Is it right?

[Deleted member 65149]

I've either been very unlucky lately, or there's a growing trend to move straight into and stay in the right hand lane on two-lane roads. I live on the outskirts of Peterborough that is surrounded by "Parkways": 2 or 3-lane dual carriageways. Now for years we've all had to suffer the drivers who find it necessary to pull over into the outside lane at least half a mile before they need to turn right. But a number of times in just the last few weeks I've encountered a new and even more exasperating breed.

When I've been happily cruising along at 70ish (you know what that means!) I've come up behind the right-lane driver at 60mph - the same speed as the well-spaced and few vehicles in the left-lane. So I sit there patiently waiting till we reach the next roundabout (often up to a mile away) expecting the mobile road block to turn right and leave me to return to my desired speed. But no, they go straight on at the roundabout and stay in the outside lane WHY? A couple of times they've also done the same at the next roundabout.

And in just the last week I've twice encountered even stranger driving. One particular section of Parkway opens up from two to three lanes immediately before a roundabout. First with a friend driving and the next day with me driving, the long-distance outside lane plodder has moved over to the innside lane within yards of the roundabout (no signals) and taken the first exit left . Seeing this once was crazy, twice in two days was mind boggling.

So I've come up with some possible reasons:
1) The Peterborough area is very popular with Eastern Europeans and perhaps they haven't got used to the idea of driving on the left, or
2) drivers are so concerned about vehicles that may enter the Parkway from slip roads they want to keep well away from them, or
3) these are drivers who will soon be on holiday in countries that drive on the right so they're getting in some practice before they go, or
4) they're total imbeciles.

But then last week another friend (yup, despite rumours to the contrary, I do have more than one friend) drove us into town in his C180. We turned right into the last section of Parkway leading to the city centre which is about a mile long. At the end of that section, which has no other roads leading into it, the road markings tell drivers to be in the left lane to go to the city centre, where we were heading. But on turning into the Parkway, my friend immediately went into the outer lane even though the inner lane was empty and he wasn't driving fast! I had to ask him why. He replied that he didn't know, it was just habit. He doesn't fall into any of the categories of drivers I listed above; he's an English 32 year old 'Solutions Development Director ' (whatever that might be, but the title impresses me) with a big international company, and is always ferried around in taxis when on his many overseas trips.

So I have to ask again: WHY DO THEY DO IT? Answers on a postcard please.

 

[Dieselman]

People seem to follow the latest faddy trend very quickly now and I too have noticed this on motorways...the right hand lane or nothing.

Often there is a Sat-nav mounted right in the middle or slightly higher than centre of the windscreen.

Left lanes are for lorries...

One of the most notorious misuses I see is at a motorway off slip straight onto a dual carriageway.
The left hand motorway lane (4th lane) widens into two lanes and then bends left, splits into another lead off lane then right as it passes under the motorway.

The scared sheep can't seem to pull left into the left lane as it forms so end up stranded in the outside lane doing 40mph with a long queue behind and other traffic passing on the inside at 70+mph.

Shooting them would be a waste of a good bullet.

 

[wooddoor6]

Followed one of these right laners this week, got fed up and undertook at one of the islands, after a further mile of duel carriage way, me in the left lane and numpty in the right lane 200m behind me, I pulled over to turn right at the next island and got flashed and hand signals from said numpty as if my driving was at fault.
I would go for option 4 above

 

[Dieselman]

What is with the other latest stupidity of switching your rear fog lights on when it's raining?


Great for dazzling following traffic...

 

[MOCAŠ]

Everyone knows the inside lane is for losers. End of.

 

[Deleted member 37751]

Option 4 for me.

 

[edgersoldchap]

It's satnavs that are part of the problem - they tell you to stay in the right (or left) lane far too early for the roundabout or filter approaching. We all know how blindly people follow instructions from them even if their own eyes are telling them something different.

 

[219]

So I have to ask again: WHY DO THEY DO IT? Answers on a postcard please.

I thonk you nailed it with your no 4 theory

 

[GordonTarling]

Don't they know that the outside lane is reserved for MB drivers only?

 

[E55BOF]

I thought it was for BMW drivers only. So do many BMW drivers.....

 

[Dryce]

Don't they know that the outside lane is reserved for MB drivers only?

Ahem.

You swapped the M and the B round the wrong way and missed out the W.

 

[guydewdney]

Some parts of some motorways are in an apalling state, and the lorrues have tramlined the carp out of it, so in those bits, if im driving at 60ish im afraid i stick to the middle lane (ducks and runs)

But otherwise I do pull left (ooh err missus)

 

[sinewave]

Undertaking is illegal!

However..................... if subtle lane changing is done early enough the law does allow for traffic in different lanes to move past it's adjacent lane, more so for slower moving ques but that would be spliting hairs.

 

[baxlin]

On the 15 mile stretch of dual carriageway near me, up to it being repaired a month or so age, there was a viscious dip in the road, where the surface had sunk. It only affected the outside lane, and was only a few yards long. Fine if you knew it was there, as, regardless of traffic and/or speed, you made sure you were in the left lane at that point.

It got really bad, so while they were marshalling their forces to repair it, the powers that be covered it with a 40mph speed limit - starting about 100 yards or so before the dip, and finishing immediately after it.

Oh the joys of watching "outsidelanespeedlimitignorers" trying to regain control of their cars after they had hit it at speed...............

 

[brucemillar]

Well I live close to the A249 in Kent. This is a 70mph dual carriageway that links the M20 with the M2 and climbs steeply up over the North Downs then drops as steeply towards the coast.

The net effect is a very fast stretch of road that is viewed by most as a testing ground for F1 or the World Superbikes.

To ensure that the road is maintained to look like a real time version the Fast and The Furious every .5 mile or so they have allowed right turns through the armco barriers. This allows people to make use of their braking systems whilst filling up their underpants. Sadly most fail the brake test so we the sight of decapitations under articulated lorries, cars upside down in ditches or motorbikes buried half way through caravans.

Some like to add to the hilarity by making "illegal" right turns. This is achieved by standing on the brakes when you spot a gap in the barriers. With no slip road or room to escape the following drivers demonstrate sudden and explosive weight loss by evacuating their entire lower bowel into the seat whilst attempting to stop. Eyes out on stalks, knuckles bending the steering wheel they leave black lines that would grace Heathrow runway 2 before finding that the person behind them was just that six feet to close to their rear end. BOOM.

The cost of road signs and closing barriers is deemed more than the cost of dead folk splattered all over the roads.

Last week we were treated to a biker (I will use the correct language here) Pulling A wheelie. His wheelie came to a sudden end when his butt overtook his head as he sailed arms flailing over the roof of the car attempting a right turn. He is alive. But I hear will be prosecuted for dangerous driving. The car turning right has not been found having simply driven off.