Soldato
- Joined
- 12 May 2011
- Posts
- 6,339
- Location
- Southampton
This is probably more of a rant but anyway. Am I driving badly or is it "everyone else"?
Every day on the motorway (M27 3-9 and back again, if you're that interested) I find myself playing hopscotch with cars that seem to vary their speed - they'll drop 10mph on a slight uphill section and increase 10mph on a slight downhill section, where as I was always taught to maintain a constant speed and press on / lift off the throttle as needed to maintain my speed. It makes overtaking annoying when I then need to put my foot down a bit on a downhill section, and suddenly I'm doing 76 when I wanted to be doing 71/2 so I have to overtake a whole bunch more people so I don't move back in after my overtake an immediately slow down. Also when people do this it makes the person in the outside lane need to accelerate too, to pass me...
Also people in the middle lane will sit in their 67mph conga line of Vauxhall Mokkas and Ford Ecosports (Did you know it is pronounced Echo-sport? Christ that makes me hate them even more), and one person drops back into the inside lane, the one behind will gun it to fill the newly created space in the middle lane which is very annoying when I am trying to pass the conga line in the outside lane or want to enter the conga line to pass someone on the inside lane! They'll literally put their foot down enough that they need to brake to not go into the back of the person in front. But they don't seem to want to enter the outside lane!
Next rant, I find people will be slowly creeping up behind me in the middle lane, with me in the inside lane after for example we've both used the middle lane to overtake someone in the inside lane (naturally car number 2 doesn't move back into the inside lane...) They'll draw level with me and then not actually pass due to a slight hill or not even realising that they're not overtaking, trapping me in the inside lane as we approach a lorry in the inside lane ahead.
The reason for this thread is today I finally snapped and just sailed up to and then past in the inside past a line of 10 or so middle-laners who were not overtaking anyone and were going about 5mph slower than me. Instead of waiting for a gap to go to the middle, then outside lane to pass 'correctly'. No one was in the inside lane for 1/4 a mile at least, not near a junction...
Every day people's crippling fear of the inside lane works in my favour though as there is a queue on the motorway for the next on-slip and everyone except me and the lorries will be in the middle or outside lane. I can skip 50 or so cars easily and then just let the people at the junction merge in turn (at 5mph).
I will say all this happens in rush hour, when the motorway is busy but flowing. I will also say I don't needlessly change lane to use the inside lane, I will sit in the middle lane to pass a line of 10 cars/lorries in the inside lane and not weave in and out!
Ironically though when the M27 gets turned into a smart motorway I hope they have "stay in lane" enforcement for when it is stacked and we're doing 30-40mph but people keep switching lanes.
TL;DR: Some whinging and also a question: Are you meant to keep your speed constant on the motorway, and vary your throttle use to maintain that speed, or are you meant to keep your throttle use constant which will result in a variety of speeds (uphill downhill)...
Every day on the motorway (M27 3-9 and back again, if you're that interested) I find myself playing hopscotch with cars that seem to vary their speed - they'll drop 10mph on a slight uphill section and increase 10mph on a slight downhill section, where as I was always taught to maintain a constant speed and press on / lift off the throttle as needed to maintain my speed. It makes overtaking annoying when I then need to put my foot down a bit on a downhill section, and suddenly I'm doing 76 when I wanted to be doing 71/2 so I have to overtake a whole bunch more people so I don't move back in after my overtake an immediately slow down. Also when people do this it makes the person in the outside lane need to accelerate too, to pass me...
Also people in the middle lane will sit in their 67mph conga line of Vauxhall Mokkas and Ford Ecosports (Did you know it is pronounced Echo-sport? Christ that makes me hate them even more), and one person drops back into the inside lane, the one behind will gun it to fill the newly created space in the middle lane which is very annoying when I am trying to pass the conga line in the outside lane or want to enter the conga line to pass someone on the inside lane! They'll literally put their foot down enough that they need to brake to not go into the back of the person in front. But they don't seem to want to enter the outside lane!
Next rant, I find people will be slowly creeping up behind me in the middle lane, with me in the inside lane after for example we've both used the middle lane to overtake someone in the inside lane (naturally car number 2 doesn't move back into the inside lane...) They'll draw level with me and then not actually pass due to a slight hill or not even realising that they're not overtaking, trapping me in the inside lane as we approach a lorry in the inside lane ahead.
The reason for this thread is today I finally snapped and just sailed up to and then past in the inside past a line of 10 or so middle-laners who were not overtaking anyone and were going about 5mph slower than me. Instead of waiting for a gap to go to the middle, then outside lane to pass 'correctly'. No one was in the inside lane for 1/4 a mile at least, not near a junction...
Every day people's crippling fear of the inside lane works in my favour though as there is a queue on the motorway for the next on-slip and everyone except me and the lorries will be in the middle or outside lane. I can skip 50 or so cars easily and then just let the people at the junction merge in turn (at 5mph).
I will say all this happens in rush hour, when the motorway is busy but flowing. I will also say I don't needlessly change lane to use the inside lane, I will sit in the middle lane to pass a line of 10 cars/lorries in the inside lane and not weave in and out!
Ironically though when the M27 gets turned into a smart motorway I hope they have "stay in lane" enforcement for when it is stacked and we're doing 30-40mph but people keep switching lanes.
TL;DR: Some whinging and also a question: Are you meant to keep your speed constant on the motorway, and vary your throttle use to maintain that speed, or are you meant to keep your throttle use constant which will result in a variety of speeds (uphill downhill)...
