Two things I've noticed - bit of a rant!

[Peter C]

I'm a Chartered Surveyor working out of an office in Berkshire. My patch is the Thames Valley and west London, which includes places like Windsor, Eton, Henley, Marlow, Amersham and parts of the capital. All generally nice places, I am sure you'd agree. I drive everywhere, I don't take public transport. If I have to go to London I will drive in after the rush hour. I don't think a day goes by without a trip on either the M40, M4 or the M25. Even at the weekend I regularly drive to London to see my parents. I've noticed two things.

 

It is impossible to drive on a motorway at 70MPH in the nearside lane.

 

I am rarely in a hurry and being a law abiding citizen I tend to stick to speed limits and obey the Highway Code. I understand that I do not have an exclusive right to the nearside lane and that every so often I will have to overtake slower traffic but it's getting to a point where driving diligently is no longer feasible.

 

The HIghway Code states that reasonable progress must be made and considering that even the shittest car can cruise at 70MPH, why do folk drive on motorways at 55? I wouldn't mind so much if they weren't stuck in the middle lane and causing fucking great tailbacks.

 

Hogging the middle lane is my biggest pet hate. I can't stand seeing drivers who have just joined a motorway move straight into the middle lane, regardless of the fact that the nearside lane is clear and the fuckers stay there regardless of traffic conditions until they realise 100 yards from their junction that it is time to move over.

 

Despite all the hype in the media, so many drivers still use mobile phones whilst driving. Not so much talking on them but emailing / texting / looking at porn / whatever else. You can see their eyes and faces, how they devote 75% of their concentration to their phones, looking down and typing away and only looking at the road whenever absolutely necessary to avoid a fucking huge accident. These drivers usually either drive slower than surrounding traffic and rarely keep in lane. Wankers.

 

Speeding HGV / commercial vehicles all too often tailgate, even in the nearside lane. Why not just overtake?

 

Considering the above, I might just fit a pair of pointlessly bright LED driving lights, switch on my foglights for added cunt factor and join the Audi boys in the fast lane. Oh yeah and I would probably have to practice my tailgating skills as well, otherwise I run the risk of letting a car in ahead of me, which would delay arrival at my destination by a nanosecond.

 

My daily ride Merc W124 was in the bodyshop this week having a door repaired (some wank stain drove into it whilst it was parked and drove off without leaving his details) so I spent the week driving around in my Boxster. Despite being a 16 year old car, worth about £5k, I was amazed how other drivers treated me. Receiving unwarranted obscene hand gestures, not being let out of junctions, other cars cutting in front of me and chav tossers in shit hatchbacks driving like pricks, challenging me to a race in a 30MPH urban environment was the norm. None of this ever happened whilst I was out in the W124 or even the W123, for that matter. I'd hate to imagine what it must be like driving around in a brand new Porsche!

 

Rant over. I love driving but so many people are spoiling the experience by being stupid and inconsiderate. The police are either not around or fail to act. I have a great idea! I know how the government could make millions in additional revenue! Fine the driver of EVERY car that needlessly has its foglights switched on. A simple £100 on the spot fine would generate income every time and there would be no need for PC Twat to fill out a fucking great big form. Sorted.

 

Gotta go, I have to drive my six year old to rugby practice.

[Tamworthbay]

The speed limit is just that, a limit, the minimum speed on a motorway is 30mph (conditions allowing) so someone doing 55-60mph doesn't seem an issue to me. What does annoy me are the bozos doing 30mph on a duel carriageway. They are dangerous.

 

Totally agree on mobiles, as for how people treat you in different cars, try driving a small car! When I used to drive the wife's ka I couldn't believe what some wankers would do. I had a few issues when I had my 944 but just used to ignore it, or boot it and laugh at them at the next set of lights.

[Danblez]

It is impossible as you say now to drive in a decent manner without a massive effort on he motorway these days. For the reasons you state you are often forced into the outside lane where I like to keep a decent gap in front. This is just not possible as you get undertaken with someone slipping in to the gap every 2 mins.

