Middle Lane Smackdown

[SueEllen]

You do on the M1 between Junction 25 & 41 and esp 25 -> 28 where it's 4 lanes and the middle lane is now lane 3 as they're all sat there.

plus lots of 3 lane dual carriageways and on the M3, M4, M25.......

The funniest is when motorways merge and the one you are on ends up joining an existing motorway in the 2nd and 3rd lanes. You always get someone who is too scared to move to the left and sits at 45-50mph clutching the steering wheel with white knuckles.

BTW there are times in the day when I can drive at 80mph+ in lane 1 of the M4, M23, M25, M1 and M3. Yes every now and then I have to move to lane 2 but lots of drivers in the early morning and night seem to have better lane discipline than those that drive the rest of the day.

[Troll]

but lots of drivers in the early morning and night seem to have better lane discipline than those that drive the rest of the day.

True... that's because its mostly blokes driving at that time of day

[Old Greg]

plus lots of 3 lane dual carriageways and on the M3, M4, M25.......

The funniest is when motorways merge and the one you are on ends up joining an existing motorway in the 2nd and 3rd lanes. You always get someone who is too scared to move to the left and sits at 45-50mph clutching the steering wheel with white knuckles.

BTW there are times in the day when I can drive at 80mph+ in lane 1 of the M4, M23, M25, M1 and M3. Yes every now and then I have to move to lane 2 but lots of drivers in the early morning and night seem to have better lane discipline than those that drive the rest of the day.

My missus is from the West of Ireland and the motorway is pretty new there. It's always fun spotting the old farmers who've never driven more than 35 mph before, and aren't going to start now.

[SueEllen]

True... that's because its mostly blokes driving at that time of day

Loads of blokes are middle lane hoggers especially if they notice that you are behind them and female.

Hence I move over to lane 3 put my foot down then move back over and slow down. Half take the hint and move to lane 1, the other half particularly if they over 60 years look really angry that you over took. It's more amusing if you did it at 70.

[Wanderer]

So, assuming speed limits aren't really a factor... You, and everyone else, are driving at 85mph, in the third lane. Someone else is driving at 75mph. They have moved to the third lane, as everyone in the middle lane is sitting at 65mph. The refuse to move back over, as they don't want to drop 10mph, so now you, and everyone else in the third lane is forced down to 75mph instead of your preferred speed, with no chance to get past and speed up again.

If there's a gap then of course I would expect them to move from the right lane to the middle lane and let us past. Likewise I always watch my mirrors on the motorway and move out of the right lane if I see someone who wants to overtake.

But if someone is in the right (or middle) lane making progress which is 10 MPH faster than the lane to the left of them (eg, they are overtaking vehicles) then it's pretty arrogant to suggest that they should slow down and move to the left to let other traffic barrel past at 85 MPH. To put it another way, let's imagine you are doing 85 and someone comes up behind you at 100 MPH. Is it reasonable for you to slow from 85 to 65 so you can move over and let them pass or do they just have to accept that with the amount of traffic on the road they simply can't maintain that speed and they will have to wait behind you until it's clear enough for you to move over so they can go past?

It's also easy to look at the traffic and think "Why don't they all move over so I can go blasting past" but the problem is that all the traffic can't reasonably fit into two lanes because we need to maintain a safe following distance. If everyone moved over to the left then there would be more traffic in those lanes so the speed would have to decrease to maintain a safe distance, therefore people will spread out again to overtake. The flows on the motorway find their own happy medium, sometimes the speed is less than we want but mostly that's a function of the amount of traffic on the road rather than the mythical "middle lane hoggers" that people bitterly complain about.

if the motorways weren't so congested that people were able to move back over once they finished overtaking, then suddenly the third lane would be empty for a whole lot more of the time, allowing you to buzz past at 85mph.

Sometimes they are quiet enough and you can do that. But mostly you can't change the laws of physics. A given number of cars can fit in a given road space at a given speed. As the number of cars increases, the speed must decrease to allow them to follow closer.

If there is a free lane to the right. What happens most of the time with reasonably heavy traffic, is the left hand lane is underused because you have the middle lane brigade trundling along in the centre at 70 ish, and a long queue in the outside lane of people wanting to get past, all getting stressed, driving too close, not wanting to let people out etc.

The traffic moving at 70 MPH simply cannot move into the left lane without slowing to 56 MPH behind the trucks on their speed limiters. Try it! Drive in the left lane at 70 MPH and see how long it is before you are trying to change lanes. When you do try to change lanes, quite often you will find that two or three vehicles are now slowly overtaking you at 75 MPH and you slow to 56 MPH while they pass. Your speed is up and down like a yo yo, it's stressful, dangerous and it wrecks your fuel economy. At 70 MPH it's much safer to go with the smooth flow of traffic in the middle lane where you have a clear view of the road ahead rather than the back of a lorry being driven by Johnny Foreigner who is watching a DVD rather than looking where he's going.

[VectraMan]

The traffic moving at 70 MPH simply cannot move into the left lane without slowing to 56 MPH behind the trucks on their speed limiters. Try it! Drive in the left lane at 70 MPH and see how long it is before you are trying to change lanes. When you do try to change lanes, quite often you will find that two or three vehicles are now slowly overtaking you at 75 MPH and you slow to 56 MPH while they pass. Your speed is up and down like a yo yo, it's stressful, dangerous and it wrecks your fuel economy. At 70 MPH it's much safer to go with the smooth flow of traffic in the middle lane where you have a clear view of the road ahead rather than the back of a lorry being driven by Johnny Foreigner who is watching a DVD rather than looking where he's going.

It's a matter of degree. Clearly pulling over to the left if you're going to have to slow down or pull back out 5 seconds later is silly, but the problem is the middle laners don't pull over even when there's nothing on the inside lane in the next mile, and they use the same "the inside lane is for lorries" excuse to justify it. I'd suggest anyone who has to slow down because of a lorry isn't looking or thinking far enough ahead.

[proggy]

Can't see how they can enforce this, will cause mayhem with people trying to cut into left lane then back out. Easier just to cruise down the middle lane all the way, if someone wants to break the speed limit they can go in the fast lane. In short, good theory but practically not going to happen.

[MyUserName]

Isn't this sort of thing already being done in France and Germany?