O/P most importantly, people who stay in one lane, in your case the middle lane become less focused, they only look ahead and concentrate less as they aren't doing anything to keep their mind sharp.
Motorists who overtake, change lanes,using all available empty spaces, takes useage of all the mirrors, spacial awareness, and hopefully signal, etc and therefore concentrate far greater.
Rule of thumb, if more cars are in your rear view mirror than are ahead, and more cars are overtaking you, than you are overtaking, and there is empty space to the left, move over.
Yes, when necessary I will swoop over
|
|
|
I think davidh is trying to wind us up
Either that or extremely ignorant...
And there's a good reason you wouldn't do it in Germany - the Police would book you, I've seen 'em do it! (oh and much of the Autobahns are two lane anyhow!!).
|
As I've stated elsewhere, I drive to what the road conditions dictate and I personally find the 70MPH limit too low and I tend to nod off due to boredom - I need to drive fast to focus my attention ...
If I was on the inside lane doing 85MPH and there was "a mimser" in the middle lane, I would undertake him/her.
You can all get back on your trollies as there are no motorways in Cornwall and so I haven't done this for years.
Dog.
|
|
|
|
I think davidh is trying to wind us up so I won't comment further.
Agreed.
|
It entirely depends on circumstances.
During daytime, I usually stay at middle lane (doing 75ish) because lane 1 is reserved for trucks (in reality) and it's an irritation to juggle between lane 1 & 2 every now and then.
However, on odd hours (eg. I was cruising on M1 on Saturday at 2 am) the motorway is nearly empty and I see no reason for hogging up middle lane.
|
Yep, this is the kind of driver orientated descision making I was rather clumsily trying to illustrate. Thanks Movilogo, I think you've spotted what I was aiming at.
|
|
|
|
"As I say, ignore the other people on the road -- why are YOU breaking the HC?
"Give us a good reason, and we can take things from there."
Here's the reason he does it (maybe not a good reason):
"I like the middle lane of the motorway.It suits me. I get a good view of all the traffic around me and I'm..."
Notice the frequent use of "I" and "me". No-one else matters, certainly not the Highway Code.
"I think davidh is trying to wind us up" - either that, or he's self-centred and arrogant.
Or maybe he's winding us up AND he's self-centred and arrogant. Otherwise, why make the posting in the first place?
|
|
www.lum.co.uk/mloc/ has all you need to know.
|
MLOC - love it!
More motorists should join!
Given that there are already 10 million members in the M25 area alone, we are looking at a major political force in the next election. Middle of the road politics for evermore!
|
DaveH aka Victor Meldrew? - your (Troll/mimser?) post just shows, if it is genuine, how selfish a person you are.
|
Okay, hands up. I've made a mistake here with this post. Sorry. Probably should have thought about it a bit more. I genuinely thought the post would sink without trace. I didnt expect it to provoke as much ire. I'm especially astonished that someone has carried with them the grief of a forum spat elsewhere on the net on this subject!!
I stand by my like of the middle lane.
I was trying to elbow the "self appointed, knights of the road" I think I've done that.
Everyone knows that in reality we should all stick by the HW code and keep left. Thats a no-brainer and a given.
Every so often, and I admit it, I make a concious descision to ride the middle lane. I even admit to "forgetting" to move back over. Perhaps I should go for driver re-training I dont know.
My beef is with those who overly "swing all over" the carriageways and speed (cos I'm actually doing an actual 70) in an attempt to "show you how its done"
On the M62 west bound last night from Goole to Leeds - driving rain. Anyone who knows that stretch will know that some kind lorry driver has put a groove in the inside lane all the way from Goole (when I join the m/way) to Leeds. Said groove collects a considerable amount of water and corrupts the steering.
I felt justified in riding the middle lane. Also, periods when there are junction after junction.
|
>>I felt justified in riding the middle lane.
It doesn't matter what you felt, what you did was wrong, and was plain bad driving. Middle lane hogging is a bad habit, for which there is no justification. Please consider ridding yourself of this vice.
It doesn't matter what speed you are doing, hogging the middle lane is indefensibly bad driving, and places you very firmly in contention for a king mimser award.
|
Symptomatic of the increasingly popular attitude on the roads.
