Safe Speed Forums

When driving home round the M25 late last night I was again annoyed to see one of the large information signs displaying the message "Think, Don't Phone While Driving", does everyone think a much better message would be to display"Only use the outside lane for overtaking" or something similar?

I think the only time I've seen this and credit to them for once was in South Wales where they were displaying the message "Don't Lane Hog". In my mind lane hogging is responsible for 90% of the driving problems on motorways. There now seems to be such a large public feeling against using phones and driving you would think it would be just as easy to get people using the correct lanes. Simple messages on these display screens all the time would make such a difference IMHO.

Rant over, still don't feel much better though!

Umm, none too sure about '90%', but I agree it is a problem, mainly of laziness because people can' t be bothered to MSM between lanes changes, and fear of being boxed in on the inside lane due to other people lane hogging.

Can't say I'm completely blameless here, particularly on busier M ways, but I do try to pull in as much as possible.

Drive me mad, I often make a point of either overtaking them frm the inside lane, all the way to lane 3, then back into the middle lane. Where I will then indicate left for about 15 seconds, and pull back in, in the hope that they realise that there's another lane to their left. Not had much success to be honest...

I might rig up some sort of LED sign and set it to display abusive messages at the touch of a button to those behind me...

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uzz

I do exactly the same thing

The worst case I have ever seen of this was when I was living in mancs and working in liverpool.
It was a white van in lane three doing 60mph all the way to liverpool. not only did he refuse to move back into one of the other lanes, but each time has passed anything on the left he would put his right indicator on...MUPPET!

Things got really dangerous when cars started dropping out of lane three and overtaking him on the inside.

It was a 40 minute drive and possibly the most nerve wracking I have ever had!

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In the old days they employed the thief taker general to catch highway robbers...these days they simply employ the thief takers to do the robberies

Interestingly I usually find that when the traffic is flowing well, 80-90 mph, there is less of this anti-social behaviour. It's when the overall rate slows to 50mph or so that it gets worse.

I was on the M1 today and one lady hogging lane 2 really looked frightened to be on the motorway, I guess some people do it because they're genuinly worried about changing lane. Another reason for proper driving tests and training that cover the majority of driving situations.

Ah yes, lane hogging. The pointed lane 1 to lane 3 and back again overtake rarely works for me, but now and again someone gets the message. Unfortunately it never seems to get through to the "I'm doing 70mph so I'm not doing anything wrong" brigade. [rant] Yes you bloody are if you're not overtaking anything in lane 1, ****er! [/rant] I'm sure the scamera partnerships are working on some sort of camera system that will automatically fine people for lousy lane discipline, and possibly pigs will become a hazard at Heathrow.
Not just a problem with lane 2 either, as a small minority seems to think that lane 3 is their personal property and tailgating you is the best way of saying so. Obviously this is such a problem that the scamera partnerships will be looking at improving the situation as soon as possible. Oink oink flap flap.

More use could be made of the avialiable roadspace if lane discipline were better, but at times it's appalling. It's the old, 'well there's someone in front of me, if they'd get out of the way I could go faster' syndrome.
But you can't serioulsy condone tailgating as a way of making your point can you? It has to be one of the most aggresive and ignorant maneouvres you can pull off, the driving equivalent of walking behind someone with a shotgun held to their head. If it all goes pear-shaped and you end up as a smokin' wreck in the carriageway, who is going to get the blame?
I agree with much of what is posted in this forum but I wll never align myslef to this way of thinking, sorry

I hate being tailgated, yet it seems to happen every day. And it's almost always a white van - why this should be, I don't know. Perhaps they don't mind crashing the company vehicle, as it's not really theirs. I find the easiest way to deal with it is just drop back into lane 1 for a bit, let them get past, and then resume my journey. Often, as soon as they're past (which they seemed extremely eager to be), they'll end up going no faster than I was anyway. Grr.

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-mike[F]
Caught in the rush of the crowd, lost in a wall of sound..

Rigpig, I'm guessing that's aimed at me, as I think I was the only one in this thread who brought tailgating up. I should have explained myself more clearly. I was not condoning tailgating, but criticising it. I feel that more than anything else tailgating shows how poor the driving standards have become in this country, or in my more cynical moments how stupid people have become. Worse still, I feel tailgating often goes unnoticed as speed cameras can't detect it and there aren't enough traffic police left to round up all the nutters who make a habit of it (hence the sarcy remark about scamera partnerships and flying pigs). It's unusual now not to get tailgated on the M3, M4, M25 and M23 in rush hour by some idiot who overslept by 5 minutes (or whatever the excuse is) and for the record I'm bloody sick of it, and sick of the powers that be doing absolutely nothing about it.
Hope that clarifies my opinion on tailgating.

Edited to add: if it were up to me the penalty for tailgaters would be to have the airbag removed from their steering wheel and replaced with a large steel spike. That'd bloody stop them.

Oops,

Sorry Gatsobait, didn't mean to diss ya', misunderstood your message, apologies.

I remember there used to be a big flashing sign outside Wendover, Bucks (in the late 70's) that went off if you were following the vehicle in front too closely. If we had the technology then, strikes me there must be a way of designing some device to snap the tailgaters. I don't think many drivers could argue against such a device

Mentioned in postings on other threads (Motorway speed limit/driver training -etc) - Tailgating is prosecutable offence in Germany. You know how much I hate cameras, and view the micro-chipped caar as gorss infringement of my personal liberty BUT

at least the Fatherland does make good use of their CCTV footage along the Autobahn:


They use it to prosecute you for serious tailgating and OTT dangerous speeding

That is what I would term as intelligent use of cameras - unlike here!

Still argue that Motorway or similar road drive should be compulsory part of normal L/test.

But you have heard my arguments before on this [/i]

No worries Rigpig. It happens.

What you said about a device for photographing tailgaters reminded me of something I saw on the box a few years ago. I think it was in Israel and they were experimenting with a cross between a Gatso and a Truvelo they could do speeding and tailgating. If I remember right there were a couple of sets of sensors in the road and if two cars went over too close together it would take a picture of the rear of the one behind. The rest of the time it was a normal Gatso but triggerd by the road sensors measuring speed the way Truvelos do (I think). Not sure if it was succesful, and I rememeber thinking at the time it would probably ping people being towed. Still, someone somewhere has at least tried to make an automatic device to catch these idiots. I still think it'd be a lot easier to have enough traffic police on the motoway network to do the job properly though.

motorway driving before a test is a tricky one - you may get some people who would be frightened to death at the thought of travelling at such deadly speeds (;)), they may never have any desire to go on a motorway so why should they be stopped from driving around town (and there are many places in the country that are a good ride from a motorway)? I guess you could also say someone not competent enought to drive at a constant speed and keep in one lane shouldnt be allowed to drive in a hazard strewn city or urban area either.

Dont get me wrong, I do agree that you shouldnt be allowed on the motorway without some instruction, just the way of getting it seems a bit tricky.