Lane discipline.

jase1

dacouch wrote: »

Any ideas why the Motorways are choco when there's a full middle and outer lane and the inside lane is basically empty except for lorries?

Give that man a coconut

Crabman

bazster wrote: »

Aha, it's the "I'm just a silly sheep who does what everyone else does" argument!

No, it isn't.

On a congested motorway, if you move into a slower moving lane 1, you will simply get stuck there behind a slower moving vehicle while the line of cars in lane 2 overtake you.

If you're in lane 2 and are gaining on vehicles in lane 1, you should remain in lane 2 until the overtakes are complete.

If anything, it's the opposite of being a "silly sheep who does what everyone else does."

NBLondon

Crabman wrote: »

If you're in lane 2 and are gaining on vehicles in lane 1, you should remain in lane 2 until the overtakes are complete.

Correct. If you're only going to be in Lane 1 for less than a minute, it is maybe more sensible to stay in Lane 2 and continue to overtake.

However, if there is room in Lane 1 for a vehicle to be travelling faster than one in Lane 2 and pass on the left then there was clearly space to have moved left.

almillar

Drive on the left. Is that simple enough?
If you're in traffic, in the middle lane, overtaking people and there's not a gap, you're not lane hogging, that's fine. What speed you're doing is irrelevant too, if there's a gap to the left of you, you should be in it.

mkirkby

On this point of lane discipline, why does it become so much more of an issue when passing through 50mph zones (thinking here of roadworks with average speed cameras...)? Why do so many drivers totally loose their usual lane discipline and become outside lane hogger's as well?

At the risk of inuring the wrath of many people, I ride a bike which doesn't even register on the average speed cameras so I tend to move along at about 60 as I'm much less dangerous at that speed than even a car doing 50.

Crabman

mkirkby wrote: »

On this point of lane discipline, why does it become so much more of an issue when passing through 50mph zones (thinking here of roadworks with average speed cameras...)? Why do so many drivers totally loose their usual lane discipline and become outside lane hogger's as well?

At the risk of inuring the wrath of many people, I ride a bike which doesn't even register on the average speed cameras so I tend to move along at about 60 as I'm much less dangerous at that speed than even a car doing 50.

You're wondering why drivers obey the speed limit through a section of roadworks enforced by average speed cameras? :rotfl:

Tobster86

Crabman wrote: »

You're wondering why drivers obey the speed limit through a section of roadworks enforced by average speed cameras? :rotfl:

No, he's wondering why they lose all sense of lane discipline.

It's really annoying for those of us doing the speed limit + 10% + 2 when there isn't a single worker to be seen anywhere (seemingly most of the time).

Or those of us with old Saabs that have a SPECS-proof numberplate position under the bumper! (I know of someone.)

dacouch

NBLondon wrote: »

Correct. If you're only going to be in Lane 1 for less than a minute, it is maybe more sensible to stay in Lane 2 and continue to overtake.

However, if there is room in Lane 1 for a vehicle to be travelling faster than one in Lane 2 and pass on the left then there was clearly space to have moved left.

Less than a minute eg 50 seconds is a fair amount of time and you will travel nearly a mile at motorway speeds. No reason not to pull into lane one if you will be in for lane one for 20 seconds which is a 1/3 or a mile at motorway speeds. It's not hard to get back into lane 2 when you need to overtake

NBLondon

dacouch wrote: »

It's not hard to get back into lane 2 when you need to overtake

I think that's the point that many people disagree on. If Lane 2 traffic is all overtaking with sensible gaps then yes, a competent driver can get back in. If both lanes are busy then it may be a long wait for a suitable gap. So then it may be more sensible to stay out for a sequence of overtakes at a fairly constant speed.

It's a matter of judgement as to how long you would be in Lane 1. I said "less than a minute" implying that a minute or more and you should definitely be moving back. 6 seconds is also less than a minute but changing lanes that frequently is likely to confuse other road users.

As I said before - if the a gap is big enough for someone (not a biker - they are a law unto themselves most of the time!) to undertake in it - you should have moved in.

psychic_teabag

dacouch wrote: »

Any ideas why the Motorways are choco when there's a full middle and outer lane and the inside lane is basically empty except for lorries?

I've pondered this for quite a long time. My background is physics, and my pet theory is that there's a phase transition based on traffic density. When traffic is relatively light, people do tend to stick to the left lane. But when the density increases, suddenly there's a population inversion and people stick to the outer lanes instead.

I reckon it's because of fear of getting back out again : if you do drive properly, and go back into the left lane after overtaking, the huge stream of cars behind you will speed up to fill the gap you left, and then you have little chance of getting back out again when you reach the next truck.

I do remember one journey up the M1, years ago, when I just drove up the left lane for miles on end, slightly faster than all the sheep filling the other two lanes. (I reasoned that we were all in a huge queue, so it was fine to pass on both sides ;-) Only a few trucks for some reason. Of course people were even more reluctant than usual to let me out after I had passed them on the wrong side.