I think you made the right choice. I myself am a middle lane hogger, but that is because of my dislike of slowing down for lorrys when cars are passing in lane two or three. ----------------------------------------------- Torque means nothing without RPM
How fast is your personal road block? 60 mph? 65? 70? Do you make faster cars in lane 1 use lanes 2-3-2 to manoeuvre round, sorry overtake, you? At busy times are you proud of all that traffic bumching behind you?
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I myself am a middle lane hogger ..........
That doesn't bother me at all. I take that sort of behaviour in my stride. If I came up behind you I would merely overtake you and (if possible) sweep straight back into lane one. There's more to life than getting worked up about middle lane hoggers.
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L\'escargot.
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IMO these are some of the most dangerous drivers on the motorways.
Lost count of the times I have overtaken someone in the middle lane doing 56 sitting behind a lorry (also in middle lane overtaking), lorry pulls in to the inside lane and they immediately accelerate back to their preferred 70-75 and attempt to ovrtake on the inside despite the fact that I am also pulling back in to the space in the middle lane vacated by the lorry to clear the outside lane - some very close calls.
Perhaps the lorry going down the outside lane illegally was fed up with the car driver illegally obstructing the middle lane when the inside lane was clear of traffic.
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There is a difference between "hogging" a middle lane all the time, and doing so in the special circumstances described. It is not illegal to avoid a traffic hazzard such as a dangerously slippery inner lane.
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>> Lost count of the times I have overtaken someone in the middle lane doing 56 sitting behind a lorry (also in middle lane overtaking), lorry pulls in to the inside lane and they immediately accelerate back to their preferred 70-75
This is also interesting behaviour: having as an objective closing up on the next vehicle in the lane rather than aiming to maintain a given rate of progress. Speed changes seem often to be made without regard to what else is going on. If you do that, tell us why.
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>> There's more to life than getting worked up about middle lane hoggers. -- L\'escargot.
Quite agree. And I'd like to reassure Broomers that I'm not worked up at all. I'm just interested in how people reason that it's OK for them to reduce the capacity of 3+ lane dual carriageways/M-ways.
Of course, this would be a non-issue if overtaking on the left were allowed. But that's for another thread. Isn't it?
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I'm with Mad Maxy on this one. Apart from exceptional circumstances, cars should keep left, otherwise a 3 lane road becomes a more dangerous 2 lane road, forcing all overtaking vehicles, both fast and slow, into one lane. It can be quite hard to get past lane 2 hogs especially if like me you have a modest car, do not drive at warp speed, and do not want to nip into the tiny gaps between high speed lane 3 merchants.
Like MM, I don't get worked up over this. I just happen to think that it is selfish although it is probably done without thinking/malice. Mind you these days I tend to undertake lane 2 hogs if lane 3 is busy as IOM it is the less dangerous option. I try to make sure that I have an escape route if Charlie Buy decides to move left, and avoid doing so if there is no hard shoulder, or a stationary vehicle on the hard shoulder up ahead.
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And I'd like to reassure Broomers that I'm not worked up at all.
Sorry Mad Maxy, it wasn't directed at you nor in fact at any Backroomer. They just happened to be the (probably too dramatic) words which came to mind to express my own philosophy on the subject.
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L\'escargot.
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Sorry Mad Maxy, it wasn't directed at you nor in fact at any Backroomer.
Och, nae bother!
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I think you made the right choice. I myself am a middle lane hogger, but that is because of my dislike of slowing down for lorrys when cars are passing in lane two or three. I fully agree with your comments about Artics making indents into the road surface. In lane one this can be quite a problem and affect steering, but not to a dangouse degree.
Well I'm not a middle lane hogger, so I would guess I spend a lot more time in lane 1 than you do, and I've never found a problem with the ruts left by lorries. I also avoid the issue of getting stuck behind them by keeping an eye on my mirrors as I approach them - starting from quite a long way back - and timing things so that I can pull out into a gap before having to slow down.
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Spot on, BB.
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>worn out carriageway
Why do I not seem to come across this with the same frequency as certain BRers?
>hogging the middle lane
Don't blame me when you're pulled over by a policeman.
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>worn out carriageway Why do I not seem to come across this with the same frequency as certain BRers?
