Middle Lane!?

M

mdl

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Was speaking with the missus last night and discovered that she reckons the 'middle lane' on the motorway is the "driving lane". /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/bang.gif
Scandalous.
You should have seen the surprise when i told her that it's actually called the "overtaking lane" and that he "driving lane" is actually 'lane 1' / 'the slow lane' as she calls it!!!!!

Am i wrong? Have the rules changed without anyone telling me or ami just being old school?
 
This confirms what I always thought. That women get taught to drive differently to blokes. So along with hogging the middle lane (at a set 70mph) on a motorway add:-

1. The Amber traffic light means apply the brakes heavily, even if the lights are several hundred feet ahead.

2. Use the Red light is add some make-up on before reaching your destination.

3. When parking, ensure that when you open your door that it rests against the door of any car parked next to yours. A large banging noise is a good sign.

4. Instead of Look, Singnal, Manoeuvre use, Look, chat a little, Look again, Look to really make sure, then Manoeuvre and signal at the same time.

5. If the road ahead is clear and another vehicle overtakes you ensure you flash your lights and show the driver the w@nking gesture.

I'll just have to hope no girls read this post now......
 
As far as i'm concerned the middle lane is the 'driving lane'. Have any of us ever really used lane 1? Isn't it always taken up by lorries and cars driving at 50-60mph?
 
6. When a fellow road user is indicating to move into a space, accelerate into the space.

7. When approching roundabout / juntion stop regardless of if you need to give way. The pull out just as a car is approacing whilst trying to control the children.

8. Speed Limit = Speed Limit-5

9 Both hands must be kept on the wheel at all times in the 10'oclock and 2'oclock positions.

10. Head must face forward whilst driving. You should only use the side windows when stopped at traffic lights to admire the lady in the car next to you's hat.

11. 5th gear is reserved for motorways.

12. If in doubt, slam on brakes.
 
/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/soap.gif

Amber has always meant stop.

Why would it mean 'prepare to stop'? Everyone who drives knows (or at least they SHOULD!) that after amber comes red, so you will have to stop regardless of which colour the light is.

It has never meant 'prepare to stop', check old highway code books if you don't believe me.

Also, the left-hand lane has always been the lane that everyone should use if they are not 'overtaking' anyone. The default lane so-to-speak.

It is true that the majority of the time the left-hand lane is filled with slow-moving traffic such as trucks which inevitably forces most motorway users to use the 'overtaking lane' (the middle lane) to manouevre around them, but not always. Even after 'overtaking' we should move back into the left-hand lane, so the highway code states.

The majority of the UK's traffic problems arise from far too many people 'hogging' the middle lane because they see it as being inferior in some way... this brings with it a line of traffic behind them who have to wait for the others to move (if they ever do) or it pushes people out into the 'fast lane' (which is only intended for momentary use to overtake more than one slow-moving vehicle in other lanes) which also, given todays 'rep-man' characters, amounts to yet another long queue of traffic in the outer lane.

If everyone followed the rules then the roads would be far less congested.

You would think a lot of people never even sat a driving test when you drive down the motorway these days, they don't even see anything wrong with it. Even when you try to politely (giving them the bird /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif) let them know...

Anyway...

Off my /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/soap.gif now...

T
 
[ QUOTE ]
/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/soap.gif

Amber has always meant stop.

Why would it mean 'prepare to stop'? Everyone who drives knows (or at least they SHOULD!) that after amber comes red, so you will have to stop regardless of which colour the light is.

It has never meant 'prepare to stop', check old highway code books if you don't believe me.



[/ QUOTE ]

I dont have to check old highway codes, that WAS the rule.

I once won a court judgement (Traffic penalty -running a red light) because i had a lot of witnesses who said the light was Amber and not red as the Police protested.
 
[ QUOTE ]


.

You would think a lot of people never even sat a driving test when you drive down the motorway these days, they don't even see anything wrong with it. Even when you try to politely (giving them the bird /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif) let them know...

T

[/ QUOTE ]


It doesn`t help that the driving test doesnt include any practical motorway driving. God knows why not!
 
