Middle lane - how did you know?

[Graasspp]

Who taught you to stay left unless overtaking on the motorway?

How did all these utter counts not learn this?

For me it was my dad who told me.

Aibu to wonder how this ignorance prevails daily?

They do know, they just can't be arsed to drive properly. It's laziness rather than ignorance.

Erm driving lessons, highway code, common sense....

And actually these days there's overhead signs on the motorway.

People get used to reading "Stay in Lane" messages that are shown whenever their is a hint of congestion. In their head heavy traffic = stay in lane. And on the motorways I use, the traffic is always heavy.

Old fashioned I know but I got the knowledge from reading the Highway Code.
I think a lot of people know it but don't care because they are too special for rules - just look at all the illegal number plates!

In driving lessons!

The innermost lanes are for overtaking. If you are constantly overtaking (such as lorries) you are in the right lane. If there is a lit of space to your left, you can move over.

They’re just ignorant nothing else to it.

witnessed this not long ago. A 40t lorry was unable to overtake, lorry couldn’t even move into the inside lane as it was in line with a slip road - shocking behaviour lucky the lorry didn’t run over the top of them

Not sure how much Mway driving we discussed in driving lessons (they were 30 years ago, so I forget 🤣) but I probably read it in the Highway Code and my Dad (who drove long distances) always reiterated the importance of keeping left.
Apart from being correct, he always said there was an escape route to your left (less so now, with smart Mways though)
I do a bit of mway driving for work and the middle Lane hoggers really piss me off!

Surely you just learn this as part of your driving lessons? After all, you will have driven on dual carriageways, the rules are very similar, just one less lane. Nowadays, most learners will have been taken on a motorway by their driving instructor.

There's always some oblivious cockwomble cruising along in the middle lane when I drive on the motorway. I did a speed awareness course 5-6 years ago and was told it's okay to undertake someone driving in the middle lane, providing that you are under the speed limit.

The same way they believe there is a fast and slow lane- pure idiocy.

Really? I didn’t know that. Having said that I’m not sure I’d feel safe to do it. If the middle lane hogger is dopey enough to be cruising along without any awareness of what they’re doing I’d worry they’d decide to move back in just as I’m undertaking.

My dh and ds were side swiped this morning by an hgv who thought he should use 2 lanes.. Maybe police should police driver's driving not just look out for speeders to make £££..

They know. They just don't care.

It's in the highway code. Loud and clear. Unfortunately there is a large proportion of people still on roads who didn't need to take theory test and even larger proportion of people who think highway code doesn't apply to them. Even funnier to see people clogging middle and right lane when the left lane is completely clear. And even more infuriating when people call the right lane "fast lane" and drive down it like lunatics.

It's the same as driving and parking around schools. People do know, they just don't care.

Most of them are stupid and will argue they are in the right, wait here long enough and they’ll come along. They should also be made to take driving courses.

The motorway Police are starting to crack down on it now.

Ooh. You guys will hate me then. I always go middle lane. Tend to find left lanes drive at 50/60. So have to overtake all the time. I think we were taught that you could drive in the middle lane.
It's full of lorries you can't see anything ahead. I don't feel safe there.
I do tend to go in middle lane and zone out relaxing. And I hate the guys who go cutting in front and then go into the left lane. Especially if both lanes are quite empty.
It's more dangerous cutting in. It feels very aggressive. I'm often looking out for road signs and trying not to get lost. So be kind instead. Life is too short.

Arrogance. My sister steadfastly refuses to move over to the left if she's going at 70mph because 'it's the speed limit and they shouldn't need to go faster than that'.

It's ignorance + arrogance + choosing to do things 'your way' just because you can.

Hate it, it makes driving more stressful and dangerous for everybody. The Germans are fantastic at this, they use the motorways how they are designed and always move in and out constantly.

There you go, didn’t take long for stupid to come along.

I learned to drive 32 years ago, I was taught to use the left lane and overtake as needed. Using the middle lane is more likely to lead to zoning out and not actively driving/ keeping focused. Anyone NOT taking the safest option is making a choice to increase their and others risk.

I agree that lorries can be scary - and if they are tightly packed together and you're consistently faster and passing them a lot of them it is fine to stay in middle lane until the road clears and there's space to move in to the left.

But. The idea of you 'zoning out' and 'relaxing' whilst driving on a motorway is honestly terrifying and may one day result in a serious accident.

My dad taught me, I taught my sister.
She had the opposite problem and to avoid "hogging" the middle lane she was playing leap frog moving in after every car she overtook so could be in and out quite quickly. I showed her that before moving in you see if you are gaining on the next person in the left hand lane you stay out to go past them too and the move in until you start approaching the next car that you are gaining on.

I have to say I always find all this talk of "constant" middle lane hoggers quite bemusing. I actually see very few genuine middle lane hoggers, as in someone who sits in the middle (or third lane on a 4 lane motorway) for miles, even when there's nothing in the inside lane.

Everyone else seems to think that a hogger includes someone who stays in the middle lane 10 seconds longer than the driver behind decides that they need to, or dares to move over because the inside lane will become a slip road, or goes onto another motorway or similar. Or doesn't keep weaving in and out of lorries when there is a small space between them.

The bigger issue for me is the lorries that decide to overtake another lorry when one is going 58mph and they are doing 59mph. And then sit alongside them for miles.

After all, you will have driven on dual carriageways, the rules are very similar, just one less lane.

That depends on how many lanes the DC has though?