Middle lane hogging.

[GregClaire]

My wife is from london so we end up going from north shropshire to london every few months to visit the family.

We went down last weekend & I must admit I spent most of the time in the middle lane, Boo, Hiss, yes im evil!

The reason is that lane 1 of the M6 & M1 is so "tramlined" that It was horrible to drive, I have been doing it alot lately but dont really think I hold much traffic up, Oops. Havnt towed the van that way though but I would expect it to be horrendous & make an outfit quite unstable.

Anyone had trouble towing when on a worn "tramlined" road?

Greg.

 

[602]

Anyone had trouble towing when on a worn "tramlined" road?

Hi,

Yes! And I didn't like it. But it wasn't motorway, and there wasn't a lot of room. I found that my "veers" usually co-incided with somebody passing me, so they probably didn't like it either.

Do I hog the middle lane? Well, I probably stay out their longer than the Pedantics would like me to. But I see it this way.....

I look ahead. I can see that IF I pull in, it won't be long before I have to pull out again. I have read that police drivers work on 15 seconds ..... any more than that, and they pull in. ????? But Plod-mobiles usually have a lot of power.

Then I check my mirror. If their is nothing behind, I might as well stay where I am. If there is one car coming up fast, I will probably get out of his way. But if there is a line of traffic, as far as the eye can see, and catching up with me, I reckon that if I pull in, then I won't get out again this side of Xmas. In that case, I reckon that it is better for everybody else to move into lane three to pass me. But I will pull into lane one, when convenient.

Of course, there are exceptions. Like there may not be a third lane. Or a vehicle that is wanting to overtake may not be allowed into lane three. So I will do the right thing.

OT .... one day my wife got a punture in her 1964 MG Midget. No problem, we just changed the wheel. Only it hadn't been balanced, which we didn't realise until we got onto the M4. So there we were, creeping along at the point of shake ...... 45mph.

Still no problem. Until two police motorbikes caught up with us, escorting a coach. They refused to overtake, just sat there close behind us. Very embarrassing. As was our intention, we took the next slip road, and the bikes and coach overtook us. We got smiles and cheers and waves, a double thumbs up from everybody on the coach. We assumed it was a load of prisoners who had been out on a jolly.

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[GregClaire]

Thats exactly what I do, if there is anything I can see that I will need to pull out again then I just stay there.

Its different if im in my van though, thats got a low ratio diff so 60 is about it, but its got a wider wheel track & sits in the lines nicely. Only aloud to do 60 anyway but thats a different argument.

Greg.

 

[602]

Hi,

I try not to inconvenience other people. I like to think I'm driving three trucks. The one I'm in, obviously. And I try to anticipate what the bloke in front is going to do. And I try to make life easy for the bloke behind.

But there ARE times when its more than I can do to control my own screaming horses.

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[hgv dave]

hi all

"if" all of the road tax/fuel tax was used as it was supposed to be used for ie,on road maintainance (thats what road tax was ment to be used for when it was introduced) dont you think that there would not be any tramlines?

hgv dave

 

[ProfJohnL]

Hi Hgv Dave,

To make the introduction of VED and Fuel Duty more palatable, the spin doctors of the time probably said, we need these taxes so we can increase spending on roads.

That is subtly different to saying all the money collected from motorists will be spent on roads.

In the UK there is no differentiation between money collected from motorists or from other taxable sources, it all goes into one big melting pot at the Exchequer.

 

[JeremyClarksson]

Fair enough where the actual road condition means it is safer to be in the middle lane but the real problem with middle lane hogging is that you turn a 3 lane motorway into a dual carraigeway and that just makes the traffic worst.

If everyone used the motorway as it is supposed to be used there would be far less problems with congestion.

We travel at 55 - 60mph and only move into the middle lane when it is really necessary to overtake.

In traffic we make better progress in the slow lane as everyone is more relaxed and do not get involved in the fairy light grand prix in the other 2 lanes, you will aslo find you get much better mpg

Last year I was travelling from Bristol to Newquay appx 240 miles and was taking it very easy as a friend was about an hour behind and we wanted to be sited together at the rally we were going to.

I stopped twice to let the dog out so in theory was about 30 mins in front as he did not stop. I rarely exceeded 50mph and he was doing 60-65 mph to catch me, there was some congestion at both times which bought the traffic down to my speed.

I fully expected him to catch me towards the end of the trip but was surprised to arrive at the site 20 mins before him.

We talked about the traffic and there was little difference between it at the times we each travelled, he was quite flustered and I was very relaxed.

In similar outfits I would have saved appx

 

[602]

Hi,

All else being equal, on a long motorway trip I tend to slot in a reasonable distance behind a trucker, and stay there. But its amazing how difficult that can be, so every so often I overtake, and slot in behind another trucker. I'm not sure if Yorkie finds this un-nerving. Who? Why?

Gone are the days when my six year old son would tell his grandmother that the journey didn't take long cos Daddy was doing 125mph.

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