Smart motorways, stupid drivers

[StrongerThanIThought76]

Ive spent hours driving this weekend to visit friends living 200 miles away. Big stretch of the motorway subject to speed restrictions due to installing 'smart motorway' technology.

So the Highways Agency is spending millions of pounds putting in extra lanes, new pantries etc. Yet still idiots are lane hogging in the second, third and even fourth lanes. I drive an old car that can pootle along at 70 mph but not much more (let's face it most of us push the speed limits on motorways) but I was angry at the numbers of cars who drove for miles in the outer lanes with no traffic in the inner lanes.

Maybe Highways should invest in some t.v. advertising to remind folk that the outer lanes should be for overtaking not staying put at 69 mph and blocking the road whilst cars queue up behind you.

Yes silver Kia mph on the M1 northbound yesterday afternoon I am talking about you - get out of the third lane!!!

*gantries not pantries, obvs...

I love a pantry. A proper one with a cold shelf.

YANBU. Amazing how one or two drivers can undo millions of pounds of investment in our road network by bring twats.

I’m ashamed to say I’ve just started undertaking in these circumstances. I know it’s not safe, but I’m quick and as careful as I can be. I was stuck on the M1 behind a car for miles the other day. I eventually waited until middle lane was completely empty and then shot past; followed by the tens of cars that had built up behind. And the blocker still didn’t move over. Drives me crazy.

I have a theory that the third lane hoggers are foreign and have forgotten that they are in the UK.
Or they are just enormous tw@ts!

On a related point, I think that there must be quite a lot of drivers who don’t know that undertaking is not allowed. On every motorway journey I do it happens at least twice and dual carriageways are even worse.

It’s driving me nuts! . The problem seems to stem from lorries not wanting to pull over into the far left lane, as they have to move into the second left lane whenever there is a junction as the far left turns off there. Then the inevitable happens of one speed-restricted lorry trying to overtake another and the third lane gets blocked. Finally the far right lane gets clogged by everyone trying to overtake the lorries and going at the speed of the slowest car. Effectively, we still have 3 lane motorways, with a useless lane and now no hard shoulder.

Undertaking is not illegal. Inadvisable perhaps, but not illegal. I sometimes end up doing it at a junction near me. There’s a junction from which you can only join the northbound carriageway, my turn off is a mile after that so I stay in the inside lane, if someone is doing 55/60 in the middle lane, I’m not going to go across three lanes, then back across and risk missing my turn off.

I agree MissCharley to a degree but people will tell you that you are wrong, but I had a conversation about this with an ex police officer during a driving course.

If you are in lane 1 or 2 doing 70 mph (perfectly possible at a time of day when there are few lorries around) and there is someone in lane 2 or 3 doing 65 mph and you happen to pass them on the inside, that is not undertaking so not illegal.

If you regularly get undertaken, it’s a fairly big hint that you are not in the correct lane. Move over.

The worst thing with smart motorways, if there is a lane closed some idiots seem unable to comprehend that the big red cross means don’t drive in that lane. Terrifying.

The lane was closed because the AA were trying to tow me out of the emergency bay (which btw is for emergencies like my car being broken, not for you to stop for a nap, or to ask me the way to Dover ffs)

Every time he tried to pull out, with me behind to steer my broken car, some cockwomble came tearing up the closed lane.

Much love to the AA and the highways agency, for getting me and keeping me safe and for patiently dealing with these idiots on a regular basis.

@JessieMcJessie undertaking is allowed when traffic in your lane is moving faster than traffic in an outside lane.

You are also allowed to do it on bikes.

BarbaraofSeville that’s exactly the situation! I never do it intentionally but you get people doing 60 and slower in the middle so the inside lane is moving faster. I think these ‘smart’ motorways are dangerous - no hard shoulder is a terrible idea.

I live in the midst of multiple “smart” motorways... I must spend at least half of my journey asking myself “what is that prick doing in the middle lane?”. A friend of mine cites she drives like this as she can’t be bothered pulling in and out to overtake traffic

Admittedly I have a serious road rage problem... I don’t like people driving two inch off my bumper when I’m doing the speed limit, and I get wound up with people not using their indicators. It’s like they live in a parallel universe where the Highway Code, common sense and manners are abhorrent?!?

