Pootling to Manchester on the M56 yesterday in lane 3 – as is my god-given right in my company repmobile – came across a civic in lane 3 who wouldn’t move over. Nothing at all in 1 or 2. After about a mile, I gave it/her a flash, as by now we were being passed by vehicles on the inside.
There followed a brake test and hazard flashing, erratic steering and speed changing (up and down by about 10mph). Eventually I got the hint, into lane 1 and filtered past when her speed varied.
She was still in lane 3 a few miles later, queue of traffic behind her, lots of inside filtering.
I’ve been seeing a lot of this recently. Often when it’s quiet, and the drivers often move over and then rejoin 3 despite the absence of traffic in 1 and 2.
Any insights as to why?

In experienced driver?
Foreign driver?
Mad woman?

Just undertake, don’t let it wind you up.

Guy acting like a tit gets upset at other roaduser.

/irony.

more than likely because they’re not taking any notice of what else is around them.

Why were you in lane 3 if there was nothing in 1 and 2?

In that instance a 1mph gentle undertake in lane 1 is the best option. Nobody wound up.

Why were you in lane 3 if there was nothing in 1 and 2?

+1

Makes me laugh when there you see people sitting behind cars in lane 3 when there is nothing in lanes 1 and 2, flashing their lights trying to teach them a lesson to get out of the way.

Stop wasting your time!

Why were you in lane 3 if there was nothing in 1 and 2?

Same here, so in essence, you were both doing exactly the same thing, just at slightly different speeds?

Did I say I got wound up by it?
Interesting tit comment though. Inability to recognise the ironing in the first post, or admission that company car drivers are just somehow superior?
Drac – I was always under the general impression that passing on the right was the done thing. I could have filtered past in lane 1 but it would have earned me a slap from swmbo.

Drac – I was always under the general impression that passing on the right was the done thing

According to your first post you were pooling along in lane 3 when you came across the civiv even that was in lane 3 too even though there was no traffic. Seems you were in lane 3 too before that for no reason.

Anyway, rather than comment on my superior driving style, how about trying to help out with answering the question in the op?

Quite like the idea of it being foreign drivers – doesn’t seem to be any consistency of type.

Has anyone else noticed this?

Different set of rules on the M56,lane 3 is the Cheshire express lane do what you want.

Anyway, rather than comment on my superior driving style, how about trying to help out with answering the question in the op?

They were driving a company rep mobile.

That’s you done for on this thread 🙂

I was thinking about this topic only this very morning. I commute down the M40, and in the four years or so I’ve been doing it, I’m sure that the traffic has got heavier, and the lane discipline is worse. There was a bloke in an Alfa who must have been in the outside lane for twelve miles or more – I don’t bother with flashing, as that only aggrevates, undertaking does the same (if they’re awake enough to notice), if there are gaps in lanes one or two I gently slide by without trying rude boi my way past, but every time I did it, he snuck right up to the bumper of the car in front. Fair enough pal, I thought – there weren’t big enough gaps in lanes one and two to make it stick, and I don’t mind that, I just hope he got the point (which is a forlorn hope, I know).

Different set of rules on the M56,lane 3 is the Cheshire express lane do what you want.

As you were in a repmobile and not a Rangerover she failed to recognise your utter superiority and hence deigned not to move from lane 3.

I drive on average a 200 mile a day commute down the m1 m25 then whatever end of London I’m in that day. I see it a huge amount and conversely I also see drivers flying down the middle and inside using every gap available to make up a few spaces . Over the years I think the motorways are obviously busier and peoples patience runs out quicker leading to erratic unsafe driving. Sign of our selfish times .

My wife’s aunt moves straight into the middle lane on entering the motorway and stays there regardless. She knows why it’s wrong, but she ‘doesn’t like changing lanes’.

Basically, she doesn’t care about anyone else (in terms of driving on the motorway). Many others are like this too. It won’t change.

FWIW, I always feel distinctly uneasy undertaking – lane 1 when car is in lane 3 maybe OK, but you’re at the mercy of a sudden manoeuvre..

I would have said the highway code frowns upon undertaking, as well
https://www.gov.uk/motorways-253-to-273/overtaking-267-to-269 — 268.

