Why can SO many people not drive properly on the motorway?

[londongirl993]

I don’t know why this annoys me SO much, but the amount of middle lane / third lane hoggers on motorways is actually getting ridiculous. There needs to be some sort of surveillance / fines for poor (and v.dangerous) motorway driving because it is getting so much worse!

There is literally no point having 4 lane motorways because nobody drives in the slow lane, or even the second lane. No point having 3 lane motorways either really because they are basically just 2 lanes of traffic.

It’s not only hugely frustrating for those who actually follow the Highway Code (like me), but also disrupts the traffic flow so much. And it’s so dangerous!! I honestly believe that if everybody / 90% of drivers actually drove on motorways like you were supposed to, traffic would flow so much better.

Okay, rant over. Anyone else agree with me? Can anyone give me an insight as to why people just don’t drive properly on the motorway?

@MrsAvocet

That sounds terrifying. The only other possibility that I can think of is that they drove down the slip road, changed their mind, somehow performed a three-point turn and went back up. Which is equally improbable! They must have been in some state of psychosis.

The limits are there for a reason, but are generally ignored

Why don’t those reasons apply in Germany? There are no limits on the autobahn.

There are limits on most of the Autobahn. There are short stretches with no limit. You can still be prosecuted for dangerous driving if you're driving over 130 km/h and get into an accident, as there is a recommended speed limit of 130 km/h even on those stretches, but if you're driving safely and not causing an accident and the road conditions allow then you can perfectly happily pass a police car at 200km/h and they will do nothing.

The Autobahns are designed for speed - they have a lot of features which reduce the risk. Wide lanes, substantial central crash barriers, gentle curves every so often so you don't get straight driving fatigue and of course limits anywhere that it's deemed necessary which in practice is most of the time.

There aren’t limits, there’s no compulsory maximum speed. A recommendation isn’t a limit.

@Comedycook

Volume of traffic. Motorways are built to take a higher volume of traffic than dual carriageways

Yes but then if everyone stuck to the rule of keeping left then only the two lanes would be used wouldn't they?! Or am I missing something

No because you have someone in the first lane doing 60, someone overtakes using the second lane doing 65, someone overtakes using the third lane doing 90.

Why is this hard for people? I have this argument with my dad all the time. Exhausting

I can assure you there are speed limits on the majority of the autobahn. It's only limited sections which don't have one. I can take a picture next time we drive past one if you like!

@BertieBotts

I can assure you there are speed limits on the majority of the autobahn. It's only limited sections which don't have one. I can take a picture next time we drive past one if you like!

Not according to any online source I can find. They’re not compulsory, they’re advisable.

www.greenflag.com/driving-in-europe/driving-advice/german-autobahn-rules That seems to be pretty clear that they have some limits

@Blossomtoes, @BertieBotts is actually in Germany, from what they're saying. I'd trust the word of a resident over Google.

Obviously sitting in the middle lane when the lane on your left is empty is wrong. But the most common situation I find driving on motorways is that the ‘slow’ lane has an intermittent line of lorries/slow cars doing less than 70mph. And so I end up in the middle lane as I am effectively continuously overtaking them.
However, sometimes there is a large enough gap that I could get back in the slow lane for a few seconds but it’s obvious that I’d have to get back in the middle lane pretty quickly to overtake again - so I just stay in the middle lane.
I am never doing less than 70mph (have speedometer and separate satnav with speed on to make sure of this as I know speedometers are often inaccurate). Yet this occasionally seems to infuriate other drivers who think I should be doing far more than 70/75mph. Why is this? Why aren’t they happy with me driving at the speed limit?

I am paranoid about not wanting to commit this offence of ‘hogging the middle lane’! But should I really be moving in and out of the slow lane just to allow other drivers to break the speed limit? Or is there some accepted size of the gap between vehicles in the slow lane which dictates that I am now no longer overtaking but instead hogging the middle lane?

Here are some good examples:

No because you have someone in the first lane doing 60, someone overtakes using the second lane doing 65, someone overtakes using the third lane doing 90

So the person in the third lane is breaking the speed limit!

I am never doing less than 70mph (have speedometer and separate satnav with speed on to make sure of this as I know speedometers are often inaccurate). Yet this occasionally seems to infuriate other drivers who think I should be doing far more than 70/75mph. Why is this? Why aren’t they happy with me driving at the speed limit?

I doubt they're unhappy with your speed. If they're unhappy is sounds more likely that you're in the wrong lane.

Yes, if there's space in the lane to your left you should be in that lane. The fact that you'll need to move back to the right to overtake another vehicle shortly makes no difference. Driving properly on a busy motorway involves a lot of changing lanes.

I completely agree op! I commute an hour each way to work and this drives me absolutely crazy!

@MurielSpriggs

That’s really helpful - thank you! I am pleased to say that those examples are very obviously wrong to me and I never do that 😅
Maybe I’ve just had the misfortune of meeting the odd ar**le on the road then 😂

@MurielSpriggs

Yes, if there's space in the lane to your left you should be in that lane

I think maybe that’s the problem then. My definition of space may not be the same as other peoples. To me ‘space’ is probably being able to drive in the left land for, say, more than 5-10 seconds. If it looks like it’s less than this, I’d probably judge it as not worth the effort. But maybe that’s just being lazy and I should be changing lanes more frequently on a busy motorway.

It’s something that wasn’t really covered when I learned to drive. I was just taught to drive in the leftmost lane that’s free with no definition of what a lane ‘being free’ actually meant.

I don't understand it. It's not hard is it? We should have a driving test check every 20 years I think.

@Oblomov21

I don't understand it. It's not hard is it? We should have a driving test check every 20 years I think.

It would certainly reduce the amount of traffic on the roads!

Actually 5-10 seconds is probably too short - maybe it’s more like 10-20 seconds. Just I can see something else slow up ahead and can’t be bothered to move over for those few seconds. But yes I suppose I can see it might annoy some people. But I definitely wouldn’t just drive in the middle lane for no reason at all like some of the people in that video.

[quote IrishGirl2020]@MurielSpriggs

Yes, if there's space in the lane to your left you should be in that lane

I think maybe that’s the problem then. My definition of space may not be the same as other peoples. To me ‘space’ is probably being able to drive in the left land for, say, more than 5-10 seconds. If it looks like it’s less than this, I’d probably judge it as not worth the effort. But maybe that’s just being lazy and I should be changing lanes more frequently on a busy motorway.

It’s something that wasn’t really covered when I learned to drive. I was just taught to drive in the leftmost lane that’s free with no definition of what a lane ‘being free’ actually meant.[/quote]
Yes I think this is why I found it helpful to have specific lessons on the Autobahn / on multi lane roads, because my instructor would point out when there was a big enough gap.

If you're going to be overtaking another car in a few seconds then stay in the lane you're in, because you're effectively still overtaking. If you can't see any other cars to overtake or the traffic on the left is quite far ahead and travelling at a similar speed to you or faster, then you should move back over.

Drive in a straight line, what is so difficult.