 

It really isn't the place to be if you like a nice relaxed journey.

[Eddie Honda]

Speeding HGV / commercial vehicles all too often tailgate, even in the nearside lane. Why not just overtake?

The speed limit for HGVs is 60mph. Considering they are restricted to 90km/h (56mph), unless they are going downhill, they won't be speeding.

 

Given that pretty much all HGVs are in the same boat, it doesn't make it very to overtake each other. The alternative to tailgating each other in lane one, is elephant racing using lanes one and two. Prefer that? Thought not.

 

Hope this helps.

[MarvinsMom]

on a motorway the MINIMUM speed limit is 50mph.

 

i think that is for everything been 25 odd years since i passed my test.

 

i hate driving though, if i didn;t have to drive to get to work/the shops/ect. then i wouldn't 

 

simple as.

[FakeConcern]

I thought the minimum speed on the motorway was 70mph

[MarvinsMom]

depends on what you are driving if its some hun panzer kampf wagon the minimum limit on one of those is 89mph, and 2mm off of the back bumper of the car in front.

[NorfolkNWeigh]

Unfortunately there is no minimum speed limit on motorways, I've seen a couple of minimum speed signs around the country ,buggered if I can remember where though.

 

 

Edited to add, just remembered ,there's a sign on a flyover on the A45 near the exit for Northampton Car Auctions . it says something like ' no vehicles not capable of doing 25mph' or summat.

[FakeConcern]

Unfortunately there is no minimum speed limit on motorways, I've seen a couple of minimum speed signs around the country ,buggered if I can remember where though.

Usually in tunnels etc. I think.

[HH-R]

The punishment for being caught on your phone should be the phone contract suspended for three months. Can just imagine the person that has been caught spinning round the floor and melting from the withdrawals of not being able to IM Candice and Kayden or missing out on Justin Bieber's latest tweet of his tea.

[garethj]

I can help with why people drive at 55mph in lane 1, it's because lane 2 and 3 are full of cretins.  Every day I'm on the M1 commuting to work, I used to commute into London and even my first job was 30 miles away down the M4, I've done a lot of motorway driving.

 

Here's how I see it:

Lane 3 has all the people who are in a massive hurry.  If they've got the intelligence to hold down a well paid job I've no idea why they don't just get up 10 minutes earlier, but there we are.  The driving is 90mph until there's a queue of traffic then it's hard on the brakes down to 45mph because they follow really close.

 

Lane 2 has the people who are too asleep to see when there's a gap to move back to lane 1.  I've noticed recently that this lane can also be used for those lane 3 people undertaking the queue of traffic, just to spice things up a bit.

 

Lane 1 does between 50 and 55mph and you can hold this speed for ages.  I don't want to be accelerating then braking hard, I don't want to have some twat 2 feet from my bumper and I don't want to maintain a 1 second gap (2 seconds - I wish) between me and the car in front and have it filled by some idiot who accelerates into it then brakes hard, making me brake hard.

 

That's why I'm in lane 1, the fact that I get better fuel economy at 55mph is a bonus but mostly it's about making my journey as easy as possible.

 

For the years that I used to ride a motorbike along the motorway it was easier because it's a doddle to avoid the idiots, but in a car in lane 3 it's like they're swarming all over the place.

[scdan4]

Slow mlm's I just go up the inside - or stay in the correct lane as I call it. Cannot be bothered with lane 1 to 3, back to 1, again. 

 

Driving at about the speed limit is difficult when it's busy. You're trying to do 70, the inside lane is doing 55, the outside lane is doing 90 and middle is a lovely blend. It is far easier to join them, either 55 with the wagons, or 90 with the audi's. On an empty road I'll do about 75, but on a busy road i'll speed up, jst to make life easier and safer. It's far easier to keep a gap in front of you when you are not moving lanes every 30 seconds.

