£100 fine for hogging middle lane or tailgating

shoes

Well-Known Forumite
Great idea, in principle. Trouble is, how often do you actually see a jam sandwich out and about that could actually enforce it?


Quite a lot - just look for the unnecessarily fancy cars breaking the speed limit massively - they're usually the motorway police.
 

flossietoo

Well-Known Forumite
Ban women and vans from the motorway - job done :p

I banned myself from motorway travel years ago and have been avoiding all three lanes ever since. Personally, I have only admiration for anyone who ventures as far as the middle lane.
 

basil

don't mention the blinds
Great idea, in principle. Trouble is, how often do you actually see a jam sandwich out and about that could actually enforce it?
Indeed , more often than not they use Volvo or BMW in bluish grey ..........
 

Gramaisc

Forum O. G.
I banned myself from motorway travel years ago and have been avoiding all three lanes ever since. Personally, I have only admiration for anyone who ventures as far as the middle lane.

It's possible that the only place where I've been in the third lane this century is where the M50 joins the N7 at the Red Cow and, then, only because I have no choice...
 

staffordjas

Well-Known Forumite
Ban women and vans from the motorway - job done :p
Oi! :mad: :P


I like motorway driving and actually feel safer in the fast lane than the middle lane.

Does get me annoyed when people hog the middle lane,quite often causing a jam in the fast lane and others to undertake to get past. Can't see it being successfully policed though......
 

shoes

Well-Known Forumite
I also now have the problem that I no longer have a BMW which means undertaking is no longer acceptable. Undertaking in a diesel focus just isn't as exciting either :(
 

The Stafford Beast

Well-Known Forumite
I've noticed that nothing's been mentioned about hogging the fast lane!

The fines seem to be designed to punish the poor, rather than the rich. £100 to some people is what they have to live on for a week. On the other hand, £100 could be what some people earn in an hour.
As BMW drivers are usually:
  1. Parked in the fast lane
  2. Speeding
  3. Tailgating up someone's arse with intent to break the speed limit in the fast lane
  4. Richer than most
  5. Not indicating when they need to be
there already seems to be a different law unto them anyway, so I say make it a healthy £10,000 for them with the option of having their car publicly crushed in front of them in Stafford town centre - a throwback to the gallows maybe?

Either that, or base the fine on their car's tax band or something.
 

proactive

Enjoying a drop of red.
As BMW drivers are usually:
  1. Parked in the fast lane
  2. Speeding
  3. Tailgating up someone's arse with intent to break the speed limit in the fast lane
  4. Richer than most
  5. Not indicating when they need to be
Leaving all that aside, they're a pretty decent lot...

Though not quite a cuddly as Audi drivers, obviously.
 

shoes

Well-Known Forumite
I've noticed that nothing's been mentioned about hogging the fast lane!

The fines seem to be designed to punish the poor, rather than the rich. £100 to some people is what they have to live on for a week. On the other hand, £100 could be what some people earn in an hour.
As BMW drivers are usually:
  1. Parked in the fast lane
  2. Speeding
  3. Tailgating up someone's arse with intent to break the speed limit in the fast lane
  4. Richer than most
  5. Not indicating when they need to be
there already seems to be a different law unto them anyway, so I say make it a healthy £10,000 for them with the option of having their car publicly crushed in front of them in Stafford town centre - a throwback to the gallows maybe?


Either that, or base the fine on their car's tax band or something.


You should try driving one (a proper one too, not some 318i), you'll be a convert in no time.
 

Catabatic

Well-Known Forumite
'bout time too, middle lane hoggers - pain in the arse!
While we're banging on about motorways, as Gramaisc posted, third lane - not fast lane.
 

wmrcomputers

Stafford PC & laptop repair specialist
I'm tempted to put a cheque in my dads fathers day card for £100 made payable to "Driving fines unit" - but i'm not sure his sense of humour might be what it used to be :D
 

Withnail

Well-Known Forumite
To be pernickerty, the two outside lanes are for overtaking - if you aren't doing so, you shouldn't be in either of them.

In the interests of fairness, most people are overtaking, or at least are close to having to do so, whilst rooted in the middle lane - how far would you have to follow them to make the case that they have definitively been 'hogging'?

That's what i want to know don't really care about either.
 

wmrcomputers

Stafford PC & laptop repair specialist
Hogging in my opinion is still driving along in the middle lane when lane 1 is totally empty. In busy traffic, lane 1 can be full of lorries and car/caravans doing their maximum 60MPH limit, so therefore if you were in the middle lane doing 70 you would theoretically be classed as overtaking even if it was for several miles at a time. However, if a reasonably long gap in lane 1 comes up, you should move across even if you know that 30 seconds later you'll be moving out again otherwise you could be seen as hogging the middle lane.

It's a bit daft though in some ways, because they say that drivers who continually switch lanes cause accidents. Now they're encouraging more people to be switching lanes - especially between lanes 1 and 2. As long as I can get past the "plod-a-longs" using lane 2 or 3, then i'm happy.

Where I would like to see the new powers enforced are on roads such as the A34 to cannock which due to hidden dips and bends gives little (if any) opportunity to overtake - yet always seems to be the one place I get stuck behind "mr20milesperhour.com" - grrrrrrrrr
 

ATJ

Well-Known Forumite
In the interests of fairness, most people are overtaking, or at least are close to having to do so, whilst rooted in the middle lane - how far would you have to follow them to make the case that they have definitively been 'hogging'?

That's what I wonder. The slow lane is usually full of lorries travelling at 60mph. If you overtake one, see another ahead and nobody is behind you why bother to pull back in to the slow lane only to have to pull out again a minute later? Sure, someone sitting at 65 in the middle lane is a pain in the backside but I've never been sent into rages about having to overtake them in lane 3.

Lorries overtaking each other, however, that does make the red mist descend.
 

That-Crazy-Rat-Lady

Well-Known Forumite
Oh dear - I shall warn my mother....

I however have never driven on a motorway, I went on a duel carriage way in stoke once and well, never again!
 
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