I always understood that Amber meant stop if it is safe to do so, and I'm sure that's still the position in the highway code!

and I quote from the Highway Code online...

"AMBER means 'Stop' at the stopline. You may go on only if the AMBER appears after you have crossed the stop line or are so close to it that to pull up might cause an accident"

What really p155es me off is when your on the motorway in lane 1 or 2, thinking I'm going the same speed as these total numpties in the other lanes and theres lots of space in front of me, why don't you just pull in, then it'll be safe for me to go the speed I want to... you know who you are! /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/burningmad.gif /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/fuck_you.gif
 
Not using lane 1 of the motorway is pure laziness imo, people just cant be bothered to indicate and manouver frequently, i bet it's the same crowd that don't or can't indicate properly if at all at roundabouts and use the brake, indicate, mirror technique 2 yards from a turning... oh and they will be driving with a brake light bulb out, rear fog light switched on in light rain and heater controls set to warm feet rather than demist windows.
 
[ QUOTE ]
Not using lane 1 of the motorway is pure laziness imo.

[/ QUOTE ]

I don't know what motorways you guys use, but lane 1 is never an option for me unless it's 2am in the morning and there are no other cars about. The average speed of lane 1 cant be more than 60mph and most of us will be travelling 20mph+ above this.
 
M27 is a wierd road, traffic patterns vary enormously.. Its either crawling in all three lanes ( 7.45 Monday mornings anyone??) or as you describe, virtually empty other than the middle lane idiots..

'Undertaking' - not a fan after seeing someone doing it get bumped onto the hard shoulder by a middle pr1ck who was oblivious to all around them, but a colleague used to do it as a matter of principle, quoting all the above arguments, to show that the middle lane to55ers were the ones in the wrong lane rahter than him!

I tend to go out and around them - (enjoying how stable the audi is at 100 (kmh of course) - with a little flash at night just to say Hi as I do it!) I work hard to maintain lane 1 where possible.. however that awful two lane stretch of the M3 from basingstoke back towards winchester, with a 5 mile string of cars in the outer lane and a totally EMPTY inner lane.. I never got my head around why! did that run every day for years, and glad Im only on the M27 now..
 
[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/soap.gif

Amber has always meant stop.

Why would it mean 'prepare to stop'? Everyone who drives knows (or at least they SHOULD!) that after amber comes red, so you will have to stop regardless of which colour the light is.

It has never meant 'prepare to stop', check old highway code books if you don't believe me.



[/ QUOTE ]

I dont have to check old highway codes, that WAS the rule.

I once won a court judgement (Traffic penalty -running a red light) because i had a lot of witnesses who said the light was Amber and not red as the Police protested.

[/ QUOTE ]

I'll say it again... amber has never meant 'prepare to stop'.

Lots of witnesses means nothing... the majority does not rule... the law is the law. All it proves is that the vast majority of people in this country simply do not have an accurate opinion of what an amber light means.

As already stated from the highway code...

"AMBER means 'Stop' at the stopline. You may go on only if the AMBER appears after you have crossed the stop line or are so close to it that to pull up might cause an accident"

This has always been the case.

Maybe you got off your court judgement on the grounds that you were actually too close to stop, I wasn't there so I don't know. Or are you admitting to running a red light? /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/wink.gif

But anyway... all this is off-topic so... whatever! Love and kisses on all your pink parts /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/tongue.gif

T
 
Sorry to all those perfectionists who overtake those ****** middle laners and then swoop back into the inside lane to prove the point... i've given up doing that - they just don't get it and probably never will.
I'm the one who undertakes (allegedly Mr Officer!) in despair - fully prepared to use the hard shoulder if the numpty in the middle lane suddenly has a change of heart, although, to date i've never had to do this because the dumb *** in the middle lane is completely oblivious to the world around them. And yes, there's as many blokes as there are birds who do this.

Amazing how the French Route Nationales work so well with their 2 lanes innit!!!

And also, whilst we're on the point - what does everyone think about people who drive over the white stop line when at the front of the queue at a red light? I'm sure that's an automatic 3 points, no?

