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It seems to me that middle lane hogging has become more of an issue since the introduction of speed limiters for trucks. The cars want to go slightly faster than the trucks, and don't bother moving over as then they might have trouble getting back out when they come to the next truck...this leads to a build up of traffic behind them, making it even harder to get out, so they stay put.
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I agree - there's not much point in exhorting drivers to pull over to the left unless there's some emphasis on allowing vehicles back into the middle lane when they need to overtake a slower vehicle.
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The same people who hog the middle lane in a hypnotised waddling line are the ones who don't let anyone out of the left-hand lane. If everyone drove at their own speed, overtaking, leaving decent spaces and staying out of the way of faster traffic, our motorways would be safer and less annoying.
But they don't. They follow each other nose to tail at the speed of the mimser at the front like scuttling processions of mating Pacific crayfish. About the same level of intellectual activity going on too.
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CAPHOL - Campaign Against Proposed High Occupancy Lanes. These will reduce road capacity at a stroke and increase congestion.
CAM4BL - Campaign Against M4 Bus Lane. For too long now this has reduced road capacity and increased congestion.
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Untill they sort out the tram lines poor road surface slow lorries on M20/A20,i am staying in the middle lane,so there
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No one will mind as long as you cruise at a speedometer 80, overtaking when necessary mmd. Just don't be a Pacific prawn.
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The drivers who annoy me are those in the middle lane who overtake at a speed only marginally greater than drivers in the left-hand lane. During my commute I regularly used to ovetake in the outer lane and then once I'd got past I was able to go straight from the outer lane to the inner lane in one manoeuvre.
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L\'escargot.
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Complete waste of money - make it an endorseable offence and issue a few thousand points/fines in a month and the message would go round like wild fire. Problem solved.
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No point whatsoever doing this.......complete and utter waste of time UNLESS you're going to enforce it.
Most police forces have dramatically fewer traffic cops than they ever used to, so there's really no one available to enforce it.
Only traffic cops can police motorways.
Why waste public money advertising this, because people who take note of motoring laws, highway code, govt adverts on road safety etc.....are not your target audience..
..it's the thick mimser with his brain in nuetral or selfish git who doesn't care two hoots about anyone else........neither of whom will pay/take any notice
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Agree with Westpig's and similar comments above.
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The Telegraph readers story doesn't surprise me.
To be honest I see so many of these plonkers I just pass them and get on with life.
I had two noticeable CLOG members on my trip to Cardiff last week.
Case one: Young female, looking nervous, chest up to steering wheel doing 60-65. Looked a candidate for 'I've just passed my test and am scared to death of motorways, I'll stay here so I don't have to change lanes'.
Case two: 20+ year old Mercedes van, larger than a Transit. Belching smoke and strugging to do 60 on the flat. Slight incline resulted in a speed of less than 60. Motorway quiet, but middle lane was his domain. Candidate for 'I don't give a toss that I'm inconveniencing everyone, I'm too stupid to use my brain and you lot aren't going to tell me what to do'.
Case One: Pass Plus should be obligatory for everyone, but it needs tweaking as not everyone lives near motorways - how about non-motorway licences? As an incentive subsidise the cost. Most new drivers see another £120 for something they don't need as a step too far, despite incentive of cheaper insurance. My first trip after passing my test was three junctions of the M1 at rush hour!
Case Two: Needs Mr Plod to pull him over - chances are the van wasn't roadworthy anyway, so two birds with one stone. Penalty for driver and dangerous vehicle off the road.
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I basically agree with you, daveyjp, but example 1 is not necessarily quite so simple.
The M4 near Cardiff has a number of junctions where Lane 1 becomes a filtering off lane, or the newly joined lane 1 soon filters off again. Unless you know the road well it is hard to work out which lane to get in. Couple that to the lovely hobby lots of experienced drivers have of blocking people who get stuck in a lane 1 filter and not letting them back into Lane 2, and you can see why for many the best course past Cardiff is to stay in Lane 2.
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. Couple that to the lovely hobby lots of experienced drivers have of blocking people who get
stuck in a lane 1 filter and not letting them back into Lane 2 and you can see why for many the best course past Cardiff is to stay in Lane 2.
If you get to the stage where you allow yourself to be blocked in......unless you're in very heavy traffic or driving something big and/or slow..... you're not driving properly. It means you haven't anticipated the changing conditions very well, have not upped your speed or been prepared to accelerate and/or given the other driver plenty of warning of your pre-planned intent.
Mimsering along with brain in neutral, then deciding at the last minute you want to change lanes, is not going to endear yourself the overtaking driver one little bit... and might cause them to not 'let you out'.......particularly if they themselves are being or are about to be overtaken.
The only reason their best option is to stay in lane 2 is their lack of awareness and lack of ability...which ought to be addressed......not just hog the middle lane.
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I often see a chequer-board effect of cars dotted in lanes 1 and 2 - seperated by say 200 -500 yards. typically driving between 56mph and 70.
Then, in lane 3 there is a constant string of nose tail cars who basically want to go faster.
No-one in lane 3 wants to pull over into the mire and "lose their space".
Lane 2 drivers don't want to get stuck in lane 1, but don't want to speed in lane 3.
Lane 1 are obviously travelling at what is a limited or sensible speed for them.
