[Closed] Centre lane drivers!

One of these would bring them into line 😈
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When I go in the inside lane you invariably end up trying to get out when someone is coming up even faster than me in the middle lane.

What you're missing there is what's known as 'forward planning'. If you sit there daydreaming until two seconds before you run out of road, you're going to get boxed in. If you're properly aware of what's going on around you, that shouldn't happen, you can get out of the way and let traffic flow and still pull back out to overtake in good time to pass what's in front of you.

By sitting in the middle lane with your thumb up your arse, you're turning a three-lane road into a two-lane road, effectively reducing the road to one lane for passing traffic.

Highway code rule 264, "You should always drive in the left-hand lane when the road ahead is clear. If you are overtaking a number of slower-moving vehicles, you should return to the left-hand lane as soon as you are safely past."

I'm with oliverd1981... 🙂

What you're missing there is what's known as 'forward planning'. If you sit there daydreaming until two seconds before you run out of road, you're going to get boxed in. If you're properly aware of what's going on around you, that shouldn't happen

Absolutely, good forward planning means I can see there are cars ahead in the left lane that are going slower than me, I can see there are cars approaching from behind going faster than me, so I pull out into the middle lane before they get to me and sit there to make sure I don't get boxed in. Simples.

Highway code rule 264, "You should always drive in the left-hand lane when the road ahead is clear. If you are overtaking a number of slower-moving vehicles, you should return to the left-hand lane as soon as you are safely past."

What is missing there is any definition of what "a number" might be and when you should consider yourself safely past and the road to be "clear".

If I've just passed a car in the left lane, what distance should there be before the next car in that lane for it to be worth my while pulling in? The Highway Code, as you quoted, says "the road ahead is clear" so should I only pull into the left when I can no longer see anyone in the left lane?

Congratulatons Graham S, you are one of the minority dickheads who can't asess what is considered to be a reasonable distance for you to move over into the near side lane as the majority of the driving population seem able to do.

monksie - Member
Congratulatons Graham S, you are one of the minority dickheads who can't asess what is considered to be a reasonable distance for you to move over into the near side lane as the majority of the driving population seem able to do.

Agreed,its called common sense

ROFL: I can assess fine, I'm asking you (in your opinion) at what distance I am no longer correctly overtaking and I have become the dreaded middle-lane hog.

I personally suspect everyone has a set value and considers everyone over that to be a middle lane hog

(much like speed, where almost everyone speeds a bit, but anyone going faster than them are maniacs and anyone going slower are doddery grannies)

It's a lovely sunny day outside. 🙂

...as the majority of the driving population seem able to do.

"Majority"?? Don't drive much, huh? (-:

I read this yesterday, seems spot on.

Compared with the 1970s, observed Bryson, Britain has become individually far wealthier and yet collectively much poorer. "We act all the time now as if we're really poor and yet we're really rich," he said. "It makes it much more like America, which is about individual wealth and collective poverty."

Bryson gave the example of current debates about the need for affordable housing, which seemed plentiful when he arrived in the 70s. "It was called council housing," he said.

He also lamented the "self-absorption" of modern Britain and the sense that "everybody is in a hurry and rules apply to others, not to me".

It's a lovely sunny day outside

Raining here and I'm "working" anyway - so I'm happy to mass-debate just to pass the time. 🙂

Move around them?

My rule; If someone can undertake you (without cutting you up) then you need to change lanes.

What is this 'undertaking' that a few posters mention?

Whether you pass another vehicle on its inside or outside, its all 'overtaking'.

HTH.

Here you go Gary_C: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Undertaking_(driving) 🙂

A common scene, often visible to your left GrahamS?

😀 I think my posts are being misinterpreted.

I absolutely [u]do not[/u] hog the middle lane. I pull into the left whenever I determine that it is worth doing so (i.e. when I won't have to pull back out again within, say, ten seconds).

However my point is, although I don't consider myself a hog, everyone's tolerance is different.

Some drivers might pull left into every 3-second gap between cars. They would consider anyone that doesn't do this to be a "hog", whereas I would consider them to be weaving dangerously.

Likewise other drivers may only pull left when there is a 20-second gap, and may in turn think that I'm weaving dangerously.

And I'm fairly sure that if you bent time and space, then some folk would consider themselves to be a hog if they drove up behind their doppelganger when they were in a hurry. 🙂

I stopped getting angry the day I realised they were all masturbating. Don't believe me? Just take a look at their faces next time you pass one.

Jeremy Clarkson could clear Britains roads in a week, just by videoing them and showing middle Lane Masturbater of the week each Sunday night.

As for those parrallel lories, just imagine that they are swapping phone numbers and arranging a meet.

The drive to work CAN be a laugh if you let it.

Compared with the 1970s, observed Bryson, Britain has become individually far wealthier and yet collectively much poorer. "We act all the time now as if we're really poor and yet we're really rich," he said. "It makes it much more like America, which is about individual wealth and collective poverty."

Bryson gave the example of current debates about the need for affordable housing, which seemed plentiful when he arrived in the 70s. "It was called council housing," he said.

He also lamented the "self-absorption" of modern Britain and the sense that "everybody is in a hurry and rules apply to others, not to me".

"Here comes another f*cker!".

Far worse are fastlane-sitters. 65mph in the fast lane where one or more other lanes are free. This then leads to dangerous undertakers.

