Four lane motorways - Why bother?
Discussion
Four lane motorways are designed to ease congestion and aid traffic flow. However I feel that in some instances bad drivers cause a problem.
My commute involves J29 - J21 of the M25, anti clockwise in the morning, clockwise in the evening. I can join and exit at J26 if there are delays.
However I just find that the middle lane hogs now take up lanes two and three, when they could be behind one another in lane two whilst overtaking HGV’s/slow moving vehicles. Meaning the slow moving vehicles use lane one as expected and those overtaking/keeping up with the flow of traffic use lane four and move over if applicable.
Even worse are those who sit in lane three when lanes one and two are empty. The amount of times I overtake them and move all the way back into lane one whilst maintaining each lane to check my surroundings is astonishing.
I just “sigh” and get on with my journey. This morning seemed to be particularly bad.
I can’t be the only one who notices this?
My commute involves J29 - J21 of the M25, anti clockwise in the morning, clockwise in the evening. I can join and exit at J26 if there are delays.
However I just find that the middle lane hogs now take up lanes two and three, when they could be behind one another in lane two whilst overtaking HGV’s/slow moving vehicles. Meaning the slow moving vehicles use lane one as expected and those overtaking/keeping up with the flow of traffic use lane four and move over if applicable.
Even worse are those who sit in lane three when lanes one and two are empty. The amount of times I overtake them and move all the way back into lane one whilst maintaining each lane to check my surroundings is astonishing.
I just “sigh” and get on with my journey. This morning seemed to be particularly bad.
I can’t be the only one who notices this?
The only roads the numpties can use properly are two laners. All expansion above is horrendously inefficient due to lack of knowledge of overtaking lanes.
Although often it allows you to proceed in L1 at 70 and go straight past all the bimblers and stressheads in L3 and L4 with impunity.
Although often it allows you to proceed in L1 at 70 and go straight past all the bimblers and stressheads in L3 and L4 with impunity.
joebongo said:
Although often it allows you to proceed in L1 at 70 and go straight past all the bimblers and stressheads in L3 and L4 with impunity.
Yes, this really.I get good and bad days on the two stretch part of the M11 I use, some days (usually mornings) the lane discipline is good and all the traffic makes good progress in the correct lanes. Other days (like last night), the procession of morons in the outside lane constantly braking was just shocking.
I just sat in lane one at 60 and got to my turn off junction with the dawdlers in the outside a lane a distant reflection in my rear view mirror.
I just treat the M25 as a law unto itself... it's like everyone suddenly forgets how to drive once they join it: trucks, cars, vans... everyone is all over the place and seemingly unable to pick a lane and stay in it. There are quite a few bits where lane 1 fairly quickly becomes an junction exit lane only so I think the choice of an extra lane just confuses some people and they stay in 2 or 3 to be safe.
I agree completely. The motorway network is not used properly and more time spent on education and less money spent on pointless road alterations would be best. The rule about keeping left unless overtaking appears to be completely ignored by a majority of drivers.
Going further, I feel there is no reason for HGV's to be overtaking each other at 1 MPH diffence and occupying lanes 1 and 2. What is needed is a minimum speed limit on motorways of 55MPH. This would avoid very slow moving vehicles from getting in the way of HGV's in lane 1 and then the HGV's can progress at 55 MPH without having to overtake anything, leaving the remaining lanes for faster moving vehicles.
Going further, I feel there is no reason for HGV's to be overtaking each other at 1 MPH diffence and occupying lanes 1 and 2. What is needed is a minimum speed limit on motorways of 55MPH. This would avoid very slow moving vehicles from getting in the way of HGV's in lane 1 and then the HGV's can progress at 55 MPH without having to overtake anything, leaving the remaining lanes for faster moving vehicles.
I like how parts of the M25 4 lane just appear to accept that MLMs are a fact of life.
They add L4 - outside L3 obviously - allowing faster drivers to overtake the OLMs.
Then after a hill or where they run out of room, they shut L1.
This means that until he wakes up and realises he is in that horror-of-horrors Lane 1, the typical MLM will be in the correct lane for a while.
If they did this every few miles we might see an improvement in MLM behaviour.
So - bring on Lane 4.
They add L4 - outside L3 obviously - allowing faster drivers to overtake the OLMs.
