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On the BBC today, middle lane hogging can REALLY annoy lorry drivers. The fact the road warrior was the manager of a dashcam company stinks to me.
Footage shows Mr Stockdale stayed in the middle lane for some time, which motorists can be fined for, but he said he was about to move over when the lorry driver began to "intimidate" him.
Discuss...
I agree with Max entirely about appropriate speed for conditions and so on.
However there is a strong case for a cap on that speed. Do you accept that, Max?
wallop - Member
This is why driving in France is awesome - there are no middle lanes!
TBF there is far less traffic on French motorways, especially freight. Anyone who has spent much time on the A14 or M11 will tell you that 2 lanes combined with heavy freight traffic is a nightmare.
Footage shows Mr Stockdale stayed in the middle lane for some time, which motorists can be fined for, but he said he was about to move over when the lorry driver began to "intimidate" him.
Discuss...
An absolute pillock, driving at what looks around 50mph (trucks are normally limited to 56) and being overtaken by trucks. What an inappropriately low, inconsiderate and dangerous speed to be doing in that situation. Can't condone the truck driver for what he did, but no wonder he was pissed off!
Having said that, the fact that the idiot on question owns a dashcam company, one might be a little dubious whether he put himself in that situation on purpose to create some publicity. Certainly seems to ham it up in the article - what an utter bellend!
This is why driving in France is awesome
The last time I drove through France on the Autoroutes it was awesome because the roads were quiet, but also all the cars were doing more or less the same speed. I think perhaps because of the effective speed limit enforcement.
Give me the option of travelling on a busy motorway with a racing driver, or a sanctimonious highway code abider, I know where I'd be sat
Agreed, nothing worse than a sanctimonious highway code abider.
So on the way to work I just had an HGV tailgating me through a village.
The whole village is a 20 limit, with speed pillows, islands and several pedestrian crossings. It was school run time so there were young kids walking about and crossing the road.
HGV man was clearly not happy.
How much over the limit should I have gone to avoid getting in his way?
Wow 5 pages! **** thee lorry driver in that case! I'm a lover and hater of speed limits. I will rigidly stick to 20/30/40 mph limits as they are usually built up areas with things like children's faces but some of the 50s they've introduced locally on the country roads are pointless. I also will happily sir at 80 on the motorway and not 70
Well, this morning there was a girl in a Hyundai i20 who joined the A1 at the same point as me and proceeded straight into the middle lane. I was going very marginally faster than her, & she spent the whole stretch of the A1 from Peterborough to the A14 stuck in the middle of the carriageway. Where it widened to 4 lanes at Norman Cross she still didn't move from that lane, so she effectively went from hogging lane 2, to hogging lane 3.
Then we had old man in a brand new Merc E350 who took umbrage to me overtaking him. I was doing 70, he was going a bit slower. Every time I overtook and pulled back in again his indicator immediately came on, he overtook me, pulled in and gradually slowed back down again to sub 70 at which point I overtook him again. We did this virtually all the way from just south of Norman Cross to Spittal's interchange at Huntingdon.
GrahamSHow much over the limit should I have gone to avoid getting in his way?
There is no fixed rule, because every situation is different.
You need to make a rational judgement on the safest, least contentious option.
On single carriageways, in low limits, where exceeding those limits by a few mph carries more risk (ie 40 in a 30 is a LOT higher risk of causing injury than 80 in a 70 in general) then clearly, exceeding the limit to make space is not such a good option (but most be weighed against the exact circumstances, particularly visibility and presence of other road users / pedestrians etc.
When i get people sat close behind me in say 20mph zones i use 1 of 3 main options:
1) if they are not too aggressive but just a bit close, and no one is in front of me, i will allow my speed to creep up to maybe 25mph if it is obviously safe to do so, and if that defuses the situation (if they just speed up behind me, i'll gradually slow down again to 20)
2) If they are real idiots, i'll just indicate, and pull over, stop and let them go
3) If someone is in front of me, then i will provide there reaction time in my buffer and continue at the speed limit. ie i will ensure i am far enough behind the car ahead to result in good visibility and not having to stop suddenly. This may involve doing under the limit for a short period to build that gap.
