Motorway driving standards, rock bottom?
Discussion
I drove on the M25 on saturday and was frankly ASTONISHED by the poor driving standards. One car nearly causing a horrendous crash, just to get 3 cars ahead, people swerving across four lanes as they haven't noticed their junction and of course the miles of tailbacks due to middle lane hoggers.
This has surely got to be stopped!
This has surely got to be stopped!
willmagrath said:
I drove on the M25 on saturday and was frankly ASTONISHED by the poor driving standards. One car nearly causing a horrendous crash, just to get 3 cars ahead, people swerving across four lanes as they haven't noticed their junction and of course the miles of tailbacks due to middle lane hoggers.
This has surely got to be stopped!
Sounds like you're not a regular on the M25 as this is very frequent behaviour. I'm past the point of caring now as if I afforded any energy or intellect to the driving standards, I'd be going crazy after half a mile on the M25. The most annoying habit I've seen pick up recently has been a paradigm shift for idiots - they used to congregate in L2, they now congregate in L3. Causes much more disruption as now anybody doing more than 65mph is constrained to the outside lane. Hypothetically if I wanted to do what I assume the great unwashed think is illegal and drive at 70mph, I'd have to do it in L1 and overtake the trucks using L2. Sadly I can hypothetically imagine a trip from J12 to J14 in purely L1 and L2 with everybody else in the outside lanes.This has surely got to be stopped!
I was on the M25 earlier today to travel one junction (can't be more than a few miles between junctions), just driving down a junction and I saw someone dive bomb across 6(!) lanes right before the exit, and on the way back as I indicated to join the motorway from the closing slipway, a "private hire" vehicle decided to swerve back into L1 right at the point of merging. I elected to continue my journey on the hard shoulder until it was safe to rejoin rather than end up half an inch off the driver's bumper, or brake hard/swerve and disturb the fragile cargo on board.
Edit: Evening thought. I always class L1 as the left-hand lane in which you can proceed unimpeded on your journey. So for example, if a crawler lane opens to the left, rather than the right, L1 continues to be L1. If it opens on the right, on a three-lane motorway, then you temporarily have a L4. It just seems a little unnecessary (in an ideal world) for everybody to shift over a lane since the new LH crawler lane will be merging with the previous L1 soon. It's more a place for slow vehicles to climb a gradient in peace while maintaining a hard shoulder.
Similarly, where a motorway has one or more exit-only lanes (e.g. signposted for a turnoff to the M5 northbound and M5 southbound), L1 is still the left-hand lane that will allow you to continue on your journey on the prevalent motorway. I'd call the other lanes exit lanes.
To be honest I have no idea why I made that edit but at this time of night my brain is doing the usual of running at a million miles an hour trying to stay awake rather than shutting down so I can go to sleep.
Edited by sebhaque on Tuesday 28th March 00:57
willmagrath said:
I drove on the M25 on saturday and was frankly ASTONISHED by the poor driving standards. One car nearly causing a horrendous crash, just to get 3 cars ahead, people swerving across four lanes as they haven't noticed their junction and of course the miles of tailbacks due to middle lane hoggers.
This has surely got to be stopped!
If you're not a motorway regular, and it seems like you're not, driving standards can seem poor but they are the safest roads in the UK. The examples you saw aren't peculiar to the M25. Adapt and survive, you'll soon get used to it.This has surely got to be stopped!
Riley Blue said:
If you're not a motorway regular, and it seems like you're not, driving standards can seem poor but they are the safest roads in the UK. The examples you saw aren't peculiar to the M25. Adapt and survive, you'll soon get used to it.
Trust me, the UK motorways, although clogged with heavy traffic and relatively slow drivers, are much safer than anywhere else. You want to feel "Alive"? Try driving on a motorway in eastern Europe or the 101/405 through Los Angeles!Spent a fair bit of time on the M25 in the last few days and I agree, driving standards are poor!
Rarely do people seem to move left when not overtaking, even HGVs sitting in lane 2 for miles on end with lane 1 empty. Stopping distances? What are those then?
Oh and did you know that on the M25 if you indicate that gives you right of way. Silly me for not knowing that one.
Sadly there is little understanding of how a motorway works, people don't get taught it in their tests and in turn seem to just make it up as they go.
Rarely do people seem to move left when not overtaking, even HGVs sitting in lane 2 for miles on end with lane 1 empty. Stopping distances? What are those then?
Oh and did you know that on the M25 if you indicate that gives you right of way. Silly me for not knowing that one.
Sadly there is little understanding of how a motorway works, people don't get taught it in their tests and in turn seem to just make it up as they go.
