To flash at middle lane huggers?

[WhatMummyMakesSheEats]

it really angers me how many people don’t know how to drive on the motorway. Especially the M25.

Why are there so many people who just sit in the middle lane and don’t move over? I don’t want to undertake people. So if I’m being made to slow down by a middle lane hogger I’ll flash at them to move over. More often than not they will move to the outside lane, so they obviously know where they should be?!

I do want to add that I also hate people who weave and undertake but I think they are just aggressive drivers and also if no one hogged the middle lane they wouldn’t be able to!

Our local police force actually come out on to the motorway by us, and tell dumb middle lane hogs to move over, with electronic messaging on their back window. Surprised they have the inclination to do this.

So just wait a minute.
And any fucker who flashes me is certainly not going to move me out the way.

How obnoxious can you be ffs?!

Exactly this!!!

You don’t drive a BMW or a Merc by any chance do you op?

I must drive on completely different motorways to other people, because I’ve never ever seen the M25 with two lanes empty on the left and the third lane full of cars like the picture posted upthread. Even at the quietest periods there are lorries and heavy traffic in lanes 1 and 2 and lanes 3 and 4 are full too.

I also tend to drive on the M6 and similar motorways where there’s always heavy traffic in lanes 1 and 2 and lane 3 is full of cars but there’s no room to pull back out to the left. (Most of the time lane 4 is completely full too, and everyone just drives at a constant speed in whatever lane they’ve picked.)

Where are these motorways where there’s room for cars to drive in the left hand lanes? Every fucking motorway I’m ever on is far too chock full of traffic for that. No-one sensible is going to weave in and out of two lanes of lorries and vans at 55mph rather than driving in lane 3 at 70mph.

It’s the BMW drivers who are usually the MLMs to be honest! Followed closely by drivers of a Prius, in my honest experience. Then white van men and articulated lorries causing utter chaos and near collisions

I find it’s always the Audis…but BMWs too. And Teslas third.

@bumptybum thanks for the information

my friend and I was having this conversation yesterday. There are a lot of people who don't know how to drive on a 4 lane motorway

I was in left hand lane doing about 68 and coming off at next junction. Cars in lane 2 and 3 were both doing 55 to 60 on a very busy motorway. I had no time to go round them into lane 4 and back again for my junction. Should have I slammed my brakes on to do 50 to avoid undertaking the middle lane cars. Erm nope

cameras should be used for middle lane drivers

Flashing someone to move over is the most aggressive, intimidating thing to do to someone. If I think someone is hogging the middle lane, I just, um, over take.

If you are driving correctly on the inside lane and there is someone on the right going more slowly then technically going past them ( ie undertaking) is not against the highway code,.though it dangerous to do obviously and not to be encouraged

I don't really care about middle lane hoggers if the motorway is busy with a lot of fairly slow moving traffic on the left but I do care when it is quiet and there is pleanty of pace in the left most lane . It is really annoying

Recently I noticed a car sit in the middle lane of the M40 at about 75-80 mph for about 10 miles. It was late and not busy and I was in the left lane doing about 70-75mph. Completely clear in front of me for a long way.

It was fine for me as I was happy at that speed and wasn't planning on going any faster so felt no need to cross two lanes to overtake them

However over the course of a few minutes I watched at least 3 cars come up behind me, move out to overtake me in an appropriate way (albeit speeding) and be forced to very quickly move to the rightmost lane to overtake the middle lane hogger as well.

I figured the.lane hogger was just not paying attention but that after the third car in a few mins came up behind them and overtook them, that they would notice and move into my lane in front of me so I gave then space to do this.

Then the middle lane hogger inexplicably slowed down so I ended up having to decide whether to slow down a lot to get enough room to overtake them safely across 2 lanes ( as by then I decided I wanted to be in front of them) or to undertake. Since there was no one close behind me I decided to slow down and overtake properly. Just as well as they decided at that moment to pull back into the slow lane.

So yes they can be very very irritating but I would never flash or allow my annoyance to affect my own driving.

If someone is behaving in a way that is causing other drivers around you to drive more dangerously then that is the time to pay more attention and to drive defensively not aggressively. Anything else is just driving as badly as the lane hogger but in a different way.

Oh god yes those too!

Just wait til whoever is overtaking you has done that, and then overtake.

You shouldn’t flash them as this is dangerous too.

Edit - obviously I agree that hogging the middle lane is not on but you can only control your own reaction to it.

Undertaking isn’t ideal and yes can be dangerous, but I think not strictly against the Highway Code. It’s likely more dangerous to be driving close behind someone and flash them that to undertake.

