To say the fast lane doesn’t bloody exist?

[Brigleylake]

I’ve been driving back to work recently on an A road with two lanes, usually doing 70-75 max. I don’t want to drive in the “slow lane” and do 50/60 with tractors and lorries etc but I don’t want to be doing 90 either.

For the last week, every single day I’ve been tailgated dangerously and swore at twice! Doing 70 in the “fast lane”. Friend says it’s because that lane is for doing 80 plus!

That isn’t the law though, 70 is the law, and the “fast lane” doesn’t exist. I’m really sick of feeling forced on the other side to trudge along slowly when all I want to do is abide the law!

AIBU?

@Brigleylake

I’ve been driving back to work recently on an A road with two lanes, usually doing 70-75 max. I don’t want to drive in the “slow lane” and do 50/60 with tractors and lorries etc but I don’t want to be doing 90 either.

For the last week, every single day I’ve been tailgated dangerously and swore at twice! Doing 70 in the “fast lane”. Friend says it’s because that lane is for doing 80 plus!

That isn’t the law though, 70 is the law, and the “fast lane” doesn’t exist. I’m really sick of feeling forced on the other side to trudge along slowly when all I want to do is abide the law!

AIBU?

It's the overtaking lane, not the "fast lane". You're the one in the wrong OP. Unless actually overtaking you should be in the LH lane with the tractors.

YABU

You (and most of the UK from my observations) don’t know how multi lane driving works.

As everyone else is saying, the left hand lane is always there one you should drive in. You should only use the “fast lane” for overtaking. And it doesn’t matter for far ahead the next vehicle is... you should overtake one car and go back into the LH lane.

The Germans do it properly and woe betide you if you dally for too long in the outside lane. Then you really know what tailgating means.

@merryhouse

*Have you lot never been on a road with a whole load of lorries doing 60mph?

Here's a hint: each of those lorry drivers is driving at a safe distance from the one in front. If someone who's just overtaken them pulls in between the two lorries, then that distance is halved. Either the lorry driver brakes (swearing sotto voce because apparently their gears are considerably closer together than cars') causing everyone behind to do the same, or the driving distance is no longer safe - until the car doing 70 pulls out again to overtake the next lorry. Except of course that because the car doing 70 has pulled in the idiot who thinks they're entitled to do 90 has started to do so, which means the car doing 70 can't pull out, and has to brake.

That's what the OP is attempting to avoid.*

This!!! In a nutshell! I don't understand everyone having a go at OP? Clearly you shouldn't be trundling along in the middle lane if the left hand one is clear, but if it's not clear because the vehicles in it are going more slowly than you and there aren't wide enough gaps between them to pull in and out safely then you are continuing to 'overtake' even if it does take gasp 5 minutes!

I'm struggling to see what's so enormously dangerous and irritating about a car going at 70-75 in the middle lane? If that's annoying for you because you get stuck behind them then you're clearly going over the limit yourself, so you can't really preach to others about their dangerous driving!

And it doesn’t matter for far ahead the next vehicle is... you should overtake one car and go back into the LH lane.

Causing the driver vehicle you pull in front of to slam on the brakes, risking a pile up?

You’re not doing anything wrong OP. What you’re describing is that other drivers would like to overtake the traffic in lane 1 faster than you are, and therefore come up behind you. This often happens if you’re overtaking a number of vehicles. Move over if you can without causing anyone to need to brake, otherwise they will just have to wait until you have finished your overtaking.

Are you my husband? This is very annoying and dangerous. Listen to what people are telling you

RichardMarxisinnocent
I agree with you. It's fine to be in the outside lane if you're moving past several vehicles moving slower than you as that's still overtaking.

The problem is that instead of moving left, too many people seem to think it's fine to cruise in the outside lane because they don't want to pull in left when there's a lorry in the distance that they would need to overtake / they think that because they drive at 70 they shouldn't have to be in the slow lane.

What I find hilarious on this thread is the number of posters who think that following the highway code correctly is going to cause accidents, cause panic in lorry drivers and as such the only reasonable think to do is hog the outside lane. It does explain why there's so many middle lane hoggers on the roads though.