It's much worse at weekends, so OP: rest assured it's not like that most of the time. I commute 72 miles a day on dual carriageway and motorway and other than an almost complete lack of indicating, things seem to flow very well. When I drive at the weekend though everything's noticeably worse (worringly, people also drive much faster!).
Weekend motorway drivers performing their usual weekday A road commute levels of incompetence, not using their mirrors, not using indicators and not observing where they are.
But if you want to know how bad it is elsewhere as well just try a few European/Russian dash cam videos on youtube.
But if you want to know how bad it is elsewhere as well just try a few European/Russian dash cam videos on youtube.
Alex_225 said:
Rawwr said:
L1 is the fast lane on the M25.
Most of the time that's totally true. It's also the most empty and stress free compared to the rest of the motorway. I'll gladly let everyone sale past a few mph faster than me, knowing that I have a lane almost entirely to myself! 
Alex_225 said:
Rawwr said:
L1 is the fast lane on the M25.
Most of the time that's totally true. It's also the most empty and stress free compared to the rest of the motorway. I'll gladly let everyone sale past a few mph faster than me, knowing that I have a lane almost entirely to myself! A couple of weeks ago I joined the M25 to head for a meeting at Heathrow, and by chance, I joined as usual at J9 at exactly the same time as my boss who will have joined at J7.
My boss will steadfastly stick to Lane 1/2 except in really exceptional circumstances. I therefore decided to "race" him, with him not knowing that I was in fact doing this as he won't have spotted me.
I then used any lane to make progress when I could, doing 70 when I was able to in rush hour and overtaking only on the right, but sure enough, my boss was ahead of me when we arrived at the car park at Heathrow having just stuck in L1/L2 behind the lorries for the whole journey.
Shakermaker said:
Agree with this.
A couple of weeks ago I joined the M25 to head for a meeting at Heathrow, and by chance, I joined as usual at J9 at exactly the same time as my boss who will have joined at J7.
My boss will steadfastly stick to Lane 1/2 except in really exceptional circumstances. I therefore decided to "race" him, with him not knowing that I was in fact doing this as he won't have spotted me.
I then used any lane to make progress when I could, doing 70 when I was able to in rush hour and overtaking only on the right, but sure enough, my boss was ahead of me when we arrived at the car park at Heathrow having just stuck in L1/L2 behind the lorries for the whole journey.
I guess it's the consistent speed which ends up being much the same as speeding up, slowing down of the overtaking lanes and just sheer weight of traffic in those lanes. A couple of weeks ago I joined the M25 to head for a meeting at Heathrow, and by chance, I joined as usual at J9 at exactly the same time as my boss who will have joined at J7.
My boss will steadfastly stick to Lane 1/2 except in really exceptional circumstances. I therefore decided to "race" him, with him not knowing that I was in fact doing this as he won't have spotted me.
I then used any lane to make progress when I could, doing 70 when I was able to in rush hour and overtaking only on the right, but sure enough, my boss was ahead of me when we arrived at the car park at Heathrow having just stuck in L1/L2 behind the lorries for the whole journey.
Also, if you end up sitting at 60mph fuel economy goes up a fair bit as well. Not very PH of me to say but it's an added bonus.
Alex_225 said:
I guess it's the consistent speed which ends up being much the same as speeding up, slowing down of the overtaking lanes and just sheer weight of traffic in those lanes.
Also, if you end up sitting at 60mph fuel economy goes up a fair bit as well. Not very PH of me to say but it's an added bonus.
Indeed so. It was a good test I reckon, to prove which was is the "right" way as I so often use that stretch of motorway at rush hour, it is easy to sometimes feel that you've done yourself a disservice by choosing one lane over another and then seeing everyone else get ahead of you!Also, if you end up sitting at 60mph fuel economy goes up a fair bit as well. Not very PH of me to say but it's an added bonus.
I've been driving the M25 everyday now for around 20 years....only have to go 2 junctions on my commute so only around 7 miles.
I've got to the point now where I just stay in the left lane and don't bother venturing out of it. I just sit behind a lorry at 55mph or so and cruise without any stress. Invariaby I'll get there just as quick as most people tend to congregate to the lanes 3 and 4 thinking they are the faster lanes so get bunged up with traffic.
I've got to the point now where I just stay in the left lane and don't bother venturing out of it. I just sit behind a lorry at 55mph or so and cruise without any stress. Invariaby I'll get there just as quick as most people tend to congregate to the lanes 3 and 4 thinking they are the faster lanes so get bunged up with traffic.
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