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’m glad you said it.

You know very well this is not about a few seconds. You're just being silly. But you know that too, don't you...

You need to do a driving course. Or read the highway code. Or stop driving.

Please for the sake of all of us give up driving .
FML

My ex got pulled over by the police for hogging the fast lane. He was incredulous and didn’t learn his lesson at all.

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

Well woop-de-fucking-doo! You're lucky then!

I use the motorways probably once or twice a week and occasionally a long trip up and down the M1/M18 or M6/M56 etc but EVERY SINGLE TIME I see fucking idiots hogging the middle lane when there is NOTHING on the inside NOTHINGGGG!! not your 'long overtake' people or your 'move over from sliproad' people, they're just driving normally, I'm talking about the people bellends just driving along 'la la la' this is my lane and I'm not moving! It seems to have become worse in recent years so I'm with OP and wonder if people are being taught this shit somewhere along the way... and you just know those fuckers are the same ones that leave their trolley in the middle of the aisle while shopping to tit about looking at CHEESE FOR FIVE FUCKING MINUTES!! or stand there chatting while taking up as much room as possible instead of, oh I don't know, STANDING TO THE FUCKING SIDE!!!!!!!!!!!

Sorry @enchantedsquirrelwood, lets just say it's been a bad week for inconsiderate arseholes this week!

Motorway driving is all about anticipation. If the car in front of you indicates to overtake it’s because they have seen a hazard ahead. Either a slower moving vehicle or an obstruction. Good drivers do not leave it until they are right up the arse of the car in front before overtaking.
They may move out earlier if there is a plenty of space behind them in the overtaking lanes.

I have been doing Uni open days with DS19 over the last month. Despite doing his theory test just over 12 mnths ago he struggles with the not cruising in the middle lane rule. I don’t yell at him, just ask him to move over repeatedly until he moves over. Most of the time he is overtaking slower cars on a busy motorway but needs reminding when there was not another soul in front of us.

My DF taught me to drive then when I’d passed my test took me in the M62, the busy cross-Pennine route from Hull to Liverpool. He reconned if I could navigate that motorway then I could cope with anything.
There is a fine line between hogging the middle lane and weaving wildly in and out of overtaking lanes without regard to traffic in those lanes. It’s not their responsibility to make room for you, it’s your responsibility to anticipate and find the space safely.

Those HGV, buses, lorries, etc are speed restricted to no more than 60 mph. If you move back to left lane after overtaking then you’re not wrong, if you stick to the middle lane for miles after overtaking then you are clogging their overtaking lane.

good grief..

It's just the ones far behind me that are speeding at 90 miles an hour to catch up with me on the left lane that have the issue.

Yes, because if you are SAT in the MIDDLE LANE at 70mph, and someone is managing to drive at 90mph on the inside lane and catch you up it means that lane is empty and YOU SHOULD BE IN IT!

lanes two three and four are for overtaking only, not sitting in.

and please tell me you don't actually slow down in the middle lane, to find a suitable gap to pull in to as you state above? it's the entire OPPOSITE of how motorways work and dangerous to boot.

For overtaking vehicles travelling slower than you that are overtaking vehicles travelling slower than them.

My driving instructor taught me on the A3 (three lanes, no hard shoulder for at least some of it). I also did sone motorway lessons after I passed my test. He said to move back to the inside lane immediately unless you will have to move out again in under 10 seconds. There is risk associated with changing lanes, so you don't want to be constantly going back and forth.

I try to avoid U.K. motorway driving (live abroad) because there are so many lorries in the inside lane. I do obey the Highway Code but don't enjoy being a lorry sandwich in a small car.

Lets say as your description there are 4 lanes, at the point the road splits into two roads of two lanes there will be clear signage and the central dividing line will become shorter lines and closer together to indicate the road is splitting into two, that is now the divider for the two roads, not a normal lane marker.

So at that point you have two, two lane roads, stay to the left of whichever route you're going until you are overtaking something.. so if you're going left stay in lane one, if you're going right, stay in lane three, it's really not hard.

You should only join that lane early if there is a queue and you know that's the lane you need to be in, but if you're in a queue you're not lane hogging anyway so I don't get what the problem would be?

Unless you like to go in 'your' lane 5 miles further back then you need to of course? in which case people will get pissed off with you.

