How come the French

[CGJJ]

Only use the offside lanes to overtake but most British people can't grasp the concept?

[Nigel Worc's]

Dunno, most of Europe seem to be able to grasp it.

[Maracus]

I've been driving throughout France on my holidays for the past 8 days. The French do drive aggressively, but the quality of driving is on the whole better than the UK. The lane discipline is excellent.

They do like their F1 overtakes and hooking onto your back bumper

[veevee]

Same everywhere in Europe in my experience. We're a special case.

[StuntmanMike]

I drive in france every week, the driving standerds are vastly superior.

[RosscoPCole]

Much better lane discipline in France than the UK. Also it is great to drive for 200 miles on cruise control without once having to touch the brakes rather than a maximum of ten miles on the UK motorway network.

[750turbo]

RosscoPCole said:

.... Also it is great to drive for 200 miles on cruise control without once having to touch the brakes rather than a maximum of ten miles on the UK motorway network.

Not true, entirely depends on where you are driving.

[DJP]

It's probably because most British drivers are knobheads who think that they actually own the road immediately in front of their front bumper.

Or it could just be that British roads are considerably more crowded than European ones.

Or both.

[Nigel Worc's]

KSI's are a tad higher though, so obviously lane disipline isn't much to do with safety.

[XTR2Turbo]

Belgium seems to be closer to UK poor standards also

[Super Slo Mo]

More British drivers seem to think hogging their lane is acceptable when there's a clear lane to their left, hence why some people pass on the left instead, which is probably what the OP is getting at.

[Robert Elise]

I disagree that continental standards are better. The brits do seem to hog middle lanes, true, but overall driving is just as bad.
Some considerations:
- continentals do have a law against hogging outside lane and this is explicitly taught. (remember Mway not part of uk test).
- most continental highways are just 2 lanes, so hogging less tolerated.
- leave the autoroute and you'll find similar, bad, driving.

[CGJJ]

I think many British drivers ego's prevent them driving in the nearside lane.

[Paul O]

Us Brits are prewired to queue for everything. So therefore, if you are overtaking, you are jumping the (inevitable) queue up ahead.

To move over shows weakness. You have kat been bullied into loosing your space in the queue.

No one bullies a Brit in a metal box. No one. Especially not those who side with the Germans.

If it ain't that, it's a lack of confidence in driving abilities, which is often then self consciously masked through the aggression of not loosing space in an imaginary queue.

[Fleckers]

i like driving in Europe, including Paris and Milan

much calmer IMHO than in UK where everyone is angry or plays king/queen of the road

[7mike]

Not this bks again.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_...

[lamboman100]

Given the death rate from driving in France is over 2 times higher than in the UK, the perception of superior French driving ability clearly does not match reality.

[Censorious]

I went on a motorway journey with my wife driving earlier.

I asked her several times whether there was anything wrong with lane 1.

Also, how close should she be to the car ahead.

Which mirrors should she check & what distance ahead should she be before moving back into lane 1.

:-)

[Nigel Worc's]

lamboman100 said:

Given the death rate from driving in France is over 2 times higher than in the UK, the perception of superior French driving ability clearly does not match reality.

I don't think anyone has claimed that.

Their lane discipline does seem better that ours though, if it actually matters.

I feel they are more aggressive than Brits.

[Mound Dawg]

Censorious said:

I went on a motorway journey with my wife driving earlier.

I asked her several times whether there was anything wrong with lane 1.

Also, how close should she be to the car ahead.

Which mirrors should she check & what distance ahead should she be before moving back into lane 1.

:-)

Someone isn't going to get his oats tonight.