Flashing is pointless; if they don’t think they’re doing anything wrong they won’t have a clue why you’re flashing 🤷‍♀️

The middle lane is the overtaking lane, if you are sat there, not overtaking anyone, you could be pulled over and fined. It’s not up to other people to just “use the other overtaking lane”, no!!! Don’t stay in the overtaking lane! If you can’t drive properly, you shouldn’t be on any road, let alone the motorway.

The middle lane hoggers are easy to spot on this thread 😂

Yes you can. Middle lane hugging is an offence.

I was driving in the dark in that area, in the middle lane late at night, nothing about. (I was worried about deer jumping out the verge). A car drove up behind me, flashed once, then again. I moved out the way (note to self: defensive driving). As the car went past me, I realised it was a police car! I do wonder if I would have been given a fine for being a middle lane hogger if I’d not moved.

I was about to post the same! It must be utter luxury to have the choice of driving in emptyish inside AND middle lanes!

Seriosly, though, middle lane hogging, where possible, is clearly wrong and annoying, but taking it upon yourself to tell them off by flashing isn’t right either. You’re not the transport police. Chill your boots, be a bit more patient. The road’s safer when everyone’s driving calmly.

I honestly think so many people don’t have a basic clue of the highway code. How they managed to pass their tests is a mystery.

My personal bugbears in my local area at the moment are:

1. people giving way when it’s their right of way. Eg, there’s a car parked on the side of the road. The person on the opposite side of the road has right of way but they stop, and sit there waiting for the traffic on the other side of the road to go around the car and through. This slows everything down as the drivers on the non right of way side sit there wondering wtf is going on, it’s not my right of way, before they finally go. This happens many times a day in my town.

2. another right of way one, people who don’t have right of way but are able to reach the parked car/traffic calming narrowing thing a split second before the person who does have right of way, just bowls on through despite the fact that they should wait.

3. speed. I’m not a crazy fast driver at all, but around here it seems very rare that ANYONE drives faster than 40mph on 60mph main roads, despite the fact that it’s perfectly safe to do so in many places. They crawl along at between 30-40mph, braking to go even slower on every slight bend or if a car comes the other way. This is virtually every time I drive anywhere.

Driving was a lot more fun 25+ years ago. Less cars, and those that were there seemed to generally understand how roads work. Now I don’t enjoy it at all.

I must drive on completely different motorways to other people, because I’ve never ever seen the M25 with two lanes empty on the left and the third lane full of cars like the picture posted upthread.

I drive on the M25 , literally DAILY @bymyleftelbow . Every single day.

And I see the “two lanes empty”, and third one full of cars … every single day.

OK so lane isn’t technically “empty” as I am in it. And there usually is a distant lorry ahead.

However every day I travel I see the phenomenon.

Why can’t people on here who are apologists for middle lane driving, just be explicit in doing so?

What you need to admit to yourselves is that you’re happy turning the M25 from a four lane motorway into a two lane motorway.

All you saying “get in the outside lane then”, why should someone have to cross three lanes to get into the fourth, JUST TO OVERTAKE?!

And then have to sit there for two or three minutes to pass all the frit drivers who call basic overtaking “weaving” and so who have to instead sit on the motorway for their entire journey in one lane?

Honestly, @WhatMummyMakesSheEats I think you’ve done us a public service starting this thread. No one on here is brave enough to admit that they just can’t be arsed to drive according to the Highway Code, and they just want to make as minimum effort as possible on the motorway.

So for those drivers it is “get on, find a cruising lane, sit there until I’m done. Then try and get off as close as possible to the exit lane irrespective of what traffic is in lanes 1 and 2”.

People flashing their lights and/or honking their horn to show their annoyance are the worst. Use these to be helpful not a dick. Seriously calm TF down. You are not the queen of the road.

Alex 'Boris' Johnson brought in fixed penalties for it, it's always been a finable offense as it's considered to be dangerous driving. Changing lanes is not dangerous if you do it properly, it's a very important skill to have if you are going to use motorways.

The law classes it as dangerous driving offense under the Road Traffic Act 1988.

It’s aggressive, distracting and dangerous too. Wankers.

have you ever drive on the m25? There are people driving in the third lane constantly, leaving one and 2 entirely empty and a huge queue in lane 4!

Regardless, I disagree. Even if I look in plenty of time and see someone is coming faster than me and I know that I won’t make it past the middle lane person fast enough without slowing them down, I wouldn’t pull out in front of them causing them to brake. If the person in the middle lane moved to where they SHOULD BE then I wouldn’t need to do that and slow the flow of traffic. I think it’s you who is a rubbish driver by that comment.