The reasons people "hog" the 2nd lane on smart motorways are:

(a) the inside lane often becomes the slip road for the next junction and people don't want to have to keep changing lanes

(b) the inside lane can become blocked by a broken down vehicle and the signs don't get changed right away - even though the Highways Agency claims they react immediately, they don't, so people are nervous about driving up someone's behind.

If you don't like being behind someone in the 2nd lane, you have the 3rd and 4th lanes available to you to overtake.

And I agree, no hard shoulder is a terrible idea. The emergency bays are not frequent enough.

And undertaking is only acceptable if all lanes are moving at approximately the same speed (or because a junction is coming up and you are leaving the motorway anyway). Not because you have decided that someone is middle lane sitting and decide to undertake rather than moving out into the 3rd lane.

the new smart motorway near me has also revealed how many people either don't know what the national speed limit sign is, or don't know the national speed limit for a dual carriageway. I'm starting to wonder whether renewing your photocard licence shouldn't be accompanied by an online theory refresher test.

@runningkeenster

What a load of bollocks, the reasons people hog the lane are selfishness, entitlement, and stupidity.

It's not fine to hold up thousands of people and cause tailbacks because you can't be bothered to change lanes.

if there is a lane closed some idiots seem unable to comprehend that the big red cross means don’t drive in that lane

I was told, by someone who should know, that the 'smart motorways' are smart enough to know when people are driving in the prohibited lane. They should be - if they've got the technology to monitor speed sure as heck they must be able to determine this violation. He said to always make sure you change lane before you go under the gantry.

The idiots should comprehend soon enough when the envelopes start dropping through their letterboxes. I think the penalty is similar to speeding, a fine plus points.

The trouble with the signs is they’re not always accurate. There are stretches of smart motorway that I have to use to get to work (I use bits of three mways in total). Every morning for the last three weeks the signs have said ‘Exits closed at junction 12’, I’ve still had to go in that general direction, as I’d just go to the next junction then go to my destination using A roads. Every day when I’ve got there, the junction has been open and it’s not as though it was the first sign (approx 15 mins away), but ones on the junction before. Last week, the speed was set to 50 for about 6 miles (at 5:30 am) with signs saying ‘Pedestrians in Road’, there weren’t. People are sceptical of the signs as they’ve seen stuff like this which hasn’t been right.

I’m perfectly competent with my own lane discipline and when undertaking is accidental/unavoidable. Trust me I have seen it down again and again when it is not appropriate. London is particularly bad for this, I think because it has high numbers of drivers who have passed tests outside the U.K.

I appreciate the signs can be wrong, but lots of people probably thought it was wrong when I was in the emergency bay, I wasn’t blocking the lane, but it did need to be closed. It’s not always visible why.

Maybe you didn’t see pedestrians, but they may have been there just before you.

I hope so Errol. I’m not convinced all of them were uk drivers, certainly the couple who pulled over for directions to “Doooover for boot” weren’t. It took me ages to work out what they meant and I couldn’t bear to watch them pull out onto a busy motorway. Im not sure how they thought I could help as they were on a motorway so it’s not like they could turn around (I hope).

It gives me such pleasure to ostentatiously move from the inside lane to the outside lane and back again to overtake a middle lane hogger. It makes the point much better than undertaking.

My friend does this. Sits in the middle or outside lane even though it is completely clear to her left. Then calls other people idiots who come flying past undertaking. I've had to tell her to move over myself but then she just does the same thing the next time she's on a motorway or dual carriageway.

I believe that undertaking (ie moving to an inside lane, passing on the left then moving back out again) would be classed as dangerous, reckless or careless driving and would be an offence.

However, making progress in your own lane by passing someone on their nearside is just that. If you are in the inside lane and it's clear in front of you you can continue at the speed you are travelling. In that scenario they would be the ones convicted of careless driving as they are in an overtaking lane and if someone is able to pass them on the inside they shouldn't have been there!

Both of those scenarios assume that there would be traffic police around to stop you though, which these days is fairly unlikely. That's my beef about cameras, they might catch the speedy but they don't catch the stupid.