they shouldn't merge early.

I'm not sure where I heard it so this may be completely wrong but if someone comes here from another country where they have got a driving licence, they are permitted to drive on UK roads for a whole year before having to take a test. If this IS true, it may account for a lot of the poor driving!

Poor driving standards is just one example of the increase in selfish and ani-social behaviours we are increasingly seeing in today's society. A case of 'the rules don't apply to me'. The trouble in this case though is that it can be extremely dangerous. I'm all for mandatory re-testing every 5 ot 10 years.

Don’t get me started on yellow boxes…or fog lights when it’s not remotely foggy.
I had someone giving it loads in my rear view mirror after I merged….apparently he wasn’t happy with how close I’d got to his car…well, it’s a merger, so take your foot off the accelerator and let me in??

No they do it because they understand basic road signs and congestion management.

If everyone "queues" in one lane, then the queue is twice as long. This means it has more chance of backing up and blocking side roads, roundabouts, and so forth, causing greater disruption.

Both lanes are fully open until the merge point and both lanes should be used until the merge point. The highways agency puts the merge where they want it to be. If they wanted it a mile beforehand they'd have put it there.

Please, use both active lanes correctly and merge in turn at the point of the closure.

When it comes to ‘merge in turn’ would a better solution not be to make the stretch of road running up to it a 30 then only giving warning to merge 100m before?

And yes 3rd lane hogging has got really bad on motorways. I regularly sit in lane one at 70 and cruise past lots of people hogging lane 3 doing 65. Madness.