Do 4 lane motorways work?

[anonymous-user]

I've done a fair few miles these last 4 days and encountered a few of the 4 'laners'.
The problem is that a lot of people struggle to use a regular 3 lane motorway but let's not dive into that again...

The idea is to ease congestion but I've not seen such madness in a while. People weaving in and out, left lane going faster than the second to left. Two lots of middle lane hoggers and then the usual idiots in the "fast" lane. It seemed a lot lot worse than the usual 3 lane ones and it got me thinking that I don't actually remember the last time I thought "this is working well" on anything that wasn't a near empty motorway.

All seems a bit of a waste of money to be honest. A case of more is less.

Opinions?

[MrGTI6]

They work brilliantly. You can bomb down lane one at 85 while everyone else sits in the other three lanes at 55-60.

[Haltamer]

I'd be inclined to agree, especially given proximity to the M25. It seems the middle laners simply move to L3, L1 / L2 are given up to on / on merge lanes, trucks and mostly left empty, whilst L4 is left for bumper to bumper centipedes of traffic.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Induced_demand would seem to be at play in most cases.

[Pupbelly]

With many motorways now having speed cameras on the gantry's this now means that all lanes are doing cira 70-75 mph as a result you have three and now four lanes all doing the same speed with folk just sitting in a lane for the fun.Those that aren't covered by cameras again mean you have lanes blocked by clowns that sit for miles in their chosen lane.

How about we spend a few million educating drivers to keep to the left after overtaking and move over so that those who want to make progress can do at their 'risk' rather than creating four lanes of lane hoggers.

[unsprung]

Don't worry, OP. We'll put you on something like this, here.

[NewUsername]

Pupbelly said:

With many motorways now having speed cameras on the gantry's this now means that all lanes are doing cira 70-75 mph .

Pupbelly said:

s a result you have three and now four lanes all doing the same speed with folk just sitting in a lane for the fun.
.

Don't see your problem in the above example, you cant go any quicker anyway so just stay doing 70-75 and suck it up...

[Pica-Pica]

unsprung said:

Don't worry, OP. We'll put you on something like this, here.

That will work fine. Any driver has just one exit slip, and one entry slip (or ramp, if you wish).

Idiots are idiots, whether there are three or four lanes.

[BobSaunders]

M6 J19 south is now 4 lanes. Everyone sits in L2-4, everyone is confused by L1 and bunches. MLH's now sit in L2 and L3, because now there is even less reason to move across.

[Matthen]

NewUsername said:

Pupbelly said:

With many motorways now having speed cameras on the gantry's this now means that all lanes are doing cira 70-75 mph .

Pupbelly said:

s a result you have three and now four lanes all doing the same speed with folk just sitting in a lane for the fun.
.

Don't see your problem in the above example, you cant go any quicker anyway so just stay doing 70-75 and suck it up...

Except they're not doing 70-75, they're doing 50 - 75, based on the gradient of the road, the speed of the vehicle in front and probably the tune on the radio. Those of us who like to drive at a constant 70 are then delayed by these morons, or have to pass them on the left, where there are invariably 1 or 2 free lanes.

[vikingaero]

I like 4 lanes or more. Tuck in at 60mph behind a van/HGV and cruise at 60mph. One speed all the time. Compare that with L3-4 which has a speed differential of +5mph and the constant dicking about and braking.

[Pupbelly]

Matthen said:

NewUsername said:

Pupbelly said:

With many motorways now having speed cameras on the gantry's this now means that all lanes are doing cira 70-75 mph .

Pupbelly said:

s a result you have three and now four lanes all doing the same speed with folk just sitting in a lane for the fun.
.

Don't see your problem in the above example, you cant go any quicker anyway so just stay doing 70-75 and suck it up...

Except they're not doing 70-75, they're doing 50 - 75, based on the gradient of the road, the speed of the vehicle in front and probably the tune on the radio. Those of us who like to drive at a constant 70 are then delayed by these morons, or have to pass them on the left, where there are invariably 1 or 2 free lanes.

