Active discussions

Meet the Other Phone. A phone that grows with your child.

Meet the Other Phone.
A phone that grows with your child.

Buy now

Please or to access all these features

Talk
AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

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

440 replies

BrokenSunglasses · 16/08/2013 09:15

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.

OP posts:
Perihelion · 16/08/2013 13:54

3 lane empty motorways in rural Scotland are mythical. Many of us would settle for the A9, the main route north from Perth to Inverness to actually be duel carridgeway for the whole lenght, rather than just pissy wee stretches.

StatisticallyChallenged · 16/08/2013 13:54

Edwiniasrevenge isn't that pretty much what I said? I.E if the middle lane hogger is causing congestion (which they often do)

The same rule also says you should not weave in and out of traffic...

limitedperiodonly · 16/08/2013 14:02

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.

I agree with you londonman

My brother complains bitterly about traffic whenever I see him. It's part of what makes family gatherings such fun Grin

One day I might point out that he's part of the traffic too. But for the moment I just pour myself another glass of wine and let DH drive us home.

Ilovemyself · 16/08/2013 14:10

Limitedperiodonly. What utter tosh. The selfish ones are those that refuse to drive as the Highway Code dictates because they feel they know best.

People only get annoyed because they can see the idiot hogging the middle lane either doesn't care or doesn't have a clue.

And if you have to slow down to move onto the left hand lane you are not middle lane hogging.

BeCool · 16/08/2013 14:16

Tbh people use fast as they get confused which is called inner and outer

This is true - I never know what is inner or outer. What is the nearside lane anyway? I've no idea. I used left, middle, right, or passing lane.

limitedperiodonly · 16/08/2013 14:18

Because I am a tolerant person, whether behind the wheel or not, I welcome your opinion ilovemyself

breatheslowly · 16/08/2013 14:19

If you hog the middle lane there is a risk that you will be overtaken on both sides at the same time. When those two cars pull in front of you they will hit each other. Very shortly after that you will hit them too.

Do you fancy hitting two other cars at 70?

ivykaty44 · 16/08/2013 14:26

Drivers side is off side = away from the pavement when paked on right side of road
Front passenger side is near side = nearest the pavement when parked on right side of road

Inside lane is the same as near side lane

off side lane is the same as outside lane

EdwiniasRevenge · 16/08/2013 14:27

statistically by congestion they mean crawling

EdwiniasRevenge · 16/08/2013 14:29

Ie they mean if all 3 lanes are movibg slowly and they state that you can travel past another car on the left if you are keeping up with the flow of traffic in your lane.

StatisticallyChallenged · 16/08/2013 14:34

My instructors take was that keeping up with the flow of traffic in your lane is the key point there. Not necessarily the speed. We have a large dual carriageway on our test routes (which is as wide as the motorway...) and lane hogs are a regular problem on it. It can also be very busy (i.e not easy to switch lanes) but still quite fast moving.

He said he had sat in on numerous tests where the pupil had joined in the outside lane, kept pace with the appropriately moving traffic in that lane, passing cars which were slower moving to the right, and not been picked up for it

phantomnamechanger · 16/08/2013 14:34

middle lane hoggers are a PITA and bloody dangerous

I will regularly have the problem on my way to work, almost at my exit so don't want to cross 2 lanes to the right and back across again to get round a MLH, so I HAVE to slow down to less than they are doing to let them get well ahead and out of my way. I cannot undertake them, and cannot risk them suddenly deciding they need the same junction and pulling suddenly in front of me.

I think there are a lot of people on here who think what they are doing and have always been doing is OK because they have never been caught or had an accident - the later is due to the rest of us driving more safely and courteously than them! This does not make what they are doing correct or safe.

