I’m passed the bus and pulled in ,having given it a safe braking distance.and said manic woman has occupied thatgap and is trying to come up my inside at speed.

When you've overtaken a slower vehicle, is waiting until you have given them a save breaking distance before pulling in really more important than getting out of the way of a maniac tailgaiter, or were you trying to prove a point & thus ending up making a bad situation much worse?

when I was doing my driving lessons learners weren’t allowed on the motorway

There are plenty of 4 and 6 lane dual carriageways to practice on, which are motorways in all but name in terms of speed, lane discipline, slip-roads etc.

When I did my driving lessons, many were on the A2 between roughly the M25 and M2. Not a motorway legally, but for all intents and purposes it may as well be. Had shorter sliproads back then too, before they moved the A2 to one side and built the cyclopark.

Motorway / Trunk Road driving should be compulsory part of the learning experience. And the test, ideally, although obviously many won't live within a few minutes drive of such a major road.

I'm half way to Wales from Scotland, and the busy-ish M74 & M6 have so far been a relative joy & stress free. Everyone seems to be surprisingly on the ball. Must be the sunny weather!

It’ll all change around Preston IME

" Impeding the flow of traffic is something the police would be entitled to stop him and have a quiet word about.
Or are you the sort of driver who goes everywhere at half the posted limit, just to prove a point?

35mph isn’t impeding the movement of traffic."

Highway Code says otherwise. 35 in a 60?

"Rule 169

Do not hold up a long queue of traffic, especially if you are driving a large or slow-moving vehicle. Check your mirrors frequently, and if necessary, pull in where it is safe and let traffic pass."

I’ll sit there with cruise control on, constantly overtaking and being overtaken by the same car

This drives me mad, I just love when someone whos middle lane hogging and doing 65mph then decides to speed up as you are overtaking them, usually resulting in aborting said overtake and tucking in behind them for a few 100 metres to repeat all over again.

I do take a lot of joy in setting my cruise control to 70 and just staying in the left lane and undertaking the middle lane hoggers, I am sure I read that its not undertaking if you dont deviate from your path, might be wrong and the hot coals could be waiting for me though...

Aye Keith, I would generally just pass them on the left (as long as there was a hard shoulder if they finally decide to move over...)

Did 400 miles earlier in the week between midlands/north-west/north-east and seen a lot of what has been described in this thread. The worst was some young lass in a polo with her pal who resolutely would not move out of the far right lane 3 whatsoever despite there being (at times) nothing in lanes 1 and 2 and having cars breathing down her neck. She must have joined went into lane 3 and then just stayed there for the entire journey! Crackers.

Seen a lot of the 6.15am nutters too on Tuesday morning after leaving Coventry at 5.30. Highlight was a middle-aged woman in a Kuga driving on her door handles round roundabouts and doing 80 in a 50.. albeit I didn't see her for long! Would love to know where she was going as it must have been more exciting than where I was (work).

For centre lane 55mph hogs I'll pass in the outside and then pull back in 2 lanes

For lane 3 of 4 55mph hogs, or 55mph outside lane hogs, I'll pass in lane 1 at 69.999mph while they're in lane 3+, with 1 clear lane in between.

M4 back from Bristol to London on a Friday evening used to be mental for that. Reps launch straight to the outside lane from the on-slip at Bristol, and stay there until M25. But once the number of cars hits a certain critical mass in that lane, the natural speed of the traffic in the centre lane is faster than the outside. And they are too dumb to notice.  And I've spent half the journey trying to carefully creep up the inside.

It’ll all change around Preston IME

Nope, it was all fine and I actually quite enjoyed my 7 and a half-hour drive. I went across the M56 and into Wales via Chester and through the middle and even past the a Royal Wales show ground.

Turns out a fat bike on the roof does nothing for economy though.

Aye Keith, I would generally just pass them on the left (as long as there was a hard shoulder if they finally decide to move over…)

I tend to do a mix of this or pulling out and back in. Occasionally with a flash as I cross behind them too, which I know makes me a terrible person.

trip to Leeds tomorrow

Made it to Leeds without any real problems, had to slow down on the A1(M) for a car and lorry that had come together, everyone looked to be fine. When I say slow down I'm not talking about gawking at them, the car was blocking the right lane and the lorry partially the left lane, so we had to pass single file through.

There is no offence of undertaking, so passing on the left is not against the law. Just don't be reckless or careless about it, and moving left to undertake will be frowned upon. Staying left and undertaking just means that 5 manoeuvres becomes 1 manoeuvre......

There is no offence of undertaking, so passing on the left is not against the law. Just don’t be reckless or careless about it, and moving left to undertake will be frowned upon. Staying left and undertaking just means that 5 manoeuvres becomes 1 manoeuvre……

I figure that a prat who sits in the middle lane like that is possibly also enough of a prat to move left without checking or indicating, so I'm very wary about undertaking, although i do it sometimes.

but i do chuckle when I can undertake someone with an empty lane to spare in between us.

today's example of quality motorway driving:

https://twitter.com/Annie__McGuire/status/1156090300563173376

Phone in their lap would be my guess.

today’s example of quality motorway driving

See, that's why I stick to the middle lane at all times. The nutter in the pickup didn't hit the white car, did he?

