Middle lane hogging targeted by national campaign
Poor lane discipline is likely to make other road users feel frustrated, while tailgating often makes other drivers feel anxious, stressed or unsafe, National Highways says.
England's roads authority has launched a campaign aimed at drivers who hog the middle lane on motorways.
Some 32% of drivers admit to middle lane hogging at least "occasionally" and 5% say they "always" do it, according to a recent survey by National Highways.
Doesn't seem to be as common as it was from my perspective. Years ago I saw a chap tootling down the centre lane of the M5 and somehow I knew this was how he usually drove.
Once I'd passed him I slowed slightly so I could glance in the rear view mirror occasionally to see how long it took him to move into the left hand lane. I gave up after about fifteen miles.
7 comments:
Perhaps it's because I'm getting older but I don't remember people tailgating 20 years ago. Nowadays with my 1.2L 3-cylinder I have no problems just driving behind a lorry or a caravan on the left hand lane but in the olden days with a bigger car I used to always drive on the right hand lane and only moved to the left if I saw someone faster approaching. Now I'm old and mostly drive A and B roads with my Stormy Kromer hat pulled down.
I remain in the middle lane as long as I am passing those in the left lane. Constant weaving in and out, is additional wear and tear on tyres and uses more fuel.
LFB_UK
My problem, when I used to do a lot of motorway driving, was trying to keep up a reasonable speed over a long distance, which necessitated sticking to the middle lane in order to maintain 70 to 80mph. If one returned to the inside lane, before one knew it, you were slowed to 55 by slow and heavy traffic and boxed in by faster traffic coming up on the outer two lanes. And continually changing lanes and speeds whilst spending almost as much time checking the rearview mirror and behind as looking forward, became non viable as far as I was concerned.
Anon - I think it is an age thing, I'm happy to be behind a lorry or a caravan on the left hand lane. Easier driving.
LFB - I do that when passing slower traffic, but I tend to drive at a speed where I don't have to do that very often.
Tammly - I used to drive faster, but never liked situations where I was in the middle lane and the left hand lane was empty.
Since I became an employee in 2011, I have driven on motorways at 60 to 65 mph and as you say AK, it's then much easier to use the inside lane.
A friend of mine who used to do 20-30k motorway miles a year said to me once that if you saw a middle lane driver there would be at least a 50% chance that the driver would be an Asian female. And I have to say that pretty much holds up in my experience too. They are certainly well over represented in the middle lane demographic at the very least.
Sobers - I've never noticed that, although I don't tend to look at the drivers. Maybe it's a kind of excessive caution - two direction available for a swerve.
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