Middle lane hoggers.

[Brandane]

Middle lane hoggers (as well as other careless driving offences) are to be targeted with fixed penalty fines of £100 and 3 points on their licence, according to the BBC. Previously these have had to be reported to the relevant prosecuting authorities, a more involved process which has deterred Officers from doing it for less serious offences.

About time IMHO.. They effectively reduce motorway capacity by 30% with their selfishness when the left hand lane is vacant. What is so difficult about driving on the left, unless overtaking?

It remains to be seen if it has any effect, of course. As someone from the IAM said, it will only work if there are Traffic Officers on the road to enforce it.

 

[Archie_tect]

The tail-gaters can take photos of them and tweet them to the police while driving, but they'll have to show the speedometer, be close enough to record the numberplate and who's driving... [ at least three prosecutions from one action.... a plan without fault].

 

[Archie_tect]

How slow does a middle lane hogger have to be driving to be fined... measured over a specific distance?

 

[Brandane]

How slow does a middle lane hogger have to be driving to be fined... measured over a specific distance?

The speed shouldn't really come into it. If a car is doing 70mph and is the only car on the motorway, it should be in the left lane. If there is a slow moving load in the left lane doing 20mph, and a car is overtaking it in the middle lane but only doing 40 mph then that is quite legal, as long as they remember to move back into the left when it is clear!

 

[TheDoctor]

It's not the speed, it's staying in an overtaking lane when the inside lane is empty.

 

[pplpilot]

As someone who does the best part of 35-40k miles a year trying to drive by the rules of the middle lane is near on impossible. You stay left and you are stuck doing 56mph behind a long line of HGV's go to the outside land and you have a photo copier toner salesman trying to get a Bluetooth connection with his phone and ear piece doing 99.9mph in his 'beemer' 2 feet from the person in front, so that lane is out of the question, so I cant see how they can really police this at most times during the day. Then there's always the HGV driver who has a restriction of 56mph trying to overtake another that also has a 56mph restriction, who somehow thinks taking 5 miles to pass him to get one lorry length in front is going to get him to the ferry port soooo much earlier. It's madness out there.

 

[bof]

As someone who does the best part of 35-40k miles a year trying to drive by the rules of the middle lane is near on impossible. You stay left and you are stuck doing 56mph behind a long line of HGV's go to the outside land and you have a photo copier toner salesman trying to get a Bluetooth connection with his phone and ear piece doing 99.9mph in his 'beemer' 2 feet from the person in front, so that lane is out of the question, so I cant see how they can really police this at most times during the day. Then there's always the HGV driver who has a restriction of 56mph trying to overtake another that also has a 56mph restriction, who somehow thinks taking 5 miles to pass him to get one lorry length in front is going to get him to the ferry port soooo much earlier. It's madness out there.

Can you still buy photocopier toner from salesmen? How quaint!

 

[Archie_tect]

It's not the speed, it's staying in an overtaking lane when the inside lane is empty.

That's fine and will deal with the idiots who constantly drive in the middle lane on an otherwise empty motorway but though that's a minor irritation it's hardly a big deal requiring a hammer to crush a nut because by implication the motorway isn't busy but, how will it help where a snaking mile long stream of traffic is driving down a busy motorway doing 60-70mph in the middle lane 100 metres or so apart, because morons are in the outside lane doing 80-85, and lorries are spaced out at half mile intervals in the inner lane doing 50 to 60mph or less up hills and it isn't possible to pull out into the middle lane without causing dangerous bunching up, because no-one lets you back out again. The Police simply won't be able to deal with the overwhelming numbers?

+ if someone is driving at 70mph but is determined to drive in any lane other than the inner lane then they can't be done as no-one could pass then legally so how will this help those impatient morons piled up in the outer lane?

a) The Police would have to have video evidence and then stop people to fine them at the side of the road with blue lights flashing as an obstruction which will cause a traffic jam which holds people up more than the original problem, otherwise,
b) The Police will be allowed to photogragh anyone who happens to be in any lane regardless of their speed and send them a fine through the post.... that would inevitably lead to the courts being clogged with challenges... which will take up more administration time than the value of the fine and waste Police time too....

... so where are the benefits, or is this another misguided piece of ill thought out government legislation to pile on top of the rest of the red tape the Conservatives pledged to cut?

 

[SquareDaff]

b) The Police will be allowed to photogragh anyone who happens to be in any lane regardless of their speed and send them a fine through the post.... that would inevitably lead to the courts being clogged with challenges... which will take up more administration time than the value of the fine and waste Police time too....

Didn't I read an article recently where there's to be a "fast track" separate court set up just to deal with motoring offences?! Coincidence - I think not!!

 

[Fnaar]

I'm all for clobbering the middle lane hoggers... the proposed fines will sometimes work, and will sometimes not work, but at least it will spread the message and more people might think about their driving behaviour.
But, truly, there are some people who really shouldn't be allowed to drive...anecdotally, a friend of a friend reports that she always drives in the middle lane on the motorway, because she is 'scared to go too near the edges'.

 

[albion]

Between the lines that is sort of what pplpilot said.
There is that mentaility of taking the 'easiest and safest method for them' of sticking to your chosen speed.
Hogging the middle land does that. It is just difficult for some to accept even a 3mph change for a while. HGVs are certainly guilty of this. The other thing to note is that the '2 second rule' is not really considered safe with other countries recommending 3 seconds.

Now this is headlined I half expect a short spate of accidents from some now not hogging the middle land when safer to do so.

 

[swee'pea99]

Standard smoke-screen strategy for this government...'do' something about a populist sore spot and set people off chattering about it, distracting attention from anything that actually matters. Doesn't matter whether it achieves anything; the point is to create a distraction. Works too...

 

[tyred]

But I have every right to drive my beige Metro down the overtaking lane at 40mph while adjusting my trilby and re-filling my pipe. I may have to reach around to retrieve the box of tissues from the rear parcel shelf. Why is everyone in such a rush?

 

[Globalti]

Drive past the motorway Police station at the Preston exit of the M6 and you'll see all the patrol cars parked in the compound, not out on the road patrolling. At any one time there must be 10 to 15 cars parked there. Presumably the Police are inside playing darts and drinking coffee, waiting to the 'phone to ring to alert them to an accident so they can go and breathalyse the drivers.

 

[swee'pea99]

The one place you can always be sure of seeing plod round our way is parked up outside KFC.