To hate middle lane hoggers on the motorway?

[ILoveMrDarcy]

Just that really! It's so infuriating when drivers have no clue how to drive on the motorway. I know there are worse things to get stressed about but it does drive me bonkers.

@LurkingHusband If your club has a badge, I'll wear one smile

We have string-backed driving gloves as a joining gift and a Magic Tree as our logo

We have string-backed driving gloves as a joining gift and a Magic Tree as our logo

Not a #3 Felt Driving Hat ?

They should bring back the 'Public Information' films that they had back in the 70s and 80s. There used to be one about not driving tractors sideways on steep hills.
We need one to tell people how to USE the motorways!

@Mumsiemummy1 you only stay in the middle right lane on a busy motorway when you are overtaking (in a fashion). I.e. When you are consistently going faster than all the cars in the land to your left. If you see a sizeable gap to your left you drop back into the left lane.

Excellent diagram Shots

I think our obsession with queuing is a real barrier to appropriate merging. It’s clear that many folk don’t have a clue.

yy Veterinari, we have a road that merges into one lane and it's about 2 miles long. Drivers are already queuing in lane 1 when lane 2 is open. No concept of 'merge in turn' just some jobsworth straddling the two lanes to 'hold back' traffic in lane 2 from reaching the merging point.

Only once have I seen the jobsworth pulled over but then we didn't realise that the car behind was an unmarked police car.

.... and yes, excellent diagram, Shots

There's a road near us which has enormous "remain in lane until merge" signs.

Nobody does. Probably miss the sign on account of being on their fucking mobile phones (I really would confiscate the cars of people caught ...)

Had to share this that I saw on a Surrey Police's twitter feed a couple of months ago... Gave the guy a lecture about lane discipline and off he drives... straight back in to lane 4 of an empty motorway!

SurreyRPU

(Hopefully the link will work - first MN link attempt!)

Hmmm. But Shots - whilst I'm sure you're correct in terms of the highway code, your 'merging seamlessly' won't actually save time - how would it?

If only one car can get through at a time, and they're all nose to tail already, it makes no difference time-wise which car goes next - one that's pushed in or one that's been in the queue. It'd be like a stream of people going through a one-person wide doorway... It will actually go faster if everyone's already in a straight line before the narrow point; you seem to be arguing that it'd somehow be faster if you had two queues alternating at the door. How could it? You've got the extra delay of people judging who's next, so if anything it's going to be slower (unless you're imagining that everyone blends perfectly - ha!

There's an A road I used to use regularly where it would taper to one lane and, at rush hour, there'd be half a mile or so of solid queue. Everyone could see it up ahead, everyone knew the deal. You just wait your turn; you're only getting through one at a time, so why try and push in? Except there were always some clowns who salied past the whole queue, clearly thinking "This doesn't appy to me" - and yes, they merged in... but they're only taking the place of a different car that would have been going through the same bit of road at that point; it's the volume of traffic that's causing the tailback, not the order in which cars pass through the narrow stretch.

You can only do that zipper merging if the traffic is actually moving... in which case, great.

The problem with that, is the assumption that when you do get just behind the car in front, there's room for you to pull into the next lane to pass. Then you can end up stuck for miles before there's space to pass.

It's not in isolation though, you have to keep an eye on what's coming up from behind & adapt so you don't end up in the situation you describe. I'll pull out earlier if I need to, to keep myself moving....

It's not in isolation though, you have to keep an eye on what's coming up from behind & adapt so you don't end up in the situation you describe. I'll pull out earlier if I need to, to keep myself moving....

... and we're back to being in the middle lane again ...

The most dangerous manoeuvre on a motorway is changing lane, so it's sensible to try to minimise lane changes as much as possible.

I have a cruise control theory on this based on a scientifc study of the people I work with.

People who drive 'themselves' are more aware of the in front and less aware of the behind. They get closer to lorries before pulling out and therefore spend less time in lane 2/3 but also more time accelerating and braking.

People who drive on cruise control seem to be more aware of the gaps appearing behind them and so when they can see a lorry ahead and know they can slot into an aproaching gap in the middle lane without having to alter their speed they do so even though it may mean they are technically overtaking nothing until they reach the lorry. More time in lane 2/3 but more consistent speed.

