Whos A Middle Lane *****?

[tcooper]

just came home from cumbria, took about 5 hours, would have been a hell of a lot quicker if a bunch of pratts who use the middle lane as there crawler lane. Was stuck in the what is supposidly the fast lane when there was jack in the crawler lane and a lots of cars in the middle lane rolling along at 68mph. I don't know who they are but i want them shot. I was so wound up in fact i moved into the middle lane and slammed on my brakes, comin to a complete stop, they soon started using the crawler lane then. what a bunch of ****ers, i wouldn't have cared if the crawler lane had at least 1 car in it... but no it was empty. i wasn't the only one getting ****** off just about all the good drivers on the M6 + M1 where avin ago at them.

Thanks for your time....

Tom

[aido]

This is why I undertake sometimes, ***** me off why they do this. Was on a motorway today and there was a guy driving along in the right hand lane when there was no traffic about - to give him an idea I undertook in the left hand lane, then came out to the right hand lane then went staight back in - he took the hint and moved across at that point!

Wouldn't have come to a stop on the motorway though mate, that could be dangerous if someone takes their eyes off the road for a couple of seconds at speed!

[ifraz]

Yes I agree...they are very annoying.

I met a few today too, M6, M42 and M1.

I undertook a few times and overtook a few of them driving my car very closely to theirs and then darting back in to prove a point. Daft driving by me really but it made me feel better. :D

[BESTY]

i was just commemting to my mate on the way home from liverpool yesterday,does my head in,the goverment says the roads are congested but there not its idiots who dont know how to use roads properlly,why dont the police sort this out its right in front of there eyes.

[SHAHZ]

:duh: then they wonder why there is road rage??? :duh:....and when you under take them they start flashing you... :tsktsk: off!!

[Fmrl]

...then there's the drivers who stay in the fast lane no matter what else is on the road - "I got a flash car, therefore it is my right to drive in this lane".

...fast lane hoggers that cut everyone up to leave the motorway at the very last second - straight from the fast lane to the slip road.

...fast lane hoggers that cut everyone up to get into the fast lane as soon as they get on the motorway.

...aggressive drivers who sit about an inch away from your butt.

...aggressive drivers who treat the motorway as a race track.

...FLTs!!! (fog light t*ssers)

...lorries in the slow lane who weave about like they don't know how to drive - one minute on the rumble strip, the next minute creeping into the middle lane.

...lorries that pull out or pull in without looking and/or indicating (I've seen so many near misses).

...lorries that don't let you onto the motorway from the sliproad on purpose.

I do about 40 miles of congested motorway (M62) driving every day - seen it all :(

[Matthew_McNally]

sorry - I dislike people who only drive in the middle lane as much as most people.

But - slamming on the brakes, and coming to complete stop on a busy motorway is one of the most stupid things I have ever read.

Do you realise how many people you could have killed by doing this?

[norkep]

Have to agree, middle lane hoggers :tsktsk:

If the inside lane is clear, I just move into this lane and sit there undertaking at about 60 just to prove a point. Pull out to overtake and move back again. Have given up flashing these people asking them to move over, now just undertake.

Have seen a few near miss's though these people 'cause of their stupiditly and careless thinking and causing road rage to a degree.

Rant Over :D

BR

Paul

[Fmrl]

One interesting point - AFAIK it's an offence to undertake but not to sit in the middle lane (just bad driving practice).

To be honest, I don't think it's that big a problem. If the right hand lane is clear then why not just overtake them? Flashing just annoys other drivers and undertaking can be dangerous.

I've chilled out a lot since I bought my IS200 :)

[Sipey]

I dislike inconsiderate drivers as much as the rest of you BUT I cannot condone undertaking, tail gating or performing an emergency stop in an act of retaliation - whatever the circumstance.

Would everybody please stop for a moment and think that if the person you were undertaking decided to pull in at the point of you doing it then it would be YOU at fault and ultimately responsible for any injury or death caused.

If you tail gate then you would only need to meet up with another chap like tcooper and you would both be careering off the motorway when he decides to slam the anchors on rather than move over.