OP, out of interest, what was your reaction to being tailgated in terms of maintaining or changing your speed?

phantomnamechanger · 16/08/2013 14:41

SC - how can you join a road in the outside lane? inside surely Hmm You also cannot have slower moving traffic to your right if YOU are already in the outside lane.

no wonder people are so confused about what lane to be in if they don't even know which is which!

phantomnamechanger · 16/08/2013 14:45

breatheslowly
If you hog the middle lane there is a risk that you will be overtaken on both sides at the same time.

you should NEVER be at risk of this, as passing on the left of a moving vehicle is illegal . You can only overtake on the left if the lane of traffic next to you is stationary or slower moving (think 3 lanes of stop-start traffic jam)

MrsTerryPratchett · 16/08/2013 14:52

I think people middle lane hog because they don't like to change lanes. Too scared, too nervous, too unused to it. They would rather I have to go all the way out to overtake then all the way back.

Thank goodness I live in North America where you are allowed to undertake.

StatisticallyChallenged · 16/08/2013 14:56

Oh ffs, I made a mistake in my naming. Doesn't mean I join the road on the wrong side which I think you knew fine well. I know fine well which to be in on the road.

The names aren't actually that stupid a thing for people to get wrong given that if you look at the road as a whole, the "inside" lane is on the outside of the motorway

And undertaking isn't illegal in itself - www.telegraph.co.uk/motoring/caradvice/honestjohn/8997497/Is-undertaking-illegal.html

RobotHamster · 16/08/2013 16:27

"If you hog the middle lane there is a risk that you will be overtaken on both sides at the same time. When those two cars pull in front of you they will hit each other."

This happened to me. I was in the middle lane and the person just in front of me to my left (who I was intending to overtake) moved into the middle lane, just as the person in the right lane tried to occupy the same space in the middle lane in front of me.

They only noticed each other because I leant on the horn. Fucking scary.

TheFallenNinja · 16/08/2013 16:33

Undertaking and turning right on a red light are one if the many reasons I'd move to Canada today.

TiggyD · 16/08/2013 16:38

Middle lane hoggers are worse than moles.

capitola · 16/08/2013 16:59

I think many people (I know some of them) stay in the middle lane be a use they're too nervous to switch lanes.

It's very bad driving imo and it encourages the very dangerous undertaking.

Original poster
BrokenSunglasses · 16/08/2013 17:02

*OP, out of interest, what was your reaction to being tailgated in terms of maintaining or changing your speed?^

I didn't react at all, except to call him a twat while I was in a car where no one else could hear me. I continued at the speed I was doing while overtaking the lorry, and then moved back in when I was past it, which is what I would have done anyway.

OP posts:
clam · 16/08/2013 17:13

I was talking to someone recently on a speed awareness course who had no idea she shouldn't drive in the middle lane. She said she felt safer having a lane each side of her!!

breatheslowly · 16/08/2013 17:19

Phantomnamechanger

you should NEVER be at risk of this, as passing on the left of a moving vehicle is illegal . You can only overtake on the left if the lane of traffic next to you is stationary or slower moving (think 3 lanes of stop-start traffic jam)

You shouldn't be at risk of this, but you are. I don't condone passing on the left, but it does happen, particularly if you are going "slowly" in the middle lane and irritating other road users. You are a fool if you drive expecting everyone else to be driving lawfully. You should drive with the expectation that other road users may act unpredictably. In the same way as you should look before walking out on a zebra crossing. Saying "they should have stopped for me" isn't much help from a hospital bed.

neepsandtatties · 16/08/2013 17:39

I'm fine with the lanes stuff, but let me ask another motorway driving question about indicating to change lanes. I would only ever use my indicator a couple of seconds before moving out to change lanes. If there isn't enough space to move out, I stay in my lane watching until there is, and then I would indicate and move. But I have noticed lots of people put on their indicators to show that they want to move out/are waiting to move out, with no regard for what cars are in the lanes either side. People turning on their indicators just as I am about to overtake freaks me out as I interpret the indicator to mean they are about to move out, i.e. haven't seem me. But that's not what they take it to indicate. Who is right?

Sirzy · 16/08/2013 17:41

Indicator just shows they want to move out - if I see a car i am about to overtake indicating if I can I will move over so they can come out.