To have called DH out for hogging the middle lane

[Buildaaargh]

DH habitually sits in the middle lane when motorway driving and I find it deeply annoying. He says he doesn’t like being on the inside lane as it limits his options but I find it really inconsiderate. This weekend we did a long drive and I pointed out a couple of times when he was doing it.

He said he doesn’t criticise my driving (not entirely accurate) and I shouldn’t criticise his. I get that it’s annoying to have someone pick up on how you’re doing something, but I find it deeply selfish.

YABU - none of your business how he chooses to drive
YANBU - totally fair enough to say something

Mad view, but what I actually wanted to point out is that an offence is the same as a crIme, the full term being "criminal offences". If that's not strong enough for you, though, perhaps you could try "disgusting snd base violations of the most essential tenets of civilised behaviour"? Or something like that.

Do you mean the offside lane? Ie, the one on the far right?

@AmateurDad yes. The fastest lane. I tend to refer to the inside lane, middle lane and outside lane (or fast lane) - sorry if that’s not technically correct. Pretty obvious I’m not talking about people in the slow lane I would think too 🤔 😆

What do you say when there's 4 lanes ?

It's because people can't be arsed lane hopping around HGVs so they just sit in the middle lane. Generally it's fine when slow lane is busy with HGVs and you're driving 70.

What really annoys me is when the slow lane is quiet and people trundle along in the middle lane at 60. That's what's dangerous. Often on their phone as well. I saw one lady once counting money whilst in the middle lane at 65. Car clearly on cruise/auto steer.

Regularly. I live at the northern end of the motorway network in the UK. Apart from peak periods, I regularly see motorways half empty or fully empty.
I presume you live in the southern half of the UK, as my monthly trips 'down south' show me how busy all roads are south of Manchester.
We have different views and lived experiences, so there is no need to be rude about it.

I find that the M5 is also usually quiet at the times I travel on it, and is also very orderly - usually a queue of traffic all nicely spaced in the lefthand lane going at 70mph and occasionally overtaking.

And the M6, as you say, up to Manchester, hugely congested, with very few adequate braking distances.

I keep banging on about adequate braking distances, because I think this is the major source of annoyance with middle lane hogs.

If you're keeping a good eye on an adequate braking distance (a cursory glance at this thread and the motorways would show that most people don't...) then the issue disappears, because you change lane well in advance of any "hog", AND you don't cut back inappropriately, causing others to brake/concertina etc.

Safe stopping distance in the UK is 24 car lengths. You should not be pulling in front of someone or out from behind them without this gap.

There's no such thing as fast or slow lanes. I think that also causes twattish driving as they don't want to be seen in the 'slow lane' so sit in the middle lane.

Ok 👍🏻 TBH It’s pretty simple. If you’re not overtaking. Stay over to the left (in this country before anyone corrects me). Like I said. That’s just how I refer to them as I know how to use a motorway and am not worried about how I might look in the ‘slow lane’. 🤦🏻‍♀️ sometimes I am even going at 70 in the slow lane 😮

The alternative is to not sit for miles in the middle lane. To move back over to the inside lane once you have overtaken the slower vehicle, then to move into the middle lane once you approach a vehicle ahead of you. It’s not rocket science, or difficult. It is basic.

It's technically safer to stay in one lane. I heard it advised by a motoring organisation at one time. It's bad manners if you are driving so slowly the inside lane overtakes you, otherwise it's often a good policy if there are many slow heavy lorries there. What's dangerous is those people (male, I assume) who weave in and out of the lanes like idiots.

Do you have evidence of that? Both the AA and the RAC advise against it.

"What's dangerous is those people (male, I assume) who weave in and out of the lanes like idiots"

Misandrist, I assume.

I'd assume that both men and women are able ,and do drive, according to good practice on motorways.

My experience is that both men and women are capable of lazy driving and aggressive driving.

People who hog the middle lane just shouldn’t be driving on motorways. They don’t know how (despite it being very simple) and are a danger to other road users.

“Weave in and out of lanes” - do you mean overtake?

Of course it is dangerous

Sometimes I see cars cross 3 lanes in one go and repeatedly move lanes in both directions. (In a weaving fashion)

That's completely different from simply using the right hand lanes to overtake slower moving vehicles on the left, and then moving back.

If the most left hand lane is busy with Lorries, delivery vans with speed limiters etc, then sometimes using the 2nd from left lane to be consistently overtaking is the sensible option

Middle lane hogging (in my opinion!) is using the 2nd or 3rd lane for no apparent reason and not travelling at a speed any faster than the traffic to the left (sometimes they are slower) when it is easily possible to move left

It’s not technically safer to stay in one lane. It’s safer to drive in accordance to the traffic and road ahead. There’s a huge difference between weaving in and out of lanes and overtaking. If you’re too anxious or too much of a bad driver to overtake safely on a motorway then you shouldn’t be on the motorway.

If all the cars in the left lane are going at 50 and you are consistently overtaking them in the middle lane, then the middle lane is absolutely where you should be. The post in question related to one where it was claimed that in that situation you would constantly be weaving in and out of the left hand lane, which is obviously not the case.

Extremely inconsiderate to everyone else on the road.