The problem arises when you have two lorrys overtaking each other.
Then one person starts to overtake them at 65mph.
Cars in the middle and outside lanes both want to pass the trucks so move out to the outside lane, you then have a queue of 3-4 cars doing 65mph behind the slow poke passing the trucks. If you don't move out to the outside lane fairly sharpish then you won't get into it, if you dare put your indicator on then people will speed up and close the gap you wished to move into, or just be general twunts safe in their metal box.
Impatient ****er belts up the middle lane and forces his way into the outside lane causing everyone to brake, the queue size increases, rinse and repeat. M6 from Preston to Birmingham every day of the week is totally shocking.
[i]Cars in the middle and outside lanes both want to pass the trucks so move out to the outside lane, you then have a queue of 3-4 cars doing 65mph behind the slow poke passing the trucks. If you don't move out to the outside lane fairly sharpish then you won't get into it, if you dare put your indicator on then people will speed up and close the gap you wished to move into, or just be general twunts safe in their metal box[/i]
Grow some...
Indicate, move and they'll give way - also helps if you pick on the right vehicle, ie not a Sprinter van, rep etc
This is why people should ride motorcycles. On what appears to be a 3 lane motorway, is in fact 5 lanes. 2 lanes exclusively reserved for 2wheelers 😛
Indicate, move and they'll give way - also helps if you pick on the right vehicle, ie not a Sprinter van, rep etc
Find a vehicle on the road during the day that isn't a rep or a van?
I never have a problem getting in lane, but the number of mongs on the road is increasing, along with the police presence decreasing.
And at the weekends the blue rinse brigade, the mums taking the kids to the shops and the caravan driving idiots come out. Full beams on, lights flashing, swerve at you, speed up if you try and overtake etc etc
I managed 40k a year for 4 years while at work, and did several track days in my private car, driving in the UK sucks big time.
Impatient ****er belts up the middle lane and forces his way into the outside lane causing everyone to brake, the queue size increases, rinse and repeat. M6 from Preston to Birmingham every day of the week is totally shocking
That's one way of describing it. The other is everyone sits in the outside lane 6ft from each other. I drive down the inside or middle lane at 65 past everyone, get to a lorry. I indicate and someone flashes and I move over. Then the person who lets me in may brake and all the idiots parked 6ft apart have to brake. I move back to the inside lane. I don't get the not indicating thing, some idiots may close a gap but most let you in.
If the 'BMW drivers' promise to stick to 55mph - It may be okay?
I hope you find a cure for that envy rather soon.
I do 40K a year in my BMW and I drive fairly quick (where the motorways aren't too busy) and I often find that the worst people for hogging lanes 3 or 3 & 4 are actually vans. Then the middle lane hoggers tend to be males in their 50's who think 56mph is the best for fuel economy.
Your car's gearing dictates what's best speed for economy, my *** 320D does about 43mpg at 56ish but does about 50MPG at 75mph and about 48mph at about 85mph.
I got stopped on my motorbike a few year ago for undertaking and I got the "they won't expect you to be in that lane when you undertake them" comment from a copper and when I replied with "exactly" and "that's why I do it" he actually saw my point. I regularly drive in rush hour on the M6/M62 and people literally come onto the motorway from the entrance slip, try their hardest to bully their way into lane 3 then sit in that lane until there's about 100 yards left for their exit.
I know exactly what points on the M6 and M62/60 to get out of lane 2 or 3 and get into lane 1 because lane 3 will grind to a halt and lane 1 will be dead. Perfect example is J22 M62 at Winter Hill heading West in rush hour. About a mile before the top of the hill at J22 Lane 3 slows right down, lane 1 is dead, I'll slowly use Lane 1, undertake a load of cars who aren't interested in anything other than the car in front, that is the only parameter they are concerned with. I'll probably gain 20 cars in one manoeuvre. If I can't find space to get back into lane 2 then tough, my gamble didn't pay off, if there is room to get back in without forcing anyone to stop (and using my indicators) then happy days.
