Motorways, "middle lane hoggers" ?

[Cyclone]

Not at all. Your comments would be valid if everyone drove a a constant speed, but this is not the case. Said lorry or even a slow driver can slow down without any reason. In fact this has been proven to be the cause of the majority of jams on main roads. Its not the volume of traffic but the random changes in speed of no more than 1 car can cause huge problems further back.

 

Here this is the experiment to show how it works:

 

I know how traffic bunching works.

 

You claimed that you were getting stuck in lane 1 all the time. Are you now claiming that this is because of unexpected slowing from the vehicle ahead?

It seems rather incredulous to me, I use all 3 lanes of the motorway, quite often with cruise control engaged, and except in the heaviest of traffic I rarely have to touch the throttle or disengage the CC. Which implies that it's entirely possible to use all 3 lanes, plan ahead, and overtake slower vehicles without it being a big issue.

Occasionally, I look to plan my overtake, it might still be 20 to 30 seconds away, and I can see that there won't be a gap any time around when I need it. So then I do have to either accelerate or slow down. That happens about 1 in 10 times on a busy motorway, and it's no biggy.

 

That said, in busy traffic it would be quite rare that I used the 1st lane, it's possible to spend the entire journey overtaking, and that's without actually speeding.

 

But nobody was saying you must use the 1st lane when you are in fact constantly overtaking, it's when there's a mile of space ahead of you and behind you in the lane to your left, and you sit there oblivious, that's hogging.

[AF Removals]

What I hate is when a lorry is in lane 1&2 (fair enuff) then a car pulls out into 3rd lane and sits at 65 70! Just get passed or don't bother.

[L00b]

Never clearer than when traffic backs up on M1.

 

On joinig northwards at 31 this morning:

 

3rd overtaking lane - solid tail to nose as far as the eye can see.

 

2nd middle lane - solid tail to nose as far as the eye can see.

 

1st 'slow' lane - empty, allowing me to cruise (safely) with the 44 tonners all the way from J31 to just before J33, with no stopping at all, past hundreds of cars this morning.

 

Same at night when joining J34 southbound, on approaching the left hand bend to J33 to past J33. 3rd and 2nd, solid. 1st, nice and flowing (until J33 ramp).

[Cyclone]

The 50 limit isn't helping on that stretch, but as you say, it shouldn't be normal to have two stationary lanes and one that is moving almost normally.

[SnailyBoy]

Would you want me to just leave it to the police if I saw your house being burgled, or you being mugged on the street ? Generally, people who make this point on threads about so called "middle lane drivers" are those who want to speed on the motorway and don`t want to have to fart about changing lanes to do it. They think everyone else should have to change lanes so they don`t have to (whilst they get on with breaking the law.....).

 

http://tinyurl.com/ctsrk2h

[altus]

How many blind spots are there in relation to seeing a car? I recall signs and opinions along the lines of "If you can't see my mirrors, then I can't see you". But what about when you can see the mirrors, but the angle of them doesn't help the truck driver see you?

 

It should really be "If you can't see the driver's head in the mirrors".

[L00b]

The 50 limit isn't helping on that stretch, but as you say, it shouldn't be normal to have two stationary lanes and one that is moving almost normally.

In my experience (daily J31<>J34 commute at rush hour, both ways, for the last 4+ years), it seems entirely normal (ho-hum) for the 3rd 'fastest' lane to be the only stationary one, several times over, on that small stretch

 

It appears most drivers on there have no need or want to use lane discipline whatsoever, and are quite happy to stick on there for the duration of their commute, so long as they are in the 'fast' lane and are not 'incommodated' by lane-changers (...like me ).

 

Volume plays a lot in this though, IMHO - I'm not sure any amount of lane discipline by all would accomodate the volume of exiting/joining cars at 33, which is a choke point at rush hour. Traffic at rush hour was never freer-flowing that when they had roadworks and speed-averaging cams for the entire length (J34>J31), around 2 years ago IIRC.

 

FWIW, I have now taken to use only the first 2 lanes, with the exception of moving into the 3rd lane around J33 (northwards at 08:20-ish, southwards at 17:00-ish).

 

Nearly got rear-ended "by ricochet" from a distracted pink Ka driver last summer, as the 3rd lane southbound was stopping on approaching J33 (as usual). The guy in the Boxster behind me () took the left half of the Ka and the central reservation took the other...t'was enough to decide me to stick with the leisurely artics as routine

Edited March 4, 2013 by L00b

[WeX]

I know how traffic bunching works

 

You're an expert on traffic flows. I suppose that's my fault really, I should have known as you are an expert on everything else

[Cyclone]

I go the other way at the moment, but I make sure I hit the motorway by 0715 going south to minimise my travel time, and I'm on the parkway by 1630 on the way home.

 

When I've commuted from near Jnc 31 to the city centre before I've completely avoided the motorway (and the A57), it's quicker to use the back roads and the last bit of the parkway.

 

---------- Post added 04-03-2013 at 12:59 ----------

 

You're an expert on traffic flows. I suppose that's my fault really, I should have known as you are an expert on everything else

 

Well excuse me for having read a lot more science than you.

[mapleboy]

The 50 limit isn't helping on that stretch, but as you say, it shouldn't be normal to have two stationary lanes and one that is moving almost normally.

What 50 limit? It was removed a few days ago.