Middle Lane Drivers - bit of a rant

[Teepee]

Middle lane hoggers drive me mad too. I am not familiar with Spyhunter, but I'm guessing it had a big gun, mind control device and a missile launcher.

They are either inconsiderate or unaware of whats happening around them. Everyone makes mistakes behind the wheel and we all do things wrong from time to time, but doing it over and over again for mile after mile is taking the royal.


Time after time, its the same offenders dong the same thing. Bloody white VW drivers

 

[Shewie]

Time after time, its the same offenders dong the same thing. Bloody white VW drivers

Lol, don't put yourself down mate

 

[The Big Lebowski]

I do 60 miles a day on the motorway. God I hate the 'I'm not going slow enough for the inside, or fast enough for the outside' brigade... (on an empty road?)

Night time the lights flash, then go on full beam if its been a bad day in the office, sometimes I drive up the inside at just over their speed, giving them the most goofy look I can.


I've discovered a wonderful toy for tailgaters... Take as long as you humanly can to change lanes. It seems to turn them an odd purple?

It's tailgaters that get me going, ooh those nippy buggers. I just slow down when someone tailgates me.

 

[Neumo]

decent bit of classic rock with the Radar alerts wired into the hifi. Bliss.
What is the difference in speed between the fast lane and the slow lane then?

Not much difference in speed. Most slow lanes are say 70ish & most fast lanes are 85ish

The point is not the speed but the vantage point it gives you. You get to see all the bad drivers at play; it's sort of like looking down on them, especially when all the lanes are running at nearly the same speed, M25 style. I agree it's the people that lurk in the middle lane that cause most problems & are the ones that often suddenly move into the fast lane without signaling (or seeing you...)

 

[ged]

Out of interest ,how many people reading this thread have actually been taught how to drive on a motorway?
It's part of the HGV and PSV test, but not for car tests.

It seems insane to me that you can pass a driving test without driving on a motorway. Yes, I've been trained in motorway driving. I have an advanced riding qualification. I've been on probably a dozen advanced riding courses on the bike, usually run by the police. Most of them were either free or at least incredibly cheap. Advanced courses cover a great deal that isn't even mentioned before you pass your first test, because as a learner you wouldn't be able to cope with the load.

But I still have a loooong way to go.

It isn't until you tear, er, sorry, 'make progress' around the countryside with a copper behind you, then stop for a cuppa while he asks you things like why you were in fifth gear going round that corner fifteen miles back (how the hell did he know that???) that you realize how much work you have to do to get to be anywhere near as good as the UK's police riders. They are the best in the world, they really are. I'm sure the car driving traffic police are as well trained, in fact some of the bike police drive police cars too, but I've never heard of the police offering free courses for car drivers. I suppose the accident statistics are such a lot worse for bikes so there's more need for it. I'm sure I wouldn't have been on so many courses if I'd had to pay a couple of hundred pounds a day for them all, which is what some of them can cost.

Having seen what a huge difference there is between passing your first test and taking an advanced test I really do think that it should be a legal requirement for every driver to continue training after getting rid of the L plates.

My aunt Edna had been an advanced driver for years when at age 16 I'd just passed my motor bike test. I was feeling pretty pleased with myself, so to bring me back to Earth she told me she thought the most dangerous driver on the road was the one who had just passed his test.

 

[sapper1]

Not much difference in speed. Most slow lanes are say 70ish & most fast lanes are 85ish

The point is not the speed but the vantage point it gives you. You get to see all the bad drivers at play; it's sort of like looking down on them, especially when all the lanes are running at nearly the same speed, M25 style. I agree it's the people that lurk in the middle lane that cause most problems & are the ones that often suddenly move into the fast lane without signaling (or seeing you...)

You need to take a test on motroway driving mate ,the speed limit is 70mph for all lanes.

 

[Shewie]

I followed a Merc van on the M1 the yesterday, doing 87mph in the outside lane whilst towing a generator.

 

[mikeybear]

I've discovered a wonderful toy for tailgaters... Take as long as you humanly can to change lanes. It seems to turn them an odd purple?

They don't like it when you slow down either

 

[Mesquite]

Not much difference in speed. Most slow lanes are say 70ish & most fast lanes are 85ish

The point is not the speed but the vantage point it gives you. You get to see all the bad drivers at play; it's sort of like looking down on them, especially when all the lanes are running at nearly the same speed, M25 style. I agree it's the people that lurk in the middle lane that cause most problems & are the ones that often suddenly move into the fast lane without signaling (or seeing you...)

When I'm in lane 1 going along at my usual 75-80 mph I quiet often get to see the bad drivers tearing along at 95+ tailgating the car in front...

 

[Calurix]

Good post Shewie,

I think a lot of the replies show that many people dont follow the highway code or mandatory rules of the road. It will not ease your frustration but we had relations over from Oz and they were impressed how most drivers always went back to the left lane after overtaking.

