Road Rage

[IR35 Avoider]

I have to agree that the middle lane is the lowest-numbered one to be in. The problem is, lane 2 is always travelling to slowly for me, and lane 3 is always to fast.

I like to set my cruise control at the speed limit (after allowing for speedometer inaccuracy by calibrating against satnav) and it really annoys me that I regularly have to brake for people travelling slower than the speed limit in lanes 1 and 2. However if I move into lane 3 I get someone up my tail in no time at all. So I switch between 2 and 3 on a regular basis.

If someone comes up behind me in 3, I don't accelerate to get out of their way, I let the cruise control carry me at a leisurely (i.e. speed limit) pace past the lane 2 traffic until I can change lanes. I don't feel guilty about holding lane 3 car up, because the chances are that by getting out of his way so he can go faster than I want to, I'm going to get stuck in lane 2 going slower than I want to, until another gap opens up an I can get back into 3.

[Churchill]

I thought you drove a Range Rover - owned by Ford, oh no hang on, owned by Tata of India.........

I also own an Audi, part owned by Porsche.

Just so long as "Range Rover" honour the outstanding warranty, I don't give a flying **** who owns the company.

Your point being?

[Bagpuss]

If you and everyone in the outside lane is doing 80 and there is a gap of a few hundred yards in the middle lane before the traffic which is doing 70, the only thing that happens if you pull in to the middle lane is everyone else gets one car-length further on the road and you get stuck behind a load of cars doing 70.

Imagine if everyone was in the correct lane, the traffic would move efficiently. What normally happens in the situation above, is you get a 1/2 mile line of cars doing 60 in the outside lane negotiating an invisible self imposed bottleneck, while the other lanes are empty or moving faster.

[DodgyAgent]

I have to agree that the middle lane is the lowest-numbered one to be in. The problem is, lane 2 is always travelling to slowly for me, and lane 3 is always to fast.

I like to set my cruise control at the speed limit (after allowing for speedometer inaccuracy by calibrating against satnav) and it really annoys me that I regularly have to brake for people travelling slower than the speed limit in lanes 1 and 2. However if I move into lane 3 I get someone up my tail in no time at all. So I switch between 2 and 3 on a regular basis.

If someone comes up behind me in 3, I don't accelerate to get out of their way, I let the cruise control carry me at a leisurely (i.e. speed limit) pace past the lane 2 traffic until I can change lanes. I don't feel guilty about holding lane 3 car up, because the chances are that by getting out of his way so he can go faster than I want to, I'm going to get stuck in lane 2 going slower than I want to, until another gap opens up an I can get back into 3.

You are clearly one of these selfish pr***s that drives as if there is no one else on the road.
Lanes 2 & 3 are for overtaking only. If you are overtaking then do so and then get out of the way if not f*** off back in to lane 1. Cruise control is totally inappropriate for UK roads.

[Churchill]

You are clearly one of these selfish pr***s that drives as if there is no one else on the road.
Lanes 2 & 3 are for overtaking only. If you are overtaking then do so and then get out of the way if not f*** off back in to lane 1. Cruise control is totally inappropriate for UK roads.

WHS

[Bagpuss]

More and more these days you have the 2 outside lanes doing the same speed side by side like a rolling road block,reducing 3 lanes of capacity down to 2. How can anyone justify that?

It's about time it were legal to undertake

[scooby]

More and more these days you have the 2 outside lanes doing the same speed side by side like a rolling road block,reducing 3 lanes of capacity down to 2. How can anyone justify that?

It's about time it were legal to undertake

run the fluffers off the road!

[Peoplesoft bloke]

This is a bit like the tube train etiquette debate.
The roads are too crowded and everyone seems to think all other road users are incompetent idiots.
Some people will do anything for what is often a tiny advantage (or non at all).
You only have to look at all the totally different approaches expressed with total conviction here to realise why road rage happens.

Churchill - the Ford Focus (and no, I don't and have never owned one) has won loads of quality awards - Ford's takeover of LR meant a huge improvement in build quality - so it's hardly a POS Ford - that was my point.

[Churchill]

This is a bit like the tube train etiquette debate.
The roads are too crowded and everyone seems to think all other road users are incompetent idiots.
Some people will do anything for what is often a tiny advantage (or non at all).
You only have to look at all the totally different approaches expressed with total conviction here to realise why road rage happens.

Churchill - the Ford Focus (and no, I don't and have never owned one) has won loads of quality awards - Ford's takeover of LR meant a huge improvement in build quality - so it's hardly a POS Ford - that was my point.

Yeah, we know about the "quality" his problems with the clutch will attest to that.

Now, please explain how a Range Rover built over 18 months ago could possibly be affected by a change in ownership of the parent company.

As I said, just so long as the Warranty is honoured then I'm happy.

[IR35 Avoider]

You are clearly one of these selfish pr***s that drives as if there is no one else on the road.
Lanes 2 & 3 are for overtaking only. If you are overtaking then do so and then get out of the way if not f*** off back in to lane 1. Cruise control is totally inappropriate for UK roads.

I'm not being selfish. For me it's the height of assertiveness to give myself almost as much consideration as I give others, which is what the procedure I described does. For example, I deliberately vary my speed from my desired 50 to 45 in order to allow someone else to increase theirs from 50 to say 65. Surely "generous" or "selfless" or "polite" is a better word to describe that?

If you were a Londoner (or had read my post more carefully) you would realise that all three lanes are full of traffic. The cars in lanes 2 and 3 are in a persistent state of "overtaking", and most drivers (myself included) do move to the leftmost lane whenever they can.

So you are saying that if lane 1 is doing 30mph, lane 2 is travelling at 45 and lane 3 is doing 65, and the speed limit is 50, I should stay in 2 and never overtake because I would hold up the cars in 3 by overtaking while doing 50? Or should I overtake, but put my foot down so as not hold up lane 3? (Actually in practise I do sometimes put my foot down. In the past I would always get out of peoples way as quickly as possible, I've worked my way up to being willing to hold them up for a few seconds, rather than override the cruise control.)

In practise I do only overtake when there's a few hundred yards of clear lane 3 behind me, it's just that fairly often I will not get back into 2 before someone has come up behind me.

I do agree about cruise control not being intended for use in my road conditions, but it does combat the speed cameras, including average speed cameras on part of my route, so direct your anger at the government. When they stop threatening to penalise me for driving according to the conditions, I'll stop trying to drive according to the law.