Is it me, or is lane 3 hogging on the increase?

As pointed out earlier, Yes it’s you 🙄

I witnessed a similar level of obliviousness on Saturday on the 61… This person was in lane 2 doing 60 or so with a completely clear lane 1. Wouldn’t have been too much of an issue if they had been doing 70 but as they were so much slower that the rest of the traffic it led to a bottleneck in lane 3. It seemed everyone who went past made a big point of then moving across the 3 lanes then to try and hint to them but they were in their own little world. Hugely frustrating mainly because there’s just no need for it! People now just seem to switch off on the motorway and go into autopilot.

I do a lot of miles every week but normally during the week, I had the displeasure of using the M6 and M56 over the weekend and couldn’t believe the standard of driving.

Lots of lane 2 or 3 hogging, changing lanes without indication and braking then diving across to get to their exit cutting up lorries and all sorts in the process.

I just put it down to drivers not being used to the motorway and do my best to look after myself so I don’t end up caught up in the accident they cause.

Pondo

If every time he squeezed up to the bumper in the car in front, what’s the issue? Preventing you getting held up by the car in front? Sit in, keep calm and get to your destination happier.

What boils my piss, is when someone keeps pressuring you from behind just because you’re leaving (and maintaining) a safe gap between you and the car in front and they can’t see beyond it preventing them making 50m of immediate progress. In any lane. Having been in a multi vehicle shunt on the m1 in the past I value my space thank you.

My wife’s aunt moves straight into the middle lane on entering the motorway and stays there regardless. She knows why it’s wrong, but she ‘doesn’t like changing lanes’.

Basically, she doesn’t care about anyone else (in terms of driving on the motorway). Many others are like this too. It won’t change.

My wife’s uncle is the same, I asked him why once and he said he didn’t like driving too close to the edge of the road.

Been happening for decades. Used to commute M4 between Bristol and London, and without fail every single evening, lane 3 would be overloaded, lane 1 slow stuff like trucks, and lane 2 flowing at 60+. If lane 3 is always having to brake, then afaic it’s traffic moving slowly in lanes, and I’ll pass righ up the middle but as careful as possible in case the repmobiles actually suss out what’s going on.

Lane 2 hogging common here in Germany. Lane 1 is trucks, Lane 3 is M5’s and Cayenne Sports tailgating at 200km/h, so everyone drives in lane 2. Can’t believe how often you see a numpty overtake a truck at 0.0000001mph faster than the truck, then stay in lane 2 for ever.

Pondo

If every time he squeezed up to the bumper in the car in front, what’s the issue? Preventing you getting held up by the car in front? Sit in, keep calm and get to your destination happier.
I’ve long since passed the point where it bothers me, but we’d get to gaps in the traffic where the outside lane would seed up, he’d drop off the back of the car in front but stay in the outside lane. I’d sneak alongside in lane 1, and he’d speed up to stop me getting past. In the general scheme of things, me being one car forward would take about three seconds off my commute, but I just think it’s either ignorant or shows a scary lack of awareness to sit in one lane and disregard the states of the lanes alongside you. In his case it was ignorance, as he deffo responded when I went alongside him. Could have rude boi’d my way past, but what’s the point in that?

Have you started doing it more?

<variation on a theme>

Crap lane discipline is one of my driving pet hates, and it’s rife. I had one on the commute today, fairly busy motorway, some pleb in a rollerskate doing about 60 in the second lane, first lane reasonably clear and the third lane rammed. I blipped my lights as I approached, nothing, so I’d to make three lane changes to pass them (2-3-2-1). By the time I lost sight of him in my mirror he was still stuck out there with the entire contents of the rest of the motorway squeezing past in one lane. It’s no wonder there’s congestion at rush hour, it only takes one.

Where I merge with the motorway on the way home, it’s a restricted junction where the slip road becomes the first lane of the motorway, taking it from two to three lanes. The number of people who can’t deal with this is spectacular, daily I see people slam straight into the second lane as soon as they’re able, even if the first lane is free as far as the eye can see. Some people are weird.

