To think the majority of England need retraining on how to drive on a motorway

[afternoonwater]

So I've just been on a trip from Dover to the North and back again.
I learnt to drive in England but I have driven more of my life in Europe.
WHY THE HELL DONT PEOPLE MOVE OVER TO SLOWER LANES?!
Honestly, the amount of people that just sit in the middle when the left lane has about 2 miles of nothing in... or are driving slower in one of the middle lanes than the left lane over....
Or just sits in the right most lane for absolutely no real reason other than they can?
It stops people from actually being able to over take safely and just conjests the whole road. No wonder you all have road rage 🤣🤣

It's not just on motorways. The standard of driving generally is awful. Everyone seems to have forgotten how roundabouts work and why it's good to indicate.

the issue is that drivers don't have motorway driving lessons in the first place. every civilised country makes motorway driving part of driving lessons. It's no wonder it's often so substandard here.

don’t start me off. No one seems to know how to drive a roundabout, mini ones in particular. We have a main road with a run of 5, give way people GIVE WAY.

driving on motorways scares me now, in particular the M25. There don’t seem to be any rules follows. Much prefer it in France.

my theory for here is that people couldn’t get tests in covid, you’re still lucky if you can get a test at all so they just haven’t bothered.

But I learnt (not motorway I must admit) in England and yet I'm still capable of understanding basic common sense of lanes? 😅 I've always moved over because it just makes sense...
And seeing the different between where I live now vs England you can see the difference it makes in traffic (granted there is a higher volume of cars, however the point still stands)

It seems to me people that drive small cars, have poor driving skills.

I completely agree re lane discipline but frankly as a woman in her 60s who stared driving in the early 80s, I have to say that motorways have changed enormously since then. So seriously, maybe some people do need a bit of updating.

I’m OK on motorways - it’s flaming spiral roundabouts I dread.

I don’t think the majority of people are in the wrong lane in the motorway, the problem is that one person doing it holds a lot of people up.

Rubbish.

I find just the opposite but I wouldn’t claim it’s a scientific sample.

A fair number of people driving on UK motorways didn't learn to drive in the UK. Just sayin'.

Oh I can beat all the lane range motorway stories.

twice, twice I tell you, in the last month I have witnessed (and almost bloody crashed into on the second occasion) people (bloody idiots) stopping, yes actually stopping at the end of the slip way coming onto the motorway. No the motorway wasn’t at a standstill. One was coming on from a service station and was literally waiting like you would on any regular junction

Having recently spent a 4 hour journey each way on the motorway my gripe is....

Despite it being illegal to do so and at times dangerous, if you're going to mess about with your mobile device at least try and stick to one lane and not wander over the lines forcing other drives to get caught up in your stupidity.

Ha ha. Exactly the opposite. People learn on small cars, then they buy the "obligatory" SUV and can't drive it because it is much bigger than they are used to.

And I get bored with the whole middle lane sitting thing. Yes it's annoying but I find lorries overtaking each other at slow speeds are worse.

I find it increasingly hard to overtake the seemingly endless crawl of lorries. I find if you dare try to you can go for over 6 or 7 miles being unable to get back in to the left, leaving me in fear of missing a junction.

I've also found men in vans and those cattle ranch bull bar trucks get extremely aggressive now - tailgating and flashing even in the areas with 70mph speed cameras on the M25. I've taken to letting them past to get flashed but what is the point? What do they possibly gain? More to the point, do the police ever actually stop the BMW and Audi speed-freaks who overtake and undertake seemingly as erratically and with as little distance to the car in front or behind as they can?

WHY THE HELL DONT PEOPLE MOVE OVER TO SLOWER LANES?!

Technically no such thing as slower lanes on the motorway, they are all the same speed limit.

But that’s just me being a picky arse. I know what you mean. Middle lane hoggers should be blown up.

But those driving small cars are usually timid little people, they crawl along, hesitate to manoeuvre and cant park for Toffee ! 🤣🤣

Hyundai I10/Honda Jazz drivers!!!

The low standard of driving in this country drives me nuts. I drive a fair bit in Europe and it's so much better (other than Italy where they're all bonkers)

I've seen people come off slip roads right into the outside lane twice in the last few days with no cars in the inside or middle lanes.

Cars indicating right to go straight on at roundabouts. Is this a new thing i've missed? I have been this quite a lot recently.

I agree, but I was also surprised in France this summer that there was a lot of lane hogging going on. Used to love driving on French motorways but they seem to be losing their lane etiquette as well!
Belgium was a free for all, as was Spain…

Agree! I am always surprised at how few people know this, but cars shouldn't queue before a junction exit or lane closure! Traffic should use all available lanes until they aren't accessible and then flow into a zipper merging. But no, people cannot help themselves and queue for miles and miles before the actual junction and then get pissed off when people 'cut in front of them', but don't realise that actually they are just causing even more traffic.

Stop queuing!

Yabu. There aren't any slow lanes on UK motorways. 70mph applies to all.

Although you're the one raging about roads

What about all the BMW and Audi wankers - they're not "small cars" yet many have close to zero driving "skills"!

There aren't slow lanes, and yes, the 70mph does apply to all. But also according to the highways code, you should always drive on the left lane unless you are overtaking and you should return to the left lane once you've overtaken.

5. Lane discipline (264 to 266)
264
Keep in the left lane unless overtaking.
If you are overtaking, you should return to the left lane when it is safe to do so (see also Rules 267 and 268).

So people constantly driving in the middle lane at a constant speed and not overtaking are in the wrong.

It's not just lorries sitting abreast for miles, they're also now more likely to drive right up your bum with no stopping distance - I think they're all living on cruise control so just want to barge other vehicles out of their way.

It’s BMWs that are the worst drivers by quite a long way.