To not really understand the problem with driving in the middle lane?

[BrokenSunglasses]

I've done a lot of motorway driving recently, and it's got me thinking, because I don't really understand when it's ok to be in the middle lane and when it's not.

I've worked out that its ok to stay in the middle lane when there's lots of cars/lorries on the inside lane and I'm going faster, but how long is it ok to stay in the middle lane when there's nothing right next to you on the inside lane?

Sometimes I stay in there longer than I perhaps should, but that's either because I can see that I'd only have to move out again in a minute because there's a slow moving lorry ahead, or because I can see a junction coming up and there will be cars filtering onto the the motorway.

I did that yesterday, and got flashed a lot by a van behind me, but it was raining so the visibility was crap, and I'd have had to slow down and be too close behind the car that was on the inside lane and would have been able to see even less because of the spray. It seems to me to be sensible to leave lots of space inbetween vehicles when it's raining, but this van made me doubt myself. He overtook me in the outside lane eventually, and I thought he should have just done that in the first place because that's what it's there for.

Was I being a lane hog or was he being a twat?

I really don't get it.

We're better off explaining it to you!!!!

No, you're better off and less likely to cause an accident if you read about it yourself!

Cheeky mare!

Can you imagine when you're fined trying to explain you learned how to motorway drive from strangers on the Internet.

No one is going to be fined for sitting in the middle lane when the left lane is nose to tail with lorries, unless they are going at the same speed as them or slower and there isn't congestion to make it a 'stay in your lane' scenario.

Someone in the middle lane cruising past the slow lorries isn't hogging the middle lane even if people are overtaking them.

Fallen, I was only doubting myself because of flashy twat van driver, and even then it's only because I'm conscious of not staying in the middle lane unnecessarily.

I made a judgement at the time and decided it was necessary, then decided to use AIBU for its intended purpose.

There are absolute rules. It's called the highway code (which is enforceable by law.

There is, in practice, some judgement as to whether you should move back in or not between (specific) vehicles.

If you could have moved in, allowed the van to pass and then out again before reaching the vehicle you were approaching to overtake then you should have done so.

It was not safe for a van to be 'up your arse'.
One of you had to change lanes for him to overtake.
If you could move in, and then out again without changing speed before reaching the next vehicle it should have been you. If not, and it was legal for him to do so, then the van should have moved.

OP the situation you described sounded like it only lasted seconds. The van came up behind you a bit quick, you were overtaking (maybe a little on the slow side) and he flashed you out of frustration at having to go into the 'fast lane'.

If this is the case then he was in the wrong. Rain/spray/dry/whatever.

If, however you had been in the middle lane awhile, going barely fast enough to overtake the stuff in the 'slow lane', the 'fast lane' was full, and the van had been waiting for you to speed up or move over for miles and miles then maybe he had a point.

Sometimes you cant do the 'speed you like' on a motorway. (Even in the 'slow lane' there is a minimum speed limit). You are meant to go with the flow, or move over.

To the person who was wondering why anyone would overtake if you are doing 70mph, speedos are not 100% accurate. So yours saying 70 could mean you are actually doing 65, or 75. But probably not bang on 70.

The limit is 70mph on the motorway, however, due to the revolutions of the wheel being more when you go faster they don't match up correctly to the speedometer, therefore if you stick to 70 on the speedometer you are actually going slower. You need to be driving at approx 80 if you want to do 70.

Can you imagine when you're fined trying to explain you learned how to motorway drive from strangers on the Internet

I'm not going to be fined though. I can reasonably justify my use of the middle lane.

Two of my closest friends are police officers that work in the traffic section. I should have asked one of them.

Jeez.

'"[OP]: What about the issue of the speed limit being 70 though? If you are doing 70, no one should be overtaking you so does it matter which lane you are in?

[Joveline]: Probably best stick to the B roads."

No. There are more B roads. I think there should be special roads, let's call them "T" roads, and a special section in the driving test, with lots of special questions, for the very special drivers. The very, very special drivers, who answer the special questions extremely well, get to ride on the "T" roads. And that is where they will all be. Driving safely at 70. In the middle lane. We could try telling them that they are so special they don't need seat belts too.'

So breaking the speed limit is a good thing? It's fine to ignore that rule?
I like driving on the Autobahn because it's faster, but I'm intrigued by the frothing about middle lane drivers at 70 not using the HC properly, but it's OK to break the speed limit. I was expecting the anal drivers to keep all the rules.

OK, so all car speedometers are crap, and your speed is a guesstimate?
Does that work as an excuse for doing 40 in a 30 zone when the police clock you?

From what you described you should have moved over, spray is not an excuse to stay out

"Two of my closest friends are police officers that work in the traffic section. I should have asked one of them."

maybe you should. Hopefully they will advise you not to rely on mixed advice from an internet forum to decide on how you should drive.

Eyes I know mine is out so if it says 70 I'm doing about 65. In my defence I tend to go for economy driving on motorways not speed so speeding not an issue.