We all say that we hate inconsiderate drivers. tcooper - were you not be inconsiderate to a large section of the M6/M1 or wherever you were at the time when you decided to park rather than just get on with your journey. Mr McNally says you could have caused an accident - I say how do you know you didn't????

If your in a rush cause you left late - your still going to be late when you get there so what's the point.

If you are just coming back from your hols - why get so stressed over going 10mph slower than you should be - chill and enjoy the car

[ifraz]

Would everybody please stop for a moment and think that if the person you were undertaking decided to pull in at the point of you doing it then it would be YOU at fault and ultimately responsible for any injury or death caused.

Fair point.

If I say I was very careful when undertaking would that make it better?

I assume not somehow.

There's no excuse for bad driving on the motorway and although I have been guilty of it at times in the past, I don't condone it. :)

[Scorpion]

...lorries that don't let you onto the motorway from the sliproad on purpose.

Lorries are not like cars where you can accelerate away,they are(supposed to be)restricted to 56mph....Lorries cant always move over to the middle lane.

And anyway dont the broken white lines at the end of the slip road mean "GIVE WAY".....

[Fmrl]

...lorries that don't let you onto the motorway from the sliproad on purpose.

Lorries are not like cars where you can accelerate away,they are(supposed to be)restricted to 56mph....Lorries cant always move over to the middle lane.

And anyway dont the broken white lines at the end of the slip road mean "GIVE WAY".....

Okay... what I'm specifically on about here is - stationary/crawling traffic, cars coming onto the motorway from a slip road, lorry drivers could leave a bit of a gap to let other road users onto the motorway, lorry driver doesn't, car driver is stuck waiting for lorry to pass, lorry behind that does the same thing, and the lorry behind that, etc. large queue of cars line up on the slip road causing congestion, drivers at the back of the queue then start queue jumping, etc. Seen it happen loads of times. The lorry drivers that leave a gap aren't really inconvenienced as most of the time the car driver would just pull out into the middle lane. Okay, they car drivers should give way, but there is such a thing as "consideration" - like the drivers who get tired of waiting on busy roundabout junctions and just set off in the hope that whoever is already on the roundabout will give way to them!!

Has there been a relaxation on restrictions? Most lorries seem to go a lot faster these days. I've seen a couple of nasty accidents involving HGVs (7.5Ts), minbuses, transits and the like - junction 25 on the m62 last Friday being an obvious example.

[Claire G]

I'm with FMRL on this one - the amount of times a lorry has been able to let me out (c'mon, where's the common courtesy here?!?) but has decided to be an obstinate *******, is unbelievable. Limited to 56mph, yes, but since when has speed necessarily had any link to your ability as a driver or your character?

The lines on the end of a slip way may mean give way, but it'd be stupidly dangerous to stop on the line!

Not wishing to tar all lorry drivers with the same brush, but some of them are just ****s. You can't tell me that they don't let you out, don't speed up to prevent you from getting out etc because their lorries are limited.

[immx]

Has there been a relaxation on restrictions? Most lorries seem to go a lot faster these days. I've seen a couple of nasty accidents involving HGVs (7.5Ts), minbuses, transits and the like - junction 25 on the m62 last Friday being an obvious example.

7.5t lorrys are not restricted to 56mph. only vehicles over 12t GVW are. 7.5t lorrys can be driven by anyone on a car licence who passed the driving test before 1/1/97.

Maybe if SOME car drivers were a little more thoughtful when it comes to HGVs the would be a little more thoughtful in return!

ie flying in front of a HGV just to pull into the slow lane and then hit the brakes because they want to take the exit comming up in half a mile! The slip roads off the motorways are long enough to slow down on, but thousands of car drivers do this every day!

[Scorpion]

Slip roads are long enough for you to look up the m/way b4 joining it to see if its clear or not and for you to adjust your speed accordingly and pick a gap in the flow of traffic to accelerate/decelerate.

[aido]

Hmmmm, this is weird but in my experience lorry drivers around here are usually the most considerate - they let me in etc when other car & van drivers don't want to know!

