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?

I live in another country and learnt to drive here. There is a compulsory motorway driving lesson before you can enter for your test. You do it just before the test. That's where I was taught to keep left. I thought it was very useful actually and it would be good if it could be included in Uk driving lessons somehow - or perhaps a compulsory module after passing the test. Where I live there are 3 compulsory sessions during your first year of driving before the licence is converted to a full licence - they were all very good. There was a "check up" after 3 months to see how you were getting on, then an all day driving safety session which centred around driving in poor weather - rain, ice and snow - at a special driving centre where there are specific surfaces which mimic poor road conditions and you get to experience and practise getting yourself out of a tailspin and there's a third session focussed on fuel-efficient driving.
I think something like that would be useful in the UK.

As for the middle lane hoggers - as usual on these threads you get a lot of people saying "but if the left lane is full of lorries blah blah it's dangerous to keep hopping in and out of the left lane". Someone driving in the middle lane in that scenario is NOT a middle lane hogger.
For me a middle lane hogger is someone merrily driving along in the middle lane no matter what else is going on, "zoned out" as a poster here scarily admitted to being. It's someone who does not return to the left lane when the left lane is clear for a long distance ahead, or someone who is driving along in the middle at a similar speed to people in the left lane and therefore not overtaking but also not moving left either to let others overtake who are driving faster.

Despite the motorway driving module in this coutnry you still get a lot of people doing it - it's selfish. I know a couple of people who told me they do it and they said it's because they think it's safer and they don't have to "worry" about overtaking trucks or looking to see if the middle lane is free before pulling out again to overtake.

How lazy do you have to be that you can't be arsed to change lane when you are driving?

When I first passed my test I had to drive to and from work on a motorway. I found getting on and off terrifying. I was stopped by the police once at a quiet time of day when I had been loitering in the middle lane.I knew it was wrong but found it less stressful than changing lanes.

And this is why there should be compulsory motorway driving lessons - to help people get used to it and give them tips so that they aren't scared of getting on and off or of changing lanes.

Ooh the aggression. It's obviously a contentious issue. I will not be nipping in and out of the left lane every 10 minutes on a three hour journey.
Lots of junctions. And slow cars and slow lorries. I'm lucky my car is quite fast and it has no problems with hills. So it would mean I would catch up a slow car or a slow lorry every 5 minutes. If you haven't driven a fast car or you just prefer to drive at 55 everywhere that's fine. Or you enjoy changing lanes every 10 minutes. That's ok. Your passive aggression and swiping in front of me are unnecessary. We've gone a bit nuts! Make bad decisions on the big things (Brexit, tories) and get super uptight on small things. I thought we hated rules?

Ok. I apologise if I'm in a middle lane and you hate seeing me there. My car is quite fast and I can see the left lane car and I'm gaining on it, and there's a junction coming up in 5 minutes. So.. I will listen to a great track, ring my sister/ daughter / husband and look forward to seeing her and mum. And forget the uptight car streaming up behind me all indignant and then overtake and go in the left lane and often turn off . Why not just chill out. Go slower turn off look forward to your day/ evening. I've got another three hours to go, so I'm really not going to dip in and out for the next three hours.

Sorry if that upsets you. Don't mean to, am just on a long car journey.

There is no "fast lane"

When I was taking driving lessons (around 35 years ago), I never drove in the rain so I did not know how to clear the windscreen when it misted up which is so dangerous.

I only discovered this from MN a few years ago.

My driving instructor never told me this and neither did anyone else in RL.

So thanks MN!

10 minutes is ages on a motorway. Absolutely you should be changing lanes. Bloody hell.

Yeah, sod rules.

My driving instructor never told me this and neither did anyone else in RL.

Motorway driving is not on the practical test but you would/should have learnt it as part of your study for the theory test.

Yes, a fixed average-speed limit and a crowded motorway means that you stay in lane as everyone is moving at pretty much the same speed. There's no point in chopping and changing and it's quite dangerous.

I thought they where now fining people for middle lane hogging with cameras much like for speeding.

I don’t have a drivers licence and even I know not to just cruise along in the middle lane, if you know you will need to over take again momentarily then sure stay out but if you’ve got coming upto 10 minutes of clear ahead get back over.

Poor lane control causes issues with the flow of traffic then you moan that the roads all clogged up with traffic… you are the traffic 😉

Ah the entitled impatience of car drivers, how many minutes are we talking here?

Agree that on busy motorways, the outside lane moves about 55-58 and is largely freight and people joining at junctions, so the 'middle' (usually there are 4 lanes) becomes an overtaking lane as cars in it do 60-65 so you end up overtaking for quite a long stretch.

Motorway driving is not on the practical test but you would/should have learnt it as part of your study for the theory test.

Possibly, but if I did I don't remember!

Agree that on busy motorways, the outside lane moves about 55-58 and is largely freight and people joining at junctions

That’s the inside lane you’re talking about. The outside lane is the one closest to the central reservation.

@Flyhigher You are a poor driver. Middle-lane hogging falls under 'careless driving' and as such is illegal. 3 points and a £100 fine.

Stop breaking the law, and learn to drive properly.

I'm sure everyone on here thinks they're impeccable drivers

Thing is though the way you are driving is much more dangerous.

Pull over and never 'zone out' while on a motorway! Fgs

I used to go up and down the A40 quite a bit, and quite frequently there was a motorcycle copper who would zoom up telling everyone (with hand gestures) to move over - even when it seemed quite busy, and it really helped the traffic to flow better.

I was taught to stay left when I first learned to drive, the only time it's ever a good idea to move out when the inside lane is empty is coming up to a junction if you can see a lot of people are going to try to come on.

Where I live now, people are awful middle lane hoggers (mind you, there's only about a dozen motorways in the whole country, and none are very long) - it's from a good place, they do it for people coming on the motorway, but it's so frustrating to see an empty left hand lane and the two right hand lanes pootling along at 80km/h..

What a cunt