Wife saw a guy knocked off his motorbike the other day. Idiot on inside lane pulled out because she'd left a gap, as your supposed to. Motorbike doing 100 ks splitting lanes, wiped out. Both at fault but horrible to see.

Not a fan of motoroways these days, i try my best to stay left, but on every journey it ends up with me being boxed in and having to slow down all the time due to people sleepwalking up the middle lane. Nobody appears to anticipate anymore either, i always move to lane 3 if overtaking and there's someone in lane 1 who may need to go into lane 2 due to slow moving traffic ahead, but only ever see people do it to me 2 or 3 times out of a 100, same with moving in and out of the overtaking lane, it's not that difficult to see what is going on ahead and use your mirrors as well.

Have to admit, i do try and stay off roads when they're busy now as it just annoys me, going to work i'll see the same people every morning who are just unaware of other road users, and in reality it makes me a worse driver as well as i do change the way i drive to deal with it.

I got told to "f off" on the M1 yesterday morning by a charming chap in a Merc. He was sat in the middle lane with his phone by his knee, texting away. I tooted at him and got a lovely response. Self entitled knobber.

today’s example of quality motorway driving

He didn't even lift off! Just kept his foot planted LT56UPE by the looks of it. I'd guess he'd maybe had a drink or 5!

This morning's bell-endery comes from the car that undertook (using grass verge) a slightly hesitant car waiting on busy dual carriageway roundabout at Kier, then overtook a learner on hatchings at the exit on to single carriageway.
Only to have myself and learner catch up in the huge queue through bridge of Allan this morning and sit unmoving...

In no other area of human endeavour would we tolerate this. If there were 5 deaths a day on the railways, the network would be shut down, there’d be investigations, corporate manslaugter charges. Drive a forklift truck in the relatively safe confines of a warehouse and you’re tested on it every year.
But a car? Oh there you go, and maybe try getting it serviced every once in a while (but we won’t really check that) and there’s really not much enforcement out there so sort of try to avoid drinking or using a mobile phone at the wheel but if you do, we probably won’t notice…

Completely agree.

Standard of driving has got a lot worse - poor lane discipline om m-ways and lack of indicating at junctions and roundabouts being the two things I have noticed getting much worse.

Edit. Changed my mind. I have nothin to add here

lack of indicating at junctions and roundabouts being the two things I have noticed getting much worse.

I am baffled by people who don't indicate right on roundabouts. You are crossing the path of on-coming traffic and don't think you should give them some clue as to what you are doing? Actually I am baffled by those who don't indicate going left either. And those who do indicate right but then leave it still flashing right as they exit the roundabout.

I'm baffled by people who don't indicate at all. How hard is it to flick a little plastic lever up or down so that people know where you're going?

Indicating left off a roundabout before your penultimate exit; "I'm exiting somewhere, best indicate in plenty of time". Yes, we know you're leaving at some point and would be grateful if you let us know just a little before you do, not two exits previous ta.

My personal peeve is I am often on the M25 after 2AM when there is not a lot of traffic, and you still get middle lane hoggers doing 65-70 so they don't have to pull out to overtake every 5 or 10 minutes. I come up behind them going a bit faster, and have to choose whether to undertake, or move two lanes across an otherwise deserted motorway, overtake, and move two lanes back.

When you’ve overtaken a slower vehicle, is waiting until you have given them a save breaking distance before pulling in really more important than getting out of the way of a maniac tailgaiter

assume that's a joke. pulling in and leaving the car a safe braking distance is a priority, so giving way to some idiot behind.

I tooted at him and got a lovely response. Self entitled knobber.

you can film them on your phone now, it's OK as this is not technically 'using' it, as long as you aren't uploading it to social media at the same time. I think that's what the recent judgement was...

He didn’t even lift off! Just kept his foot planted LT56UPE by the looks of it.

LT55 UPE.

pulling in and leaving the car a safe braking distance is a priority

Getting off the wrong side of the road is the priority, n'est-ce pas? You're going faster than the other car by definition, if they don't have ample braking distance when you pull in then they will a couple of seconds later.

Getting off the wrong side of the road is the priority, n’est-ce pas?

If you've managed to get on to the wrong side of the road on a motorway you might be about to experience bigger issues

A friend used to be on Greater Manchester Police's motor division. One day on an empty (well empty-ish) stretch of the M62 she pulled up a bloke hogging the middle lane (she'd been following him in a marked car for several miles) and asked him about his driving and why he wasn't using the left hand lane. His answer? "I like to be in control of the highway" Yep, that old chestnut.

She booked him.