I suspect somewhere between the two is ideal.

I can't get wound up by either of those, but cars on an empty motorway at night in the middle lane are irritating. Worse however is normal passenger cars that are going so slowly that HGVs are overtaking them.

and we're back to being in the middle lane again

Only for the length of time for the overtake FFS.

To be honest, fairly pointless trying to talk it here as everyone will read it a different way depending on their confidence on the road.

I'm very confident & know when I can & can't pull out/overtake. Some others may not me so will judge my comments based on their confidence & skills.

The only time I hog the middle lane is when I get stuck texting a long word.... /joke

I saw a 65er in lane three of the m25 the other day when everyone else was driving either sub 60 with the lorries or at 70 or over (it was a quiet late evening).

A highways agency lorry van thing with all the orange light rig on it drove up behind and turned the full rig on them. Everyone else behind saw what was happening and fell back hoping the stupid person would pull into the correct lane (2,for the speed they were going). But no. They stayed there, with the highway van a few feet behind, for miles and miles.

I ended up sitting in the "we aren't undertaking but please fuck off" second lane for ages, quite far back, until they just swung across two lanes seemingly without looking, to exit.

Just to clarify, I meant the drivers who potter along in the middle of an empty motorway. It staggers me that they even think it's ok. And they stay there even after I've overtaken and passive aggressively moved into the inside lane.

I remember driving down a quiet bit of the M1 and there was someone pootling down the 3rd lane at about 60mph! No other cars, I couldn’t believe it.

From north west motorway police on Twitter -
COURT RESULT @tomjdale #TACAD “Christopher WHITE of Brickwall Lane, Liverpool was given TOR for Lane Hogging in 2016. He requested court hearing & was today found guilty at Warrington Combined Court for Driving Without Due Care and Attention. Fines/costs of £850 & 3 points.

I'm so glad I'll never learn how to drive. A whole set of rules I never have to worry about.

I live near a junction where it changes from dual carriageway to motorway. The amount of people who think the new lane is a slip road and just go straight into lane 2 is crazy. Some woman this morning tried to pull straight out without looking...then she was on her phone so how could I expect her to pay attention?

If they're in the middle lane then overtake them

Golden You are incorrect about merging (or rather, not merging) when the lane is clear ahead of the merge point. There have been many studies to show that zip merging is far quicker in this case. Less tailgating, less overbraking, less stop/start.

Middle lane hogging is NOT staying the middle lane to repeatedly overtake congested/slower traffic in the left. It is using the middle when the left is clear.

I have a cruise control theory on this based on a scientifc study of the people I work with

My cruise control is adaptive. As long as the car in front isn't driving like a bellend then I'll just follow at a 2.2s distance, and mirror their speed.

The problem is, to >50% of drivers, a 2.2s gap looks like a runway, and they have to get in between. So my cruise control slows me down to accommodate. So the next car in the middle lane sees the gap and moves in. So cruise control slows down to accommodate ...

Going back there was a long running suggestion that you should take a supplementary test - say six months after passing - for motorway driving.

Luckily the UK doesn't do nonsense like that. Instead we turned motorways into normal roads. Complete with traffic lights ...www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-manchester-41967961

Next idea: pedestrian (zebra) crossings on the M25. Job done.

People that DON'T zipper merge are the ones causing the jams:

www.rac.co.uk/drive/advice/driving-advice/zip-merging/ www.nytimes.com/2016/10/13/us/why-last-second-lane-mergers-are-good-for-traffic.html en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Merge_(traffic)

I wonder what would happen if the lane closure was on the left hand side, leaving only the right hand lane open? Would early-mergers all immediately move over and block lane 2 and leave lane 1 empty?

(I think there is some rule that closures should always be in an outer lane where possible, which has caused this conditioning)

Yep Golden you are wrong I’m afraid.

I’m a zipper merger, makes sense. It’s drivers that think we are pushing in (rather than using full use of the road) who are rude by not giving way. I would think you were an arse, sorry!