middle lane hoggers!

[dat83]

I tried to remember some number plates for this forus today but there were sooo many i just over loaded my mind with numbers and letters!
I've been mototrway driving a fair bit recently, mostly A11 and A14 and M11 but ive also been far and wide recently on motorbike and car, to Scotland,Wales,Norfolk,Suffolk coasts in and around London etc so maybe it just that ive noticed them more now after doing more motorway driving but what bloody annoying idiots!! How, after theres so many jokes and take the piss of middle lane hoggers are the roads still FULL of them! and if u ever flash your lights or hint to them, they're either oblivious or u get nothing but abuse! absolute ****ers!

 

[bluevenetian]

Driving back to London on M4 a van blatantly hogged the middle lane, despite a traffic/motorway cop car trundling along at 65 in the inside lane. No doubt had I "flashed" the hogger it would have been me getting my collar felt

 

[timwood2000]

Agreed - this has to be the single most irritating behaviour on the motorways. I can't help thinking how much better the motorways would flow if people were better at keeping to the left - I don't know why there aren't signs up telling people to keep in lane 1 whenever they can.

Driving up and down the M2 every week, there are always people who insist in staying out in lane 2 and 3 (and 4 on the widened section) - and as you say, if you dare to flash them to move over, you are mostly met with abuse.

The other problem caused by people staying unnecessarily in lane 2/3 is that it encourages undertaking which is plain dangerous when people are not expecting it. It's not a problem in North America where it is allowed, because you can expect it, but here, I have seen several near misses when people get fed up and try to undertake the plodder in lane 2.

Rant over.

 

[whizzkid11]

Welcome to the world of CLODs! (Centre Lane Owner Drivers) - You will notice more and more of them nowadays due to an influx of foreigners as well as the super confindante right doing part time drivers.

Sometimes, you just can't change the world, and just have to go past them!

 

[ringway]

I don't know why there aren't signs up telling people to keep in lane 1 whenever they can.

Agreed, but unfortunately, if something is logical...

Remember, this is the UK.

 

[rf065]

Driving up and down the M2 every week, there are always people who insist in staying out in lane 2 and 3 (and 4 on the widened section) - and as you say, if you dare to flash them to move over, you are mostly met with abuse.

Sadly, there are now a couple of generations of drivers who have grown up with the force fed belief that drink driving & speeding are the only two crimes a driver can commit.

If you come up behind one of them flashing your lights, well, they are not doing anything wrong, so you are the one in the wrong in their eyes.
Very frustrating & does lead to more accidents further down the road.

Russ

 

[normanr]

This has been discussed before on this forum and what it boils down to
is they don't know the rules of the road (keep to the left in normal driving
unless overtaking or turning right), also another annoying thing is the use of indicators they are put on cars to let other drivers know where you intend going but a lot of drivers don't know this or just can't be bothered to put them on.

You could go on and on,driving without lights untill it is realy dark,driving with the front foglights on,using mobile phones etc. etc.

I bet there are a few drivers on this forum that do some of these as well,I used to be a service engineer visiting lots of offices and I heard one women saying about getting headlights flashed at her while in the middle lane and she said the inside lane is for lorries and caravans.

It's about time the government used some of the extra money they keep taking from the motorist's IE. more fuel tax excessive road fund license and run an advert on the television perhaps some people might get the message but I doubt it.

Norman

 

[PXW]

I recall some years back that the government set out a clear intention to make speeding as socially unacceptable as drink driving. The only problem is of course that the basic premise is flawed (i.e. the 'speed kills' tag) as has been discussed on these boards many times. As an exercise in mass propaganda however it has been terrifyingly effective. Pity it hasn't had the same impact on road safety. As RF065 says, there is now a common belief that drinking and speeding are the only bad things to do, and with the majority of enforcement now restricted to cameras of various kinds it's hard to see where the resource for improvement is going to come from.

There's certainly space for a TV-based mass education program, and my suspicion (as I think I have said before) is that properly targeted this could have a larger beneficial impact on road casualties than any number of disingenuous speeding crackdowns.

 

[G.O'Rilla]

Does anyone find that this is a worse problem at weekends rather than mid week? It still happens all the time, but I do get fed up with Mr and Mrs Trilby Hatt in their civic/hyundai/daewoo doing 50 in the middle lane on a sunday

 

[dat83]

signs would be a good idea yeah but you can bet they'll put the road tax up to pay for it! and just whilst were on a rant! Cyclists too! i dont cycle as much as i used to but still do so this isn't a dig at cyclists in general but us road tax payers paid for your cycle lane, the least you could do is cycle in it. I had to slow to 13mph in a 40 to get round a bloke cycling next to his missus today. When i beeped not only did he shout **** off you ****er but the woman told me to **** myself and was showing me the ****er the sign!!!!! i bet if i was driving in their cycle lane i'd get the ****er treatment just the same!! you can't win!! ok that is my rant over now!!

