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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

to ask middle-lane sitters why they do it?

289 replies

Gentleness · 15/02/2013 12:15

I'm not starting this thread to criticise or belittle at all, so please don't flame me. The audi thread just got me thinking about my constant mental battle to assume the best of other drivers. I have to, as I'm naturally a harsh critic and I don't like it in myself. But while I can think someone speeding is trying to get to their sick child, or someone dithering has had a bad scare, I struggle to understand the drivers who sit in the middle line on motorways. So, tell me why so I can train my brain to be kind!

OP posts:
Goldmandra · 15/02/2013 16:55

You can easily get stuck between trucks in some areas here because in some areas you have two constant lines of close together trucks going the speed of snail and there is no space to move sideways.

You just back off a little so that there is more space between you and the vehicle in front of you. If the lane to the right of you is also busy you indicate your intention to pull out and move across once there is a suitable opportunity. If traffic is heavy you may have to wait some time but in those circumstances remaining in the middle lane wouldn't make you a hogger anyway.

KatoPotato · 15/02/2013 16:58

You don't have to change lanes to let someone enter via a slip road.

LittleEdie · 15/02/2013 16:58

Because I'm daydreaming and haven't realised that the inside lane is free.

amillionyears · 15/02/2013 16:59

If people have to describe to people who are already driving, how motorway driving works, then the person needs to read the Highway Code and get some specific lessons on the motorway.

SelfconfessedSpoonyFucker · 15/02/2013 17:01

Goldmandra, good luck, you could be stuck for a very long time no matter how much you back off.

fluffyraggies · 15/02/2013 17:06

Mostly the people who moan about the middle lane being hogged are the ones who think the NSL doesn't apply to them.

And many middle lane hoggers seem to think what they're doing is ok because they are somehow helping to enforce the NSL.

How does motorway driving work then? Like a race?

No, it works by every one driving at least 50mph, and if you want to go faster but have a vehicle in front of you, you use the lane to your left to go round it. When you've gone round it, and if the road ahead is clear, you move back again.

Sparklingbrook · 15/02/2013 17:06

ChocolateCakePlease, I am so glad I am not the only one. Courteous. On a motorway. Who'd have thought it?

SelfconfessedSpoonyFucker · 15/02/2013 17:07

Remember we also get trucks like this
truck-photos.net.s3.amazonaws.com/572.jpg , get a couple of those in a row and you are boxed in for a while, especially during tomato season.

I wouldn't be a hogger anyway because our laws encourage middle lane driving as I've said.

fluffyraggies · 15/02/2013 17:08

You use the lane to your right to go round it that should be.

Sparklingbrook · 15/02/2013 17:08

I didn't like your crossroads where the first person there has right of way Self. Sad

BelindaCarlisle · 15/02/2013 17:08

has anyone admitted to it yet?

fluffyraggies · 15/02/2013 17:14

There are occasions when you find you are going along in the middle lane for a while.

If the 1st lane is full, with lots of traffic moving slower than you, or they are slowing right down, (or are even stationary).
Or if, as has been mentioned, there is a junction coming right up and you want to let traffic in before moving over.

But there's no reason to cruise along in the middle 'because you're doing 70'.

AbyCat · 15/02/2013 17:15

My mother does this, and it drives me mad. She says it's because the lanes are too narrow get rid of the X5 then muv, please so she doesn't like going in lane 1 or 3 in case she scrapes the barriers! I despair. I wish there was some kind of law that says you have to retake your theory test every 10 years or so. For people like my mother who last looked at the Highway Code in the 60s, it would be a great help.

I also totally agree with the posters above who mentioned driving on the Continent, I never seem to see this problem there, and even on the 2 lane motorways, the outside lane is just used for overtaking even with the lorries when the amount of traffic dictates it. So much easier.

JugglingFromHereToThere · 15/02/2013 17:16

I'm not a major culprit, so don't flame me either ! But I think I do understand some of the reasons ....
Basically it can feel safer and easier than repeatedly changing lanes to over-take a succession of slow-moving lorries. As someone else said if there's plenty of space in the first lane surely few would stay in the middle ? But changing lanes does feel and surely is a more difficult and dangerous thing to be doing than maintaining a regular speed in one lane.
So, about confidence and a perception of safety and ease I'd say.
I think there are much worse driving crimes such as speeding & tail-gating - crimes that most middle-lane Charlies steer clear of in the main !

