On-the-spot fines for middle laners and tail-gaters

NathanE said:
Yeah. Arguably any time the motorway is clear the middle lane is the safest place to be. It gives you two directions to swerve in the event of a truck tyre, deer, dog... or if you have a blow out you have twice as many options in trying to keep control of the car.
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The incidence of dogs, tyres and blow outs on the motorway must be pretty low (I've never hit anything on a motorway or suffered tyre failure on one in 25 years) so I doubt the increase in safety is really significant.

However, it probably makes you feel safer which is not necessarily a good thing.
 
Dogbreath said:
The incidence of dogs, tyres and blow outs on the motorway must be pretty low (I've never hit anything on a motorway or suffered tyre failure on one in 25 years) so I doubt the increase in safety is really significant.

However, it probably makes you feel safer which is not necessarily a good thing.
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I avoided a truck tyre and a dead fox all in a single trip on the M11 at 1AM the other week. With headlights that aren't exactly the greatest, I think I'll keep using the middle lane at such times and ignore anything that OcUK has to say on this matter :)
 
Going by what I saw from a traffic officer on the M6 yesterday I'm a little concerned about certain officers ability to apply the required subjective judgement to enforce this!

In the space of 30 seconds:

- Traffic officer is accelerating down a long, almost empty 2 lane slip road. The motorway isn't particularly busy but he managed to mis-judge his speed so as to be level with a lorry as the slip road merged into one lane, meaning he had to pull awkwardly onto the motorway between two other lorries so as not to be sandwiched. He could have just used some foresight and either hung back a bit or accelerated a bit harder.

- He then proceeds to move across two lanes of traffic without indicating.

- He then passes another car and pulls back in front of it (indicating this time) but unreasonably close in front. The road ahead was clear, nothing was behind him, so why pull sharply in front of another car rather than waiting and pulling in once a reasonable gap had been created?

In my mind the traffic officer deserved a £100 fine for poor judgement and not reading the road ahead.
 
Janesy B said:
IME they're usually overtaking someone in a car unable to go above 50 because they have potatoes for brains.
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I have no problem with them over taking slow moving traffic, A 6mph difference would get them past & out there way quick enough, The issue I have is of 2 lorrys playing the overtaking game for miles on end with one gaining downhill tuther gaining uphill.
 
wonder how many people will get fined for avoiding lane one because the surface is utterly ruined? if common sense is applied and only the complete doughnuts are fined then it might be ok.
 
NathanE said:
Yeah. Arguably any time the motorway is clear the middle lane is the safest place to be. It gives you two directions to swerve in the event of a truck tyre, deer, dog... or if you have a blow out you have twice as many options in trying to keep control of the car.
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False. In the inside lane, you have the hard shoulder to enter. Since the hard shoulder should be free from traffic at all times it is a safer space to enter than either the inside or outside lanes.
 
zipp0r said:
wonder how many people will get fined for avoiding lane one because the surface is utterly ruined? if common sense is applied and only the complete doughnuts are fined then it might be ok.
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Depends on the definition of utterly ruined, by hogging the middle lane due to the left lane being poor quality, you're still creating a nuisance to other road users.
 
As others have said, should be good if enforced sensibly. Like others I'll often sit in the middle lane between trucks/cars in the inside lane even though arguably I could have pulled in, it depends on the level of traffic on the Motorway. If the motorway is rammed and you pull in you'll end up stuck there as no-one will let you out, if it's empty you aren't causing a problem. The only time it's really worth pulling in is if you have people going very quickly coming up behind you and don't want to be in their way.

Lack of indication and tailgating are far more annoying to me than middle lane hoggers. (coming from someone who will go straight past them on the inside if their dawdling there on an empty motorway)
 
Howard said:
The problem I can see with more traffic police on the motorways is more congestion.

I cringe when I see one on the motorway, for one reason: People go into stupid mode and just slow down to 68.9mph in ALL lanes, and dither about all over the place because heaven forbid they should approach or pass the nasty police car. If you're overtaking a slower-moving lane of traffic at 75mph, just bloody carry on! He won't care.
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Yeah, more plod on the motorway is just going to make more congestion!
 
Can't wait to see how its put into practice. Hopefully it's applied with a bit of flexibility and allows some discretion and common sense. I could so easily throw FPNs out like confetti some days.
 
NickXX said:
What offences does this actually cover? Is it just tailgating and middle lane antics, or is it anything which the police happen to consider careless?
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From the BBC website

The Department of Transport has not yet released official guidance on which types of driving will attract fines.

But police are expected to focus on situations involving slightly aggressive and inconsiderate driving, such as:

  • Driving too close to the vehicle in front
  • Failing to give way at a junction (not requiring evasive action by another driver)
  • Overtaking and pushing into a queue of traffic
  • Being in the wrong lane and pushing into a queue on a roundabout
  • Lane discipline, eg needlessly hogging the middle or outside lanes
  • Inappropriate speed
  • Wheel-spins, handbrake turns and other careless manoeuvres
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Is it actually an on the spot fine like on the continent where you literally have to pay the police with cash or card on the spot? or is it the ticket that's issued on the spot and you can pay later like a usual fixed penalty?

Probably not the best choice of language to be honest as it's a bit ambiguous.
 
I believe its just adding the offence of Careless and Inconsiderate to FPNable offences.
 
Also interesting that reportedly the fine for not wearing a seatbelt is to rise to £100. Odd one to raise, as its currently "only" a non-endorsable penalty..
 
andi said:
Also interesting that reportedly the fine for not wearing a seatbelt is to rise to £100. Odd one to raise, as its currently "only" a non-endorsable penalty..
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Too many muppets doing it though.

I am not comfy unless i have a seat belt on.
 
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