Dual Carriageway / Motorway Traffic
Discussion
My evening commute takes me along the A31 from the end of the M27 up until the A338 for Bournemouth and it's always stop-start traffic with patches of road where you can get up to 60mph for maybe a mile or two, before sitting solid again.
I find at different sections one lane moves obviously faster than the other. The right hand-lane becomes solid quicker than the left at the point where the M27 ends. By the time we pass the Little Chef a few miles later, the left lane is generally doing 40-50mph with the right lane doing 60+. When the traffic goes solid again, the right lane does so first, and the cars I've driven past while moving go shooting beyond me.
At this point, many drivers in the right-hand lane move left to follow them. Of course I then whiz past them as they sit solid 200 yards further along, when my lane starts crawling again.
My question is this: In slow moving traffic on dual carriageways and motorways, do you generally find the left- or right-hand lanes move quickest over the length of the queue? Or is the quickest method to leave a 2-3 car length gap, read the road ahead, and switch whenever the lane you're in starts slowing?
I find at different sections one lane moves obviously faster than the other. The right hand-lane becomes solid quicker than the left at the point where the M27 ends. By the time we pass the Little Chef a few miles later, the left lane is generally doing 40-50mph with the right lane doing 60+. When the traffic goes solid again, the right lane does so first, and the cars I've driven past while moving go shooting beyond me.
At this point, many drivers in the right-hand lane move left to follow them. Of course I then whiz past them as they sit solid 200 yards further along, when my lane starts crawling again.
My question is this: In slow moving traffic on dual carriageways and motorways, do you generally find the left- or right-hand lanes move quickest over the length of the queue? Or is the quickest method to leave a 2-3 car length gap, read the road ahead, and switch whenever the lane you're in starts slowing?
In my experience I find there's very little in it no matter which lane you choose. It helps if you know the road.
For example my commute takes me between J19 and J20 southbound on the M5. If you know it that part of the motorway gets an extra lane up the hill. When it's busy (usually only during the summer peak when half of Birmingham hook up their wobble boxes) the inside lane is the place to be because 4 into 3 at the top of the hill always causes tailbacks in the outer lanes. I find I can maintain a steady speed in with the trucks whilst everyone else fights for space.
Another trick that sometimes works is to be in the inside lane if traffic is crawling towards a junction as it usually clears quickest, Then you need to be in the middle or outer lane as you go through the junction so you don't get held up by traffic joining the motorway.
Generally though I find if you stick with the lane you're in then it don't make too much difference. My choice is usually the inside lane with the truckers. They aren't there just because they have to be.
For example my commute takes me between J19 and J20 southbound on the M5. If you know it that part of the motorway gets an extra lane up the hill. When it's busy (usually only during the summer peak when half of Birmingham hook up their wobble boxes) the inside lane is the place to be because 4 into 3 at the top of the hill always causes tailbacks in the outer lanes. I find I can maintain a steady speed in with the trucks whilst everyone else fights for space.
Another trick that sometimes works is to be in the inside lane if traffic is crawling towards a junction as it usually clears quickest, Then you need to be in the middle or outer lane as you go through the junction so you don't get held up by traffic joining the motorway.
Generally though I find if you stick with the lane you're in then it don't make too much difference. My choice is usually the inside lane with the truckers. They aren't there just because they have to be.
Lazadude said:
Zig Zag lane swapping causes more traffic/makes it worse, better off staying in lane.
I can't disagree here. It's one thing to switch lanes when it's all moving, but seeing someone pull out from stationary to a lane already doing 40mph does my head. And then seeing the inevitable line behind them slam on the brakes to avoid them, causing another tail-back.Johnnytheboy said:
I think local conditions apply. L1 definitely works until the brow as you come off the M27. 
Very true! Even when traffic is moving steadily people slow to ridiculous speeds for that corner. Often find myself in the left-lane passing people who were doing 80 just a few hundred feet earlier and now think 35 is the most they should do.Gassing Station | General Gassing | Top of Page | What's New | My Stuff