Motorways, "middle lane hoggers" ?

[Lobos]

I very much doubt you'd be doing 70.

 

---------- Post added 28-12-2014 at 21:37 ----------

 

 

Perhaps you could do as you preach then and not hog the middle lane...

I've got five different vehicles to drive all of them the speedos are quite accurate according to the sat navs.I usually travel on the motorways with the cruise speed control set to seventy miles per hour in my vans then drop down to whatever speed restriction are in force, I've never been flashed for speeding in recent years.

 

---------- Post added 28-12-2014 at 22:12 ----------

 

Excellent post. The difference on the motorways mon-fri compared with weekends is huge. I find through the week, people will let you in and out of the Middle lane and lack of indicator use is much rarer. Weekends totally different. I had a picture (sadly now deleted) of the m1 South of Leicester with lanes 2 and 3 filled and nothing bar us in sight in the inside lane.

 

I find the further south you get the worse the drivers get.

[Xt500]

I've got five different vehicles to drive all of them the speedos are quite accurate according to the sat navs.I usually travel on the motorways with the cruise speed control set to seventy miles per hour in my vans then drop down to whatever speed restriction are in force, I've never been flashed for speeding in recent years.

 

---------- Post added 28-12-2014 at 22:12 ----------

 

 

I find the further south you get the worse the drivers get.

 

All car/van speedos are set to over read and typically over read at 70 by 4 mph. There is of course always one on forums that say their vehicles have escaped the law but 5 is really stretching it.

[Lobos]

All car/van speedos are set to over read and typically over read at 70 by 4 mph. There is of course always one on forums that say their vehicles have escaped the law but 5 is really stretching it.

According to the sat navs the speedos in the vans are usually a slight bit faster by say 3 or 4 miles per hour,I think the speed cameras have a ping speed of about 6 miles per hour over, driving in London and driving bang on the mark and a bit over at times in the vans I have never been flashed there once and they are very keen there I've never had any problems neither have any of my staff driving there,we go to London regularly so I would say the speedos are quite accurate or there is a good bit of leeway in the cameras,like I say I cover many thousands of miles a year all over the country,the 50 mph average speed cameras on the M1 seem to pick you up if you travel through them at 59- 60 mph from what I have been told by drivers who have been done there.

[Obelix]

I've got five different vehicles to drive all of them the speedos are quite accurate according to the sat navs.I usually travel on the motorways with the cruise speed control set to seventy miles per hour in my vans

 

So you will be doing about 64mph then.

 

And five vehicles yourself - sure. That's real resounding economoic model that are they yellow with green writing on them?

 

And in all that time you still haven't learnt proper lane discipline and people wonder why white van man has such a bad name.

[Xt500]

According to the sat navs the speedos in the vans are usually a slight bit faster by say 3 or 4 miles per hour,I think the speed cameras have a ping speed of about 6 miles per hour over, driving in London and driving bang on the mark and a bit over at times in the vans I have never been flashed there once and they are very keen there I've never had any problems neither have any of my staff driving there,we go to London regularly so I would say the speedos are quite accurate or there is a good bit of leeway in the cameras,like I say I cover many thousands of miles a year all over the country,the 50 mph average speed cameras on the M1 seem to pick you up if you travel through them at 59- 60 mph from what I have been told by drivers who have been done there.

 

Mate you are typical of drivers who think they know it all, the more you post, the more obvious it becomes how you have Kidded yourself your better than you are.

 

The guide lines of a speed camera trigger is always set to 10% + 2 mph, that's the same for fixed or vans. It's also the same for average speed specs cameras which will trigger at an average of 57 mph, nothing less.

so if your speedo is 4 mph fast you can go through a whole roadworks with the cruise set to 60 mph and you wouldn't get a ticket.

p's you don't have an ADR and hazchem they are the same.

[Cyclone]

According to the sat navs the speedos in the vans are usually a slight bit faster by say 3 or 4 miles per hour,I think the speed cameras have a ping speed of about 6 miles per hour over, driving in London and driving bang on the mark and a bit over at times in the vans I have never been flashed there once and they are very keen there I've never had any problems neither have any of my staff driving there,we go to London regularly so I would say the speedos are quite accurate or there is a good bit of leeway in the cameras,like I say I cover many thousands of miles a year all over the country,the 50 mph average speed cameras on the M1 seem to pick you up if you travel through them at 59- 60 mph from what I have been told by drivers who have been done there.

 

So if you set your cruise at an indicated 70, you are doing about 67. And the guideline from acpo is 10%+2, so that would be a flash speed of 79. You could probably get away with an indicated 84.

None of which is an excuse for staying in the middle lane when the left is clear.

 

The discussion has become more about what constitutes "clear" though. 2 seconds, 10 seconds, 60 seconds? You appeared earlier to claim to just stay in the middle lane, and then changed it to say that you don't. Who knows what you actually do without someone observing you.

 

---------- Post added 29-12-2014 at 12:02 ----------

 

I was talking to a lorry driver and he told me its perfectly legal to undertake a middle lane hogger on the inside, provided you are already in the inside lane and stay in it once passed.

 

The law was changed about a year ago to make undertaking a specific offence.

I'm not sure if you have to move to the left for it to be considered undertaking.

[Justin Smith]

Why bother pulling into lane 3, just go past them on the inside.

 

Overtaking on the inside is very bad driving, you`re far more likely to cause an accident doing that than overtaking on the correct side. I really do wonder why so many drivers do it, and they`re particularly likely to do so when approaching a junction (if they want to leave the motorway) where, if they bothered to think about it, the risk of a vehicle pulling over into them (from the lane to their right) is at its highest...... Imbeciles.