 

[Toddy]

Where the hang is there a motorway in full flow where the traffic in the inside lane does 75+ ??

We're lucky if the inside lane reaches 50 when it's dead quiet

I quite like those chevron things you have down south though


M

 

[mikeybear]

I remember once seeing something like a Porche tailgating and flashing a Ferrari to get out of the way on a two lane Autobahn when they must of been travelling well in excess 120 mph !!!

 

[Teepee]

I followed a Merc van on the M1 the yesterday, doing 87mph in the outside lane whilst towing a generator.

You could have woken him up mate, he was obviously asleep driving that slow in a Merc van.

 

[Wild Thing]

Me

I took extra lessons after I passed my test to make sure I was safe ( and because I didn't want to kill myself or some other pratt who didn't have a clue about proper motorway eticate)

 

[ged]

Unofficially I had some training off my old man who's ex traffic police, didn't stop me writing off my mini before I was 17 though

That reminds me...

Once upon a time I was driving my BMW along a twisty country lane near Didcot power station and I came up behind a mini. Evidently the driver saw me in his mirror and thought he'd show me a thing or two, so he started to go quite a bit faster. So fast, in fact, that I thought "He's not going to make it around that next corner."

He didn't. Fortunately for him the road was on an embankment about ten feet above the fields, with no fencing, so he just went down a rather steep incline and came to rest up to the axles in the mud.

I stopped at the bend, got out of the car and looked down at the scene. He'd got out of the mini and was looking a bit annoyed at it.

This is how the conversation went:

Me: "Going a bit too fast, were you?"

He: "No, the corner was too sharp!"

No kidding, that's exactly, word for word, what was said.

Anyway I always keep some rope in the boot so I tied it to his back bumper to pull him out. The bumper came off. Ooops.

He said "What am I going to tell my dad?" Ooops again.

So next try I wound the windows down, tied the rope around the door posts and pulled the car out sideways. That worked fine but I don't think it did the tyres much good.

Never heard any more about that one.

Quite a while later, after a long day working on the computers at Leyland DAF, I left my car on the road in Sutton Courtenay and went to bed. I was awoken at about 5am by a big bang outside. I looked out of the window, but I couldn't see anything wrong except there was a bus that looked a bit close to my car. I went back to sleep.

About half an hour later there was a knock on the door. I went to see who it was.

The man at the door said "Is that your BMW?"

"Yes", I said.

Well my son's just driven into the back of the bus that was parked behind your car, and he's pushed it (the bus!) into the back of your car!

Ooops. Him again. Some people never seem to learn.

He must have been doing seventy in a thirty limit. He pushed a 40-seat coach about ten feet with his dad's mini, and then all he can think of is to go to the nearest 'phone box and get his dad out of bed to pick up the pieces for him.

 

[Mesquite]

Where the hang is there a motorway in full flow where the traffic in the inside lane does 75+ ??

We're lucky if the inside lane reaches 50 when it's dead quiet

I quite like those chevron things you have down south though

Try the M1 southbound between Junc 8 and 5 at 7am on a Saturday or Sunday morning... not a lot of traffic at those times so it's easy to sit in lane 1 at 80mph.

Yet you still get numpties hacking along in lane 3 at 95mph+ tailgating each other

 

[DavidJT]

Everyone else is a terrible diver!

Reminds me of a quite good recent advertising slogan for TomTom...

"You're not stuck in traffic, you are the traffic"

 

[Ronnie]

Police speed cameras trigger on speed limit + 10% + 3mph. Although apparently they can bust you for less if they feel like it. I've passed panda cars at 80mph a few times without being pulled. The key point is to drive well, use your indicators, give courtesy to other drivers and leave lots of safety space.

As for middle lane drivers - I tend to come up behind fast in lane one, then swing out into lane 3 passing as close as I can safely while giving them full beam - 8 out of 10 then pull into the inside lane, although not sure what the police would think of such manoeuvres - see paragraph above

My pet hate is people who don't indicate at roundabouts, meaning you have to wait until they turn off just because they can't be bothered to move their finger about 3". Turning right without indicating at roundabouts is positively dangerous. Doesn't really apply to motorway driving but still had to vent.

 

[DavidJT]

Police speed cameras trigger on speed limit + 10% + 3mph.

That's a common misconception. I was busted for 42 in a 40 zone.

 

[The Big Lebowski]

Everyone else is a terrible diver!

Reminds me of a quite good recent advertising slogan for TomTom...

"You're not stuck in traffic, you are the traffic"

I can honestly say I'm not the fastest of drivers, sometimes I make a mistake and sometimes I just dont think (normally by being tired from a long shift)

But, you have to hand it to some people. I've seen some horrendous stuff on the roads, even by my standards

al.