Page 2 | What is with people speeding and getting cross in the left lane…?

DPotter · 03/04/2022 02:34

I've experienced similar - 70 in the left hand lane and some idiot behind me, tailgating. Light traffic, with plenty of space to overtake.
Admittedly not flashing lights but certainly waaaay too close.

Have also had tailgating with flashing lights at me in 50 mph, single lane contraflow, with me doing spot on 50 on the good ol' M25.

I agree it is not logical, and I agree it seems weird. But hey some people behave illogically and weirdly.

Op I can't offer you an cast iron explanation, other than some drivers just don't like anyone in front of them

roastedsaltedpeanut · 03/04/2022 06:09

You met an self indulging idiot who can’t drive. She probably tried to remain her speed and slip into the middle lane but misjudged speed of other cars in the middle lane and had to break last minute. She was annoyed at you because had you not been there she wouldn’t have needed to break.

rugbunch · 03/04/2022 06:18

I've noticed more & more that people don't like moving lanes under any circumstances, it's never just the middle lane. So if you're in the slow lane but someone wants to go faster but stay in the slow lane they drive up your arse rather than overtake. And then you get people who just sit in the fast lane never moving until someone goes up there arse & they either speed up or panic & move left then move out again.

RosesAndHellebores · 03/04/2022 06:24

I want to know when you were driving on an empty M11 op. I can believe anything can happen on that road. Worst driving I have ever seen.

Billandben444 · 03/04/2022 08:08

What does your bumper sticker say?

'Flash if you think I'm sexy'

(joke)

WeBuiltThisBuffetOnSausageRoll · 05/04/2022 11:10

I thought about this thread again yesterday - not exactly the same thing, but drivers deliberately deciding to be intimidating for no reason at all.

There had been a bad road accident and the traffic was stacked back. At a roundabout, I crept very slowly (everything was slow or stationary), constantly looking all around and then edged around the line of traffic to get into a free lane and go a different way. A van driver came racing up (in the only relatively-free lane that I had momentarily crossed) approaching the roundabout, far too fast for a roundabout, even if there hadn't been gridlock around it, and beeped me angrily.

I genuinely think that some drivers are so arrogant and entitled that they really do believe the road is theirs and theirs alone to use. If they want to be in a particular lane at a particular time (however arbitrarily), then anybody else in it or crossing it must be in the wrong - because they aren't them.

Why should they have the 'hassle' of nudging the wheel to change lanes when you could simply have stayed at home all day and not dare to use the public road system for which you pay tax? You aren't there providing a service to them, so what are you for anyway?

Essentially, I think it's overgrown toddler syndrome - the main difference being that we don't let actual toddlers behind the wheel of a potentially lethal vehicle.

Silverclocks · 05/04/2022 11:14

If this is happening often, I don't think it's about your speed. They're trying to tell you something else.

I do a lot of motorway driving and I'm not a fast driver. I've never experience this in the inside lane.

ArmWrestlingWithChasNDave · 05/04/2022 11:20

I'm also struggling to believe this. The kind of people who drive up your arse at 80mph don't use the left lane at all, even if it's clear.

BogRollBOGOF · 05/04/2022 11:20

There is no need to pull over for those joining the motorway. It is on them to adjust their speed and slip in to the traffic already on the carriageway. When did moving to the right become a thing?! Certainly not when I passed my test 10 years ago.

It was covered in my Pass Plus nearly 20 years ago. If there is space to move right to create space it helps the merging of traffic, but it's not an obligation.

There's a horrid X junction on a dual carriageway near me. It's not a particularly fast section, compounded by the exit to the left having a sharp bend with traffic slowing to 20-25mph, meanwhile traffic moving right is trying to get up to 50mph to the main carriageway flow. Especially difficult if behind someone keeping left at 20mph to not use the main carriageway at all. Having 10s of metres to accelerate from 20 to 50mph is made vastly easier when through traffic has moved right to create space!

Original poster

Visaquestions · 05/04/2022 13:27

Yes @WeBuiltThisBuffetOnSausageRoll the thread was pretty light hearted but I think you are right. It’s just some men because they can.

