To think people should move left after overtaking?!

[GinDaddy]

A mildly infuriating situation yesterday on the M25, just one of dozens I’ve experienced this year alone:

I’m in lane 1, at a bit under 70 mph. Come across someone doing 60 mph.

Just ahead of me are three cars, all spaced across the second, third and fourth lanes. All doing 70 mph, no one overtaking the other.

They are soon joined by more cars in lanes 2 and 3, none of them trying to indicate or move into another lane to overtake.

So essentially we have a rolling roadblock, where drivers have picked “their” lane, got nice and comfy on the cruise control, and sit there in their bubble.

As for me, I had to wait ages for a safe gap, move out, overtake and got back into a totally clear lane 1.

Clear to the point where if I hit 70mph I would be comfortably overtaking the second, third and fourth lanes.

What on earth goes through folks heads is all I’m asking - the Highway Code states “keep left unless overtaking”, yet no one was actively trying to overtake. I know speed cameras are an issue, yet if you move back over, others can also accelerate safely to 70 mph, then move back in.

Sadly this is why we have “smart” motorways coming in - because fewer people seem to accept overtaking, claiming “it’s more dangerous to change lanes all the time” (?!)

So, AIBU to think people should keep left?

YANBU

YANBU. Things like this piss me off no end!

Middle lane hoggers are selfish, lazy and can't drive correctly.

Perhaps a good reason to adopt the American system of being able to overtake and undertake?

I feel your pain. M4, home of the middle lane hoggers. I was on the inside lane, completely clear of traffic and I was going faster (doing 70) than the lone car in the middle lane

Agree. I think cruise control promotes poorer driving, personally. People wap it on and then sit there at 67mph in the middle lane, reading a book.

I think more and more people are lazy drivers who toddle along doing whatever they want with little regard for the other road users or the rules of the road.

A local police officer on our police Facebook page says you should treat the right hand lane on dual carriageway like visiting a public toilet - do you business and get off it asap.

@wombat1a

Well said and I think the problem is that due to fewer people following the “keep left unless overtaking” rule, we’re going to need to get to a place where any lane can be used.

I firmly believe (and I may be very wrong) that smart motorways exist because of the congestion caused by middle lane hogging and how it impedes travel flow

I was on both the M25 and M4 yesterday, and had exactly the same issue. The road (M25) was clear at one point, but there was a driver sitting in lane three driving at 60. I had to move from the inside lane to the outside lane to overtake, going straight back to the inside lane, just to be lawful. I tried to tell her to move over, she didn't like it, and didn't move.

It's annoying when people are just in the way and being lazy

One time I'd disagree with you is when the traffic in middle and fast lanes are going faster than the 'next in line' lane - but then move over once there's a stretch of clear lane in slower lane(s)

I have the same issue with a stretch of dual carriageway I have to use regularly. They made it 3 lanes a while ago with the slow lane also an exit lane. Nearly every time I use it the middle and fast lane are hogged by people pootling along, usually lorries. You can't get past and often if you need to be on the slow/exit lane to come off, you end up having to drop your speed right down to avoid undertaking. It's ridiculous

How do you know they weren't all just overtaking very, very slowly. Speedometers can be up to 10% out, so all speedometers involved may have read 70. (Apart from that of the 60mph left lane blocker.) Maybe the guy in the second lane was doing 64mph, third lane 66 and fourth lane 68.

In which case this problem was caused by speed limits preventing law-abiding drivers overtaking other drivers with slightly different speedometer errors in a reasonable time.

Or maybe we should blame speedometers, maybe in this day and age they should all be calibrated by a built-in GPS so the allowed error is 1% instead of 10%.

I drive a lot on the M74 in Scotland which is nowhere near as busy as the M25 or M4. The curse of the middle lane hogger is every bit as bad. And they have NO excuse because the left hand land is totally empty.

My usual technique is to move out to lane 3 to pass them, then straight back into lane 1. They still don't get it and tootle along oblivious in the middle.

The M11 is the worst motorway ever for this. It goes from 2 to 3 lanes past the airport and this seems to make every single driver lock themselves into middle lane driving for the next 10+ miles, you can’t move at all and everyone is hemmed in because of you Derek in your Hyundai going 64 in the middle lane. Then I think people make silly decisions there have been so many accidents

I think the parts of M25 that are 4 lanes people really don’t know how to use it IMO

^ usually on M11 the fast lane is empty you end up with no choice but to use it but then you can’t move out of it

Or maybe we should blame speedometers, maybe in this day and age they should all be calibrated by a built-in GPS so the allowed error is 1% instead of 10%.

And have it retrofitted to all the cars currently on the road?

Funny thing I've always noticed about "speedometers being so different" is that everyone manages to slow to the exact same speed when there are cameras around. I don't think it's as much of a thing as we tend to believe it is.

But ‘smart’ motorways just give an extra lane for more lane hogging, and slow us all down because of it. I don’t really see how they help, but they do seem to confuse people.

I have to say, rightly or wrongly, I will sometimes judiciously undertake people who are lane hogging under the speed limit, if I can’t overtake them. They usually pull over left after I’ve gone past them because it wakes them up. I’m not out driving for pleasure, I’ve got somewhere to be.

Or more satisfyingly (and correctly) on a more open motorway, overtake them properly and then continue to pull far left into the inside lane where they should be. That definitely feels like lane-hog-shaming!

It happens, particularly on busy motorways. When people use them regularly they just get into a grove.

Yes smart motorways are no different, just with an extra lane. Usually populated by lorries and you can see why people don’t constantly weave in and out of them

It’s shocking how poor at motorway driving so many people are. The smart motorways are a total waste of money as well. All that’s happened on our local stretch is that everyone uses lanes 2,3 & 4 and leaves lane 1 empty because they fundamentally don’t understand how motorway driving works (stay in left lane unless overtaking) and cannot wrap their little brains around what to do with this fourth lane.

YANBU The police have powers to give points and fines for exactly this, realistically it's rare that it happens. The police are over stretched as it is, but I do wonder what it would do for congestion if they had a mass crackdown.

Perhaps a good reason to adopt the American system of being able to overtake and undertake?

What, you mean adopt a dangerous practice just because some people over here don't know how to drive?