To ask WHY do so many people hog the middle lane of the motorway?

[Ginuwine]

I realise with a global pandemic etc this is small fry, but I couldn't believe my journey to and from Dorset this weekend. I drive an awful lot for work, but Saturday was an outlier in how many mouthbreathers were on the roads.

Sitting just below 70 mph in the middle lane, junction after junction. Never ever moving back over despite a huge clear inside lane.

Why does this bother me?

Well, when a car is racing up the slip road, the Highway Code says I don't have to give way. They have to match traffic speed and then merge when safe.

However sometimes it would be nice to change lanes to allow them to. Except I can't...because the busiest lane in this three lane motorway is the middle one. Full of people dawdling - not speeding up, not going past, just sitting there in their own world, oblivious.

Worse, I then move across into lane 3, go round, then come back into lane 1.. by which time they've sped up to my position. If I want to go around the lorry in front of me - nope! Rolling roadblock in the way - have to move to Lane 3 just to do it again. And so on..

The funniest are the ones who merge from the motorway and cut up everyone just to get into their favoured lane IMMEDIATELY. Then sit there without question, blocking legitimate overtakes, for eight or nine junctions.

Why?? Why do people do this?

I have three theories:

• People think the left lane is for "lorries" and want a superior position on the road. The "fast lane" (ugh) is for the Porsches and Range Rovers. So middle it is.

• People won't tell you their real reason is laziness. They just say "it doesn't matter anyway - I'm doing the speed limit - people can just go round me. Anyway, tailgating is worse go and shout at them"

• like reversing, some people hate the driving discipline of changing lanes. They want to limit it as much as possible and believe the act of changing lanes causes accidents.

So tell me please - why do so many people hog the middle lane when the Highway Code and all driving instruction tells us to keep left? The congestion caused by middle lane hogging is so frustrating.

Yep, this drives me mad too.
Whilst motorway driving never used to be part of the test, driving on a dual carriageway was, and the same principle applies.
I can't decide whether it's laziness, dickishness or people who just couldn't give a shit.

I'm also married to one of them. I try to go to sleep on motorway journeys now so I don't have to be so painfully aware. He thinks he's a much better driver than he is. At least he doesn't tailgate ambulances like his father.

Thing is middle lane hogging breeds middle lane hogging.
If you know you'll struggle to get out into a space due to middle lane hoggers,where will you go?
Getting stuck behind a lorry on an incline because no one will let you out (Tailgating!!) Is utter shit.

The best response on here I've seen to this complaint is that it's too dangerous to change lanes, far safer to just stay in the middle lane.

And can you imagine driving like this on the continent? You'd be strung up whilst still driving

What you have to do is travel up the inside them go behind them in the middle out into the outside and all the way back to the side to make your point. Ideally shaking your head sadly.

We sometimes use a stretch of the A1 with four lanes, always at relatively quiet times. The number of people who stick rigidly to the second and even third lane is mind-boggling. I don’t know if it’s ignorance or selfishness, but suspect the latter.

I genuinely think this is just one of those issues where the majority of people believe that while technically you should do things a certain way, in reality it makes more sense and is the custom to do things a different way. I bet people who middle lane hog have all kinds of reasons that make sense to them and that make them think they’re actually doing what’s safest/best. Especially if they’ve had plenty of experience with motorway driving but can’t see the logic in dipping in and out of the left hand lane frequently when they could just stay in the middle lane instead and reduce the risk of colliding when they change lanes. When I was learning to drive six separate people told me that unofficially in practise the motorway lanes went ‘slow drivers/lorries, average speed, speeders’.

For the record I’m not one of those people, I know how to drive within the Highway Code and don’t middle lane hog. But I do think it’s not a coincidence that large numbers of people up and down the land do it. The more common it is the more of a normal thing to do it is seen as and people are told that’s how you drive. Wonder if there’s ever been any research into driving psychology around this stuff!

It boils my piss.
Stops the motorway flowing freely

This may mark me down as a middle-lane-moron, but here goes anyways

I find that a LOT of drivers have no sodding idea of a safe distance for moving into a lane - which applies to vehicles both behind and before you. Pulling in very close of a car they've just overtaken. Pulling in very close behind a car that has just overtaken them.

So sometimes - and I mean sometimes, I find myself having taken a nice, respectful long overtake of a vehicle at 65 with me at 70, with a nice, generous gap to the car in front of me in the lefthand lane. But I'm clearly going to make up ground quickly in the lefthand lane, and shouldn't be eating up my stopping distance. So I stay out in the middle.

Honestly, you only have to drive on a foggy day to see that people have absolutely no clue about safe stopping distances, and there are almost certainly proud posters on this thread who don't middle lane hog but who do cut it way too fine cutting in and out.

