Left lane hogger caught.

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Send him straight to gaol.
 
You know you can legally carry on your way in lane 1, you don’t have to switch to lane 3 and then back to lane 1 just to overtake a vehicle in lane 2. Just breeze past as you are

However sometimes, the lane 1 > 3 and back again sometimes (sometimes!) is enough of a gesture for lane 2 moron to realise what they’re doing is wrong making them move to lane 1. But that is a rarity

It can be a bit risky sometimes though, especially when they're clearly not paying attention (hence sat in the middle lane for no reason). I find it just safer to move all the way out and then back in rather then having the issue of a crash because you undertook them.

To be honest, I'd much rather put up with middle lane hoggers than those types who are chopping and changing lane every few seconds, at least the middle lane hoggers are more predictable.
 
Experienced this on the M3 South Saturday evening / early Sunday morning.

Several cars resolutely sitting in lane 2 and all at 65 mph, I noticed a Police car join the motorway at Hook and they were in lane 1 for over 5 minutes before turning off but ignored the car in front of them that was sitting in lane 2
 
You know you can legally carry on your way in lane 1, you don’t have to switch to lane 3 and then back to lane 1 just to overtake a vehicle in lane 2. Just breeze past as you are
Is that really so? I had assumed that passing on the inside is forbidden and could in itself lead to prosecution.
 
Quite a few times I pass cars in lane 2/3/4/5 depending on motorway when I am in the lane to the left.

If used correctly, all cars should be in lane 1 unless overtaking.

If they are overtaking, they use a lane to the right of lane they are in, overtake, and then move back to the lane they were in before.

If that is classed as overtaking, then if you are not doing the opposite are you technically undertaking, or are you just moving faster in that lane?
 
Is that really so? I had assumed that passing on the inside is forbidden and could in itself lead to prosecution.
There are very limited circumstances in which you can overtake on the left (inside) without risk of being reported for an offence. Typically, these are limited to:
  • If the vehicle in front is signalling to turn right, and there is room to do so
  • If traffic is moving slowly in queues and the queue on your right is moving more slowly than you are
Anything else and you risk being reported for Driving Without Due Consideration or Driving Without Due Care and Attention. Good ways of getting reported include:
  • Changing lanes so as to overtake on the left and then moving to the right again after overtaking (weaving through traffic)
  • Overtaking on the left with a high speed differential
  • Causing the overtaken vehicle to swerve
  • Causing a collision
Personally, I would much prefer that it was made legal to overtake on the inside on dual carriageways and motorways as it is in much of the USA. Especially when traffic levels are high, it moves much better, with less congestion and less unnecessary lane changing. However, swerving through lanes to gain advantage and high-speed overtakes on the left should still be subject to sanction.
 
Personally, I would much prefer that it was made legal to overtake on the inside on dual carriageways and motorways

That would contradict the understanding, by the better class of driver, that we should drive to left as the norm.
If we were permitted to pass on 'our' nearside then to keep in any lane as normal becomes a matter of choice.
 
Personally, I would much prefer that it was made legal to overtake on the inside on dual carriageways and motorways as it is in much of the USA.

Deffo not an improvement & just doesn't work IME - Pick a lane, any lane

Enforced lane discipline & prosecution of those flouting the 'stay left' rule is the only answer.
 
I've had the little prats making a break up the inside therby preventing me returning to the inside safely, where I would prefer to be.
I wonder if they are so suicidal as to attempt this up the inside of a 40 foot long 16 wheeler. Possibly as I see these types have evolved to believe that survival of the thickest applies.
Trouble is as they make that break up the inside it puts me and mine in danger.
 
I often use the urban dual carriageways round here and every single day there are idiots that drive in the outside lane for mile after mile, never turning right, going straight ahead at roundabouts, etc, etc... I wonder if they are more accustomed to driving on the right, having learnt outside the UK?
 