What boils my piss, is when someone keeps pressuring you from behind just because you’re leaving (and maintaining) a safe gap between you and the car in front and they can’t see beyond it preventing them making 50m of immediate progress.

Yep, I’m not too bothered by lane hogs, but folk riding my bumper annoys me too: “Yes mate, bizarrely I have actually decided to leave a reasonable stopping distance between me and the car in front*. You clearly wish to overtake me, but there is nothing I can do to help you and if you looked beyond the end of your bonnet you would see there are another 30 cars ahead of us doing the same speed.

(* where my “reasonable stopping distance” is normally only about 1 car length per 10mph: half the recommended amount!)

FWIW I make a point of always moving over when not overtaking – as a rule this means I make less progress, as more often than not the car behind me (car A) will sprint up to the car that was in front of me (car B), so when we catch the next driver snoring their way along in the middle lane (car Zzzz), I then have to wait for the gap behind them (car A, now six inches off car B’s bottomhole). This, I believe, is called cutting my nose off to spite my own face, and drives Mrs Pondo mad. 🙂

You guys are lucky you have 3 lanes to play with, i moved to Norfolk a year ago after having a 128 mile round trip each day to work previously on the M25. The A47 i take to work in Norwich is single lane as i join, goes to a dual carriageway, back to single lane (causing a huge bottle neck) and then back to dual as you approach Norwich and this is the second busiest road in the county (not a single motorway here).

Often the single lane is 20mph due to farm traffic, then you get to the dual carriageway and the inside lane is a mixture of 20mph farm traffic and 52mph lorries, the outside lane is full of people wanting to do 90mph.

As someone that wants to travel at 70mph, i constantly have to change lanes back and forth, mixing it with lorries at 52mph overtaking tractors.

14 deaths in 2013 and nothing done about it.

People that are useless at joining the autobahn cheese me off too.
They’ll either continue at a constant 80km/h (50mph) then realise the joining lane is about to abruptly end so force themselves into lane 1. And then continue to do 80 in a 130 zone for the foreseeable future. (one reason for the lane 2 hogging, I guess)

Or they’ll accelerate like heck to match speed, and match it right beside you. Hint: either accelerate a tiny bit more and filter in front, or a little bit less and filter in behind, depending on which is safer!

Makes you wonder why motorway driving isn’t part of the practical driving test in the UK, given that in large parts of the UK you’re not going anywhere far unless you get on a motorway.

Surely they could do a two-stage test akin to motorbikes. Prove your competent on normal roads then start learning to drive on motorways.

single lane as i join, goes to a dual carriageway, back to single lane

Pedantic point of order: “dual carriageway” ? two lanes (surprising how many people think this)

Had lessons on the A2 in Kent, which to all intents and purposes is a motorway, but still legal for those on L plates. Should be compulsory part of test, or if not, then compulsory after passing the test and moving off P plates (or similar).

It hasnt increased or decreased, its the same as it ever was.

why? cos people think they are overtaking a car so far ahead you and I struggle to even see it OR because they are crap drivers and scared to change lanes. Its not in the driving lessons as standard as learners dont generally do motorway driving. As others have said its not worth getting too worried about, undertake keeping a watchful eye in case they start to move. In heavier traffic the inside lanes are usually quicker and less stressful as the outside is full of knobs thinking its the fast lane, wise up, it so aint.

That
TBH it amazes me I rarely drive at over 60 mph and i will still undertake someone on most journeys. They still dont pull in after an undertake I never do this if their is no hard shoulder escape route though.
It is just another example , like parking where they please, where a car driver thinks about what is beast/easiest for them rather than what is best/easiest for the majority of road users

I think the point is car drivers [ road users as well with cyclists RLJ] do what is best for them not what the rules say or what is best for the majority

Speeds exceeding 66mph will cause dilation of the anal bud.

This thread is a cheap troll. It’s like empty carbs: it feels good for a moment but it’s ultimately unsatisfying. Starting a “I’m an awesome driver, everyone else is rubbish” thread is just too easy. So for that reason I’m giving it only 2/10.

I would be more concerned about the people who think it is ok to drive about with a small porthole scraped out of ice on their windscreen and leaving all the side windows iced up. What is going on in their minds?