In all cases, your speed changes should be gradual and achieved without braking (unless you are actually stopping).
And in pretty much 99% of cases, once the de-restrict sign is passed, they are no-longer behind me for long.........
@cheers_drive
You can add the A12 South and the A120 to that list of driving horror.
*Has hideous flashbacks to commuting into London and around Essex. Goes for lie down*
if my needle is bang on 20 in a 20, then you're more than welcome to floor it past me if you feel that I am "holding you up", by driving according to the prescribed limits. don't see why I should creep up to 25.
outside a school at home time is best 🙄
Thanks max. I think I'd normally go for option 3 there. In the case this morning there was no one in front of me so I was happy to drive at the limit but wouldn't exceed it due to kids, speed pillows etc.
Options 1 and 2 make me feel uncomfortable as I feel like I'd just be enabling his bullying behaviour (and possibly increasing the risk to others by doing so).
If he was in a hurry then he could have stuck to the major A-road instead of rat-running through a 20-zone village.
And if he knows he can just bully people there into ignoring the limit or getting out his way then he'll continue to use that route.
But if he gets an sanctimonious annoying little shit like me in front of him then just maybe he'll be frustrated enough to take a more suitable route next time, or leave himself enough time to take this route within the speed limit.
And in pretty much 99% of cases, once the de-restrict sign is passed, they are no-longer behind me for long.........
In this instance it just ramps up from a 20 to 30 to 40.
But yeah I was well out of his way as soon we cleared the village and hit the 40.
I vote "lesser of two evils" on this one. Given that I am the only person I know who bothers to actually turn and check their blindspot before moving across to the new lane, frankly we are all safer if they pick one and stay in it for the duration. As long as they drop back and let people on at the on-ramps if the left lane is their lane of choice.
[quote=Rich_s ]he said he was about to move over when the lorry driver began to "intimidate" him.
So why didn't he? 🙄
[quote=GrahamS ]How much over the limit should I have gone to avoid getting in his way?
You don't have to get out of the way of strawmen. Personally I tend to choose the option of slowing down if somebody gets too close, as you're only in control of the space in front of you, and I want to make sure I don't have to brake hard.
I know of somebody (who drove in competitions - not to the level of maxt, but a very competent driver) who gradually slowed down when somebody was driving too close behind him, until he came to a complete stop and the tailgater was so close they couldn't pass without reversing!
Nothing strawman about it. Happened this morning and I thought about this thread as his grille was breathing down my neck.
It's not an unusual occurrence on my commute as my village is a 20 (stupid non-legal black circle sign) and I drive through this other village which is a genuine red circle 20.
It's a strawman, because nobody was suggesting that you should speed up to get out of the way of other people on single carriageway roads - at least until maxt's point 1), which incidentally I disagree with and wouldn't do.
With regard to the OP, I find the constant ignorance of speed limits coupled with systematic tailgating and awareness of only of the car in front a huge frustration when trying to drive something like what the highway code wants on motorways.
You're doing circa-70mph on the inside lane, approaching a slow vehicle so check your mirror and blind spot to find 2-ish car gaps between the stream of cars on the outside. Indicate at this point to enter the lane but dippy behind the last car to go past you isn't paying attention and doesn't back off, so either you potentially cause a crash and go for it or wait. This can be repeated by several cars by which time you're stuck behind a lorry at 20-30mph less than the outside lane. So glad I work early days in the middle of nowhere 😀
Have had some fun with tailgater's recently, practice a rather angry face to couple with some hand gestures and expletives when the eventual overtake happens....pure comedy at times !
nobody was suggesting that you should speed up to get out of the way of other people on single carriageway roads
No but max previously made several comments along the lines of "you should never get in the way of another driver, ever" and "minimising conflict" which included speeding up to avoid being tailgated, so I was wondering how he and others would handle this situation. That's all. No straw intended.
takes 2 to minimise conflict