Maybe they’ve simply been on an empty stretch and been on their phones even, then the annoyance of me when they look up. Or doing whatever, then the irritation of another car. It’s not at busy commuting times. Just a mind set of ‘the road is empty, drive like me!’ too.

OP posts:

yellowsuninthesky · 05/04/2022 13:31

@Indicatrice

I’ve never seen this, people generally leave the left hand lane drivers alone, it’s the middle lane hoggers that get the wrath.

I agree. Although if you are on two lane motorway or a dual carriageway you might have people tearing up behind you. Or it might be that there's someone in the middle lane going faster than you, but not as fast as the boy racers want to go, so actually they want to undertake them.

(because undertaking is such a good response to middle lane sitting - not)

yellowsuninthesky · 05/04/2022 13:32

There is no need to pull over for those joining the motorway. It is on them to adjust their speed and slip in to the traffic already on the carriageway. When did moving to the right become a thing?! Certainly not when I passed my test 10 years ago

I've been driving since 1990, it's always been a thing. That said, it should not be expected. Sometimes you just can't move over, so the person has to slow down and slip in behind you (or conversely speed up and slip in ahead of you). I

DasAlteLeid · 05/04/2022 13:33

@VisaQuestions

I run an old diesel. Lovely fuel economy at 68mph roughly so I tend to stick there, rather than waste fuel. Obviously I speed up or slow in response to a need and drive sensibly, but I’m relaxed and will potter along. If the roads busy I do keep to the speed of the road, Im not awkward.

However, even on an empty motorway with even 3 empty lanes to my right some people insist on driving up behind me at around 80mph, then braking and tailgating. Even flashing their lights. I don’t move faster, I point to the lovely empty lane to my right.

No one else in sight, it still happened repeatedly to me the other day.

What is the logic? Why? I drive back through France, and it only started after Dover (I think the road was so empty as Dover was gridlocked! No escape)

I’ve had this multiple times, and also when I’m overtaking in the middle lane and some twatty MAN (always a man) comes roaring up behind me like I’m just middle lane hogging, sometimes they perform the other dick move of racing in and out of the lanes around me and the other drivers and then roaring off, sometimes they tailgate until I’ve finished my manoeuvre and I return to the left hand lane, where they then roar off, presumably thinking they taught me some kind of lesson, while I hope they drive in to wall 😐

Hopeless44556 · 05/04/2022 13:37

Hi

I am currently unexpectedly expecting baby number three.

I have been experiencing extreme depression lately and considering termination because people I've spoken to have said if you have three the middle one suffers and I can't live with the guilt anymore of thinking that may happen to my current youngest child.

Any advice as I just can't hope anymore.

ArmWrestlingWithChasNDave · 05/04/2022 13:40

Hopeless44556 It's best if you start your own thread, probably on a board like Pregnancy or Pregnancy Choices rather than AIBU.

Hopeless44556 · 05/04/2022 13:49

How do I love it across? X

Hopeless44556 · 05/04/2022 13:53

Move sorry! All done now x

JenniferWooley · 05/04/2022 14:10

There is no need to pull over for those joining the motorway. It is on them to adjust their speed and slip in to the traffic already on the carriageway. When did moving to the right become a thing?! Certainly not when I passed my test 10 years ago

It was certainly a thing when I passed mine 26 years ago.

While not enforceable it is considered courteous to move over if able to do so.

Nothing worse than trying to join a dual carriageway/motorway from a slip & someone pootling along at 40 miles an hour refusing to move over to the empty right hand lane.

WeBuiltThisBuffetOnSausageRoll · 06/04/2022 09:14

Moving to the right where possible, to let traffic join the motorway, has always been A Thing. Slip roads aren't very long and there's only so much speed regulating you can do before you come to the end of it and have to stop, if there's a constant stream of traffic on the motorway already.

Forcing somebody to join a motorway from stationary, right at the end of the slip road, is both very dangerous and unnecessarily stressful for the joining driver - when, if you'd just treated the slip road as an effective extra inside lane and pulled over in anticipation to 'overtake' them, it would have barely made any difference to you, but an awful lot to them.