Middle Lane Hoggers To Face On-The-Spot Fines

[mushroom25]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-22770064

sounds good - but on the basis that it will be incredibly difficult to enforce, isn't this just a case of distraction politics?

[mushroom25]

//Some drivers don't understand the rules of passing on the left. //

indeed. and neither do many drivers pay heed to the rule of the road in the UK that traffic gives way to the right, not the left.

[mushroom25]

//So I would welcome more Police cars and tougher laws....//

you don't need police at Brynglas Tunnels because you've got "enforcement cameras", which are instead of police, not as well as.

[ToraToraTora]

Yes I drive a BMW jake, but I didn't mention it. I've never really understood the whole knee jerk anger with this issue. The inside lane is hardly ever clear anyway so you see people zig zagging down the road in between the trucks because of this obsession. All the arguments against staying the middle are generally based on misunderstandings, eg the passing rule etc. Far more dangerous are those doing less than 55 in the left forcing all the trucks and coaches to overtake. It's unnecessary lane changing that we should be cracking down on.

[ummmm]

Surely it's only lane hogging if the inside lane is clear enough to use.

[shoota]

All the arguments against staying the middle are generally based on misunderstandings, eg the passing rule etc.

Can you elaborate on these misunderstandings and 'passing rules etc' please.

[ummmm]

Because some people seem to think you can't pass a car travelling in the middle lane when you're travelling in the inside lane. They seem to think it's undertaking, but it's not, it's passing.

[Quizmonkey]

I usually find I only have to tailgate for a little behind a driver and she soon pulls over.

[shoota]

Where did you get that from umm?

[ToraToraTora]

well for example there's the "long way round" scenario. You are driving along in the left hand lane and you come up against someone in the middle lane. if you are goingh faster it is quite ok to pass them on the left many believe incorrectly that you ave to go, middle, outside, middle, inside.

So with the above in mind there is no scenario where the middle lane should not be the default driving lane.

Busy motorway: No point getting in the left
Quite motorway: Stay in middle faster traffic can pass either side. Safest position for cruising, furthest from either edge.
In the middle lane you should not be going less than 80.

[shoota]

Gov.ukwebsite - rule 162: (or part thereof..)

only overtake on the left if the vehicle in front is signalling to turn right, and there is room to do so

[ummmm]

268
Do not overtake on the left or move to a lane on your left to overtake. In congested conditions, where adjacent lanes of traffic are moving at similar speeds, traffic in left-hand lanes may sometimes be moving faster than traffic to the right. In these conditions you may keep up with the traffic in your lane even if this means passing traffic in the lane to your right. Do not weave in and out of lanes to overtake.

[Quizmonkey]

Tora - you're precisely the person this new legislation is aiming at. You are completely deluded in your theories!

[shoota]

TTT: you still havn't said where you get that idea from.
Passing on the left, unless the vehicle you are passing is slowing to turn right (unlikely on a motorway - but you never know...) is proscribed.

[SlackAlice]

ToraToraTora
So you would advocate middle lane hogging and exceeding the speed limit?

[shoota]

Ummm - congested traffic means slow moving tailbacks - not traffic moving at motorway speeds.

[ToraToraTora]

Overtaking, shoota, is a specific manouvre, eg you are in the middle lane and you come up to a slower driver and then go around them and back into the middle lane. That's overtaking, overtaking on the left is not legal. Most people having a fit about middle lane driving seem not to know this, rule 268 as ably pointed out by ummmm.

[DJHawkes]

the main culprits for driving in the middle lane are those that are scared to have to move out of the inside lane when they pass a junction to allow those joining the motorway on. It's defensive driving i guess. but not returning to the first lane after a junction is quite lazy. but when you are coming off the motorway at a junction and the driver(s) in front are doing 56mph you assume they are also coming off but more often than not they are just tootleing along oblivious and ignore the junction, that is also frustrating

[ToraToraTora]

well alice, sort of, 80 is prety well accepted as what you can do on a motorway before the police take an interest, indeed they have often called for the limit to be rasied to 80. I was really using the example to say that if you drive in the middle lane, don't dawdle.

[ToraToraTora]

That's another reason to stay in the middle lane djh, traffic joining = more potential for collisions.

[shoota]

Yes, and as I have explained, rule 268 applies to slow moving congested traffic - it does NOT give you leave to pass on the left when you come up behind a middle lane hogger travelling at a 'motorway' speed in uncongested (ie tailback/queue situation).