To think I had every right to be in the right hand lane when driving the speed limit on a dual carriage way

[P3kingDuck]

Dh thinks not.

So I’ve had to do a speed awareness course a while ago so do my best to keep to speed limits at all times.

Driving home on a curving dual carriage way on a slight tilt. 50 limit signs every few yards and a speed camera sign. The lane on the right turns into a fly over which I needed to keep on. So I was in the right hand lane driving at 50. A car came right up to my bumper and kept flashing. I stayed in the lane and pointed at the signs. He kept flashing then overtook me in a dramatic fashion, zoomed off( so breaking the speed limit) then slowed down so ended up driving not that faster than me but still over the limit.

Dh said I should have pulled over. I don’t understand why. Nobody on that road should be doing over 50 so what would be the benefit of me pulling over if I’m doing 50?

It's particularly dangerous as well, to ignore someone barrelling up behind you with their lights flashing. They're obviously going fast. It's safest to get out of the way as quickly as possible.

And come on, quickly changing lanes to let a car past hardly needs a week's thinking time. You should be doing that stuff practically on autopilot - not casually taking your time to decide if they deserve the road.

Luckily I'm preaching to the choir in the main. Good to see that most people would make a sensible decision.

OP said it was way less than a mile.

It would be fair enough if your turning was ages away but when your turn is coming up, then it would be safer staying in the one lane than constantly weaving in and out when you’re so close to the exit.

That circumstance would have different lane markings between the lanes.

OP you clearly know why people drive faster than the speed limit as you've been on a speed awareness course. So don't try all the faux naivety about you just don't understand. Unless of course you are the that person who only ever got caught speeding the one time you went 33 in a 30 (that's what i told people when i also did a speed awareness course).

Both drivers are in the wrong given that the other driver was able to spend time flashing the OP and then manoeuvring around and then being in front for a while. The law was changed in 2014 to try to stamp out lane hogging by introducing on the spot fixed penalty notices.

https://www.thesun.co.uk/motors/16351801/can-i-be-fined-for-hogging-the-fast-lane/amp/

@P3kingDuck - "... The lane on the right turns into a fly over which I needed to keep on. So I was in the right hand lane driving at 50... "

Apologies if somebody has already said so, but that sounds like a really dangerous piece of road design.

Can you give a link to the location via Google Maps Street View so we can see how that bit of dual carriageway works and is signed?

For example, the following link shows the eastern approach to the Westway A40 roundabout in London.

Westway - Google Maps

Put your dual carriageway in the Google maps search box in the top left and post the link to it here.

That will let other posters understand the road layout and signage

I’ve had to do a speed awareness course

Anyone else picked up on this? There's only one reason why you'd need to take one of those... 😆

How can you be hogging a lane when it would break the law for the person behind you to go faster? You - behind me - would already also be going as fast as you are permitted to go!

Because you are preventing people in the inside lane from changing lanes if they need to, that's how!

I would always pull over to let an aggressive tailgater get ahead of me (he's much less of a danger to me there). But if the lanes are about to split I would only do it if I know I can get back into the correct lane in time.

That doesn't just depend on the distance/time to the lane divergence, but also on the traffic. If there is a stream of cars coming up behind Mr Tailgater, they might prevent me pulling back into the right hand lane.

Which brings us neatly back to the reason for not lane hogging in the first place - you're in the way of anyone who needs to change lanes.

And people who are nervous about missing the flyover turn off because they're blocked in by lane hoggers probably solve the problem for themselves by moving over early. Thus feeding the problem.

I think YABU because you don't seem to understand any of the above. But it's possible that what you actually did was the safest option, if only by accident. Apart from the gesturing. Gesturing at dickheads is never the safe option.

Don’t be a fuckwit, OP. Keep left unless overtaking.

Changing lanes to overtake and then pull back into the left-most lane that matches your speed does not equal “weaving in and out”. If it does then you’re doing it wrong.