The enevitable result, after miles of tailgating, aggresive driving or use of full beam lights by lane 3 drivers wanting to go faster is someone will go charging up the left, until they reach a car they can't get round, and will try and cut in. If they're lucky, they'll have leapfrogged about 6 cars ahead.
The equally enevitable result is lane 3 will bunch up even more to prevent the above chap (and it is always a bloke) from getting in.
Outcome = extremely unsafe driving on a road that isn't all that busy.
Solution = ? If I knew, I'd patent it and sell it to the HA.
make lane 1 drivers go faster?
stop lane 3 drivers wanting to speed?
introduce speed ranges for each lane?
allow undertaking?
the only real solution is of course to enforce lane discipline in lane 2 and 3, and convince people that performing constant manoueveres in and out of lanes 1 and 2 is better than the status-quo we've now got.
But the problem with just demanding proper policing of this in my mind is of course the fact that people stuck in lane 3 compaining are all speeding anyway!
If police patrol car numebrs were to increase, they'd have you for speeding well before being a CLOG member.
Ian
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That is true in general, Westpig. But in this particular example, and doubtless others, there is nothing to warn you when you move into lane 1 that it will turn into a filter-off only in a few miles. By the time it does tell you, Lane 2 is commonly full of rush hour traffic, or locals who knew it wasn't going to continue as a real lane.
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A point people seem to be neglecting is that even if everyone is driving more or less perfectly, when traffic density reaches a certain level on motorways drivers are going to have to wait sometimes for a gap to nip into, whether to the right or to the left.
Are we perhaps sometimes gnashing our teeth prematurely, because there simply isn't a gap available? I know I tend to.
This is not a defence of middle lane mimsers or mating Pacific crayfish. We all know carp driving when we see it. But sometimes everyone, carp drivers and good ones included, is trapped in high-density traffic that makes real progress impossible most of the time, the sort of stuff that even real pushy hooligans have trouble getting through.
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Why not use the big high-level info signs when they're not needed for some other message? Having each one showing 'KEEP TO LANE 1 WHEN NOT OVERTAKING' might eventually get the message home (to some CLOGS/middle-lane mimsers.
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Perhaps the answer is overtaking on either side, it seems to work safely in other high volume traffic countries.
I think we need an OTOES (overtake on either side) campaign.
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Why not use the big high-level info signs when they're not needed for some other message? Having each one showing 'KEEP TO LANE 1 WHEN NOT OVERTAKING'
They do that on the M1 on very rare occasions. I guess within the last year, driving on it twice a day, I have seen "Keep Left Unless Overtaking" displayed less than a dozen times. I agree it ought to be a default message, when there is nothing else to display..
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............ 'KEEP TO LANE 1 WHEN NOT OVERTAKING' .........
Some drivers don't seem to know what "lane 1" is or what constitutes "overtaking".
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L\'escargot.
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>>If you get to the stage where you allow yourself to be blocked in.
The amount of traffic you see on the M4 and distance between motors makes it near on impossible to get out of the inside lane if you happen to be in it
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traffic you see on the M4 and distance between motors makes it near on impossible
At certain times of the day, London bound inside the M25, yes. And the already-mentioned outside lane turned into a bus lane is no help at all.
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CAPHOL - Campaign Against Proposed High Occupancy Lanes. These will reduce road capacity at a stroke and increase congestion.
Even better
CRAPHOL - Campaigning Roadusers Against Proposed High Occupancy Lanes!
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When traffic is heavy not changing lanes is probably more advisable and on the M42/M25 variable limit stretches they actually tell you not to change lanes.
Both the young girl I saw and the van were seen during quiet times - the girl at about 7am in the morning, the van late on Sunday afternoon. No reason for them to be in the middle lane at all as there was very little in the inside lane.
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On Saturday evening I was driving up the M1 and came across a blue Citroen C2, with no 'L' plates but with grey stickers on it saying "Motorway Tuition". The occupants looked every bit the instructor and a middle-aged female instructee, so I assumed that was the case.
The traffic was fairly light, quite a few cars about but there was ample, repeated opportunities to get back over into lane 1, which would have been appropriate in the conditions and at the speed she was travelling. But for all the time I could see this C2, perhaps two minutes at the speed I was going, it sat in the middle lane.
I can only assume that she is a timid driver and this instructor wants her to get a feel for motorway driving before introducing such advanced concepts as lane discipline and courtesy to fellow motorists?!
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M62 Sunday morning heading East after Ferrybridge - v quiet.
Queue of traffic in middle lane. A car, a new Jeep V8, Pug 206 (fully loaded), me. All in middle lane overtaking. First car is going a bit slower, so as it is catching the Jeep the Pug pulls out to overtake Jeep and first car.
First car pulls in
Jeep speeds up
Being full Pug can't compete so slows and pulls in behind Jeep
Pug had overtaken first car by now and quite rightly pulled into left hand lane to be in front of it.
Jeep then slows down whilst still in middle lane
Jeep SLOWED even more!
Pug was catching up the Jeep.
When Pug was on Jeep back bumper (and probably wondering what was going on) Jeep indicated left!
Jeep then accelerated, pulled in front of Pug and slammed on!! You could see the Jeep driver waving is arms about like a loon.
I overtook them both, Jeep driver was at least 70 and obviously thought he was there to control traffic.
Next junction Pug enters exit slip road and Jeep then dives in front of him again!
The Jeep driver wasn't fit to be on the road. From what I saw over about 5 miles the Pug driver did absolutely nothing wrong.
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