Exactly, it's not a case of everyone doing a nice steady pace, there's such a variation based on who is at the front so you get a concertina effect constantly. At least in the US and other countries people know what cruise control is and adopt a sensible lane discipline.

[Shaoxter]

I was driving in Dubai on a 7 lane motorway and guess what... you get hoggers in lanes 1-6

I'm happy enough to trundle along at 70-75mph on the M25 anyway, too easy to lose your license with all the speed cameras these days.

[NewUsername]

Pupbelly said:

Matthen said:

NewUsername said:

Pupbelly said:

With many motorways now having speed cameras on the gantry's this now means that all lanes are doing cira 70-75 mph .

Pupbelly said:

s a result you have three and now four lanes all doing the same speed with folk just sitting in a lane for the fun.
.

Don't see your problem in the above example, you cant go any quicker anyway so just stay doing 70-75 and suck it up...

Except they're not doing 70-75, they're doing 50 - 75, based on the gradient of the road, the speed of the vehicle in front and probably the tune on the radio. Those of us who like to drive at a constant 70 are then delayed by these morons, or have to pass them on the left, where there are invariably 1 or 2 free lanes.

Exactly, it's not a case of everyone doing a nice steady pace, there's such a variation based on who is at the front so you get a concertina effect constantly. At least in the US and other countries people know what cruise control is and adopt a sensible lane discipline.

I use the M42 most days where its Smart, Northbound from just after the M40 to where it goes to two lanes after the M6 Toll turn off, its excellent and has really kept the traffic flowing IMO compared to previously (and it has all the overspill from the M5 Oldbury Viaduct project flowing through it), granted you cant rip through at GPS indicated Top speed and punt the inferior scum out of the way doing a speedo indicated speed etc.....you do of course still have commercial vehicles subject to different limits mixed in etc etc, but on the whole its excellent.

My only concern would be breaking down with the lack of hard shoulder...

[Tim bo]

It's time we moved to what they have in some of the US States, all lanes are overtaking lanes.

Does away with the ridiculousness of lane-hogging slowing traffic down in one fell swoop.

Busy M25 is like that a lot of the time anyway - each lane going at different speeds - with the nearside 'slow' lane often being faster than the offside 'fast' lane due to few people using it.

Works well and is a lot more efficient.

Edited by Tim bo on Monday 19th August 17:08

[Porsche911R]

MrGTI6 said:

They work brilliantly. You can bomb down lane one at 85 while everyone else sits in the other three lanes at 55-60.

This is what I find, it’s funny doing it as lane one is empty !

[Kev_Mk3]

MrGTI6 said:

They work brilliantly. You can bomb down lane one at 85 while everyone else sits in the other three lanes at 55-60.

this.

so in short no they dont

[SkodaIan]

They would work much better if they banned anything with a 56mph (or lower) limiter from lanes 3 and 4.

My experience of them is mostly that they just mean 3 lane elephant racing rather then 2 lane elephant racing, with very little real world increase in capacity because of that.

[A Winner Is You]

Kev_Mk3 said:

MrGTI6 said:

They work brilliantly. You can bomb down lane one at 85 while everyone else sits in the other three lanes at 55-60.

this.

so in short no they dont

Where do people find these massive empty stretches of lane 1? Every time I'm on one they're full of HGVs.

[fiju]

Allowing hgv's to do 70 would help things a lot. It should be illegal to do less than 65 on a motorway.

[bern]

Kev_Mk3 said:

MrGTI6 said:

They work brilliantly. You can bomb down lane one at 85 while everyone else sits in the other three lanes at 55-60.

this.

so in short no they dont

Certainly work for me. Came back from East Midlands Airport to Sheffield on Friday afternoon at around 5. Weather was awful. Lane 1 constant 65ish with the occasional HGV. Lanes 2, 3, and 4 a mess of 90mph, 50mph, 70mph, 0mph, 80mph 20mph etc etc. Looked bloody dangerous in the bad weather. I was quite happy with Lane 1.

Funny watching people bomb down the slip road and desperately manoeuvre out to lanes 3/4 then come to a halt pretty much straight away.