Why do so few people ‘use all of the road’?

[GOATever]

I’m often driving early in the morning, or late at night. The roads are (typically) quieter than at other times of the day. As long as there are no solid white lines, and I can see what’s ahead clearly, I ‘use all of the road’ but I find that most people I know, religiously stick to the left lane, even when it was clear to use the other carriageway, on a twisty for example. Why do they not use the available road, to it’s full potential? I find it odd.

[GOATever]

It’s funny that people will quite happily cross the centre line if they’re overtaking something, but can’t seem to do it when there’s nothing to overtake. It’s no different, but there’s a mental block preventing them from doing it routinely.

[GOATever]

mrfunex said:

...but making progress is not making progress if you're having to stop and have a chat with a traffic officer for 20mins to explain why you consider yourself to be in the right, whilst they also needlessly run quick background checks on your tax, insurance, vehicle ownership, driving licence, tyres and probably breathalyse you for being 'all over the road'.

As mentioned before - why on earth would you even consider it?

I did it with a fully marked trafpol behind me last week. He did what I did, and didn’t pull me over, have a word, do checks, or anything else. The conditions were good, visibility was good, I wasn’t speeding, I was driving to the conditions, they weren’t bothered.

[GOATever]

waremark said:

Monkeylegend said:

That was the premise of the thread title and opening post, hence my reason for getting involved.

We all maybe use the "racing line" on occasions but normally it will generally be within the confines of our lane which in itself is no issue, but to be completely on the other side of the road as a regular driving habit as suggested by the OP is fraught with danger in my opinion, when so many people of differing skill levels are using the same bit of tarmac, but going in the opposite direction.

People are constantly calling for ongoing driving tests/ assessments for the over 70's, can you imagine what they would do if they were faced by somebody coming round a corner on their side of the road, which would happen, if it was a method of driving many adopted.

We exist in a general state of order, so we usually know what to expect when we leave our front doors, I think its best we keep it that way as much as we can

I think this post illustrates the risk of being dangerously misunderstood when we discuss this topic. A good driver would only use the offside to improve visibility or stability if he already had a good enough view to be confident that no opposite direction traffic could be alarmed or confused.

Are there still any traffic cops out there? If so, I expect they will be pleasantly surprised if they see someone driving the way they have been trained themselves.

Quite right. I wasn’t advocating completely moving over to the right, unless it was definitely clear to do so, the conditions dictated it was safe to do so, there was a reason to do so, etc etc etc.