Motorways DO YOU KNOW HOW TO USE THE 3 LANES???

[johnstoke]

tell me about it, try the m6 between j 15 and 18 at 7am........ i have to get into left lane 3 miles before J18, otherwise it's a battle to move over.........tell you what seems to be this winter's trend, ppl havent a clue how to use lights either...............

 

[greenstarvaz]

2 lane ones are worse. eg. the m4 in south wales. people just stay in the outside lane despite doing 60/65ish.

or what they seem to do where it goes from 3 to 2 (port talbot) is move from the middle lane to the outside lane and slow to 50

 

[virmins*mum]

Motorway discipline doesn't really count on the M25

I thought the RHD lane was only for BMW's

Left: Trucks & micras

Middle: Trucks & everyone else

Right: German lane = BMW, Mercedes and Audi's only

virmin failed to tell you all m25 going to kent last week we had truck coming over to share our bit of middle lane no space to go in posh lane we where nearly the ham in sandwich bit of good driving virmin to get us out of that one

 

[dave]

get a 750 panda an you can drive in the hard shoulder, it goes so slow every one thinks its stopped any way

 

[faster4_tec]

LOL

yeah, if ppl here (vast majority of motorway users) went onto th continent they'd get eaten alive.

basically you *should* treat the overtaking, and overtaking overtaking lanes like you would a normal two way A road, i.e get on with it, and pull back in ASAP.

however, th NUMBER of people that pull into the middle lane then sit there for mile after mile after mile is unbelievable.

I sometimes (when I have time) pull past them in the OO lane, then accross infront of them with some gesture of some shape on my hands up in their grill, then drop into inside lane, then fall behind then just do loops round them until they pull over.

or if I still had the volvo, just push them into the hardshoulder and drive away.:slayer:

 

[rick oshea]

from my point of view as a trucker lane 1 is for truckers
lane 2 is for coaches
lane 3 is for beamers and mercs and boy racers.and polish trucks.and white van man

remember in uk it is illegal for any vehicle fitted with a tachograph eg trucks/coaches to use lane 3 also while on the topic of motorways can i ask all you nice people when you see a truck wanting to pull in or out of a lane please flash us across if possible it makes life so mutch easier when u got 40 foot of trailer behind you as a bonus us nice truckers will also give u a thanking blip of the indicators back

 

[Nino_1975]

Lane eticate is a must for you guys, you work hard and cars do not understand. I saw 5th Gear explaining blind spots with Lorries.

My friend was in the middle lane in his car and an M3 in the 3rd lane and a lorry was over taking to the middle lane, well he did not look and push 2 cars into eachother.

I guess if we all left loads of room between cars and think there are many kinds of vehicle to look out for. Motor bikes also.

There should never be any problems with the motorway if we knew and caired.

Just keep left and keep your distance.

Sorry do I sound like your mom??

 

[Andy_sx]

i use all the lanes as they should be, but normally with my toe right in and if im in a real hurry, well that will remain undisclosed...

as for truckers, ive always got my eyes open, see if they are catching the vehicle infront etc, so i pre empt as much as possible, move lanes sooner rather than later and so on

 

[JonnyBoy]

All we need to do to improve the motorway network is 2 things:

(1) Lorries to stay in the left lane where they belong and NOT to block lane 2 p*ssing about overtaking other lorries at 0.000001mph speed difference - about time this was made illegal as it can pretty much bring a busy 2-lane motorway to a standstill due to the concertina effect of lots of cars slowing down!

(2) Everyone else to keep left unless they're overtaking something. DRIVERS OF GERMAN CARS, THAT INCLUDES YOU! And stop getting upset when flashed out of the right lane that you're needlessly occupying by one of us peasants in cheap cars

 

[dave]

also while on the topic of motorways can i ask all you nice people when you see a truck wanting to pull in or out of a lane please flash us across if possible it makes life so mutch easier when u got 40 foot of trailer behind you as a bonus us nice truckers will also give u a thanking blip of the indicators back

can we ask you not to over take the lorry in front if you can only go 1mph faster than them, as it causes a big tail back of traffic behind you for miles

 

[Renegade_8]

can we ask you not to over take the lorry in front if you can only go 1mph faster than them, as it causes a big tail back of traffic behind you for miles

I know that lorries dont like slowing down because it's hard work speeding up again, but it would be realy nice of the one being passed did take his foot off the throttle for 20 seconds or so. I always hang back and give them room to pull out to avoid this if one is closing in on another in lane 1.

