To think the majority of England need retraining on how to drive on a motorway

The side of my car was taken out by a Spanish lorry driver trying to get on to the M3.

As well as zooming from the slip road to lane 3 or 4, there are those that zoom from lane 3 or 4 to get to the exit. Annoying at best, dangerous at worst.

I hate big intimidating trucks at roundabouts. They drive as though they’re going to ignore the fact that you give way to traffic from the right and they either creep intimidatingly forward, or, more often, just get on the roundabout anyway, causing chaos. I hate big intimidating trucks full stop. Vans are as bad.

trouble is there is no hard shoulder on most motorways. I have rounded a bend on M25 to find a car abandoned in slow lane, no signage, no warnings (from the overhead banners) nothing!! its dangerous, I deliberately choose not to use the slow lane now and won't until hard shoulders are reinstalled.
they are not smart motorways, they are dangerous stupid ones

There arent enough driving tests places right now so not sure how you think millions more can be managed.

Whereas I agree it is annoying, it is not my experience that the majority of people do this.

This is what I’ve been banging on about. I think many people are uncertain of how to use lanes on the 4\5/ 6 lane motorways. I believe you are allowed to drive at the speed of other traffic in your lane, even if this means ‘undertaking’ traffic on your right sometimes. Please correct if wrong.

There are many ‘peel off’ lanes on motorway ps now, a these are not the same as inside lanes. The lane to their right is still the inside lane(again, please correct).

Audi.

There was a thread on here about that a year or so back and there were at least 3 points of view, all fiercely held.

the 'driving' lane is often chock a block full of slow lorries, plus (esp on m25) staying in first lane can mean having to watch out when it becomes the exit lane. a lot of people can't be arsed with this and therefore stay in the middle

Absolutely OP. "Middle-lane hoggers" are a fucking nightmare and there are way too many of them. It's covered under rule 264 of the Highway Code and is actually classified as a form of careless driving, which can result in a fine of £100 and three penalty points on your licence.
I believe that if enforcement against this abysmal driving habit had been enforced there would have been no need for ALR motorways (so- called "smart" motorways) that removed the hard shoulder and made them inherently more dangerous.
I just don't understand why people can't grasp the fact that on motorways there's a driving lane (lane one) and two - occasionally three - overtaking lanes. You drive in lane one and use the other two or three to overtake, but return to lane one as soon as practicably possible. It's really not that difficult.

Talk of the M25 and lane hogging leads me to wonder about overtaking on the inside lane. The M25 has at least 4, maybe 5 lanes in parts.. With a car dawdling along in say, lane 3 is it an offence to sail gaily past in Lane 1 or are you supposed to go from 1 to 4 then back into 1

I drive a small car (a mini) and I'm definitely not a timid little person! In fact, being half Italian (& menopausal), I'm the complete opposite 😅

The reason motorway driving lessons are not compulsory are threefold. 1. There are rural areas of the country that are not close enough to motorways or dual carriageways to have lessons on. 2. Driving lessons with a qualified ADI instructor are not compulsory and only an ADI instructor with a dual control car can take a learner on the motorway. 3. For those who have passed their test, very few people think they need additional training and just pop onto the motorway and sit in the middle lane because they think it’s safer (!).

Agree with this. People in tall cars who’ve got a massive bonnet they can’t peer over. My mum’s car was written off by one such person driving into the back of her little car because it went straight over her bumper. And the number of times a bloody Range Rover has pulled out in front of me, I can’t even count…

Tall SUVs are also far more dangerous to pedestrians and cyclists, particularly children, and I would like to see legislation adopted to cap bonnet height! Bit of a digression but I hate the argument that it makes the driver feel safer, all whilst endangering others.

I agree on the middle lane hogging too op but I don’t see that having a particular demographic so I think there are many reasons why people sit there!

It's complicated. Queues (when there's no accident) are mostly caused by people slowing down abruptly when traffic density gets to a certain level and there is a large variation in speeds. But if everyone drove at 50mph, and knew that everyone else was driving at the same speed, and trusted them to do that, you could greatly reduce the distance between cars (it would only need to be based on time to react, not time to stop completely) and so you could fit a lot more cars in.

There is a trade-off between speed and throughput. For any individual driver it will take less time to get there if they go faster, but if everyone drives faster people will leave more distance between cars, and ultimately that's what determines how many cars can get through per hour (but the modelling can get very hairy). Speed limit debates tend to be about how fast any given level of driver can go and not cause too many accidents, but the optimum speed limit for any given road is probably the one that maximises flow, especially when many roads are close to saturation.

No, because if there is a stream of cars in the left hand lane going approx 58mph then it’s fine to stay in the middle lane as long as you’re going faster than them. It’s only when the left is clear you’d move over. If the left lane was congested you’d drive in the middle lane. It’s not hard to understand.

Define "small cars". I drive a smallish car, but none of those things apply to me.

I think Police ANPR would overcome the uninsured middle lane hoggers efficiently.

My theory is that drivers who hog the middle Lane don't have car insurance. By driving this way they don't have to allow other drivers to filter into motorway traffic from the slip road and they can leave all those overtaking and speeding on the right to it. Just a thought....

@LeaAndDer , I disagree. It's the people in bigger cars that seem to be bad.
Women in SUVs in particular (not because they are women, but because they are usually bad drivers in big cars that they feel safe in)

This could be my DH, he plonks himself in the right hand lane doing 72 mph and refuses to move until someone tailgates so aggressively I lose my head and say "for the love of god move over" which he does to then move move right back. Even if the road is completely empty (middle of the night for example) he has to be in that lane and has never been able to give me a reason why?

I've just done a trip from the south to north Wales and back and spend most of the time in the left had lane which was clearer than any other lane?

Im not sure if its arrogance or stupidity but I agree its infuriating.

Genuine question. If everyone drove in the left lane and only ever used the other lanes to overtake wouldn’t there be massive queues everywhere?

The scariest ones I have seen on here are people saying they like to just get into the middle lane and zone out 😬

My car is shite at it. Tried the “self parking” for a laugh and needed a taxi to get to the pavement.

Watched someone pootle the entire length of the M6 toll today in the middle lane at 60-65mph (I was in a van limited to 60 to its left). Absolutely baffling: wasn't another car anywhere near it, people kept coming along and overtaking it/flashing it and it just carried on. Drives me absolutely mad!

Me too and so much easier in a tiny car!

I’ve driven some amazing cars in my time - Audi TT, Honder Integra type R, Impreza RB320 - but I’m happy with my little car. I regularly drive on a two lane motorway and those people who refuse to pull over make it bloody awful for those of us who to overtake