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[Sir Tigger KC]

From Auntie Beeb this morning, news that middle lane hoggers will face on the spot fines of up to £100 plus 3 penalty points!!   

That's assuming that there are actually Traffic Police around to issue them however....     

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-22770064

and watch out if you have the nasty habit of using your mobile as the fine for that will go up to £100 as well! 

[Gaffers]

at friggin last

[Varche]

I have mixed feelings about it.

On the one hand there is an awful lot of bad driving (tailgating, middle lane hogging, texting on the move and so on) . So any action would be good.

On the other side it may become like in other European countries. Targeted (got to do so many people a month , so more likely to get done towards month end......), a source of personal revenue for the officers concerned, and a source of revenue for the police force in general. Will you get a receipt.? Will you be able to pay £50 cash to avoid a £100 fine and penalty points. Will the insurance companies have a field day pushing premiums up more?

[tigers_gonads]

Well that's BMW drivers oppsed then 

[jerry]

Hmm, can think of many instances of "careless" driving around here from driving too fast for conditions, through not having lights on in fog, not indicating , tailgating (whilst not seemingly having the ability to overtake) to driving too slowly (you know the ones-they'll do 20-25 on those bendy country roads where its virtually impossible to see to overtake them and the tail of traffic behind them grows in proportion to your frustration-and,no,I dont mean tractors before one of you lot says it ). But, like Tigger says, where are the police vehicles to pick up such offences and apply this new law? Hogging the middle lanes on motorways-and other offences on motorways-may be caught on camera and there are certainly more patrol cars on motorways than elsewhere that may catch people, but what about the rest of the road network? Fewer speed cameras, more patrol cars. Not going to happen.

[Marks DTM Calib]

I hope it has an impact as its an issue I see every day.....will it have an impact, I doubt it as there just isnt the Police presence anymore to address it.

[aaronjb]

I hope it has an impact as its an issue I see every day.....will it have an impact, I doubt it as there just isnt the Police presence anymore to address it.

Indeed, the only thing I ever see now are "Highways Agency" cars .. although I'm told they have powers to stop and issue fixed penalty notices now.. not sure how I feel about non-Police having Police powers, though.

[Terbs]

I don't understand our system at all.....
Mobile phone use is equal to someone just over the drink drive limit. Texting is higher and causes a major leap in accidents and deaths........but no ban for the driver. Why not !!!!!!!!
My daughter in law was lucky to escape serious injury when she was hit by a driver using a mobile phone. Bans have not stopped drink driving, but it has seriously reduced it. Massive publicity with a ban if caught using a mobile phone, would make a lot of people think twice !!!!
Now we are going to have pubs in motorway services.........
Middle laners deserve to be fined.....they cause accidents by frustrating even the most placid drivers

What sort of system are we running

[Iain]

Just last week I lost a good half hour on the motorway due to a middle lane muppet doing 50 mph! I'm limited to 62 mph and not allowed in the 3rd lane and as undertaking is an offence I've got to just sit there! Nearly 30 miles I was stuck behind this moron. He then has the cheek to roll down his window, put out his arm and gesture that I overtake him in the 3rd lane! He was fairly young so do instructors not inform learners of such highwaycode rules? Like keeping up with the flow of traffic and the fact that some vehicles are restricted from the outside lane

[jereboam]

On the other side it may become like in other European countries. Targeted (got to do so many people a month , so more likely to get done towards month end......), a source of personal revenue for the officers concerned, and a source of revenue for the police force in general. Will you get a receipt.? Will you be able to pay £50 cash to avoid a £100 fine and penalty points. Will the insurance companies have a field day pushing premiums up more?

I'm not in the least bothered about this.  Because I don't do it!  I almost always move back into the inside lane when there's space, and only stay in the centre lane when I can see that I will shortly need to overtake another vehicle and there's nothing close behind me.  And I can't see how a police officer can possibly increase his collar count (or whatever they call it) by nicking people who aren't committing an offence. 

On the very few occasions on which I have been stopped by the police, both in the UK and in the Netherlands where I lived for 20 years, they have always been very polite.  I've never been asked to pay an on-the-spot fine, so I've got no experience of attempting to bribe a police officer, and I'm very dubious about whether or not this actually happens in real life.  But then I'm boringly inoffensive, respectable-looking and law abiding at all times.   

[Rog]

I have mixed feelings about it.

On the one hand there is an awful lot of bad driving (tailgating, middle lane hogging, texting on the move and so on) . So any action would be good.

On the other side it may become like in other European countries. Targeted (got to do so many people a month , so more likely to get done towards month end......), a source of personal revenue for the officers concerned, and a source of revenue for the police force in general. Will you get a receipt.? Will you be able to pay £50 cash to avoid a £100 fine and penalty points. Will the insurance companies have a field day pushing premiums up more?

Me too.

Also it will be interesting to see if there is an increase in HGV Vs Car collisions on the inside lane. I often have to tell my Mrs about hogging the middle lane, but she's terrified on the inside with 32 tonners tailgating her. And they do, often hooting and flashing to try and bully drivers out of the way due to their timetable.

I know we all love to bash the French, but I drive over there quite often and I find the lane discipline of both car and HGV drivers pretty good compared to us.

[05omegav6]

You're allowed to undertake queues

Which, by definition...

http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/queue

...is more than one

Even stuck at 56mph, there are people I could easily over take. Saw a car yesterday travelling at 47mph in lane two of the M25 yesterday afternoon. Retarded doesn't come close

To add to the last post, police cannot take payment. Hence they give you the ticket which you then take to the court to pay. As for the Traffic Wombles enforcing anything, well...

[Kevin Wood]

Saw a car yesterday travelling at 47mph in lane two of the M25 yesterday afternoon. Retarded doesn't come close

This is a common problem there. Take a muppet who has probably never been taught how to drive on a 3 lane motorway properly and give them an extra couple of lanes to worry about....

It seems that they need to be a maximum of 1 lane away from the central reservation, otherwise they feel lost.

[Entwood]

It is quite legal to "undertake" .. if done correctly.....

The term "undertaking" means actually moving deliberately to pass a car on the left hand side.

If you are travelling in the left lane, and the traffic on your right is moving slower than you, it is permissible to continue without changing lanes .. we do it all the time in traffic queues..... so if you are doing 56 in the left lane, and a plonker in the middle lane is doing 50 .. there is no need to move out... just continue in a straight line and go past.

If you are in the middle lane and you meet such an idiot you must move to the right to pass, as a move to the left is an undertake, not a "traffic moving slower on your right"

So keep to the left and keep a constant speed... but be VERY CAREFUL in case the plonker suddenly sees you and makes a dirty dive left ...

I do this lots with the tin tent on the back as I'm not allowed in the outer lane, and I don't want to sit behind said plonker doing 50 in the middle lane when I can legally do 60 ..

[Rog]

 . . . . . . I would like to add that yes of course middle lane hoggers are a pain and inconvenient. Last weekend I was chewing the steering wheel on a 5 lane section of the M25 with 3 almost empty inside lanes.

However, the hoggers are not aggressively dangerous like the lane Nazis who make a big point of cutting in front of the hoggers almost taking the front of their car off. Or is that a really safe and sane thing to do ?