If the government reversed the order of the lanes from 1-2-3 to 3-2-1 then things would be spot on 😆
Driving round the UK the roads appear to be full of selfish bell ends. You then drive elsewhere round the world and realise these selfish bulbs are actually pretty considerate, sensible and safe in the general scheme of things.
Our roads work well because you generally don't get people driving like baboons, under-taking willy nilly. The rough order of speed across the 3 lanes, plus only overtaking on the right, creates a safe and ordered environment and speeds up traffic movement.
It doesn't always feel like it when there's 10 million people looking up each others ringpiece on the M6 commute, but things work pretty well considering.
*caravan driving idiot waves at tarquin* 😆
I've undertaken folk, if it's a nice clear road, good conditions, some dork in the middle lane at 50 and a Merc getting bigger and bigger in the mirror in the outside lane.
I lean on the horn the entire way through the movement, that way they can't say they didn't know you were there.
The closest and potentially most lethal near miss I've had on a motorway was with a driver sitting in the middle lane on a very quiet motorway at night (A1M nr Ferry Bridge) and a New Mini undertaking as I was overtaking.
I over took them in the outside lane in my Van and then began to move back into into lane 1 and as I did I caught a brief flash of a bluish light from an LED type headlamp reflected in my van's bodywork which caused me to hesitate for half a second s the car I was overtaking was older and the light didn't match. The Mini flashed past me on the inside at well over the ton.
There's no doubt in my mind that; had it not been at night, had the light from the headlights not been so different to the car I was overtaking, had I not been moving in two separate maneuvers back to lane 1 and had I not hesitated, then we all would have had a massive accident. The guy wouldn't have had a chance of stopping or slowing down and I was checking my mirrors carefully throughout.
After that experience I'm reserving the right to view anyone openly admitting to undertaking and/or advocating that 'there's nothing wrong with it' a massive idiot.
Try going against the overtaking convention on a velodrome and see how long you last.
Oh and if you drive a BMW or an Audi - I will pre-judge you. Its nothing personal, it just keeps me alive.
Oh and if you drive a BMW or an Audi - I will pre-judge you. Its nothing personal, it just keeps me alive.
Don't worry you're a van driver who speeds so guess what?
I feel there should be a time limit for trucks to overtake each other or (as in Holland on dual carriage ways) they're not allowed to overtake at all. Trucks elephant racing and Police vehicles driving slowly cause the biggest problems to Motorway driving IMO
Your car's gearing dictates what's best speed for economy, my *** 320D does about 43mpg at 56ish but does about 50MPG at 75mph and about 48mph at about 85mph.
All in the same gear ?
about 48mph at about 85mph
😆
Oh and if you drive a BMW or an Audi - I will pre-judge you. Its nothing personal, it just keeps me alive.
Don't worry you're a van driver who speeds so guess what?
How did you arrive at the conclusion that I speed? Did you jump there by any chance?
How did you arrive at the conclusion that I speed? Did you jump there by any chance?
I pre-judged you, nothing personal.
tyger - Member
Trucks elephant racing and Police vehicles driving slowly cause the biggest problems to Motorway driving IMO
On motorways those are occasional annoyances compared to the 50% of people who think they have to stay in the middle/RH lane the whole time.
On the M25 sometimes I go from the M4, all the way round to the A12 in the left 2 lanes which are almost completely empty, yet the right 2 or 3 lanes are chocablock with cool dudes duking it out over who can get closest to the car in front, constantly dabbing the brakes.
THe weird thing is, if you drive back from france the lane discipline is impecable, yet within about 5 miles of getting out of the train this side, the same drivers are beings stupid again.
After that experience I'm reserving the right to view anyone openly admitting to undertaking and/or advocating that 'there's nothing wrong with it' a massive idiot.