Very much a matter of what you're driving and its condition. Certain cars, especially with slight wear in steering or front suspension, are susceptible to tramlining or something of the sort in these lorry ruts, especially in the wet when it can occasionally be quite alarming.
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.....and I've never found a problem with the ruts left by lorries.
It certainly was a problem in UNO we had in the family.
Unfortunately it was so so down on power at the end of its life that it lived in lane one and I can assure you, that with its skinny wheels and narrow track, it was really hard work keeping it aimed correctly.
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It is very difficult to maintain 70 mph, never mind 80 mph, if one keeps to the left as much as possible, if one is driving on a busy motorway. This is because of all the traffic that travels perpetually (nose to tail), it would seem, in the outside lane. It makes it very difficult to pull out and overtake the endless lines of lorries that are in the middle lane, endlessly trying to overtake slower lorries in the inside lane.
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I don't recognise that description of a motorway, Machika.
Although I accept that sometimes the third lane is bumper to bumper cars; at which point I am delighted to sit in one of the inner lanes and cruise at a constant 56mph with the lorries, instead of ranging between 25mph and 70mph.
I get there first, and I'm not tired when I do.
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>worn out carriageway
Why do I not seem to come across this with the same frequency as certain BRers?
Because we all drive on different parts of the system? I've noticed around junction 24 of the M62 is getting very bad with visible ruts in the inside lane. I'm really looking forward to that section being replaced!
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The M4 around J8/9 and 10 is particularly bad. A ready made aquaplane scenario in the rain.
I recall one of Evo magazine's long term contributors reckoning it was possible to drive his Lamborghini Gallardo pretty much from Wokingham to Maidenhead without touching the steering wheel. The ruts guide the car perfectly by all accounts
Cheers
DP
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I don't recognise that description of a motorway, Machika.
I see it frequently on the M1, on the stretch between Junction 24 and Sheffield.
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>> I don't recognise that description of a motorway, Machika. >> I see it frequently on the M1, on the stretch between Junction 24 and Sheffield.
Any motorway if you're out of luck, but especially the M6 from Birmingham northwards on a wet weekday afternoon (shudder). But I have to say the most terrifying motorway drive of my life was M4, mid eighties believe it or not, in a downpour on a Saturday or Sunday afternoon, heading east from Bristol... the overtaking lane was nose to tail with speed varying from 85 to a total standstill, no reason for the variations ever becoming apparent... a mass of brake lights and hazards, then everyone zooming off again in a cloud of spray. One of the very few times when I have moved to the slow lane out of fear rather than because it was empty....
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Middle lane hoggers !
Another reason why we dont need speed cameras and do need traffic police.
A mobile road block at 50 /60 mph is way more dangerous than properly diciplined driving at various speeds in various lanes. But the camera can only pick up the poor driver who accelerates quickly to get out of the way of the hogger !
Throw the book at them all ! Unless it is specifically done for a reasno, i.e. to avoid a hazard !
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middle lane hogging is down to a lack of awareness and a lack of confidence
the lack of awareness has been nicley covered by Bazzabear above
the lack of confidence is the unwillingness or lack of ability to use your vehicles acceleration.. and your judgement of speed..to fit into other faster traffic in an outer lane...........so they sit all day in the middle one, it's easier isn't it. An enormous lack of awareness of what else is going on around them.
ignorant, unhelpful and illegal....(although very few traffic officers concentrate on it, because speeding is the big bad wolf that has been hyped up, isn't it)
(not aimed at the poster, because if you've got darned great puddles, you're going to want to avoid them aren't you)
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Yes, I should also have said that my comments are not aimed at the original poster. He was clearly in an extraordinary situation, and not adjusting your driving to suit such a situation would be idiotic.
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What about people who sit all day in the outside lane. They are surely just as bad?
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Only if they're going slower than one is oneself, surely? I agree that when they are they are seriously infuriating. Were I plod I would pull and terrorise them.
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Depends on what speed one is going at really. It is equally infuriating to have someone steam up behind you and sit so close to the rear of the car that the headlights can't be seen, when you are trying to overtake someone at 80 mph, say. These are the people who never get out of the outside lane and who expect everyone else to get out of their way immediately.
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Middle lane hoggers should all be banned from driving.