Overtaking on the inside is certainly far worse driving than spending too long in the middle lane.

 

---------- Post added 29-12-2014 at 13:31 ----------

 

I thought middle lane hogging was made illegal last year?

or does it not count if you're doing the speed limit?

 

The definition of middle lane driving is not as simple as many people seem to think. It revolves around how long the driver would be in the inside lane before having to pull back out again for the inevitable slower moving traffic he/she will encounter.

Out of interest here are some pertinent facts :

 

Required 2 second gap at 70mph = 63 m. But this is front and rear, i.e. the gap between two vehicles must be at least 126m before you move into it (even if all three vehicles are doing exactly the same speed).

If you`re doing 70mph and the vehicles on the inside lane are doing 50mph that`s a 20mph closing speed, which is 9m per second. So if you want to be in the inside lane for at least 20 seconds (to make lane changing worthwhile), the gap would have to be 20 x 9m (180m) plus 126m = 306m

 

There`s a thread on the police definition of middle lane driving here.

 

At the end of the day I really can`t understand why some drivers get so upset by people being in the middle lane too long. I actually prefer to drive in the inside lane but middle laners (provided they aren`t doing under about 65mph, there`s a safety issue in that) really don`t annoy me that much, certainly not so much as aggressive and/or speeding drivers.

This anecdote one constantly hears about middle laners being in the middle lane "when there`s nothing else on the motorway" really is a red herring. How often on a British motorway is there nothing else on the road, hardly ever ! Ironically if there really were no other cars on the road it really wouldn`t matter if they stayed in the middle lane anyway......

Edited December 29, 2014 by Justin Smith

[Xt500]

The typical lane hogger above, every excuse under the sun for poor driving, and bad attitude and of course it's everyone else that's in the wrong.

Man up and go get some driver training before you hurt someone.

[tinfoilhat]

Overtaking on the inside is very bad driving, you`re far more likely to cause an accident doing that than overtaking on the correct side. I really do wonder why so many drivers do it, and they`re particularly likely to do so when approaching a junction (if they want to leave the motorway) where, if they bothered to think about it, the risk of a vehicle pulling over into them (from the lane to their right) is at its highest...... Imbeciles.

Overtaking on the inside is certainly far worse driving than spending too long in the middle lane.

 

---------- Post added 29-12-2014 at 13:31 ----------

 

 

The definition of middle lane driving is not as simple as many people seem to think. It revolves around how long the driver would be in the inside lane before having to pull back out again for the inevitable slower moving traffic he/she will encounter.

Out of interest here are some pertinent facts :

 

Required 2 second gap at 70mph = 63 m. But this is front and rear, i.e. the gap between two vehicles must be at least 126m before you move into it (even if all three vehicles are doing exactly the same speed).

If you`re doing 70mph and the vehicles on the inside lane are doing 50mph that`s a 20mph closing speed, which is 9m per second. So if you want to be in the inside lane for at least 20 seconds (to make lane changing worthwhile), the gap would have to be 20 x 9m (180m) plus 126m = 306m

 

There`s a thread on the police definition of middle lane driving here.

 

At the end of the day I really can`t understand why some drivers get so upset by people being in the middle lane too long. I actually prefer to drive in the inside lane but middle laners (provided they aren`t doing under about 65mph, there`s a safety issue in that) really don`t annoy me that much, certainly not so much as aggressive and/or speeding drivers.

This anecdote one constantly hears about middle laners being in the middle lane "when there`s nothing else on the motorway" really is a red herring. How often on a British motorway is there nothing else on the road, hardly ever ! Ironically if there really were no other cars on the road it really wouldn`t matter if they stayed in the middle lane anyway......

 

How many miles do you on the motorway network per year? And roughly what time of day?

[Cyclone]

Overtaking on the inside is very bad driving, you`re far more likely to cause an accident doing that than overtaking on the correct side. I really do wonder why so many drivers do it, and they`re particularly likely to do so when approaching a junction (if they want to leave the motorway) where, if they bothered to think about it, the risk of a vehicle pulling over into them (from the lane to their right) is at its highest...... Imbeciles.

Overtaking on the inside is certainly far worse driving than spending too long in the middle lane.

It should be impossible, because no one would be in the middle lane unnecessarily to allow it.

 

The definition of middle lane driving is not as simple as many people seem to think. It revolves around how long the driver would be in the inside lane before having to pull back out again for the inevitable slower moving traffic he/she will encounter.

If it's long enough to be under taken, then it's too long. Simple.

Out of interest here are some pertinent facts :

 

Required 2 second gap at 70mph = 63 m. But this is front and rear, i.e. the gap between two vehicles must be at least 126m before you move into it (even if all three vehicles are doing exactly the same speed).

No, as usual, you're wrong. It's 2 seconds in front.

If you`re doing 70mph and the vehicles on the inside lane are doing 50mph that`s a 20mph closing speed, which is 9m per second. So if you want to be in the inside lane for at least 20 seconds (to make lane changing worthwhile), the gap would have to be 20 x 9m (180m) plus 126m = 306m

 

There`s a thread on the police definition of middle lane driving here.

 

At the end of the day I really can`t understand why some drivers get so upset by people being in the middle lane too long.

Because it causes congestion and forces people to move out twice to pass you.

This anecdote one constantly hears about middle laners being in the middle lane "when there`s nothing else on the motorway" really is a red herring. How often on a British motorway is there nothing else on the road, hardly ever ! Ironically if there really were no other cars on the road it really wouldn`t matter if they stayed in the middle lane anyway......

 

Happens quite regularly in the early hours of the morning, and you regularly see cars in the middle lane at this time, when it literally is the only other car you can see.