My driving instructor said that if you need to exceed the speed limit to overtake someone then you can't do it and should stay where you are, overtaking is not a defence if caught speeding. So assuming she was right (and I'd hope so) no one should ever exceed 70mph on any UK road. I know they do obviously but from a legal perspective?

Well, yes , that's the law. You never need to overtake, if you don't you'll just get where you are going a bit later.

@DrCoconut

My driving instructor said that if you need to exceed the speed limit to overtake someone then you can't do it and should stay where you are, overtaking is not a defence if caught speeding. So assuming she was right (and I'd hope so) no one should ever exceed 70mph on any UK road. I know they do obviously but from a legal perspective?

From a legal perspective technically that's the case. But if applied literally to the road it assumes that everyone joins at the same time and maintains an exact relative speed.

It doesn't take much to imagine a scenario where Car A is in the left lane already at 70 mph, there's a slightly slower car in front of them, someone else is joining the motorway, so it's a perfect opportunity to come out into Lane 2, overtake and maintain their speed...

... except nope! There's already someone nose to nose with them in Lane 2, not overtaking, and with no relative speed issues around them. Nope - they just want their own private little lane to themselves.

Which means Car A is now stuck, not able to help the joining car on the motorway by moving over. Neither are they able to maintain their speed by moving out and overtaking.

It's the scenario I see about 20 times a day while driving. And it's all wrong.

@FurrySlipperBoots

And it doesn’t matter for far ahead the next vehicle is... you should overtake one car and go back into the LH lane.

Causing the driver vehicle you pull in front of to slam on the brakes, risking a pile up?

No that doesn't necessarily happen. You can go past two, three, four cars if you're maintaining your speed. Then pull in where there's a natural gap.

Terrifying what some people believe to be real world driving scenarios. Any excuse to stay out of the left lane eh?

@sunflowersandbuttercups

Have you lot never been on a road with a whole load of lorries doing 60mph?

Yep, everyday.

If you can't overtake safely, then you just need to sit behind them. Driving at 60mph instead of 70mph is really no big deal.

Driving at 70 instead of 80 is no big deal.

Hilarious all the lane discipline professors who have never heard of motorway code
Rule 261

You MUST NOT exceed 70 mph (112 km/h), or the maximum speed limit permitted for your vehicle.

Terrifying what some people believe to be real world driving scenarios. Any excuse to stay out of the left lane eh?
I know!
Someone better tell the writers of the Highway Code that following the highway code is going to cause utter terror in lorry drivers and cause no end of traffic collisions.

Why some people are determined to defend hogging middle/outside lanes is beyond me.

If I'm driving at the speed limit I'll drive in whatever lane I like if I'm actually overtaking slowcoaches. If that means I temporarily hold up the fuckwit behind me with his (and it is usually his) pedal to the metal and mouthing GERROUTOFTHEWAY at me, then so be it. I don't respond to bullyboy tactics.

blacksax
You seem quite angry, but I don't think people on this thread are objecting to overtaking.

Most are objecting to those sitting in one of the outside lanes because they don't want to be in the 'slow lane' and don't think drive to the left applies to them.

@LolaSmiles

blacksax You seem quite angry, but I don't think people on this thread are objecting to overtaking.

Most are objecting to those sitting in one of the outside lanes because they don't want to be in the 'slow lane' and don't think drive to the left applies to them.

Same difference. If you are on a busy dual carriageway with lorries etc in the left lane doing circa 50mph, I don't want to have to pull into gaps and slow from 70 to 50 just so Mr Important In His Flash Git Car can hurtle past at 90.

Yes, I do get annoyed with people who drive too fast. DH used to be a paramedic. He's seen too many dead bodies for me to think that speeding is a good idea.

The Germans do it properly and woe betide you if you dally for too long in the outside lane

The Germans do not do it properly. They overtake, come back in and drive right up to the car in front and then have to pull out again when there's about 1m between them and the car they want to overtake. That is downright dangerous. It's not that much of a surprise that the Germans don't have motorway accidents, just fatalities (and the fact they don't have cats' eyes).