There are big differences in motorways, and on some motorways, by time of day. Sometimes, yes, driving in the 'slow' lane is pretty much restricted to lorries and the odd caravan. Of course you won't be done for middle lane hogging if you're passing one of these every 10 secs and there are no gaps where you could pull in without having to immediately pull out within 10 secs.

However, you shouldn't be in the middle lane just because there's a junction approaching - unless you can see that there are cars coming down the slip road - in which case you treat them just as you would any other traffic in the slow lane and pull out into the middle lane when it is safe.

My pet hate is the 65mph in the middle lane drivers. I try to do 70 as steadily as possible, but then the fast lane is full with 75 - 80 mph drivers.

There is no minimum speed limit on the motorway in this country.

It is illegal for vehicles that have a low max speed to travel on a motorway but that is not the same as a legal minimum driving speed which is enforced in some tunnels.

maxpepsi I don't know where you got that from. I know a police driver that calibrates traffic car speedometers, and if the speedometer in your car says you are travelling at 80mph then you can be prosecuted for speeding. (Although admittedly you wouldn't be caught because a speed camera would not detect you as speeding)

There is (apparently) up to 10% error either way in speedometer measurements.

If you were caught in a speed camera doing 75mph but your speedo said 70mph (which is possible) then you can use yhat in your defense.

Like others have said, you should really return to inner lane once you have done your maneuver (sp!) but I would NEVER flash anyone who did stick in the middle lane, that's just intimidating. I would overtake on outside lane instead. Same reason I wouldn't tailgate if I thought car in front was 'too slow', dangerous and intimidating.

But your AIBU is about not understanding the use of the middle (overtaking) lane, which you clearly don't.

So, in the spirit of AIBU, YABU because you are a driver who doesn't understand the Highway Code and has used a made up set of rules to justify your way of driving and a driver who cannot drive in the rain.

Police friends or not.

YABUwn rules to drive by.

I will sit in the middle lane for as long as I judge it to be necessary - if the inside lane is full of slow moving vehicles then I'm not going to drive for miles weaving in and out of traffic and then getting blocked in the inside lane by drivers in the middle lane.

I agree with this.

The trouble with the perennial middle-lane bun-fight is that people on opposite sides of the argument tend to imagine different scenarios. Those against middle-lane driving tend to imagine someone doing 55 on an empty road. As I live in London, not rural Scotland or wherever these fabled empty motorways exist, to me middle lane driving means cruise control set at 70 (or whatever the speed-limit is) and constantly ducking into the left lane for 30 seconds at a time would mean I was slowing down so that someone else could either (a) use the middle-lane at a marginally faster speed or (b) not have the trouble of using the third lane to overtake.

I set my cruise control at the speed limit, as indicated by satnav, which mean my idea of the speed limit is higher than that of those who rely on speedometer. My criterion for changing to the left lane is if I can get into it and back out (when I come up behind the next vehicle) without having to brake. However I'm always aware of what's behind me, and will let someone past at the expense of my having to slow down, if there's no third lane.

The problem is there are more different speeds people want to travel at than there are lanes. I think those who object to my kind of middle-lane driving are selfish, because they expect me to perform an extra couple of lane changes and go say 10mph slower than I want to, just so that they can go maybe 10mph faster without them having to make lane changes via the third lane.

In fact that sums up the middle-lane haters: people who want someone else to perform a lane-change so they don't have to.

I have no objection lane-changing, I do object to having to slow down so that someone else can go faster without having to use the third lane, which is what more frequent keeping to the left would mean, in my case.

What I don't understand is why the faster drivers think it is a terrible imposition to move into the outside lane to overtake, while expecting the person who is already overtaking in the middle lane should move in and start all over again.

It can't be because the outside lane is already full can it? Because that would mean they were undertaking in the middle lane.

"It there is enough space that a car could undertake you then you should move in."

I think this is a good rule of thumb.

Bit that two people have said avoiding spray doesn't matter.

Spray is a hazard, which you should take care over. It's perfectly sensible to know you'd have to slow down if you moved in behind a vehicle that was spraying a lot on a wet road. Ignoring it doesn't make you a clever driver, it makes you a reckless twit.

Road conditions are a basic part of the highway code too.

I think the OP probably got flashed by an impatient idiot, but she should know how to drive on the motorway. I think a few people are trying really hard to have a go at her by now, though.

(Oh, and I hate middle-lane hoggers too, it is incredibly annoying. Especially when you have to move from far left to far right to get past them trundling along, and you see the look of mild surprise as they wake up and realize there was someone else on the road all the time while their speedo was gently sinking towards 50.)

There is (apparently) up to 10% error either way in speedometer measurements.

No, that's wrong. Your speedometer is allowed by law to be up to 10% wrong, but only in one direction, the one that causes you to travel slower than the speed limit.

Yes spray is a hazard but it is one that should be dealt with by reducing speed not by driving in the middle lane.

I know, jack. It was the comment that spray shouldn't bother you that bugged me.