LulaPalooza · 15/02/2013 17:19

I loved driving in California, everyone seemed pretty considerate and once I had got my head round a 10 lane motorway it was a breeze.

Driving in South Africa, on the other hand...

Sparklingbrook · 15/02/2013 17:27

I don't know how people get off a ten hour flight, get in a hire car with the steering wheel on the wrong side then navigate to their hotel in LA.

wildfig · 15/02/2013 17:28

I have a small, light sports car and I find that it tramlines quite badly in the inside lane on stretches of motorway that have a lot of heavy haulage vehicles wearing down the surface. This can be quite scary, especially in the wet, so if the road's clear around me, I'd tend to drive in the middle lane where the road surface is more even. Obviously I keep a constant check on everything around me and move accordingly!

Goldmandra · 15/02/2013 17:46

Because I'm daydreaming and haven't realised that the inside lane is free.

You cannot be serious!!

Daydreaming like that is life threatening and not just for you!

Do you also not realise that the car in front has braked and plough into the back of it?

If you really do this please don't get behind the wheel of a car again. You might be on the same motorway as my children.

MarianForrester · 15/02/2013 19:38

Opportunity for a Mumsnet Academy Driving School, I reckon, after reading this ....Smile

lecce · 15/02/2013 19:45

I can't believe what I'm reading here. I don't know who are worse- those who are ignorant of the rules, those who are 'too scared' to be driving or those who see themselves as guardians of the legal speed-limit. Hmm

I drive on the M1 daily and it is infuriating when there is a little bunch of traffic all jammed together, and ahead a clear stretch of road that no one can get to because of a combination of middle-lane-hoggers and drivers-up-my-arsers. Angry.

LittleEdie · 15/02/2013 19:53

Goldmandra - I am serious!

HoratiaWinwood · 15/02/2013 20:20

I used to use the middle lane when I was less confident, but now I drive properly.

And can I clear up a misunderstanding that drives me nuts? A dual carriageway is where there are two carriageways separated by a central reservation, not a piece of road where there are two lanes in each direction.

We live near a stretch of beautiful dual carriageway with NSL signs on it. The number of people who slam in the brakes to drop from 63 to 50 at the speed cameras... Angry ARGH.

LessMissAbs · 15/02/2013 20:40

It really is frightning how many incompetent drivers are willing to happily admit that their inability to carry out basic driving manoevures such as joining a motorway off a slip road, overtaking on a motorway and changing lanes adversely affects their driving.

As well as a basic skill in driving, the above are also pretty damned logical - if you cannot do this correctly, why on earth not find out how to drive safely??

I had one typical but potentially dangerous incident on the M90 (two lanes motorway) last weekend - road ahead was empty, broad daylight, except one car sitting in the outside (only overtaking) lane about two miles ahead. It was doing less than 70mph, because I caught it up. Perhaps it was doing about 60mph. I sat politely behind for a mile or so, hoping the driver would notice me and move in. Nope. I put on my right indicator, which is a signal someone wants past. Nothing. Another car came up behind me and began to tailgate me for sitting in the overtaking lane without overtaking but then realised what was happening and backed off. Now the first driver noticed, stared at me in his rearview mirror for a bit, then moved over deliberately slowly, straddling both lanes for 30s or so. I had thought I was going to be able to overtake normally and had to abort my manoevure by slowing because of this, and the car behind me nearly ran into the back of me.

As I overtook the first car, the guy gave me a sort of sarcastic wave. I ignored him (I try to avoid and not react to dangerous drivers) but the car driver behind me drove alongside him for a while with his lights flashing and beeping and gesticulating - it looked as though it was going to be a road rage attack.

Fortunately there was no accident, but I have no doubt that the incompetent first driver thinks himself a great, safe driver, and I'd rather meet the second driver on the road anyway, who although faster, was far more aware.

Wishiwasanheiress · 15/02/2013 20:46

To wind up everyone else obvs!

So if I doze off takes longer to crash?

Coz slow too slow and I hate BMW lane hoggers and flashers in fast....?

Coz it winds up dp....

Coz I feel like it and like space around me when all others fade away

Wishiwasanheiress · 15/02/2013 20:48

Why can I ask please do people slowdown to go up hill? Seriously? There's a stretch on m25 they do it all the time. Why????!

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