First time on Motorway after passing driving test any tips ?

PMKeates

PMKeates

PMKeates

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!bluetonic! said:
Don't forget all the relevant stuff you've learnt from your lessons.

  • Dipped lights to on at the start of any deteriorating light conditions
  • Use fog lights sensibly. E.g. if you have a car behind you, and you can see the car in front, you probably don't need them.
  • Be courteous.. If you see a lorry wanting to overtake another lorry, either slow down or safely get into Lane3 without holding up others
  • Don't be courteous at the expense of others.. e.g. slowing and holding up traffic in Lane3 to let some blondie enter Lane3
  • People WILL drive too close and too fast together on a motorway. It's not your job to police it. But if the traffic is slower moving across 3 lanes and someone is on your backside or annoying you, move into Lane2 or 1 and relax behind a lorry
  • Read the road ahead. From a distance you'll see traffic flow and brake lights. Use this to your advantage
  • On my stretch of the M4, Lane1 seems to move quicker if there's been a hold up
  • For Jeebus' sake, DON'T become a middle lane moron
Click to expand...
Here is the real life version of these:
  • Make sure your auto lights are enabled
  • Never use fog lights - you're a man
  • Be courteous.. If you see a lorry wanting to overtake another lorry, nail it past so they can play games with each other
  • Don't be courteous at the expense of others.. e.g. if someone wants to merge in turn, start brushing the bumper of the car in front so you don't delay the guy behind you
  • People WILL drive too close and too fast together on a motorway. It's not your job to police it. But if the traffic is slower moving across 3 lanes and someone is on your backside or annoying you, overtake everybody on the left, preferably using the hard shoulder
  • Read the road ahead. From a distance you'll see traffic flow and brake lights. Use this to your advantage in order to maximise opportunities to cut people up
  • On my stretch of the M4, Lane1 seems to move quicker if there's been a hold up, and the hard shoulder even faster
  • For Jeebus' sake, DON'T become a middle lane moron
 

inogen

inogen

inogen

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Yeah, stay left unless you're overtaking. Or on the other side of the coin, stay right and drive faster than everyone else. If you're going to do the latter, do be sure you are actually driving faster than everyone else and not just at the front of a queue holding everyone up. ;)

Don't rely on your mirrors when changing lanes. Be especially aware of motorbikes and idiots that undertake, or who think that driving in the middle lane means they can turn their brain off. Pay special attention when approaching traffic ahead and joining the middle lane from the right.

Be aware that, although relatively unlikely, your front (and back) punctured tyres can explode and it's harder to keep control of your car the faster you're going and/or when it's wet. Same goes for cars around you, give them plenty of room to avoid you if they crash. I've seen 2 blowouts on motorways cause nasty multiple car accidents.

When it's wet or raining, give yourself loads more braking distance. Defend your breaking distance by slowing down (and changing lanes if needs be) when someone thinks your breaking distance is a space you've been saving for them to overtake with.

Don't drive aggressively.

If you get into a wrangle with a lorry, you'll be very sorry ;)
 

bledd

bledd

bledd

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Whilst being a bit hostile at first, everything PMKeates has said is valid.

Basically
-Use your mirrors and check blind spots before changing lane
-Stick in the leftest lane that you can
-Leave a decent gap between you and the car in front

Best rule for driving is try to be 'invisible' to other drivers, by this I mean, never do something that makes another car change speed / direction.

+1 for not using fog lights.

I only use them when it's so foggy that everyone is going 10mph, very rarely does this happen
 

zipp0r

zipp0r

zipp0r

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accelerate as fast as you can on the sliproad and then you can join the motorway easier. 60-80 is ideal.
be wary of oblivious stupid women/old people joining at 30mph and leaving you trapped on the slipway with no space to join. i had that happen a few times, had to stop completely and wait :eek:
 

LiE

LiE

LiE

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zipp0r said:
accelerate as fast as you can on the sliproad and then you can join the motorway easier. 60-80 is ideal.
be wary of oblivious stupid women/old people joining at 30mph and leaving you trapped on the slipway with no space to join. i had that happen a few times, had to stop completely and wait :eek:
Click to expand...

I half agree. If I was to always accelerate on the slip road up to 70-80 before judging the traffic then it would likely be a wasted effort in a lot of cases. If you're car has plenty of grunt, what I like to do is build up to 60mph as I come down the slip until I get a view of the motorway, then I will pick my speed.

You don't want to hoon it down the slip only to be met with 50mph cars not moving over and because of your speed the timing of getting into a gap would be more difficult.
 

Sasso

Sasso

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pretty much everything that's been said so far :)

I love driving on the motorway, more the fact i try not to just sit in one lane, there there's not much traffic and im generally moving faster than most i'll be flicking between the left and middle lane overtaking and back again making "NEERRRROOOOOOWWWWWWWwwwwwwwww" noises as I do it :p makes it a bit more interesting than being a middle lane hog hehe :D . but there are some silly people out there like there is with everything.

only bits of advise i feel i can say are these:
always check the blindspot as there will be people who just sit on your corner/overtake at exactly the same time as you intend to.
always be cautious when coming up to over take someone as if they are approaching a car in front, they may wish to over take too...and they may not check their blind spot.
if you start to feel like you're flagging, stop and grab some coffee/energy drink...don;t want to see you catching some ZZzzzzz behind the wheel and become just another statistic.

watch out for little white vans on bridges....they may want to take your picture.
give people evil looks if you see them driving and holding their phone up to their head...fools

be sure you know where you are going and anticipate needing to change lanes to overtake/select road (be it a motorway split or turning off), if you do it should be pretty easy driving... the amount of times have seen people cut back over 3/4 lanes and over the hashed section of a turn off because they either forgot or were just trying to beat some traffic.

also on that not... if you do miss a junction, don't worry.... there is always the next one :)

happy cruising
 

Vampire

Vampire

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grimm said:
The most dangerous thing that happens on the motorway is someone changing lanes when they shouldn't, causing everyone to brake hard. Don't be that guy. If you know that your junction is coming up try to allow yourself plenty of time to change lanes.
Click to expand...

Following on from this, IMO the most dangerous drivers are the ones who hop immediately from lane 3 to lane 2 at the hint of brake lights ahead, so they can undertake the line of traffic that's braking. I see it more and more these days (spend a lot of time on motorways :( ) and have seen so many near misses it's unreal.

Best advice is to keep left whenever possible, only venturing out to overtake then slotting back in as soon as possible.

When it's really busy/congested and all three lanes are down to 60/70, I'll usually just stay in lane 1 and avoid the rage overtaking/undertaking/cutting up/tailgating etc that seems to be the norm in lanes 2 and 3. I get enough stress at work, I don't need it on the way home too!
 

NathWraith

NathWraith

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the problem is that no one ever wants to use the inside lane as it is full of trucks and constantly overtaking them is a chore, so people just end up sitting in the middle lane doing whatever speed they like.
 
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