Driving too close on motorway

[E55BOF]

Arguably , if you have left room for someone to overtake on your left ( other than approaching a separation of carriageways where you were bearing right ) then you were in the wrong lane yourself .

You might argue that. However, I think what most of us are referring to is the bozo who lane-hops to 'make progress', never having a safe gap himself. You see a good deal of that dahn sarf where there are four lanes of traffic, all full. It may be different in Ayrshire...

 

[Istbclass]

I have always been of the opinion that Unless the person undertaking is driving dangerously and cutting You up etc then you are in the wrong lane, if there is enough space to pass you on the inside and pull out in front of you safely then you should not be in the overtaking lane. Many drivers don’t drive actively, they get in one lane and stay there, even if there is nothing, and I mean nothing on the near side lane, or they lack the ability’s to overtake so stay in the middle or outside lanes, down to a lack of training and lack of enforcement of the rules.

 

[E55BOF]

...if there is enough space to pass you on the inside and pull out in front of you safely then you should not be in the overtaking lane.

I entirely agree. In whatever lane you are in, in fact, not just the furthest right lane.

 

[zoros]

I think it's a mixture of:
Thumb in bum, mind in neutral.
Thinking the middle lane is the best place to be.....just in case of a blowout.
Being a tw^t.

 

[248cmr]

I used to tailgate all the time when I had a slow company car, for some reason the slower the car I was driving the more I felt I had to speed. I had a lot of road rage issues too, no idea why, traveling 80 miles on the motorway to and from work might have driven me mad.

One thing I always made sure of though was that I could see the road and cars ahead, usually through the car I was following, so that I could still see what was happening. If it was a pick up, a van or something larger I did always keep my distance. This is something a lot of people don't seem to take into account, I see no end of cars and trucks following a couple of feet behind other vehicles with no idea what's going on ahead of them

Nowadays I just can't be bothered so set the cruise control to 65 and let people pass me, I only ever saved a minute or two anyway.

Sent from my LYA-L09 using Tapatalk

 

[GeordieN]

just dont go undertaking a unmarked police car as i did, sounds bad but i came across a car on the highway in overtaking lane and another car in front of that. no cars in lane one, after about half a mile + i grew inpatient and indicated into lane one and accelerated undertaking both cars then indicated back into overtaking lane and then use left and right indicators to basically tell them to get out of overtaking lane. i then accelerated away and i noticed the black BMW was keeping up with me. lets say blue lights, layby and a decent conversation between us and i was on my way again. will add it was a female driver and her male colleague stayed in the car. I apologised but explained why i did it, she explained why she had sat in the overtaking lane in front of the other vehicle (not police and the reason she was in that lane).

 

[GeordieN]

My 10 year old son had his first driving lesson last year .

this should be standard, need a lot more education when younger. also should have experience on a skid pan too just to show them what actually happens when you run out of talent and grip lol. ( I have drove from 10 years old on grass, we had two cars , every day was a race )

 

[John N]

just dont go undertaking a unmarked police car as i did, sounds bad but i came across a car on the highway in overtaking lane and another car in front of that. no cars in lane one, after about half a mile + i grew inpatient and indicated into lane one and accelerated undertaking both cars then indicated back into overtaking lane and then use left and right indicators to basically tell them to get out of overtaking lane. i then accelerated away and i noticed the black BMW was keeping up with me. lets say blue lights, layby and a decent conversation between us and i was on my way again. will add it was a female driver and her male colleague stayed in the car. I apologised but explained why i did it, she explained why she had sat in the overtaking lane in front of the other vehicle (not police and the reason she was in that lane).

And what if you don't mind telling us, was the reason?

 

[GeordieN]

And what if you don't mind telling us, was the reason?

my reason was that they were sitting at 60mph in the overtaking lane with no traffic in lane one for over half a mile that i knew of as they were already there when i came upon them, after all this is against the law.
her reason was she had concerns about the vehicle behind her the way it was been driven. i didn't see any of this as it was being driven ok apart from been in the overtake lane when i came about them so can only assume he was been a **** beforehand. she did say he must of noticed the cameras in the back of the unmarked car at some point and then she noticed me coming down the road behind them.