 

[rick oshea]

in reply to johnny about about time this was made illegal sorry mate us truckers dont like it either blame the eu not us from 1st jan this year law changed so that any vehicle exceeding 3.5 ton is now limited to 56 mph this has caused chaos as before these vehicles where allowed to do 70mph our union u r t u campaigned for them to be limited to 60 mph thereby it would have given us all a chance as we would have been limited to 56mph 3.5 to 7.5 tons would have been 60 mph and coaches could have stayed as they are now at 62 mph a chance for us to pass each other but eu firmly turned it down speaking for myself if i see an empty lane and a chance to overtake i will if i see a line of cars likely to get held up i wont its called road etiquete after all haulage industry has a bad image to motorists and as professional drivers we ned to do all we can to improve this

 

[sumplug]

I dont know what lane iam in half the time. travelling at warp speed in the coupe makes it interesting, and unless you have a porsche turbo or ferrari, you aint passing!!


Only joking ^

What pi**es me off is when you come up to lane hog in outside lane[ oops sorry], and he eventually pulls over, is when you attempt to overtake, he dramatically speeds up!!! So. its a down change, boost applied and pass him
But if you drive a normal car, he actually makes the situation dangerous. Why do they do it?
And the middle laners who sit at one speed regardless with their nose a inch from the windscreen, never in their lives do they use any mirrors. I think some of them spend weeks driving round the M25 for example as they are not aware of any signs!!
Then there are the weaver birds. they drive right upto the rear bumper of a car then signal with one flash of indicator , pull out regardless, pass, and nearly take the front bumper of passing car off when they pull in. if you keep behind them, you can watch them swapping lanes every few seconds. totally idiotic driving!
Then there is the idiot you see about 1/2 mile up front behind a vehicle, and just when you are about to pass, he pulls out, sometimes with a quick indicate, sometimes with none!!! You bang your anchors on, blast your horn only for the V sign to come from him/her because their head is full of marbles!!!!!

Andy.

 

[blu73]

but did as mentioned above, moving from the inside lane to the outside then back to the inside in one big arc.

Thats another rule broken, your only allowed to move one lane at a time, ie, you must indicate and move to middle and stay there momentarily before moving out again. Sorry to sound like an anorak, i do this manouvre myself but just make sure theres no police cars around before you pull one off Middle lane hoggers are the most annoying thing on a motorway for me as driving a sei i've not got alot more go at motorway speed and when you get stuck behind one its so annoying and a complete waste of petrol speeding back up again. If they just moved over its not a problem.
Lane 3 hoggers are annoying as well but being that i'm in the Sei the fast lane is quite often going faster than me anyway so not much of a biggy. One more thing thats not been mentioned is the fact that lane 3 is for overtaking only and shouldn't used for prolonged periods of time.

 

[Andy_sx]

One more thing thats not been mentioned is the fact that lane 3 is for overtaking only and shouldn't used for prolonged periods of time.

unless you are going considerably quicker than most, which in Patch usually means hammering it..., but witha punto box it doesnt go 'that' fast

i try and be good with lane discapline, but at the end of the day if not holding anyone up there isnt too much need to move across in the real world, plus if you have lorries one after the other on the inside, usually a bit of extra space is helpful

 

[maddogmorg]

can i ask all you nice people when you see a truck wanting to pull in or out of a lane please flash us across if possible it makes life so mutch easier when u got 40 foot of trailer behind you

do you mean flash our lights to let you out? i've always been told to flashlights if overtaking, especially with foreign lorrys, rarely put it in practice though. but could you please clarify?

 

[security_man]

First lanes for fiats, second lane for alfas, third lane for ferraris... unless it's where those bl**dy cameras are ...

 

[rick oshea]

besbie what i mean is if you see a truck signaling to change lane and it is safe to do so flash your headlights this tells the truck driver that you are hanging back and it is safe to change lanes by doing this it is a great help to us

 

[maddogmorg]

i know what you mean now i always just keep my distance if i see an indicator on a two lane motorway or move to the next lane if on a 3 or more lane motorway, personally i think flashing lights probably isn't the best way especially due to the number of different meanings of them(ie. overtaking, anger/annoyance, give way, etc) but i know where you're coming from, its not the easiest job when people assume they have priority some people are the same when you are in a car and i can only imagine it being worse in a lorry.

i am always wary of lorrys though especially since on my first time on the motorway (apart from pass plus) a lorry pulled out towards me on the m5 when the carriageway is raised which scared me a little. luckily the 3rd lane was empty and i just had to pull straight into it. it may of been a case of me being stupid though looking back on it now.

the 70 mph and the strict enforcement, and no testing of the motorways in the driving test is probably one of the main reasons people don't know how to use motorways. the pass plus is the only real instruction on the motorways i've ever had, even the highway code is not that thorough on the subject from what i remember.

 

[The Negotiator]

This week I have driven to work (M1, J26 to J23, one of the busiest stretches of motorwa in the UK!) in the first lane at 60mph. I feel much more relaxed and economy is up 20% at a guess. It costs me about 10 minutes a day though. I gave up getting worried about people unable to use lane discipline months ago.