"One thing I have noticed recently is that everyone seems to have forgotten how to use slip roads to join motorways. Instead of using the slip to reach and appropriate speed and find a gap to join, people just seem to barge on. Of course I will move over to let people join if there is a gap in lane 2 but on busy motorways there often isn't and I end up having to brake because some numpty has pulled in front of my car. I don't remember this happened pre-Covid."

I hate barging in but sometimes you kind of have to, say around evening rush hour. If you've matched your speed to the motorway drivers who are clipping along at 50 but still spaced for about 20-30 , usually somebody will see you the place that you will naturally slot into and slacken their foot off a bit to let you in, and you can fit in smoothly even though it's a bit tight. But if they're all staring straight ahead and there is no gap you get to the point where you have 3 crap options to choose from before you run out of road.

1. Slow down and stop at the end of the slip road. Now you have essentially no chance chance of getting on and the next driver coming up off the roundabout behind you with their foot down to get up the hill and up to about 50 will suddenly be confronted by your arse in the way. Within a few minutes the slip road will be backed up and have fouled up the roundabout traffic too.
2. Grit your teeth and use the hard shoulder as an extension of the slip road and pray somebody lets you in. Illegal and also dangerous as nobody already on the mway is expecting it.
3. Barge in.

If you "zone out relaxing" then quite frankly you shouldn't be driving. You one day will cause an accident. I hope you get fined for lane hogging too!

@sandyhappypeople. No you shouldn't be doing 90. That's the point. If you are doing the speed limit you can't catch me up can you? So it would be fine. We will all stay a distance apart. If you speed that's when it's an issue. If you decide to speed then go in the right hand lane. I'm not moving in every 10 minutes for someone speeding. And yes you have to slow down I'm going faster than the left lane and I don't want to do 90 to go further and get in a space miles up, so I have to slow down to get in as it's busy.

@sandyhappypeople. No you shouldn't be doing 90. That's the point. If you are doing the speed limit you can't catch me up can you? So it would be fine. We will all stay a distance apart. If you speed that's when it's an issue. If you decide to speed then go in the right hand lane. I'm not moving in every 10 minutes for someone speeding. And yes you have to slow down I'm going faster than the left lane and I don't want to do 90 to go further and get in a space miles up, so I have to slow down to get in as it's busy.

Overtaking. All lanes bar the left hand lane are for overtaking.

I actually don't understand why people are arguing the toss over this.

Its in the highway code and it is now illegal to clutter up the middle lane and can cause you points on your license.
Its not an opinion thing its an actual fact.
Not just in this country it's lay on motorways in other countries too.

Learned it in the same way as any road rules & etiquette, through lessons and driving experience. Have to say though, there are things that bother me a lot more on the roads than this.

I've just watched some footage of middle lane hoggers. I will look at it more carefully in future. I guess if the middle lane is doing 70 I'll probably join it and just pootle. I don't like undertaking I think it's dangerous. I will look again.

I blame cruise control for part of it.

I just don’t understand it, they’ve spent millions expanding the motorway network, for two lanes to go virtually unused

Oh. To answer your question op, I had motorway lessons

This has to be a piss take, if it isn’t and you really drive like this then your life really could become short. Do us all a favour and take some lessons on Motorway driving.

Or else you could find yourself booked in on a Driver Awareness course by courtesy of the police.
I’ve been driving since 1975 and read the rules on motorways driving in the Highway Code, after I passed my test I asked my driving instructor to book me in for a couple of lessons on the A1M.

Fucking hell, you just don’t get it.

My point was people were saying it was dangerous. It isn't. It is annoying but it isn't dangerous.

However badly someone behaves, they are not responsible for other peoples' aggression and poor behaviour, whether driving or elsewhere - with a few exceptions where self defence is justified.

And as I said in my first post on here, it's not nearly as big a problem as people say it is. If I move over before a junction so I don't leave the motorway when I don't want to, that isn't middle lane sitting. If I stay in the middle lane because I can see another lorry coming up that I want to overtake, that isn't middle lane sitting. If I sit in the middle lane for miles on end, that IS middle lane sitting.

Yes, because if you are SAT in the MIDDLE LANE at 70mph, and someone is managing to drive at 90mph on the inside lane and catch you up it means that lane is empty and YOU SHOULD BE IN IT

Exactly. And how often does this actually happen? Most of the time the inside lane is full of lorries and smaller moving vehicles.