 

[BTB 500]

Does anyone find that this is a worse problem at weekends rather than mid week? It still happens all the time, but I do get fed up with Mr and Mrs Trilby Hatt in their civic/hyundai/daewoo doing 50 in the middle lane on a sunday

But mid-week you get the HGVs running side by side for 10 miles while one inches past the other (or finds out that actually their limiters ARE set to exactly the same speed after all).

Mind you, when towing in the centre lane last week I actually had an HGV driver pull back in to the left hand lane to let me past! Almost (but not quite) made up for all the others that caused me to brake when they pulled out in front of me at the last minute.

 

[rf065]

Mind you, when towing in the centre lane last week I actually had an HGV driver pull back in to the left hand lane to let me past!

It would be so much better on the roads if all HGV drivers helped each other pass instead of refusing to help any other lorries get by. It would only take the guy being passed to lift off for a second or two to let the one overtaking complete his move. Instead they seem to take some sort of delight in forming a rolling roadblock.

Russ

 

[djflip]

I find it even more annoying on duel carageways. I live near one and I need to use it most days, the people who are too lazy to do 40 in the inside lane does get to me. you have three choices:
1' undertake
2' sit behind them and hope they move
3' sit in the inside lane at the same speed giving them enough room to pull in.
only this saturday was i mortified that on the 70mph piece of road he could only do 40 in the outside lane. before i could pull in someone undertakes us both, he soon got the hint and moved in to the inside lane

 

[LimitedSlip]

signs would be a good idea yeah but you can bet they'll put the road tax up to pay for it!

There are already many hugely expensive matrix signs on the motorways. Do you ever see anything about lane use displayed on them? No.

The old drink-drive chestnut always features - and the ridiculously hyped "make time for a break" (lest we have still managed to actually make progress in spite of the stultifying speed limits, bumps, traffic lights et al, before taking to the motorway).

If anyone wanted to put the brakes on travel efficiency a few years ago (which I personally believe to be the case), then they could barely have done better than promote the road conditions we have now.

 

[cleverdicky]

Well in fairness this winds me up too. But . .,
If one were to pull in to the inside lane, one would very quickly get to the **** end of an arctic (one that isnt passing you doing eighty that is).

Not being able to overtake or pull out either, because no bugger will let you while they're screaming past doing eighty plus, bumper to bumper, can cause considerable stress and is to be avoided. (M25 especially) Doing so means you cant see any road signs (or anything else) until you pass them and very often your inside lane becomes the next slip road off.

So whoever moans while they sit behind me in the 'middle' lane (though I do more than 40 and I dont sit there doing my make-up) just remember I'll pull in when I know I can pull out again. (depends on the queue ahead)

But also the best way to encourage others (including me )in front to move in, is do the same while YOUR at the back !

If you dont like it, by a helicopter.

 

[BTB 500]

There are already many hugely expensive matrix signs on the motorways. Do you ever see anything about lane use displayed on them? No.

Yes. I've definitely seen "keep left unless overtaking", a quick Google shows a pilot of this (and "don't hog the middle lane") back in 2004

Highways Agency - Press Releases

 

[LimitedSlip]

I find it even more annoying on duel carageways. I live near one and I need to use it most days, the people who are too lazy to do 40 in the inside lane does get to me. you have three choices:
1' undertake
2' sit behind them and hope they move
3' sit in the inside lane at the same speed giving them enough room to pull in.
only this saturday was i mortified that on the 70mph piece of road he could only do 40 in the outside lane. before i could pull in someone undertakes us both, he soon got the hint and moved in to the inside lane

Agreed!

I have seen people move out from traffic lights into the right hand lane of a dual carriageway, travel the whole way along it over to the right (often slowly), then move back to the left and turn off at the next junction. It's pathetic. Peoples' concentration and abilities seem have disappeared up into their own backsides in recent years.

Strange though how many become suddenly aware of what they're doing when other drivers try to pass them. There's a fair bit of the sordid little "power trip" mixed in with a lot of it I think.

 

[LimitedSlip]

Yes. I've definitely seen "keep left unless overtaking", a quick Google shows a pilot of this (and "don't hog the middle lane") back in 2004

Surprises me Bill... I've yet to see that

Maybe some more of it would help

 

[stevesey]

Well in fairness this winds me up too. But . .,
If one were to pull in to the inside lane, one would very quickly get to the **** end of an arctic (one that isnt passing you doing eighty that is).

But also the best way to encourage others (including me )in front to move in, is do the same while YOUR at the back !

The game of strategy/suspense that is predicting exactly when I will reach the next artic, if there will be a gap and when to pull out, are exaclty what keep me alert and awake on the motorway.

Frequently manage the lane 1 -> 3 and back again overtaking move - even then only about 50% wake up and move over.

 

[Adam230K]

I dont know why your mentioning middle lane hoggers when the morons who hog the right lane are even worse.