Indicating on motorways and what it means.

I've seen people just undertake them instead of moving over and back again.

I always go over and then back.

Yeah, undertaking - particularly at speed can be very dangerous. For the amount of effort required, you might as well just overtake them.
 
I disagree, it depends on the circumstances.

I find a quite common scenario on a motorway is I'm in lane 1 making good progress and there is a steady stream of traffic in lane 2 and an empty/sparse lane 3, I'm quickly approaching a lorry doing 56,

By then you will have lost it, you should know exactly how far and how fast the traffic is moving around you at all times. Checking mirrors every few seconds helps

If you see a lorry in lane 1 you should be planning to overtake as soon as you see it, you know it will be doing <60mph. You should see it on a clear day or night at least 1/2 mile 800 metres ahead and be checking for gaps then. This will give you 20/30 seconds to plan your move. Then MSM when clear to do so.
 
By then you will have lost it, you should know exactly how far and how fast the traffic is moving around you at all times. Checking mirrors every few seconds helps

If you see a lorry in lane 1 you should be planning to overtake as soon as you see it, you know it will be doing <60mph. You should see it on a clear day or night at least 1/2 mile 800 metres ahead and be checking for gaps then. This will give you 20/30 seconds to plan your move. Then MSM when clear to do so.

Inevitably there will be no gaps because most won't move out of the middle lane. So, doing the right thing and moving to the left means that often, you're overtaken by a steady stream of cards and left behind a lorry for longer than you'd like.
 
If you are approaching a slower vehicle on a free flowing motorway and are getting boxed in it is because you have not planned it properly. I always use the left hand lane when available and there is a decent length of road free, you should be driving looking at the horizon ahead rather than directly at the two or three vehicles in front. You will still see them if they brake or slow down.

I will concede on a busy road, a blip of the indicator without actually putting it on will often let someone slow down to let you out. Then you indicate when the gap is there to move into.
 
Yer see - you've gone and lost yourself a lot of marks by using the term "fast lane" - there is no such thing.

:p Doh! You're right, I meant the outside lane - I don't use it as the "fast lane" just quicker to type but completely wrong. I often find myself in the middle/inside lanes alone when everyone else is in the outside lane :(
 
I don't understand the people saying that people won't let you out. Rarely is there no gap at all unless it's a bumper to bumper jam.
Matching speed is the key. I never get stuck behind a truck in lane 1 because I always leave about 6 to 10 seconds of room in order for me to accelerate to match the speed of the traffic to my right until I have passed the vehicle in front. Once I have completed that maneuver, I reduce my speed to what it was before the maneuver.
 
Has no one else been on the motorway and the traffic in lane or 2 is moving faster than that in 2 or 3?

Undertaking is bad, but that happens often.
 
Mirror
You check your mirrors to check is it safe to perform your planned manouvre.

Signal
You signal the direction you're going to be moving, to ensure other drivers are aware of your imminent movement.

Manouvre
After checking again that you can maneuvre safely, carry it out.


Quite simple really I think. Indicators aren't a "Anyone going to let me out?" device.

...Hmm. So I'm gaining on the vehicle in lane 1 and have to slow to match his speed to avoid a collision.
The traffic in lane 2 is moving quicker than lane 1 as they are all overtaking but I can't signal yet because they are keeping a safe distance from each other and because I haven't indicated I can't let them know I wish to overtake too.
Lane 3 is empty but that's no use to me and the lane 2 drivers are all overtaking me and the vehicle that I'm waiting to overtake so they just continue along correctly but oblivious to me who's only wanting to overtake and join in all the fun.

I think I'll stick to indicating when I want to. If the car behind sees me and decides to move over then thats great. If they don't then maybe the next one will. At least I have 'indicated' my wish as opposed to your idea of continuing along indefinitely without indicating because there is no gap!
 
I disagree, it depends on the circumstances.

I find a quite common scenario on a motorway is I'm in lane 1 making good progress and there is a steady stream of traffic in lane 2 and an empty/sparse lane 3, I'm quickly approaching a lorry doing 56, I indicate my desire to move to lane 2 and wait, cars in lane 2 see my indicating and move to lane 3 allowing me into lane 2 without changing my speed, after the overtake I move back in to lane 1 and those who moved to lane 3 return to lane 2 everyone is happy no one has touched a brake pedal.

If I were to consider your school of thought I would have to slow to 56mph behind the lorry and wait for a gap then indicate, manoeuvre and speed up to fall in to line with lane 2 traffic. All the while lane 3 goes unused..... seems a less desirable process to me?

The second scenario would ultimately lead to me refusing to use the first lane when there is a reasonable amount of traffic in lane 2 for fear of having to constantly slow for lorries which would make the whole middle lane cruiser situation even worse.

I agree with this person.
I also have no issue with people doing the same, so that I move out another lane as I am travelling faster than them and can easily create a safe gap for them without slowing me down.
 
:confused:

You simply start indicating and wait for people to move over to let you in - why do you assume that you can't do this?




Wow! Dodgy driver alert. "If they see me, great, if not, oh well".

:\

Hang on, you slate him saying that he should indicate and wait for someone to let him over (he was paraphrasing what Zefan had said at this point and using it in an example), then you slate him for saying that he indicates and waits.

He said if someone doesn't see him then he waits for the next car to see if they notice and let him in. Not that he just goes for it anyway.
 
Read this thread this morning and thought this doesn't happen much around here.. Drove home and everyone was doing it! Even had to undertake some plonk doing 65 in the outside lane with nothing to their left.
 
"Acceleration lane" well I guess I've learnt a new term today ;)

I'll also bear in mind the next time I catch up with a truck with a constant stream of traffic sitting to my right that it is me who is doing it wrong. I will then proceed to follow this truck for the next 5 miles waiting for these gaps that people speak of before indicating that I prefer to travel above 56mph.

Or maybe I'll continue with my current method and live with the fact that I might convince someone to delay their progress by 2 seconds to let me out.
 
Not if I came up behind, if a gentle flash didn't move the **** she'd get 400w of main+high beams until she got in the proper lane.

Proper pet hate.

If there's one thing worse than idiots who do not know how to drive, it's the knuckle dragging ****ers who try to police them. Get a life.
 
Right, I can honestly say that the situation you're describing doesn't happen to me often at all. Nearly all of the time somebody in that line of traffic passing me leaves a gap, flashes me out or moves over into the next lane.

If you've been there a while then yeah, I'd say that's a justifiable exception.
 
How many times has someone had a **** overtake them so slowly that you come up against traffic in your own lane and have to slow right down? Knob end in a 7 series BMW did this to me twice last night - he slowed down so much after eventually crawling past me I overtook him, and then he sped up and proceeded to do the same thing again.

I'm almost certain it wasn't deliberate, just bloody terrible driving by an apparently myopic fool.
 
Indicating generally means I am moving in to that lane now unless you are in the exact space I am moving in to. But don't worry, I will be moving with the assistance of 700 Nm so I won't cause any disruption to your progress.

I have, however, begun militantly pulling out of minor roads in to major roads that have heavy traffic flow. I will look out for weak-willed drivers and then stray in front of the entire lane. When I've stopped the traffic flow one way, the other way tends to give way. This saves me many minutes of life.
 
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I think it's more advanced planning, people barge into lane 3 because they are fast running out room in lane 2, so it's either brake or barge into lane 3.

So I think it's more of a case of people not planning and looking ahead.
 
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