In Gear -
In normal trafficYou are preaching to the converted about lane use - i can be seen fast enough to make good time and slow enough not to upset your mates - must be doing something right -so far in a lot of years they have not objected to my speed or lane use.
At the times i quoted it is not a question of an empty lane - all are busy.
It is a choice of picking the lane that you think is safer according to your point of view.
L1 - every chance of becoming HGV sandwich
L3 - the favorite choice of whitevan man and sales reps. Usually you can see when this happens. Traffic grinds to a halt.Surprisingly when a gap occurs in L2 vehicles jump into L2 ,work their way past the stranded q in L3 and rejoin it.
L2 always seems free of the L3 effect and relatively free of HGV.
As i said the issue of roadworks was brought up -WHY- along with forcing plonker to merge at a reasonable time, not at the head of the Q. Diversion perhaps.
Peter E -
"Unfortunately there is a breed of impatient drivers who insist on diving into any gap that becomes available, even if overall it won't improve their progress."
The point i was trying to make and how to avoid it.
As i said to ingear i find that with congested lanes L2 is smoother flowing - is it because all /most drivers in it have realised that by being courteous and patient traffic flows smoother?
NOT BECAUSE I WANT TO STOP IN IT. -I much prefer a partially empty L1.