Speed has been peddled by the powers that be as the root of all evil for so long now that bad driving in general has been trivialised.
"It's OK to sit in the middle lane because I'm sticking to the speed limit." is one I've heard many times. Oh, and "I wasn't speeding" was the first thing said by the driver of a car which had just rear ended my friend's on the motorway, as it was by the young lad who demolished the telephone box at the end of our street last year when texting his girlfriend on his mobile phone. Well, that's OK then, it was obviously divine intervention that caused you to destroy your car and a few grands worth of someone else's property.
I feel far less safe as a passenger in a car being driven badly than being driven quickly. Of course, both together are very scary indeed.
Cheers
DP
Edited by DP on 01/09/2008 at 13:51
|
On a related point; today is an excellent day to chack your speedo accuracy.
Find a 58-plate artic and follow him. [You do, very occasionally, find them in the middle lane too; so the freshly-crucified OP won't have to move over.]
He'll have brand-new tyres calibrated to the tacho/speed-limiter, 20 times more accurate than a car's; on a slight downhill, he'll be doing 56-57 max - and your speedo is showing......? Ahh...
[The alternative is to do 30.001 mph in N Wales - for the few that will still go there.]
|
|
Okay. I give in. Sarcasm firmly switched off.
I've aired my dirty washing here. Admitted to wrongly using the middle lane. You'll find no argument from me on that. I know its wrong to the highway code when I do it.
I WILL have in my driving career inconvenienced people out there even though I dont exactly hang around. Can anyone, perhaps Movilogo aside see that my argument/point is that sometimes people driving fast(er) than the speed limit see other people as inconvenient, selfish, mimserish? And ultimately its these people that are the hypocrites out there?
I wanted to know how many people thought speeding was okay. Some people must cos otherwise you wouldnt be "swing past me" in to the inside lane.
In strictly by the book mode, I wouldnt expect to catch anyone up thats doing the speed limit.
No, its not my job to slow people down and purposefully stymy them. I dont care what they do (I do really - be safe out there). I care what I do and how I react to the road and situations as they develop.
|
"An Internet troll, or simply troll in Internet slang, is someone who posts controversial ... messages in an online community, such as an online discussion forum or chat room, with the intention of provoking other users into an emotional response ..."
(Wikipedia)
|
Whos that trip-trapping across my bridge?
Thanks for that good old wikipedia.
Here's me thinking it was a discussion forum. You know, an exchange of ideas - I dont get some kind of kinky satisfaction from getting peoples "dander" up.
If you think I'm wrong about something - tell me. Educate me if you will. I've learnt a lot on here.
Lets not be vanilla. Talk sense, be honest. An emotional reponse is the best fuel for lively debate isnt it?
|
"Lets not be vanilla." Please can we have this English? Please tell us what medication you are on - so that we can avoid it!
|
>"Lets not be vanilla."
Never got the idea of vanilla as something bland, myself. It's a gorgeously subtle flavour, one of my favourites. I love getting a hint of it somewhere unexpected, like whisky or chocolate.
Ah, motoring link, ah...'vanilla' is also the Spanish word for a particularly light light goods vehicle.
};---)
|
>>I love getting a hint of it somewhere unexpected...
Try a pint of Marston's Firestoker!
|
>>I care what I do and how I react to the road and situations as they develop.<<
That's the attitude of a driver who is alert to his responsibilities to other road users, but forcing someone in the left hand lane travelling faster than you to move out and then back in across two lanes is being selfish
|
> I care what I do and how I react to the road and situations as they develop.
In isolation, a good attitude. But it doesn't have much to do with speed limits. Most of us - enforcement officers included - apply a little latitude to the absolute values of speed limits, and 75mph is far safer in most motorway settings than is 33mph (or even 28mph) in a busy town.
Where it becomes dangerous on a motorway is when someone insists on driving much faster than the rest of the traffic. Most days on the M40, I'll see something - usually black and German - barrelling up the right-hand lane only to have to brake abruptly when someone driving at a more normal speed fails to anticipate its arrival and moves out in front of it. The speed itself is not the problem - an alert driver on a deserted motorway would do it quite safely - but it's as inconsiderate of fellow travellers as hogging the middle lane.
|
|
|
|
|
|
