If you drive in the middle lane, hogging it, when there is absolutely no need to - why?

[hell091727]

Please stop driving on the motorway and go re-read the Highway Code.

It is dangerous, lazy, and completely disrupts the flow of the traffic.

I have just driven 200 miles and the amount of drivers who just don’t know how to drive is astonishing. And the motorway wasn’t even busy!

I agree. Just overtake then go back to the “slow” lane.

It drives me insane, just overtake and then get back in the first lane
😡

Agreed. I can't fathom how they don't twig with cars over taking them on the right/outside lane, then moving in front of them into the middle, and then quickly across into the left/inside lane. Do they not think "Hmm there must be a reason why cars keep doing this?"

Or worse when they are undertaken in the inside (yes I know it's dangerous but I guess drivers are either fed up or don't want to maneuver around them when it's busy) and simultaneously overtaken on the right/outside. Yet, still they sit there in the middle, with no brain activity going on.

I think it has now become the standard way to drive. Why don't the police start a campaign to clamp down on this?

It's got worse since they introduced smart motorways. I think people do it because they don't want to exit at any point.

But agree it drives me nuts

But in all seriousness it's dangerous. My experience is they go 50mph in the lane meaning anyone coming up has to go across 2 lanes behind them and then back over 2 lanes. That increases the chance of accidents.

Add into that the lorries that decide 1 flick of the indicator is enough warning they are pulling out NOW.

That's not my general experience with lorries, I find them usually to be good drivers, vans not so much

I was on the M25 today. Inside Lane empty with numpties doing 55 in lane 2. Grrrr!

Totally agree. It's laziness - they might need to overtake at some point so why bother going into the slow lane. Whereas part of the skill of driving well is driving defensively and that means obstructing no one unnecessarily and keeping it neat. Brings a bit of a sense of fulfillment into driving too - doing it capably.

We've got a stretch of road that has recently turned into 3 lanes and the majority of cars seem to think the inside lane is for joining or leaving the road, middle for driving and outside for over taking.

I agree but you won't get anyone on here who actually admits to doing it.

Its even worse on a 4 lane motorway as people then hog lanes 2 and 3. People are infuriating.

I find with the smart motorways, crap and lazy drivers pick one of the 2 centre lanes and stay there. Infuriating. This means I have to pull out over 2/3 lanes to overtake.

Would love to hear from 2nd/3rd lane drivers as to why they think the rules of the road don’t apply to them.

Idiots! So dangerous and clogs up the traffic 😡

Motorway lessons should be mandatory in my view so at least people learn the right way from the start.
Yes I think it's laziness or ignorance. But there is no excuse at all when it's quiet. It does get annoying when you move to inside lane then get boxed in when you get to the next slow moving vehicle as no one will make a gap to let you out.
See also - people who overtake and then pull back over into your breaking space.

Would love to hear from 2nd/3rd lane drivers as to why they think the rules of the road don’t apply to them.

Wouldn't surprise me if some people didn't know. Motorway driving isn't covered by the test is it? It certainly wasn't when I passed anyway.

My guess is because it’s easier to not have to deal with traffic merging from slip roads, or discovering the road is unexpectedly going down from three lanes to two, and it’s the left hand lane that is being squeezed out so you have to move out into the middle lane with other drivers trying not to let you in. Just easier to pootle along and not have to worry about overtaking or merging, I guess?

Annoying, though.

I thought the middle lane was for people who want to drive 70-80mph 🤷‍♀️ slow lane for 60-70mph and the fast lane for anything over 80! Whoops 😬 well that's what most people seem to do these days anyway.

My mum is one. She doesn’t like changing lane is happier out of the way of cars coming in from a slip road.

I’m not saying this is right…

I do it! Genuinely I do

I commute on the M3 every day and the middle lane drivers infuriate me. I drive southbound at 5.30am and northbound at 6.30pm so against the traffic. Inside lane is frequently empty and middle lane full of idiots.

There was a thread previously where someone said they picked a lane like you would a swimming lane, depending on your speed, then stuck with it . Baffling but also explained a lot.

I’m not stupid And I do know it’s not what I’m supposed to do.
I don’t consider myself to be “slow” I suppose so I don’t want to drive in the slow lane.
If the motorway was empty I wouldn’t drive in the middle though.

It seems worse on a 4 lane motorway. People just seem so confused by them.

There’s no such thing as a ‘slow lane’. The inside lane is for everyone, unless you are overtaking, in which case you move to one of the outside lanes and then back in to the inside lane. It worried me that people don’t know this and I am sharing roads with them.