I almost always drive at 75 (70 on the sat nav) with cruise control on down the motorway during rush our to and from work, I spend about half my time in the inside lane and am perfectly capable of changing into the middle/outside lane without having to slow down or brake, and without driving up close behind the car I am aproaching in front.
What REALLY gets me mad is when there is nothing in the inside lane, and I have to change out quickly from the inside to the outside lane, because there is some idiot driving at 50-60mph in the middle lane for absolutly no reason, then you have to slam your brakes on in the outside lane because another 3 cars in front of you have also made a quick dash for the outside lane to avoid ramming into the back of the 60mph rolling road block in the middle lane.
Middle lane drivers cause traffic jams! If cars doing 61mph have to get into the outside lane to overtake the idiot doing 60mph in the middle lane, then depending on the traffic, that could cause 10-100 cars in the outside lane to all have to slam their breaks on and a hugeue que build up until the overtaking car moves back in. I drove from London to Preston on the M6 the other day, traffic was not heavy at the time, but the ammount of times I had to break to 40-50mph in the outside lane because of this drove me mental. The car overtaking may well be doing 61mph or whatever, but after a long line of cars have all had to break the cars at the back of the queue have to come to a near standstill. You must have all experienced this at sometime.
Then as already mentioed above are the complete middle lane donkey brains that constantly brake and accelerate to stat in the middle lane. You see a slow moving car ahead of you in the middle lane, so you pull out to overtake it and just as you are about to signal to pull back in the car that you just overtook shoots past you on the inside.... which of course you are gauranteed to catch up with again 5 minutes later, where the same thing will happen again when you try to overtake it again.
Then you have the idiots that will drive right up behind you in the middle lane beeping and flashing their lights when you are using the middle lane perfectly legally for overtaking a car in the inside lane, yet the outside lane is clear and they will not overtake you, they MUST stay in the middle lane no matter what, then they rocket past you at 90mph as soon as you pull in then slam their brakes on at the next car they come to in their way.
The other day I was pulling onto the M55 in the middle lane (joining from the right) at 3am where there was not a single car on the road, and a car joining from the left pulled out into my path without signaling at 50mpg. I beeped and flashed my lights and slammed my brakes on as I had no time to make an overtaking manouver and the car pulled back into the inside after quite some time where the woman driving stuck her finger up at me and laughed out of the window, finding it hilarious that I nearly slammed into the back of her car all because she was desperate to get into the middle lane of an empty motorway at any cost
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Depends on what speed one is going at really. Itis equally infuriating to have someone steam up behind you
Of course machika. I too dislike German autobahn-style aggressive tailgating. It is more dangerous actually than waddling slowly along in the middle or outside lane. But many in this country do the latter, so one is more often annoyed by them than the eager beavers.
What people fail to understand is that good driving is as much aesthetic as anything else. They tend to think it's something done by numbers and according to strict rules. In reality as any fule kno it is far too complex an activity to be run like that. Learn the rules, such as they are, and then concentrate on making progress in an elegant and unobtrusive manner. Satisfying, efficient and economical (by which I do not mean getting in the way to keep one's fuel consumption below some ideal figure or other).
A decent driver will arrive quickly without frightening the passengers or anyone else and without using the brakes hard or often. Better for the car and everyone's equanimity. A poor one on the other hand will subject the car and everyone's nerves to serious wear without making really good progress. Poor drivers are definitely the majority, but there are quite a lot of decent ones. There are these great moments on the road when one is surrounded by good drivers. They never last long though.
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A There are these great moments on the road when one is surrounded by good drivers. They never last long though.
Nice post, Lud. But how do you spot those 'great moments'?? Surrounded by good drivers???
But it is nice when you come across some considerate or polite behaviour, or someone goes out of their way to thank you, or freely admits they've made an error.
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But how do you spot those 'great moments'??Surrounded by good drivers???
You spot them because there is a flow and elegance to the way the traffic is moving.
As opposed to following someone going respectably over the limit down a bit of A road, then having to stop behind them at a roundabout because that's the way they negotiate roundabouts: come to a full stop, or nearly, whether they need to or not. Braking too heavily or for too long is one of the commonest driving faults.
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"A decent driver will arrive quickly without frightening the passengers or anyone else and without using the brakes hard or often."
Excellent - sums it up - like the aesthetic approach too
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