 

[John N]

my reason was that they were sitting at 60mph in the overtaking lane with no traffic in lane one for over half a mile that i knew of as they were already there when i came upon them, after all this is against the law.
her reason was she had concerns about the vehicle behind her the way it was been driven. i didn't see any of this as it was being driven ok apart from been in the overtake lane when i came about them so can only assume he was been a **** beforehand. she did say he must of noticed the cameras in the back of the unmarked car at some point and then she noticed me coming down the road behind them.

Slight Post Deviation:

I would have thought that an unmarked car would have let the car behind overtake then follow for a while before either letting him go or pulling them over, she, to me was blocking the Overtaking Lane without good reason, but probably trying to get the Driver to do what you did, overtake on the inside, especially if the other Lanes were empty!

If the car behind her had a Dash Cam, there could have been problems for her (All Supposition of course)

 

[GeordieN]

Slight Post Deviation:

I would have thought that an unmarked car would have let the car behind overtake then follow for a while before either letting him go or pulling them over, she, to me was blocking the Overtaking Lane without good reason, but probably trying to get the Driver to do what you did, overtake on the inside, especially if the other Lanes were empty!

If the car behind her had a Dash Cam, there could have been problems for her (All Supposition of course)

think your correct and probably why i got off with it.

 

[DrNick]

Part of the issue (bad driving aside) is that there are too many cars on the road. It gets to a point where it is not possible to fit all the cars and a two second gap between them on the motorway. This state of affairs was never envisioned when the 2 second rule was touted.
Driving, Traffic, And The Two Second Rule
As it says in the article, the more cars that need to use the road, the slower the road will be once saturation is reached. At this point it will be human nature to reduce the average gap to either allow more cars onto the road, or to make the average speed faster for those already on it. Saturation is reached when there is 1 car every 2 seconds per lane.
Whats the answer?
More road, less cars, or take away the risk by letting technology take over. Only autonomous vehicles that can track the car in front and maintain a fixed (short) time to the car in front allowed on the motorway? I leave it to the panel to debate the social politics of this proposal...

 

[Quetzalcoatl]

In addition to not leaving enough space, one of my personal favourites is the "I've indicated therefore I can immediately occupy the gap between you and the car ahead without checking my mirrors" manoeuvre.

Nearly as impressive as "I'll pull in to a lane at 20mph less than surrounding traffic, even though I have already looked at you twice in my mirrors and waited until you were nearly level with me before signalling. You've got brakes, innit?"

Yes pal, that's obviously the way it should be..........

I try to avoid motorways........

 

[John]

In addition to not leaving enough space, one of my personal favourites is the "I've indicated therefore I can immediately occupy the gap between you and the car ahead without checking my mirrors" manoeuvre.

Or developing the theme... they get annoyed with you when you happen to be in that lane and don't somehow vaporise so they can move into it.

Takes a very special person, that.

 

[rf065]

Only autonomous vehicles that can track the car in front and maintain a fixed (short) time to the car in front allowed on the motorway? I leave it to the panel to debate the social politics of this proposal...

Sounds good in theory but the present technology would only make matters worse. Using Distronic for example, leave a two second gap & someone will take advantage of the space & slot in front of you, whereas a normal driver might lift off the accelerator to extend the gap to two seconds again, Distronic will apply the brakes which causes the "brake light ripple effect" behind.
Same when the car in front accelerates or changes lane making the gap longer than 2 seconds, a normal driver could apply more throttle as this happens, Distronic always waits for a couple of seconds too long before it reacts.
The safety margin built into autonomous systems makes them very slow to react to ever changeing conditions.

 

[DrNick]

You couldn't do it with current technology. You also couldn't do it with a mixture of cars with the technology and cars without. Motorways would have to become an integrated transport system, only available for those with the correct technology. An extension of those experiments being trialed with convoys of lorries. Its not going to happen overnight, but needs must...

 

[GeordieN]

Always said it, haulage companies should get tax breaks on vehicles used at night only, say 8pm to 5am when the roads are currently quieter.