(incidentally, I'm normally to be found in the right hand lane overtaking middle lane traffic - I make no claims to sainthood, this is just an observation)

I've seen a lot of this recently. I've also seen a lot of undertaking going on which seems to make the lane hoggers more nervous and lees likely to move.
Most of it I think is bad driving but some of it is lanes going off. One busy stretch of 10 miles I do is terrible for this. At one junction one lane becomes a slip road then a bit further on two lanes are. So of course most people end up on lane three all of the way.

I suspect part of it is that people get used to sitting in that lane because they're worried about moving over, getting stuck behind a slower moving vehicle and then not being able to overtake.. because people like them are sat in the middle lane

@user1497207191

They don’t think they are hogging it. They think it’s what you do.

Totally agree OP.

Also someone else has mentioned already that people aren't indicating at roundabouts these days. I think driving has really deteriorated over the last few years.

I don’t really drive, I passed my test years ago but have barely driven since, especially not on motorways.

So this might be a stupid question but if the speed limit is 70mph and a car in the middle lane is going at 70 or thereabouts then what would the problem be? As even if you then went in the overtaking lane you’d be going alongside the middle lane car rather than overtaking it.

I know in reality people overtaking middle lane 70 mph drivers go at 80 or 90 mph, but if a car in the middle lane is travelling at the speed limit I’m not sure why this is so enraging to other drivers?!

@spanielstail

What you have to do is travel up the inside them go behind them in the middle out into the outside and all the way back to the side to make your point. Ideally shaking your head sadly.

This seldom works in my experience. They don't see that you've started in the left hand lane, because they don't look in their fucking mirrors.

@peachescariad

I find a couple of full beam flashes usually sends them into the slow lane......always gives a great feeling of satisfaction

Yea I did this once and they then pulled into the slow lane behind me and endlessly flashed their lights at me. There is no point trying to make things better. I just try to second guess every idiot going and try not to be in a collision. It's given me serious driving anxiety as I expect (not always wrongly) that people are going to pull out from junctions in front of me, overtake on blind corners and be on my side of the road, all sorts. I hate driving these days.

What lane is the right lane to be in? I was taught it’s the middle lane. So merge on, first lane is for everyone merging on and those getting off at next exit. Middle lane for those who won’t be getting off for a while and inside lane for those who think middle lane is too slow so overtake.

I flased a middle lane hogger 25 times once, they were too busy myopically staring ahead and talking to the passenger to notice. They didn't look in their mirror once.
Its terrifying.

@alwayswithhope

What lane is the right lane to be in? I was taught it’s the middle lane. So merge on, first lane is for everyone merging on and those getting off at next exit. Middle lane for those who won’t be getting off for a while and inside lane for those who think middle lane is too slow so overtake.

Wrong. You should drive on the left unless you’re overtaking. Simple as that.

i find a couple of full beam flashes usually sends them into the slow lane......always gives a great feeling of satisfaction grin

Except they then cut up the poor driver locked into lane one by the rolling roadblock following the hog

I drive on the m1 every day where there are roadworks and have been for the last twenty bloody years. It's chaos. No one in lane one. No one overtaking at all, they're just next to each other and getting in the way. All going well under the speed limit. I get so infuriated.

I honestly just undertake in lane one as it's completely safe because no ones there. Some people get the hint. 75% don't.

@alwayswithhope

What lane is the right lane to be in? I was taught it’s the middle lane. So merge on, first lane is for everyone merging on and those getting off at next exit. Middle lane for those who won’t be getting off for a while and inside lane for those who think middle lane is too slow so overtake.

Oh wow, you were taught incorrectly. You drive in the left lane unless you're overtaking, although you can also move into the middle lane when cars are merging on (as you'll end up overtaking them)

@alwayswithhope

What lane is the right lane to be in? I was taught it’s the middle lane. So merge on, first lane is for everyone merging on and those getting off at next exit. Middle lane for those who won’t be getting off for a while and inside lane for those who think middle lane is too slow so overtake.

This makes no sense. If the first lane is for merging on to the motorway who are you merging with? By your logic everyone will be in the middle lane so there will be nobody in the left lane. Everyone who was in the left lane will have exited at that junction. The slip is for merging onto the motorway. You should be in the furthest left lane unless overtaking.

Fuckwits can only think in absolutes. ' lane changing is dangerous' ' I need to move over to let those on the slip road join ' - there's a balance and yes you should be in the left most possible lane. Driving is hard work and needs constant attention. Also a lot are on their phones ( being caught using a mobile while driving should mean life ban) or have driven too far without a break.

I will admit I don't go in the inside lane much but then I'm usually keen to overtake those going slower than 70. I'm not a weaver those are annoying too (if you're overtaking another car in 30 seconds maybe don't bother going back a lane? ) but also I do try to use the right lane, keeping left if the road is clear for a good stretch. I do undertake slow middle laners occasionally even though I know we aren't meant to... and I've seen people in the middle lane late at night with no other cars around before and didnt understand that logic at all!