Lane discipline getting worse ?

[Cat]

jith said:

Now that failing to move over is a statutory offence it should stop this practice and force the police to address the issue correctly, but I see no evidence of this up here and the practice is continuing.

J

What has changed to make failing to move over a statutory offence?

Failing to keep left or passing other vehicles on the left could, depending on the circumstances, constitute careless driving, but neither is in itself a statutory offence.

Cat

[mph1977]

Cat said:

jith said:

Now that failing to move over is a statutory offence it should stop this practice and force the police to address the issue correctly, but I see no evidence of this up here and the practice is continuing.

J

What has changed to make failing to move over a statutory offence?

Failing to keep left or passing other vehicles on the left could, depending on the circumstances, constitute careless driving, but neither is in itself a statutory offence.

Cat

the offences of DWDCA, careless and even dangerous have existed since the last major revision ( which turned reckless into dangerous) ... there's been guidance reinforcing that MLMs are by default performing an act DWDCA and therefore can be pulled and ticketed if necessary solely on that basis ...

[jith]

mph1977 said:

Cat said:

jith said:

Now that failing to move over is a statutory offence it should stop this practice and force the police to address the issue correctly, but I see no evidence of this up here and the practice is continuing.

J

What has changed to make failing to move over a statutory offence?

Failing to keep left or passing other vehicles on the left could, depending on the circumstances, constitute careless driving, but neither is in itself a statutory offence.

Cat

the offences of DWDCA, careless and even dangerous have existed since the last major revision ( which turned reckless into dangerous) ... there's been guidance reinforcing that MLMs are by default performing an act DWDCA and therefore can be pulled and ticketed if necessary solely on that basis ...

Middle lane hogging became a specific offence in mid 2013, that is according to the government! There is no evidence of it being enforced on Scottish roads, and it is as widespread as ever.

There is strong evidence to support the fact that overtaking to the left can actually be safer than the right. If you are in the right hand lane of a 3 lane motorway performing an overtake and another driver cuts out in front of you there is nowhere to go, you either have to hit them or take to the crash barrier.

If you overtake to the left in the inside lane and they cut to the left in front of you, you still have the hard shoulder as a means of escape. Regardless of this, the problem is created by the ludicrously selfish, and in many cases deliberate, actions of those refusing to pull in and allow an overtake. This has been going on for years and needs properly sorted. The police are not sorting it.

J

[Cat]

jith said:

Middle lane hogging became a specific offence in mid 2013, that is according to the government!

Any source for this? How about the act and section that created this specific offence?

Cat

Edited by Cat on Monday 6th July 13:57

[Vipers]

Cat said:

jith said:

Middle lane hogging became a specific offence in mid 2013, that is according to the government!

Any source for this? How about the act and section that created this specific offence?

Cat

Edited by Cat on Monday 6th July 13:57

Does this help?

http://www.heraldscotland.com/news/home-news/road-...

[jith]

Vipers said:

Cat said:

jith said:

Middle lane hogging became a specific offence in mid 2013, that is according to the government!

Any source for this? How about the act and section that created this specific offence?

Cat

Edited by Cat on Monday 6th July 13:57

Does this help?

http://www.heraldscotland.com/news/home-news/road-...

What the hell is wrong with you Cat? You're a Scottish traffic officer and you are attempting to imply that this law was not, or is not in force. I'm bloody sure I'm not spending my working day finding a statute to satisfy your pedantic nature. Look it up yourself. If it doesn't exist you lot have a problem with any tickets you have issued!

J

[Cat]

Vipers said:

Does this help?

http://www.heraldscotland.com/news/home-news/road-...

Not really. The link you posted is about changes made in 2013 to allow conditional offers to be issued for careless driving. What was/wasnt careless driving didn't change, there was just an additional way of dealing with lower level offences.

There is certainly no mention of new statutory offence of failing to move over being introduced as Jith claimed.

Cat

[mph1977]

jith said:

mph1977 said:

Cat said:

jith said:

Now that failing to move over is a statutory offence it should stop this practice and force the police to address the issue correctly, but I see no evidence of this up here and the practice is continuing.

J

What has changed to make failing to move over a statutory offence?

Failing to keep left or passing other vehicles on the left could, depending on the circumstances, constitute careless driving, but neither is in itself a statutory offence.

Cat

the offences of DWDCA, careless and even dangerous have existed since the last major revision ( which turned reckless into dangerous) ... there's been guidance reinforcing that MLMs are by default performing an act DWDCA and therefore can be pulled and ticketed if necessary solely on that basis ...

Middle lane hogging became a specific offence in mid 2013, that is according to the government! There is no evidence of it being enforced on Scottish roads, and it is as widespread as ever.

There is strong evidence to support the fact that overtaking to the left can actually be safer than the right. If you are in the right hand lane of a 3 lane motorway performing an overtake and another driver cuts out in front of you there is nowhere to go, you either have to hit them or take to the crash barrier.

If you overtake to the left in the inside lane and they cut to the left in front of you, you still have the hard shoulder as a means of escape. Regardless of this, the problem is created by the ludicrously selfish, and in many cases deliberate, actions of those refusing to pull in and allow an overtake. This has been going on for years and needs properly sorted. The police are not sorting it.

J

it did no such thing, all that changes wasthat policy changed to allow FPNs rather than summons ... the offence is the all ready extant one of DWDCA or careless driving

[Cat]

jith said:

What the hell is wrong with you Cat? You're a Scottish traffic officer and you are attempting to imply that this law was not, or is not in force.

Nothing wrong with me. You posted the that failing to move over has been made into a statutory offence - this is simply incorrect.

jith said:

I'm bloody sure I'm not spending my working day finding a statute to satisfy your pedantic nature. Look it up yourself.