I regularly drive the length of the M62 and the number of people who get into the second (or third lane in the 4 lane sections) and stick there at 65mph until their exit is astounding. They are the ones causing the excessive, dangerous manoeuvres as others have to go from, eg, lane one to lane three and back again to overtake them, so doubling the amount of lane changes necessary. Often the root cause of the situation where lane 3 is crowded trying to overtake lane 2 while Lane 1 is emptier and actually moving faster. That’s when you do get the odd hothead weaving in and out across all lanes to get past the bottleneck.

i always assume this type of lane hogging driver is the kind of person that crops up on these threads saying they don’t want to “weave about” and they think it’s safer staying in one lane regardless of traffic levels despite the hazard and annoyance they’re causing other road users. Which they probably don’t even notice as they haven’t looked in their mirror since a week last Tuesday. (Had an amusing situation a couple of weeks ago when a police car in a hurry caused lane 3 to empty dramatically as everyone twigged the blue lights approaching fast in their rear view mirror and braked and moved over. Apart from the lane hogger who had been slamming the brakes on at every overhead sign in the average speed section around leeds and resolutely continued to sit there for another 20 seconds with the police sat inches from their bumper with the all lights going. I swear the whole car jumped when the driver realised. I presume that if the police hadn’t had somewhere to be they’d have pulled that driver for driving without due care and attention.)

It's not your job to keep others at the speed limit. Stay in the travel lane until your exit comes up, or you are passing the car ahead of you.

You WERE controlling how fast other people could go by hogging the passing lane. YABVU.

Her turn had to be much farther than a mile if the car behind her had time to be behind her and flashing and then go around her in the other land and pass her up. MAYBE, by the time the "drama" was done, she was within a mile, but before that? No way.

Whilst there’s no condoning the other driver’s speeding, your DH is spot on. You should have pulled over as you were not overtaking.

Do you often “police” other drivers on the road? I ask as I genuinely think you need to be careful - one day you may do it to the wrong person, who will react very badly and you could be on the wrong end of some kind of road rage incident.

So many people lose all sense of rationality and awareness when behind the wheel of a car and it doesn’t take much to wind these people up. By behaving like the motorist’s version of a keyboard warrior and taking deliberate steps to aggravate someone who has already demonstrated being incapable of making sensible choices given they are speeding and tailgating, is not a clever idea and next time could have far more serious and negative consequences.

The speed limit thing is a red herring here. If OP has passed signage like this indicating that left lane is for X and right hand is for Y then they should be getting into the correct lane, not shuffling back and forth to accommodate overtakers. (Yes, even if the sign didn't specifically warn "Get In Lane")

YABU...

It doesn't matter, the person behind signalled they needed to get past. Whether they were an arsehole or a parent trying to get to the hospital.

You had enough time to do it safely.

You were in the wrong

You need to google ASD black and white thinking.

This was a grey situation. Yes he broke the speed limit, but people do weird stuff all the time. You can't control the world.

Why have you asked the question if you are so convinced you're right?

This 100%

For all those blaming the op for the pricks illegal manoeuvre - that is NOT her responsibility. That is the sole responsibility of the person who decided who speed/undertake

A lot of people replying here should not be driving at all if they don't have the patience to wait (at the speed limit!) for someone turning off to the right.

Your DH is right, you’re wrong.

Have you really never seen an idiot pull a dangerous manoeuvre just before a slip road/ road splitting? Just because someone who clearly had no interest in following the laws of the road managed to complete the manoeuvre doesn't mean you, who was not there, know what the distance was.

I have seen people pull this kind of move literally on a slip road.

Nah, I’m with OP on this one. She needed to be in the right lane to turn. It can be important to change lanes in good time, otherwise you risk not being able to change lanes due to the volume of traffic in the right hand lane so end up missing your turn. So unless she was changing lanes ridiculously early then she’s right. However if I was driving I would have moved over, assuming it was an option without missing my turn, because I wouldn’t want that kind of driver tailgating behind me.

Is it though? Or is it people tailgating and speeding that cause accidents?

OP wasn't on the outside lane of a motorway though, she was on a dual carriageway that was splitting off and she was on the lane to turn right, we don't know how far from the junction it was but your post isn't the same situation, maybe read the OP

In the wrong bloody lane ffs!
Your driving clearly leaves much to be desired.