 

I thought the motorway minimum was 30mph - that's why mopeds aren't allowed.

[LC Torana]

The solution is of course simple.  Abolish the the unnecessary, superfluous and counterproductive law against so-called "undertaking".

 

Retain the "keep left unless overtaking" rule, with appropriate penalties for not keeping left, but cars do have external mirrors on both sides these days.

[Cavcraft]

I don't often do 50mph and stay in lane 1, but good on those that do. As long as they're not holding HGVs up then there isn't a problem that I can see, quite the reverse. They're surely keeping lanes 2 and 3 clearer and as Gareth said you can avoid the lane 3 dickheads.

[beko1987]

I hide in l1 normally on the m40, and often end up going faster than l2 and 3. Especially at 7.30am a d 5.30pm

[AlabamaShrimp]

My cars normal* motorway speed is about 60 so I tend to stay in the first lane. I can go faster, about 80, but it takes ages to get there making overtaking difficult.

 

I just drive the best I can and ignore the dickheads while keeping actually going on the motorway to a minimum

 

What's posted above is right though, people don't look ahead enough

[UltraWomble]

The solution is of course simple.  Abolish the the unnecessary, superfluous and counterproductive law against so-called "undertaking".

 

Retain the "keep left unless overtaking" rule, with appropriate penalties for not keeping left, but cars do have external mirrors on both sides these days.

I undertake if some utter wankbag is sat "pootling" along in the middle lane. Normally whilst driving the C8 so not an overly small car.

My Rationale is where the Highway code says you must overtake on the right unless traffic on the right is going slower than you are.

 

Normally after I have tanked up their inside they pull into L1.

 

I know I am a twat, so please, dont feel you need to point this out to me.

[garethj]

I've driven a couple of small modern cars and I don't think I'd want to do 70mph in them, it's not just the old cars.  It seems that they don't have much torque or have really high gearing - whatever to get the fuel economy up.  So if you're doing 70 and want to overtake but there's a car closing up 200 yards behind, do you have enough zip to get past without slowing the faster car down?

 

If you do 60 then they can usually accelerate ok when you change down but I think if you measured the 70-85mph time on a new modern car it wouldn't be that different to an Austin 1100.  Except the driver of the new car wouldn't be deaf afterwards.

[TRW]

I use the lane on the left, the one with the single left footed shoe and the occasional back box scattered in it

 

Nobody else does, so I cant see what the problem doing 90 in it is.

[garethj]

If you do that on the M3 in Surrey there'll be someone undertaking you on the grass.

[overrun]

I undertake all of the docile, lazy and selfish outside lane hogging, 50 mph helmets on a daily basis, during my commute.

You know the ones who actually make life dangerous, by either flatly refusing to use L1, or when they do, holding up HGV's.

 

These will be the same lot who score highly on that daft Aviva insurance 'drive safe' app...

[Peter C]

Whilst I charge most of my clients by the hour and it would be great to make a few more quid, I can't justify driving on motorways at 50MPH.

[garethj]

Dunno, if you actually work out the extra time between driving at 70mph (which probably means you average 65mph on the motorway) and holding 55mph, what's the difference?  Let's say it's 20% for the motorway part of the journey.  The rest of the trip would be the same; from your house to the motorway, stopped at traffic lights, getting off the motorway driving to a client etc.

 

If you spend half an hour on the motorway, that's 6 minutes you're saving.  If you can be an absolute speed demon and maintain 60mph then you're saving 3 minutes for every half an hour of motorway travel.  I work pretty hard, but I don't think I can account for 6 minutes gained or lost in an 8 hour day.

 

If you spend several hours on the motorway then that's perhaps different, 2 hours on the motorway would between 55mph and hopefully 70mph would mean 24 minutes.  But hang on, if you can maintain 70mph for 2 hours solid in the south east you're not doing it when anyone else is awake.  That means your average speed would be closer to 60mph, making the difference for 2 hours of motorway closer to 12-15 minutes.