Sitting in the middle lane when the inside lane is empty is middle lane sitting.

Refusing to weave in and out of the inside lane to appease the hysterical middle lane sitter haters is not middle lane sitting.

If you are on a busy dual carriageway with lorries etc in the left lane doing circa 50mph, I don't want to have to pull into gaps and slow from 70 to 50 just so Mr Important In His Flash Git Car can hurtle past at 90

Exactly. Remember: if you drive at over 70mph you are breaking the law, but speeding on motorways seems to be acceptable. It needs to become socially unacceptable, quickly.

The best one is when you pull out into the middle lane to let someone come onto the motorway at a junction and they then proceed to race and undertake you. Erm - I'm in the middle lane so you could get onto the motorway! Idiots.

If hogging the middle lane was fine they why is it against the law

Because it clogs the lane. But undertaking is against the law too. If you want to overtake a middle lane sitter (ie a real one, not just someone who pulled out to overtake someone more slowly than you want to go) then you use the conveniently available 3rd of 4th lanes. Do not go into the inside lane and roar up behind the vehicle the middle lane driver is overtaking and then cut in. It is ridiculous behaviour.

Same difference. If you are on a busy dual carriageway with lorries etc in the left lane doing circa 50mph, I don't want to have to pull into gaps and slow from 70 to 50 just so Mr Important In His Flash Git Car can hurtle past at 90.

Yes, I do get annoyed with people who drive too fast. DH used to be a paramedic. He's seen too many dead bodies for me to think that speeding is a good idea.
I've not mentioned speeding people. Following the highway code regarding lane discipline has nothing to do with other people speeding.

Why do those excusing lane hogging always go on about Mr Speeding Arsehole as if that gets around the fact that the Highway Code specifically says people should drive in the left hand lane unless they are overtaking?

Even if there was nobody on the motorway for a mile behind you, you drive in the left hand lane unless overtaking, not drive in the left hand lane unless I don't want to be in a lane with lorries at some point.

I don't understand what is that difficult for to understand:

1. Drive to the left
2. If you are overtaking use a lane to the right of the vehicle(s) you are overtaking
3. Move back left

What you seem to be getting at with your not wanting to slow to 50 is that you want to sit in the outside lane indefinitely just in case when it comes to overtake a lorry further up the road you have to briefly wait for a gap in the traffic. Aka. You're lane hogging and trying to use the image of an angry male driver to detract from the fact you don't want to follow the highway code.

@LolaSmiles You are missing the point. On a busy road with a lot of slow-moving traffic in the left lane, you would have to be constantly slowing down to pull in between other vehicles, and then having to speed up to pull back out again. Frequent lane changing has its own hazards. Besides, there isn't always a gap large enough for you to pull into whilst maintaining the correct distance between vehicles.

@LolaSmiles You are missing the point. On a busy road with a lot of slow-moving traffic in the left lane, you would have to be constantly slowing down to pull in between other vehicles, and then having to speed up to pull back out again. Frequent lane changing has its own hazards.
Besides, there isn't always a gap large enough for you to pull into whilst maintaining the correct distance between vehicles.
No point being missed at all.
Surely if you're moving past the traffic on your left then you are overtaking? And you would overtake in line with the Highway Code?

Why you're going on about slowing down or pulling into too small gaps between vehicles is beyond me. It sounds like another straw man like 'I'm not moving for mr aggressive driver who wants to speed'.

Overtake the slower moving traffic to your left in line with the highway code.
Don't cruise in the outside lane because you don't want to pull left because there might be other slower vehicles further up the road.

It still just sounds like you're justifying sitting in the outside lane because you don't like the idea of following the highway code.

If following the highway code is full of risks, I hope you're going to inform the relevant authorities that it's best to hog outside lanes.

It's the overtaking lane. You use it to overtake then move back to the left lane.

The right lane is for overtaking. You shouldn't be in it unless you are actively overtaking another vehicle. You need to drive in the leftmost lane.

You're effective blocking the whole road unless they undertake you so I'm not surprised you've been tailgated and sworn at; get out of the bloody way!