Heading down the M1 Sunday, there was some traffic on the road but not particularly heavy.
Middle lane pretty solid lane of cars doing about 60.
Outside lane pretty full with cars doing 80+ packing behind the occasional 75'er holding them up.
Inside lane mostly empty except for occasional vehicle doing 50-ish.
Large number of vehicles using all three lanes to under/overtake as necessary to make progress.
Needless to say there are no police patrols now so the road has become in effect self-policing (or non-policed) and multi-lane highways ala America seem to have become an accepted fact...
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Funny you should mention this as I was going up the M1 from London late last night & same (albeit probably quieter) was going on.
Having recently spent several weekends motoring in France, they seem to have got their lane discipline sorted - it is nigh on impeccable over there.
So what can we do to improve matters? Without enforcement of the rules, as you say, it would seems that the only way to make effective progress is to sometimes undertake in as non-aggressive a manner as possible.
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...and it's the centre lane hogs who cause the outer lane bunching which results in "high speed accidents". If they allowed the road to flow more freely by moving over, then I am sure accident stats would fall considerably. But I often imagine them sitting there thinking "I'm driving within the speed limit so what's the problem?"
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...and it's the centre lane hogs who cause the outer lane bunching which results in "high speed accidents"
I'm always puzzled by the way some people blame others for the consequences of their illegal and excessive speed. Observe the speed limits and follow ata safe disdtance, and there won't be any bunching.
Middle lane hogs are a nuisance, but the accidents are caused by the speed-hogs
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Accidents are caused by bad driving and pure bad luck. Speed may on occasion be a contributory factor. People driving without due care and consideration (e.g. middle-lane hogs and those who drive at unsafe speeds, whatever the speed limit) are hazardous. Adherence to speed limits is highly desirable, but it is only one of many factors in minimizing the risk of accidents. It is good driving that we need, and hogging the middle lane of a motorway is emphatically not good driving.
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Hear hear Roger. The only thing I would add that the way many people drive on busy motorways if you leave a "safe" distance in front of you it'll very quickly be taken by someone else. Sometimes it feels like you're going backwards in order to maintain a safe gap!
Terry
"Just because I don't care doesn't mean I don't understand"
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Terry,
I do leave a safe distance and people do jack in front of me and this INFURIATES me.
Sometimes I find myself closing the gap to stop it then I have to think, hang on, I am compromising my own safety here and then I back off again.
Major contribution to road rage me thinks.
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Well if you want people to move over to the inside lane then you have to willing to let them out again when they want to overtake a lorry - can't have it both ways I'm afraid.
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OP
Who says I don't? I always do, because I get really peed off when others block me in.
Terry
"Just because I don't care doesn't mean I don't understand"
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Wasn't a dig at you Terry, sorry if it sounded like that.
From my own experience on the motorway there seems to be vast numbers of people who will refuse to let you out of the inside lane. Sometimes I wonder if it would be easier to join the middle lane crawler brigade rather than attempt to use the motorway properly.
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Thommo
I'm 100% with you.
Terry
"Just because I don't care doesn't mean I don't understand"
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Accidents are caused by bad driving and pure bad luck. Speed may on occasion be a contributory factor. People driving without due care and consideration (e.g. middle-lane hogs and those who drive at unsafe speeds, whatever the speed limit) are hazardous. Adherence to speed limits is highly desirable, but it is only one of many factors in minimizing the risk of accidents. It is good driving that we need, and hogging the middle lane of a motorway is emphatically not good driving.
Roger, I think we mostly agree here -- I agree that middle-lane hogging is bad.
But breaking the legal speed limits is not good driving, regardless of whether the driver thinks that it is safe on those conditions.
I take the view that the first priority of any driver is to take what steps they can take on their own to reduce accident and risk .. and only then to criticise others.
Unfortunately, there are some drivers (particularly on motorweays) who intentionally set out to ignore the legal requirements, and create a dangerous situation by hugely increasing the speed differential betwen them and others ... and then blame law-abiding drivers for not facilitatiing their illegal speeding.
When everyone sticks to the legal limits, speed differentials are minimised ... and that greatly reduces bunching and lane changing.
It takes only one egotistical clown who think he has a right to drive at 90mph and that everyone else is obliged to make way for him, and either he ends up driving on other people's tails or he causes masses of unnecessary lane-changing.
As someone else pointed out, some drivers hog the middle lane because they know no better ... but part of the resaon that some people do that is that because of the speedsters, it becomes too difficult to pull out.
Of course speed is only factor in causing an accident, but it is a factor, and it can be a major one ... which is why I find it rather sadly amusing to listen to folks who acknowledge this bit of dangerous driving and then blame everyone else.
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Middle lane hogging happens both because drivers would rather sit in that lane than pull in to the slow lane and because of simple failure to be properly alert.
I am sure we have all seen examples of drivers who drive along an almost empty road in the middle lane. There is not a car in sight in the slow lane. It is almost as if they have dozed off.
Choosing not to pull in is caused I think by a recognition of the trouble of pulling out again. I am sure I am not alone in sometimes having stayed in the middle lane when there is quite a distance to the next vehicle in the slow lane, because I do not want to have to then sit behind that vehicle for 5 minutes while I wait for some kind soul to let me pull out.