[dean36014]

As a HGV driver the most annoying thing for me lately is the increase in the amount of cars doing 50-54 mph. Being limited to 55mph you slowly creep up on them, pull out to overtake, get level with their front bumper and then they creep up and match your speed! Wether its an subconscious thing or not I don't know, but its maddening. Then you eventually get past them only for them to re-overtake you, then in a few miles slow down so the whole thing starts over again. My other pet hate is managed motorways where the hard shoulder opens, and no one bothers to use it making it pointless, but does provide a nice clear run for the trucks down the inside!

[Jerzy Woking]

I commute 120 miles a day, 60 of which is motorway, and 54 is dual carriageways. I sometimes use a car but mostly do it on a motorbike. No matter if its my 12bhp scooter or my 180bhp sports bike, its usually ridden in lane one for the majority of the trip as its usually clear and easier to pop out and do an overtake in a couple of seconds. I also consider it safer in a way- I can see what the three lanes are doing, and i have a clear lane on my left to move into should i have to. When traffic gets heavy then I filter between lanes two and three.

 

However, this is becoming more of a ball ache every day. Whereas most cars stay on the same trajectory when driving slowly in a queue, I'll see one that's wavering a bit so hold back from going past-when I think its safe to pass I go, and 99% of the time the driver is intently looking at the phone in their hand, and not on the road. Depending what bike I am riding, sometimes a short beep on the horn makes them jump.

 

Another thing-my journey only takes 10 minutes longer on the scooter than on my bigger bikes, does 100 mpg and not 40 mpg, and costs peanuts for tyres,servicing, etc. So why do I run my bikes instead?

[overrun]

Ah yes, SMART motorways.

Turn the hard shoulder into a live lane at peak times to ease congestion. Great idea.

 

What happens when someone inevitably breaks down and is atomised by a 40 tonne artic, though?

[Jim Bell]

I drive at 65ish in the left lane. And overtake in the right lane. I thought the far right lane was for racsists.

[overrun]

I dunno, it can make a considerable difference, and put no innocents at risk, at times.

I was going to be late for work one day, so hit the B roads to avoid the blockage on the dual carriageway. Then I got back on and drove at 130 mph* for a few junctions.

 

I was not late, and due to whatever incident (someone probs crashed from speeding, right?) the road ahead was empty, once I had passed several cars when rejoining the road.

Perfick.

 

*A yoused 2 liv Jermany m8

[beko1987]

As a HGV driver the most annoying thing for me lately is the increase in the amount of cars doing 50-54 mph. Being limited to 55mph you slowly creep up on them, pull out to overtake, get level with their front bumper and then they creep up and match your speed! Wether its an subconscious thing or not I don't know, but its maddening. Then you eventually get past them only for them to re-overtake you, then in a few miles slow down so the whole thing starts over again. My other pet hate is managed motorways where the hard shoulder opens, and no one bothers to use it making it pointless, but does provide a nice clear run for the trucks down the inside!

I always make sure I go faster than a lorry I pull in front of for this reason.

 

Unless I'm late for work, then it's into l3 and flash the rep mobiles out of the way!

 

Or as I enter the m40, just before the big Hill. That takes 4th at 50, so I can either nail it straight into l2 or into 5th and stay behind a lorry. The lorries normally do 40-45 up this bit...

[Tamworthbay]

on a motorway the MINIMUM speed limit is 50mph.

 

i think that is for everything been 25 odd years since i passed my test.

 

i hate driving though, if i didn;t have to drive to get to work/the shops/ect. then i wouldn't

 

simple as.

It isn't 50mph, technically it isn't anything unless there is a blue sign stating one but I have only seen those on tunnels. But as vehicles are only allowed on a motorway if they are capable of exceeding 30mph then 30mph is a minimum.

 

What's legal and what is safe are two very different things though.