£100 fine for hogging middle lane or tailgating

Gramaisc

Forum O. G.
duel carriage way

A rather combative approach, don't you think? Do you have a 40 ton truck?

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Withnail

Well-Known Forumite
Tailgating, however, pisses me right orf.

Had a rather large van right up behind me on the M'way on one of my rare forays on four wheels earlier today - it's just not cricket.

Fine those feckers good and hard say i.
 

staffordjas

Well-Known Forumite
Driving up the motorway to Chester on friday afternoon it was a bit of a free-for-all. The middle lane was quite empty (everyone must have been scared of being accused of hogging it),the fast 3rd lane was chocca and going slow because no-one would move over out of it and the slow inside lane was quite often moving the faster of them all.

Will they be fining for hogging the third lane as well?

Had a clear run back this morning and stuck mostly in the middle lane as I was constantly catching stuff up in the slow lane.Would have been swerving in and out every few seconds if I'd kept getting back in. The odd time when there was a big run without slower traffic I did get in, but I think it's going to cause more accidents if everyone is in and out all the time,especially as hardly anyone thinks they should indicate !
Was thinking though...... What if you are doing the 70 mph :shifty: speed limit anyway in the middle lane. Apart from emergency vehicles, nothing should be legally going past you. Should they still fine you then?
 

wmrcomputers

Stafford PC & laptop repair specialist
I've already seen this too. I think people are taking the "middle lane hogging" term quite literally. The third lane (or second overtaking lane) is just as punishable.

I saw a guy a couple of years ago arguing with a traffic warden that he wasn't parked on double yellow lines as his tyre wasn't anywhere near them - it was OVER them. It made me chuckle, but more amazingly the guy was actually SERIOUS! Doh!!!!
 

henryscat

Well-Known Forumite
Driving up the motorway to Chester on friday afternoon it was a bit of a free-for-all. The middle lane was quite empty (everyone must have been scared of being accused of hogging it),the fast 3rd lane was chocca and going slow because no-one would move over out of it and the slow
Was thinking though...... What if you are doing the 70 mph :shifty: speed limit anyway in the middle lane. Apart from emergency vehicles, nothing should be legally going past you. Should they still fine you then?
Yes.
I'm sure some people sit in the middle lane because they think there's no problem providing they're doing 70mph and anyone who wants to do 70.01 mph is an idiot.
 

The Stafford Beast

Well-Known Forumite
I certainly think some drivers have now got "lanehogophobia".
Twice today I've tried to overtake lorries by pulling into the middle lane, and cars from the 3rd lane keep pulling in too early while clearly seeing that I am intending to overtake and nobody behind them.
When there's a chance, I always move over into the 3rd lane to let someone overtake in the middle lane so they're not forced to slow down unnecessarily - such as if a lorry is doing 50, they're doing 60 and I'm doing 70.
 

staffordjas

Well-Known Forumite
cars from the 3rd lane keep pulling in too early while clearly seeing that I am intending to overtake and nobody behind them.
I've witnessed so many near misses up ahead when cars from both inside and outside lanes move into the middle lane at the same time. Luckily ,so far,these drivers have taken evasive action and had a gap to manoeuvre back into in then nick of time.



When there's a chance, I always move over into the 3rd lane to let someone overtake in the middle lane so they're not forced to slow down unnecessarily - such as if a lorry is doing 50, they're doing 60 and I'm doing 70.

Same here .
 

henryscat

Well-Known Forumite
I've witnessed so many near misses up ahead when cars from both inside and outside lanes move into the middle lane at the same time. Luckily ,so far,these drivers have taken evasive action and had a gap to manoeuvre back into in then nick of.

Clearly drivers need to be properly looking, but it isn't helped by how few people indicate when moving left a lane. A lot of people will indicate when moving out to overtake but don't bother when moving back in again.
 

Gramaisc

Forum O. G.
Clearly drivers need to be properly looking, but it isn't helped by how few people indicate when moving left a lane. A lot of people will indicate when moving out to overtake but don't bother when moving back in again.

Maybe people should just be sent to Germany for a bit, after passing their test. I drove back from Prague and had not the slightest incident the whole way back to the channel. I hadn't got out of the car-park in Folkstone before some sod cut me up....
 

Withnail

Well-Known Forumite
The only time i've ever been 'pulled' on a motorway (come to think of it, on any road at all) was in Germany.

I hadn't known that because i was driving a slightly larger thing than normal, i wasn't allowed to travel at the speed i was going - which tbf wasn't particularly fast because the thing i was driving was quite big.

Luckily for me they let me off on the old 'stupid foreigner' technicality, and i was permitted to wend my (reduced speededly) merry way. :)
 

shoes

Well-Known Forumite
I had some dozy bint nearly take me out on the motorway on Friday. Undertook me in circa 60mph 'traffic' on the M6, I was maintaining about six car lengths (I know it should be more but as soon as you give any more then some idiot just pulls into the space, and in the interests of not having to drop back each time until I'm going backwards I take the risk and pay attention) and then suddenly and violently swung across with no indication and missed the front of my car by narrow enough a gap to induce the collision avoidance system and it slammed the brakes on for me.

Suffice to say she got a good ten seconds or so on the horn.

Probably a good job she didn't hit me, the front of the car is always more stable than the rear, and her rag top Saab would have most likely spun, and being such a terrible driver in normal circumstances I would wager she wouldn't have a clue how to catch it, let alone actually be able to make a rational decision in the split second as to what action to take, so it could have ended up in a pileup on the motorway.

I cannot remember the reg no but this was around J21 so unlikely to be a local.
 

John Marwood

I ♥ cryptic crosswords
I have solved this problem at a stroke

I have done away with a middle lane and we shall now have four lanes from Stafford junction 13

Trebles Quadruples all round!
 

basil

don't mention the blinds
I once got stuck behind a Vauxhall Chevanne between The Crispin and Redhill roundabout.......
 
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