Worse-still, here in Manchester as fastlane-sitters approach Barton bridge they 'freeze' and stay slow in the fast lane as they approach then drive over the bridge- over the other side they then slowly move over. This says to me that they really shouldn't even behind the wheel of a car on a motorway.

If I was 'that scared' of driving I'd hang up my keys.

"fast-lane" 🙄

If you are busy watching other drivers I hope you;re keeping an eye on your own driving.

Now you know why car drivers hate cyclists-anger management and my road my car and you're in the way!

That sort of mentality only miffs other drivers off and they put that on other drivers.

Jeremy Clarkson could clear Britains roads in a week, just by videoing them and showing middle Lane Masturbater of the week each Sunday night.

I'd count it a badge of honour to be pilloried by that tosslump Clarkson and his braying TG fanboys. In fact I'm off to park myself in the nearest middle lane just in case that idea gets taken up.

65mph in the fast lane where one or more other lanes are free.

These are the same people who drive at 29mph in a built-up area and then leap on the middle pedal anyway whenever they drive past a Gatso. Grr.

Ultimately, as backhander says, if someone can undertake you without cutting you up on the "exit" from the move you're hogging the middle. I always return to the left religiously, even in fairly small gaps (but not to the point of stupidity) but I rarely have someone passing me as I tend to keep with the flow of traffic. In my slow car I tend to stay out a little longer as the process of pulling out into faster traffic is a tad harder (needs more forethought and a bigger gap to get up to speed to match the traffic), whereas in my nippy car I can generally point and squirt and be faster than the next lane of traffic within a second or so so it's less of a problem. Whats worse is when you meet a middle lane hogger doing 70 and an outside lane "i wont go over 70" driver. Inside lane empty, rolling roadblock - these people get 10-20 seconds to sort their lives out then I select either a light flash or an undertake, depending on the traffic position, density and speed on the far side of the roadblock.

Y'know, it's a speed [i]limit[/i], not a target!

😉

The M25 today.
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Sweet FA in the left hand lane for miles.

Drove down the M25 today, passed some eejit in the first lane who was taking photos on his mobile whilst driving along...

(-:

cougar, I call that 'lane fatigue' on the M25, there are soo many turnoff's and sliproads that some people probably default to the middle lane out of weariness.

some people probably default to the middle lane out of [s]weariness[/s] [b]idleness[/b].

Fixed that for you.

haha Couger, if some one took a photo of you doddering in the
middle lane on a moblie, it wasn't me.
Nikon 5600.

(-:

[b]these people get 10-20 seconds to sort their lives out[/b] then I select either a light flash or an undertake, depending on the traffic position, density and speed on the far side of the roadblock.

I don't get too bent out of shape about it these days. If they don't move over I just undertake. Tailgaters are more dangerous IMHO

I do it to annoy you.

i'll stop doing it when you ASSHATS stop driving around with you lights on.

If someone is in the centre lane hogging it why would you undertake him FFS ? 2 wrongs increase the chance of a crash. there is another lane you could overtake him in (the overtaking lane ).

Middle lane? Nearest on of those is Exeter, 70 miles away!

Anticipation is the key...

If I'm driving in the left hand lane at 70mph and some myopic old fool is doing 60-65mph in the middle lane why should I have to drive around them?

i'll stop doing it when you ASSHATS stop driving around with you lights on.

Driving with your lights on doesn't bother me in the slightest, anything that increases a vehicles visibility to other traffic is a good thing. Only people who don't have the good sense to drive in the correct lane would disagree

Olly, may I suggest you join these guys:
[url= http://www.dadrl.org.uk/introduction.html ]The UK Association of Drivers against Daytime Running Lights[/url].

If I'm driving in the left hand lane at 70mph and some myopic old fool is doing 60-65mph in the middle lane why should I have to drive around them?

Likewise, if I'm doing the speed limit and using the middle lane to legitimately overtake someone, why should I have to pull into the left lane and brake just because someone wants to go faster than me?

richmtb - Member

If I'm driving in the left hand lane at 70mph and some myopic old fool is doing 60-65mph in the middle lane why should I have to drive around them?

Are you for real? Because that is the safe and legal thing to do rather than the unsafe and illegal practise of undertaking.

If someone is in the centre lane hogging it why would you undertake him FFS ? 2 wrongs increase the chance of a crash.

According to the Highway Code, it's legal to overtake on the left to pass slower-moving traffic. Some coffin-dodger doing 55mph in the middle lane falls into this category as far as I'm concerned.

there is another lane you could overtake him in (the overtaking lane ).

a) there's no such thing as an overtaking lane, and
b) if there was, he's already bloody in it.

The sooner we get away from this conception of 'fast' lanes, 'slow' lanes, 'overtaking' lanes and 'cruising' lanes, hopefully the sooner people will stop driving like spoons. On a three-lane carriageway, both the second and third lanes are for overtaking. If you're not overtaking (or about to be), then you shouldn't be in them.

If I'm driving in the left hand lane at 70mph and some myopic old fool is doing 60-65mph in the middle lane why should I have to drive around them?

Because if they are a myopic old fool then how do you know he will not drift back into your (inside)lane without checking some myopic young fool is stupidly undertaking in it, as said before two wrongs do not make a right

Cougar - Member

According to the Highway Code, it's legal to overtake on the left to pass slower-moving traffic. Some coffin-dodger doing 55mph in the middle lane falls into this category as far as I'm concerned.

Have a look in the highway code - it no longer has that advice IIRC - and does not apply to motorways even when it did.