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

[The Geezer]

I'm glad the enforcement of lane discipline is being introduced.

Hopefully the approach will make the 'middle lane hogs' consider other road users rather themselves. Keep left unless overtaking isn't a difficult concept to grasp.

Maybe with drivers following lane discipline we will not need to widen more motorways.

The downside is we don't have enough traffic police to enforce it

 

[Ryan-3]

Fixed penalties for using a mobile phone while driving or not wearing a seatbelt will also rise by £40 to £100.

Still not enough, for using a mobile while driving, double it I say.
Harsh you say, I've lost two friends due to idiots using phone while driving.

I agree. It should be at least 5x what it is right now.

But for this, i'm not sure how they are going to enforce it, as they're rarely on the motorway. Tail-gaters really **** me off though, especially them with their 4-pot diesels.

 

[PinkFloyd]

I can see both sides on the Merging argument, yes you don't need to merge in a mile before the 40mph roadworks on the motorway, but if you bomb past the whole queue at 80mph in your brand new BMW M3.... are you really surprised when everyone thinks you are a dick as you sit 5 metres in front of the cones at the end of the lane waiting for someone to let you in?
Ofcourse, if that outside lane person is driving alone at roughly the same speed indicating to join your lane and you aren't letting them in it's altogether different.

 

[Housey]

It is annoying but this is just government PR, it will have zero effect.

 

[Sasso]

what get's me the most is the middle/overtaking lane hoggers. granted I do it a bit myself but at least i'm wanting to overtake. really grinds my gears ( ) when the left lane is almost empty, middle lane is quite busy and then have all the rest wanting to overtake as slowly as possible in the right hand lane everyone just needs to shift over a bit!

I know I ain't perfect but if i'm not overtaking i'll be as left as possible, if theres slow cars/lorries with just 50 yard gaps i'm not going to bother going into the left lane just to pop back out a few seconds later. but it's those people who sit in the middle doing pretty much the same speed as traffic in that left lane.... just speed up a bit and pull in front or slow down and pull back in!!! is it really that hard to do?!?!?! apparently...yes.....yes it is xD

same applies to the slow overtakers, they overtake (usually cutting out infront of faster moving traffic causing a string then almost cut the car up in the middle lane and then usually slow down.... which just means the dude he/she overtook is just going to jostle for position again if they don;t want to travel at their speed.

damn I don't half go on sometimes xD

 

[JonnyT]

I genuinely know people who drive in the middle lane "because it's safest" Most are either female, near/above pensionable age or both. Their argument is that they are furthest away from the "edges of the road" which only goes to show their lack of car control and spatial/situational awareness...

Not indicating/wrongly indicating at roundabouts should be next on the list. It seriously annoys me both when driving and cycling. I'm not sure what's worse though; not indicating at all or those muppets that indicate left to come off before turning right past the previous exit

 

[Conscript]

It's still pushing in, no matter how you dress it. If you see a line of cars waiting, you driving to near the front of that and asking to be let in is queue jumping

Manners cost nothing!

It's not pushing in. It's only pushing in when people who don't understand what merge in turn means start bringing their pride into the equation and block people from merging "because manners". Thus creating congestion.

If you put your pride on hold and allowed enough room between you in the car in front, then people would be able to merge without stopping; thus the whole queue would move along quicker. That's how it's meant to work, the idea is that queueing traffic uses all of the road space while waiting so as to shorten the queue and filter traffic into the single lane as efficiently as possible.

Please go and educate yourself on how merge in turn works, because if you continue to hold that attitude, you are part of the problem and causing unnecessarily long queues at roadworks.

As quoted from a previous thread on the subject:

I did a picture version

Left: How typical British morons feel the need to queue
Right: How the queue should be formed if the average driver had half a brain

I wonder if people would get it more if the single lane at the end was in the middle, rather than on a particular side?

 

[Rroff]

^^ While I agree with the principle 9 times out of 10 on British roads in those situations there isn't an actual need to use both lanes like that and in many cases the length of time it takes to get through the bottleneck is significantly increased by people who "seem" to be queue jumping (whether they are or just trying to filter "properly") and the mess that makes when people are trying to merge. IMO a lot of the regular instances of these bottlenecks i.e. this one https://maps.google.co.uk/maps?q=St...p=13,-105.2629642848361,,0,13.922874421678543 could be massively reduced with better signage so people make better use of the road layout.

 

[NickXX]

if you bomb past the whole queue at 80mph in your brand new BMW M3.... are you really surprised when everyone thinks you are a dick as you sit 5 metres in front of the cones at the end of the lane waiting for someone to let you in?

I've never done this in my M3. I can always squeeze the nose of my car into impossible small gaps just ahead of the cones, which avoids waiting.