[Claire G]

Try tackling the M4 between Slough and Maidenhead on a regular basis then. I'm always careful with lorries etc, always flash them out and back in as I know visibility can be bad, but rarely am I afforded the same courtesy back.

[Bazza]

Slip roads are long enough for you to look up the m/way b4 joining it to see if its clear or not and for you to adjust your speed accordingly and pick a gap in the flow of traffic to accelerate/decelerate.

jct 6 M25 heading west

long slip road up hill !!

you dont get to see the mototway untill you are almost on it

bottom left !!

[Scorpion]

Slip roads are long enough for you to look up the m/way b4 joining it to see if its clear or not and for you to adjust your speed accordingly and pick a gap in the flow of traffic to accelerate/decelerate.

jct 6 M25 heading west

long slip road up hill !!

you dont get to see the mototway untill you are almost on it

Then if you know that.....approach with caution. :)

[Scorpion]

Try tackling the M4 between Slough and Maidenhead on a regular basis then. I'm always careful with lorries etc, always flash them out and back in as I know visibility can be bad, but rarely am I afforded the same courtesy back.

I do about 2k a week covering most m/ways ;)

[tcooper]

ok i didn't like skid to a hault, mearly just slowed down and was making sure guy behind was slowing down as much as i was, and there was not much behind him, they tend to leave about a 3 mile gap between each of them.

alot of drivers on the motorways are fine, i tend to sit in fast lane doing about 90 with the rest of the traffic witha good gap in front and behind, if a car is going faster i pull into middle lane and then come back in after it, but most of the time i find my self behind a beemer doing 90 - 100 most the way, and if teh middle lane is free i move into that, thats the way to drive.

I feel like making a neon sign for the rear window with a switch, so i can move into the middle lane and flick the switch reading "what the ****!!! is wrong with that lane?" with an arrow pointing to the left... Good idea me thinks... better than hand signals and agressive driving. they'll proberbly read it too...

Tom

[tcooper]

One interesting point - AFAIK it's an offence to undertake but not to sit in the middle lane (just bad driving practice).

To be honest, I don't think it's that big a problem. If the right hand lane is clear then why not just overtake them? Flashing just annoys other drivers and undertaking can be dangerous.

I've chilled out a lot since I bought my IS200 :)

thats the point the right hand lane is chocker because the middle lane has poncey drivers, its the left hand lane that clear.

[tcooper]

I am very considerate to other road drivers, i left early in fact i gave myself plenty of time to get home, about 6 hours to get from cumbria too london, but after 2 hours and only gettin 50 miles while watching middle lane drivers over take gradually while the crawler laner was doing about the same speed i just lost it... Yes i am a bad driver, been driving 6 months and i have alot of bad habits, i never stick to the speed limit anywhere, unless its crowded with people about. A motorway is a motorway as much as there's a speed limit there should be a minimum speed on the middle lane and the fast lane.

Today i pulled into the pub (i work there not drinking) as i pulled in off a busy main road some lady in a huge 4x4 jeep was coming out, room for only 1 vehicle at the time she just stopped and so did i. she started beeping her horn, stupid bicth, how the **** am i supposed to reverse onto a main road,she only had to move about 3 feet back... these are the bad drivers, the kind of driver that causes road rage how many road rage insidents have you seen where the drivers where going to fast? or doing the right thing? anyhow i was late for work she was a good 6 feet in front of me so i just hit accelerater stopped about 2" from her bumper she soon moved out the way. and before you ask i only crashed my car before because my tire blew on a bend and it went down a ditch on a country lane, not my fault as such and not from bad driving...

O yea the middle lane driver, they sit about 30 feet form the car in front yet hit the brakes when the car 30 feet in front slows down a fraction, now when im anticpating the cars in front ive nearly run into the back of the car because its breaked when theres no need to... and that is also what the middle lane driver is guilty of.

this is depressing and i think i have dubbed myself the worst driver in britain, but hey least i have fun.

Tom

[Matthew_McNally]

this is depressing and i think i have dubbed myself the worst driver in britain, but hey least i have fun.

I think I can honestly say I would rather share the road with a bunch of middle lane hoggers than with you - your stories scare me ****less