Sounds like you should spend less time insulting people and more time working on your piss-poor observation skills. 🙂
Not saying the mini driver wasn't in the wrong, the situation you describe (which I'm not 100% sure of, are you saying the mini came out of nowhere?) is exactly when you shouldn't pass on the left.
sbob - I'm saying that the speed of the mini was very much higher than either mine or the car I was over taking, such that when I first checked my mirrors and started to move around the car in the middle lane it wasn't in sight although I had to all the way across two lanes so it took a little time. My attention was then on seeing the car in the middle lane come in to my LH wing mirror and then into my rear view mirror so I could move back into the middle lane without cutting it up. During this time the mini approached, presumably at the same kind of speed it left at, and at some point (probably when it was at some distance away and I was still in the outside lane) committed to the decision of going up the inside. My Van is a T4 Combi and has a decent wing mirror, plenty of visibility and side windows and as I mentioned I was paying a lot of attention to my mirrors. This is why I found the circumstances of undertaking like this so dangerous though, that the blind spot is big enough for me not to see the mini approaching two lanes away over my left shoulder - although there's a good chance it was obscured by the lights of the slower car in the middle lane which may even have been on full beam until I was past them - it was a quiet night. Whatever the case - I had an acute sense that I'd still missed it despite my best efforts so that reinforced to me what a dodgy move it was.
If I hadn't have been paying enough attention I'd have had the feeling of 'shit - I've really got piss poor observation skills' but this was definitely 'shit - that's why you don't undertake'
As for anyone thinking they can deduce my speed from my first post with any level of confidence - well you'd have to be pretty dubious about their judgement skills. Best avoided on the road altogether I should think 😉
Strictly speaking, if you had changed lanes into the mini driver, it might have been your fault, irrespective of the fact he was speeding.
Lots of cars travel faster than 70 on a motorway, some legally, and you have to make provisions for this.
If you were doing the speed limit ( 😉 ) and the middle lane hog was therefore going slower, the mini driver's speed differential would have been too high no matter which side he chose to pass.
It is legal to undertake if the vehicle you are undertaking is moving slower than the flow of traffic.
It is legal to undertake if the vehicle you are undertaking is moving slower than the flow of traffic.
No it isn't.
Read the thread, or prove me wrong, your choice. 🙂
I've never known anyone to be done for undertaking - I'll happily do it someone's sat in lane 3 at 50 and I want to make progress
I'll domitbif...
Go on then 🙂
Read the thread, or prove me wrong, your choice.
Well that was easy.
268
Do not overtake on the left or move to a lane on your left to overtake. In congested conditions, [b]where adjacent lanes of traffic are moving at similar speeds, traffic in left-hand lanes may sometimes be moving faster than traffic to the right. In these conditions you may keep up with the traffic in your lane even if this means passing traffic in the lane to your right.[/b]
I witnessed an example of heroically dangerous undertaking in Bradford once, it involved the undertaking vehicle mounting the pavement and driving along it at about 60 before rejoining the road.
I saw plenty of other crap driving in that city, vehicles navigating roundabouts counter-clockwise etc etc.
Well that was easy.
I could have sworn you wrote "illegal", so my mistake.
Doesn't change the fact that the HC is not law.
My job in the UK sees me on the roads a lot, circa 40,000 miles a year and I genuinely think lorries are the biggest problems on our motorways. They cause more issues forcing people out because they are overtaking and slowly but surely they are getting slower as the speed limiters are being decreased.
I'm currently in the states and have done a lot of travelling and to be honest I think the roads are so much better out here because of the way people can undertake. Lorries don't appear to be limited so they can pass each other a lot quicker and if there is a slow one in the middle lane there is no problems under taking them if the traffic is moving just fine.
I've only seen one accident on the roads out here in the 6 months I've been here and that was a motorbiker that got knocked off during rush hour on the GWB. He was brave as hell riding through in the first place and was just unlucky squeezing for a gap he couldn't get.
On average I see at least 2 major accidents a week in the UK causing our motorways to crawl to a halt and normally in the outside lane where someone has slammed on the anchors because of an old woman who's moved out past two lorries and the person who hits her hasn't noticed how slow she's going in comparison to them.
Stats show that our roads are much safer than those of the US.
I could have sworn you wrote "illegal", so my mistake.
I didn't write legal either. 😀