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An important distinction which I agree with joe. Unfortunatly that distiction is not made very often and both groups are lumped together as 'middle lane hoggers' To my mind it's those that refuse to let others pull out, overtake on the inside and/or tailgate that should be castigated more than joe's second catagory of 'middle lane hoggers'
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NoWheels
Thanks for your considered response.
I generally adhere to speed limits, although I confess to going with the 80 mph flow on almost all UK motorways. On more than one occasion, I have broken the speed limit in order to avoid a dangerous situation, the most recent instance being to get clear of a person who was determined to pull onto the motorway without regard for my speed, her speed, or an impending collision. She was just about as dangerous as the person a while back who pulled onto the motorway from the hard shoulder at 10 mph -- a speed that could have killed. Imagine my dismay when my co-driver did exactly the same thing later in the trip.
I understand the arguments for staying in the middle lane for fear of being trapped in the left-hand lane, but I don't have a lot of sympathy with those who use them. If more people used the leftmost lane available, motorway driving would be altogether safer because the way ahead would be clearer and, not insignificantly, there would be a great deal less frustration and anger about. It is abundantly clear that middle-lane hogging causes an awful lot of people an awful lot of grief ? it's top or near top of all the "What annoys you most?" motoring polls.
I use the left-hand lane whenever I can, often after overtaking middle-lane devotees on an otherwise empty stretch, and of course most of them take no notice of the hint. I'm still fond of the idea of making the surface of the left-hand lane super smooth and silent, the middle lane average, and the right-hand lane rough and noisy, just to encourage people to do what the Highway Code advises and what the police would enforce without hesitation if only they were more numerous and visible. If the driving test extended to motorways, you would fail if you hogged the middle lane.
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after doing a few thousand miles over the last couple of weeks I've come to the conclusion that the problem could be solved by raising the ridiculous restriction of lorries speed. Nobody can use the left lane because the difference between a car and 56mph is too high. If two lorries are passing then that only leave one lane. If they were allowed to travel at 70-80 then cars could share a lane without having to constantly overtake.
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Saw something on the M60 anticlock this morning on the approach to Stockport that I have never seen before, either as a driver or a passenger, and that was 3 different matrix advisory speedlimits on the gantry spanning all 3 lanes. They were 20, 40 and 50, due to an obstruction on the hard shoulder. Have only ever seen all 3 signs showing the same limit in the past.
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Shame this is turning into a speed thread - there are plenty of times on busy motorways when the maximum possible speed is below the legal limit, but best progress is made in Lane 1/2 due simply to poor lane discipline.
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Highway Code, para. 238, Lane Discipline
You should drive in the left-hand lane if the road ahead is clear. If you are overtaking a number of slower moving vehicles it may be safer to remain in the centre or outer lanes until the manoeuvre is completed rather than continually changing lanes. Return to the left-hand lane once you have overtaken all the vehicles or if you are delaying traffic behind you. Slow moving or speed restricted vehicles should always remain in the left-hand lane of the carriageway unless overtaking. You MUST NOT drive on the hard shoulder except in an emergency or if directed to do so by signs.
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I don't think people _refuse_ to let you out from the inside lane. It's just another example of bad driving, like driving in the middle lane.
imho people drive in the middle lane because they're not confident enough about driving to cope with all that lane changing, using mirrors etc. etc. etc. You see them driving at midnight up an empty motorway in the middle lane. As does Roger, I come up the inside lane, move across 2 lanes and then go back to the inside lane, and they don't seem to notice.
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I don't think people _refuse_ to let you out from the inside lane. It's just another example of bad driving, like driving in the middle lane.
Agreed, mapmaker. Many times I've become stuck in lanes 1 or 3 because there is a solid line of nose to tail traffic sitting in lane 2. Their logic is no doubt to stay in lane 2 because it's difficult to get out of lane 1. But that is because they are all sitting in lane 2....
And then, of course, your junction looms and you are stuck in lane 3 because there is a juggernaut somewhere on the horizon and lane 2 is solid with lane hoggers. Cue outbursts of self-righteous irritation when "rude BMW" cuts into lane 2 to get off the motorway....
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As part of my challenge to myself over the past few weeks to get over 400 miles out of a tank of petrol (I managed 406 last week!) I have been spending a great deal of time in lane 1 and I have to say that I don't find it difficult to nip back into lane 2 to overtake slower lane 1 vehicles. It's all about observation and planning and adjusting your speed accordingly and it can be done.
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I think part of the problem is that Lane one is often regarded as 'the slow lane' by the learner, inexperienced driver or just downright ignorant. As a result, perhaps these people don't want to be seen to be in the 'sad lane'?
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I have no worries about being in the 'sad' lane, but I do feel guilty when I do make it to lane 3 as I stick to 70 and feel guilty that I am holding up those behind.
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"I have been spending a great deal of time in lane 1 and I have to say that I don't find it difficult to nip back into lane 2 to overtake slower lane 1 vehicles. It's all about observation and planning and adjusting your speed accordingly and it can be done."
Exactly. You don't have a "right" to be let out, the car overtaking has right of way. When I find myself stuck in lane 1 (or 2) I curse myself for not having anticipated the situation - surely that's what good driving is all about. However, good observation also extends to noticing that the vehicle you are approaching is also gaining on the one in front of him and so common courtesy should dictate that you allow room for his manoeuvre too, if it is safe to do so.
Unfortunately, you cannot assume that anyone around you is observant enough to drive to the same standards.
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