Failing to teach new drivers the rules and regulations of m/way driving over the decades must surely have played its part in the awful standard of driving that we now witness on a daily basis up and down the m/way network.
Fortunately that has now changed with L drivers being allowed on motorways but it will take a few more decades before it filters through and we see an overall improvement on the standard of m/way driving.
I’ve said it before and I will say it again, you can criticise a man’s wife, you can criticise a man’s car but god help you if you criticise his standard of driving.
 
I often use the urban dual carriageways round here and every single day there are idiots that drive in the outside lane for mile after mile, never turning right, going straight ahead at roundabouts, etc, etc... I wonder if they are more accustomed to driving on the right, having learnt outside the UK?
Maybe, depends where you live I expect.

However, I see it a lot where I live for a different reason.

Between our village and the nearest town is a road which starts of as a single carriageway and become a dual where another road joins it from the left. The old grunters around here are fed into the outside lane where the other road joins and stay there until they turn right at Sainsburys 6 miles away!

It seems that it's just too much effort to move left when they will be filtering to the right 6 miles down the road. The speed limit reaches 40 on this stretch but they resolutely do 30 the whole way.
 
@Mr. B
It is just not about teaching new drivers how to drive on motorways etc. We have a huge immigrant community and they have usually learnt to drive under very different teaching methods. There should be a requirement for anyone wanting to be a UK resident to take UK driving test if they want to drive here.

I worked in Newham (E London and very high immigrant population) and woe betide you if you met another car coming the other way on a street crammed with parked cars so there was only one lane. It is incredible how many drivers had obviously never been taught to reverse and they would just sit and look at you and not move even when you had right of way or a passing place was just behind them. One driver even lent out and shouted to me 'where is reverse' in his car!!

You see van drivers on motorways that have obviously learnt abroad and believe it is OK to hog the right hand lane because in their country they would undertake. One van driver (eastern European) I spoke to was surprised when I explained that undertaking was illegal in the UK - he had been working here for 2 years.:wallbash:
 
Enforced lane discipline & prosecution of those flouting the 'stay left' rule is the only answer.
Lovely idea, but who's going to do that? We're already well aware that TrafPol numbers are woefully inadequate to deal with more than one significant incident at a time in any given area, so expecting them to carry out patrols and "provide words of advice" or stick on errant drivers when appropriate is pie in the sky. I don't think that's right, but that's where we are, so the reality is that it just won't happen.

Good driving standards are not created by enforcement, they come from education and training and as @Mr. B observes, the failure - for decades - to teach new drivers the rules and regulations of motorway driving means that the genie is well and truly out of the bottle. So either we have to consider other possible solutions to the problem, or we have to accept that approximately one-third of our motorway capacity is rendered unusable by people who think they can sit in lane 2, 3 or 4 with impunity while the lane or lanes to the left of them are empty.
Deffo not an improvement & just doesn't work IME - Pick a lane, any lane
Which is the complete opposite to my experience, so we'll have to agree to disagree on that one.
 
That would contradict the understanding, by the better class of driver, that we should drive to left as the norm.
If we were permitted to pass on 'our' nearside then to keep in any lane as normal becomes a matter of choice.

Try that logic on the new section of M1 outside Northampton where it turns into four lanes, even several months since completion there is still truck drivers (and especially coaches) sitting in lanes 2 and 3. If I’m plodding along in Lane 1 I’m not moving out to get past those heathens
 
Is it middle lane hogging if there are no vehicles being impeded?

No its not.

Recent case was brought where the motorist denied the offence. The motorway was empty and the law states that the 'hogging' of the lane must be to the deteriment of the other road users use of the motorway. No other cars, no offence. No case to answer.
 
They probably do a motorist with no others around, not because that motorist is inconveniencing anyone, but more that's the kind of driver who probably won't move over when there is more traffic and to "educate" them that they should be on the left i.e. they have no excuse.

With more traffic around, the offence is perhaps less obvious and might take a lot longer to find a situation where they are obviously not moving over when they should.
 

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