 

[DJMK4]

Just another thing for the nation to worry about,get points for, pay fines for, lose their licence and potentially jobs for.

How are they going to control this?

Utter stupid idea

 

[Deleted member 651465]

Having cruise control has really opened my eyes to how many people don't even obey the speed limits anyway. I set mine to 70mph and travel 50 miles down the M4 for work every morning, and I will see..

1) lorries at 56mph in lane 1
2) morons doing 60mph in lane 2 that will not move from the centre
3) BMW/Audi brigade trying to park in your boot with lights flashing at 90mph+

Some days I can make it more than 15 minutes without having to dodge a slow moving HGV attempting to overtake another or pull in to a gap before I see a car screaming up behind flashing.

Limit all cars to 80mph and be done with it tbh

 

[CaptainRAVE]

Would be a great idea if there were actually police to enforce it

 

[Meridian]

^^ While I agree with the principle 9 times out of 10 on British roads in those situations there isn't an actual need to use both lanes like that and in many cases the length of time it takes to get through the bottleneck is significantly increased by people who "seem" to be queue jumping (whether they are or just trying to filter "properly") and the mess that makes when people are trying to merge.

Merge in turn questions are a little OT, but I'll bite.

1) The vast majority of UK roadworks do NOT have merge in turn signs. So that diagram posted by Kenai is useless.

2) Again I find myself pointing out a concept that the outer lane zoomers seem to struggle with. The reason why merge in turn is rarely signed in the UK is because it only works if both lanes are travelling at the same speed. And for most cases of roadworks they aren't. What is needed is for the people who like to zoom up the right-hand lane to stop being smug *****s. Then it works just fine.


As to the OP, the best summary was early on: this makes no difference whatsoever as the feds don't have time to enforce it.

 

[Pabl0]

I think at best the traffic cops car get infront of a car and use their scrolling rear screens to tell a car to use the inside lane and not just the middle, saves time on pulling them over and coming from 'the law' might have the desired effect.

 

[NickXX]

Having cruise control has really opened my eyes to how many people don't even obey the speed limits anyway. I set mine to 70mph and travel 50 miles down the M4 for work every morning, and I will see..

1) lorries at 56mph in lane 1
2) morons doing 60mph in lane 2 that will not move from the centre
3) BMW/Audi brigade trying to park in your boot with lights flashing at 90mph+

Some days I can make it more than 15 minutes without having to dodge a slow moving HGV attempting to overtake another or pull in to a gap before I see a car screaming up behind flashing.

Limit all cars to 80mph and be done with it tbh

You sound like fun in a bun

 

[Matt82]

I sent a massive rant email to Essex police "keeping roads safe" agency a couple months ago about exactly this problem, questioning the focus on speed vs the real issues with poor driving

They didn't reply to my email but this happened

 

[Theophany]

Having cruise control has really opened my eyes to how many people don't even obey the speed limits anyway. I set mine to 70mph and travel 50 miles down the M4 for work every morning, and I will see..

1) lorries at 56mph in lane 1
2) morons doing 60mph in lane 2 that will not move from the centre
3) BMW/Audi brigade trying to park in your boot with lights flashing at 90mph+

Some days I can make it more than 15 minutes without having to dodge a slow moving HGV attempting to overtake another or pull in to a gap before I see a car screaming up behind flashing.

Limit all cars to 80mph and be done with it tbh

Why are you sat/pulling out in front of cars doing 90-odd for long enough for them to flash their lights? :/

I don't flash mine unless you're driving like a retard, i.e. in an overtaking lane but not overtaking or pulling out in front of me when I'm hauling ass and you're driving like my nan.

 

[Dr Jack]

I'll happily pull out in front of people steaming down at 90 when they have reasonable distance to slow down. I see no reason why I should wait to allow them to pass, nor will I pull in before I have left a safe gap to the car I have just overtaken.

 

[wibbly]

Can't imagine for a moment middle lane penalties are going to make a blind bit of difference to the majority of people. It's just about Tory spin and PR!

As for merge in, turn - most of the time when you see it on a motorway, there are gantry signs with a great big red X on them. A red light, with the red X, warns you that you must not go beyond the red light in that lane, so pedantically you're travelling in a lane you shouldn't be and therefore are pushing in. Maybe the local motorway Plod should be enforcing fines for some of these people who flagrantly ignore these motorway rules whilst others sit and legally wait patiently

 

[Theophany]

I'll happily pull out in front of people steaming down at 90 when they have reasonable distance to slow down. I see no reason why I should wait to allow them to pass, nor will I pull in before I have left a safe gap to the car I have just overtaken.

Define reasonable distance to slow down?