Right, glad that's off me chest!Blood pressure's approaching 'normal' again!!!
 
"oh we few!"
is there something about Audi's that make us so perfect???

its a shame I dont encounter any like minded drivers on the A13 of an evening, we could go round the middle lane dickheads in convoy.....

I would like to give all you undertakers a bit of advice, something of a saftey feature really, when undertaking you must make full use of a continuous blast of your horn for the duration of the manouver (whatever happened to the foghorn as a desirable mod like in my mk4 cortina days)

But just to play devils advocate for a minute, would we overtake so many people if we drove at the speed limit. Would the speed abiding citizens of our motorways affect us so much if we were doing the same speed as them???
 
You lot have it easy. Living in Scotland for the last 8 years really does show that, because there's very few motorways, that lane dissipline on Dual carriageways is shocking.

I am turning right at the fifth roundabout in 4 miles so therefore must use right hand lane all the way there. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/burningmad.gif

Makes my blood boil /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/swear.gif
 
hey, I was only repeating what I read on the CD for teaching the highway code /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/angel.gif

As for undertaking, only on a rare occasion. Playing the odds that if they havent pulled in for the last 5 miles, it's unlikely they will do it during the 30 seconds it would take to get past them.

Im quite lucky thought, where I live and work means that generally a traffic jam would consist of 2-3 cars /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile_smoking.gif

I know that the far busier English roads are terrible.
 
Ah-ha! I must be a rare breed as i have an Audi <u>and</u> a BMW at my diposal for driving (A3T and 320d). /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif

Hope this will not affect the way you think of me /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/cool.gif
 
[ QUOTE ]
/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/soap.gif AND... on the same subject, trucks should stick to the 'slow lane', and should not drift into the middle lane, and under NO circumstances should EVEN contemplate drifting into the fast lane.

Put cargo back on the rails! That's what I say, the less trucks the better... after all, they're also responsible for the majority of ware on the roads!

[/ QUOTE ]

WOW when did ure local shop get a railway line fitted out side for the trains to deliver ????? that must be a great place u live , oooops im sorry i never noticed while u where up on ure soap box , a low flying plane must have hit u on the head!!!!

Trucks need to deliver food/cloths and o that wee thing we all use FUEL ! , wot i do agree with u is no truck/bus should be out in the 3rd lane , and i think u will find MOST (yes there are some a$$holes) but most actualy do overtake and return to the 1st(slow) lane
As for trucks causing most wear on the roads thats also true BUT thats why they pay the dearest road tax .......

Key to HGV, VED bands
Lorry VED Band Standard TC01 Reduced Pollution TC45

12 months
rate £ 6 months
rate £ 12 months
rate £ 6 months
rate £
A 165.00 90.75 *160.00 *88.00
B 200.00 110.00 *160.00 *88.00
C 450.00 247.50 210.00 115.50
D 650.00 357.50 280.00 154.00
E 1,200.00 660.00 700.00 385.00
F 1,500.00 825.00 1,000.00 550.00
G 1,850.00 1,017.50 1,350.00 742.50

SORCE DVLA,
http://www.dvla.gov.uk/vehicles/taxation.htm#Private%20HGV

/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/soap.gif RANT OVER!
 
Agree with Fallmonk 100%. Just to add though, it is illegal for any vehicle towing a trailer to enter the 3rd lane.
 
Dammit Fallmonk! Why do you have to be so right, how in God's name do you expect me to argue with that! /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/beerchug.gif
 
Mate of mine had a Maestro Turbo years ago (He bought it new - shows you how long ago) which had "MOVE OVER" backwards on the leading edge of the bonnet in 3" high letters....
 
CurryMilkShake ,,,,,sayed,........
So here it is - who would be in support of compulsory re-sits of the driving test, say every 5 years? I certainly would -

I dont know about every 5 years as i think it would turn into a money making scheme for the goverment , but maybe every 15-20 years ?????????? i deff think after you turn 60 tests should madatory every 10years ,maybe not the writen test as that might be to intimiading to older folks , but as long as there driving is up to scratch in the practacal side that should be ok ? wot do u think????? /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/noidea.gif
 
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