I'm certainly not going to try an look it up because it doesn't exist.

jith said:

If it doesn't exist you lot have a problem with any tickets you have issued!

Not really because as I've already mentioned failing to keep left might amount to careless driving.

Cat

[jith]

Cat said:

jith said:

What the hell is wrong with you Cat? You're a Scottish traffic officer and you are attempting to imply that this law was not, or is not in force.

Nothing wrong with me. You posted the that failing to move over has been made into a statutory offence - this is simply incorrect.

jith said:

I'm bloody sure I'm not spending my working day finding a statute to satisfy your pedantic nature. Look it up yourself.

I'm certainly not going to try an look it up because it doesn't exist.

jith said:

If it doesn't exist you lot have a problem with any tickets you have issued!

Not really because as I've already mentioned failing to keep left might amount to careless driving.

Cat

So how many drivers have you done for this on the M74 compared to speeding?

J

[Cat]

jith said:

So how many drivers have you done for this on the M74 compared to speeding?

J

None on the M74 as it's not a road I work on. Elsewhere I have warned/ticketed/reported numerous people for careless driving where they have failed to keep left when they should have. No idea of the exact number compared with speeders but fewer because fewer people lane hog than speed.

Cat

[jith]

Cat said:

jith said:

So how many drivers have you done for this on the M74 compared to speeding?

J

None on the M74 as it's not a road I work on. Elsewhere I have warned/ticketed/reported numerous people for careless driving where they have failed to keep left when they should have. No idea of the exact number compared with speeders but fewer because fewer people lane hog than speed.

Cat

If you did a survey of drivers who frequently use the motorway and ask them which of the two they found the most offensive/dangerous/discourteous/obstructive/time wasting, etc, which do you think they would choose. I would bet anything it wouldn't be speeding.

J

[Cat]

jith said:

If you did a survey of drivers who frequently use the motorway and ask them which of the two they found the most offensive/dangerous/discourteous/obstructive/time wasting, etc, which do you think they would choose. I would bet anything it wouldn't be speeding.

J

Which is why I deal with inappropriate lane use (and overloading, drivers hours, C&U, insurance, licence offences etc. etc.) as well as speeding. Despite what you seem to think speeding isn't considered the be all and end all by me or the majority of the people I work with.

Cat

[shambolic]

Cat said:

Which is why I deal with inappropriate lane use (and overloading, drivers hours, C&U, insurance, licence offences etc. etc.) as well as speeding. Despite what you seem to think speeding isn't considered the be all and end all by me or the majority of the people I work with.

Cat

Apart fae yer boss Mr House

Insert appropriate smiley!!

MOTORISTS caught driving at just over the speed limit are to be targeted in a new police crackdown.

Police Scotland has secured legal powers to issue formal warnings to drivers who are clocked at just a few mph over the limit.

Traditionally, those drivers would not face any action because police only ticket speeders who are 10 per cent plus 2mph above the formal speed limit.

The police warnings are part of a drive by Chief Constable Steven House to make road deaths a top three priority for the force along with violence and anti-social behaviour.

Traffic officers will start to issue the warnings - which will not result in a conviction, fine or penalty points - later this year under a six-month pilot scheme with a clear focus on accident blackspots.

Senior officers believe early use of formal warnings for drivers who are just over the legal limit could be more effective than existing informal warnings.

Although traffic officers will still have discretion to adopt the disposal they see as most fitting, a driver who already has a formal warning on his record would be more likely to be fined than one who did not.

Chief Superintendent Iain Murray, head of road policing at Police Scotland, said: "We have an agreement to run a pilot of adult formal warnings, which starts in the autumn.You will get a warning that you are committing an offence.

[shambolic]

http://www.scotsman.com/news/scotland/top-stories/...

[Vipers]

shambolic said:

http://www.scotsman.com/news/scotland/top-stories/...

Scarey, a few over sounds like easy money to me.

[Mr10secs]

Cat said:

Which is why I deal with inappropriate lane use (and overloading, drivers hours, C&U, insurance, licence offences etc. etc.) as well as speeding. Despite what you seem to think speeding isn't considered the be all and end all by me or the majority of the people I work with.

Cat

What was this guy prosecuted for? All the papers in 2013 said a new offence of middle lane hogging.

http://www.express.co.uk/news/uk/585940/motorway-d...

[Cat]

Mr10secs said:

What was this guy prosecuted for? All the papers in 2013 said a new offence of middle lane hogging.

http://www.express.co.uk/news/uk/585940/motorway-d...

He will have been prosecuted for careless driving - specifically the bit that states it's an offence to drive without reasonable consideration for other persons using the road.

If all the papers in 2013 said there was a new offence of middle lane hogging then they were wrong (there's a shocker).

Cat

[Mr10secs]

Cat said:

He will have been prosecuted for careless driving - specifically the bit that states it's an offence to drive without reasonable consideration for other persons using the road.

If all the papers in 2013 said there was a new offence of middle lane hogging then they were wrong (there's a shocker).

Cat

OK, as a professional do you think since the new offence or publicity of middle lane hogging you see more near misses of the type where a car from lane 1 is moving to lane 2 as the car from lane 2 (or 3) is moving left? also in your opinion at what gap should a driver move to the left? ie if you know you are going to be pulling back out to overtake an obviously slow car in the lane you are pulling into hopefully you get the drift of what i mean)

[WD39]

Two points:

A van driver became the first person to be prosecuted for middle lane hogging on he M62 in Yorkshire.

For those who have driven on freeways in the USA, you will have noticed that drivers stay in the same lane regardless of traffic flow and only change lane when over or under taking which is quite legal.