Then after a hill or where they run out of room, they shut L1.
This means that until he wakes up and realises he is in that horror-of-horrors Lane 1, the typical MLM will be in the correct lane for a while.
If they did this every few miles we might see an improvement in MLM behaviour.
So - bring on Lane 4.
joebongo said:
The only roads the numpties can use properly are two laners. All expansion above is horrendously inefficient due to lack of knowledge of overtaking lanes.
I wouldn't even go with that. My commute has 3 miles of 2 lane A1. I have to admit, I do end up undertaking but to put it simply, I'm not going to slow down in lane 1 when the traffic slows in lane 2 because its over congested causing peopel to bunch up and slow down as soon as someone fails to maintain their speed up the hill.chazola said:
I just treat the M25 as a law unto itself... it's like everyone suddenly forgets how to drive once they join it: trucks, cars, vans... everyone is all over the place and seemingly unable to pick a lane and stay in it. There are quite a few bits where lane 1 fairly quickly becomes an junction exit lane only so I think the choice of an extra lane just confuses some people and they stay in 2 or 3 to be safe.
Very much so - it really is noticable as you get closer to London that this kind of thing becomes more prevalent.vixen1700 said:
Also a lot of people have some sort of mental issue with lane 1 being 'the slow lane'. Morons.
It's understandable though. Because many people these days don't leave decent space between them and the car in front, it means that if you are in lane one behind a truck it takes an age to get into lane two, because nobody lets you out. If you can see trucks far ahead in lane one, then it's very easy just to stay in lane 2 until you are past them to avoid getting stuck. Of course as there are ALWAYS trucks ahead in lane one, it means you never use it...I think we need to consider the system in the US where any vehicle can use any lane. It's much more relaxed driving, people can go round you if you're going slowly or you can go round them when you're going quickly. Of course, we'd need 4+ lanes everywhere for it to work properly...
I've said it many times, and I'm sure many others have also, but if we had some form of punitive policing for MLMs (much easier said than done, I know, but still....) then the congestion issues in many parts of the country would be dramatically reduced. I see it every time I go out, and yes, 4 lane motorways are probably worse, because the MLMs sit in lane 3.
This, and making it illegal for any LGV to use the outermost lane of any dual carriageway, motorway or not. They're all SUPPOSED to be governed to the same speed anyway. I came upon an elephant race on the M2 last night, and the truck in the outside lane was making no discernible ground on the other at all, over a distance of a couple of miles, but because he was 10% past him, he wasn't going to drop back in either. It looked as if that would go on until the carriageway widened, some 10 miles up the road. It was so bad that I saw two cars dive off at the next exit, in an unplanned manner, presumably because they thought they were better taking their chances on a longer route.
I contemplated raising one of those government petitions about the MLM issue, but when I checked, there are already more than one there. However, the one with the most signatures had less than 1000 names to it; the government are hardly going to see that as an issue troubling the majority, on that basis, are they?
This, and making it illegal for any LGV to use the outermost lane of any dual carriageway, motorway or not. They're all SUPPOSED to be governed to the same speed anyway. I came upon an elephant race on the M2 last night, and the truck in the outside lane was making no discernible ground on the other at all, over a distance of a couple of miles, but because he was 10% past him, he wasn't going to drop back in either. It looked as if that would go on until the carriageway widened, some 10 miles up the road. It was so bad that I saw two cars dive off at the next exit, in an unplanned manner, presumably because they thought they were better taking their chances on a longer route.
I contemplated raising one of those government petitions about the MLM issue, but when I checked, there are already more than one there. However, the one with the most signatures had less than 1000 names to it; the government are hardly going to see that as an issue troubling the majority, on that basis, are they?
Overtaking on the left doesn't work on crowded roads, in my experience. You just end up with EVERY lane travelling at the speed of the slowest traffic because people feel even more justified in staying in stupid lanes.
The rules don't need to change, they just need to be enforced. How hard would it be to modify ANPR cameras to issue an instant 30 points and a fine to anyone in a lane with a clearly (as in something like 100m ahead and behind) empty lane to their left?
The rules don't need to change, they just need to be enforced. How hard would it be to modify ANPR cameras to issue an instant 30 points and a fine to anyone in a lane with a clearly (as in something like 100m ahead and behind) empty lane to their left?
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