Crackdown on motorway drivers who clog up middle lane.

[DJ OD]

Roadhogs to face £100 fines: Crackdown on motorway drivers who clog up middle lane

• Will also penalise those who cut up, tailgate or block the outside lane
• Penalty to increase from £60 to £100 for a range of existing offences
• Include using phone, speeding, jumping lights and not wearing a seat belt

Drivers who hog the middle lane of a motorway face £100 fines and three penalty points.

In a crackdown on anti-social motoring unveiled today, a new fixed penalty offence of careless driving will also target those who cut up other cars, tailgate or block a dual carriageway’s outside lane.

Ministers are at the same time increasing from £60 to £100 the fines for a range of existing offences.



Drivers who hog the middle lane of a motorway face £100 fines and three penalty points

These include using a hand-held phone at the wheel, speeding, jumping lights and failing to wear a seat belt. All bar the last also carry three penalty points.
Police officers, guided by the Highway Code, will have to decide who is guilty of hogging the middle lane or tailgating – getting too close to the car in front.

They will issue the fines at the roadside. It is likely that only the worst drivers, who misbehave over half a mile or more, will be fined and given penalty points.
Occasional offenders will be given the chance to go on a driving course similar to those offered to speeders.



Ministers are also increasing penalties from £60 to £100 for a range of existing offences. They include using a hand-held phone at the wheel, speeding, jumping lights and failing to wear a seat belt

Edmund King of the AA said middle-lane hogs, tailgaters and mobile phone users were the top three most hated types of driver in a poll of members.
But he said the bureaucratic difficulty and expense of securing convictions would mean only the most serious offenders would be targeted. ‘There has to be discretion,’ he added.

‘If someone is driving for half a mile in the middle lane when the inside lane is clear, then it’s a clear case. Under this system it will be easy for a police car to stop you and give you a ticket.’

He said using fixed cameras to track tailgaters was technically difficult and had not worked in other countries.

The £100 fines are to be announced in a written statement by road safety minister Stephen Hammond and follow a public consultation exercise last year.

They will apply to motorways, dual carriageways and three-lane highways such as the A3 from south-west London through Surrey and Hampshire, which is notorious for ‘middle-lane hoggers’.

Stephen Glaister of the RAC Foundation welcomed the crackdown but insisted tougher fines must be accompanied by tougher enforcement.

‘Anti-social behaviour is as big a problem on the roads as it is in wider society,’ he said. ‘Giving police more discretion to act, and freeing up resources to allow them to do so by cutting procedural delays in court, is good news.




Edmund King (left) of the AA said middle-lane hogs, tailgaters and mobile phone users were the top three most hated types of driver. The Mail revealed last month that Transport Secretary Patrick McLoughlin (right) was preparing action against antisocial drivers

‘We are also pleased to see that the stick is accompanied by the chance of re-education for moderate offenders.

‘Raising the fine level to £100 is justifiable to tackle the plague of handheld mobile phone use which slows drivers’ reaction times even more than being at the drink drive limit or taking cannabis. The police need to target the large number of motorists continuing to flout the law daily.’

Last month the Mail reported that Transport Secretary Patrick McLoughlin was preparing action against antisocial drivers with increased fines.

Mr McLoughlin said unacceptable and potentially lethal behaviour such as texting, tweeting or using Facebook at the wheel was causing fatal accidents.

Hands-free mobile phone use while driving is legal. But the use of hand-held phones has been banned since 2003 and became an endorsable offence in 2007.

In today’s crackdown, fines for uninsured drivers are set to rise from £200 to £300.

Source

Fine... But the problem will be, as it always is, with the police. There will be plentry who get let off, and plenty who get unfairly punished.


DJ OD

[blaggard]

Only those who misbehave over half a mile or more is in reality everybody at Motorway speeds. . .

[macmilm]

Middle lane drivers piss me right off... ban the cunts !!

[Over Carl]

• Will also penalise those who cut up, tailgate or block the outside lane

Hold on a moment, does this mean I could be doing say 90 in the outside lane then encounter someone doing 60, then we both get a ticket?

[gurry]

Hold on a moment, does this mean I could be doing say 90 in the outside lane then encounter someone doing 60, then we both get a ticket?

90... I'd assume you would get the speeding ticket before you reach the car in front !!!!!!!!!

However I see what your saying......

[greaseweasel]

I'd be amazed if there are actually any police on the roads to enforce this anyway.

[tombott]

I drive on the motorway every day at the moment, and shit like this pisses me off.
As do people undertaking.
But my biggest gripe and what I think is the most dangerous is something not mentioned here. The failure to indicate.

[Ginnerfreak]

I bet a huge amount of people reading the news today are baffled that driving in the middle lane is a bad thing.. It seems that for some its best practice. I see soo many driving round teh country who seem to think driving in the middle lane is the accepted norm!

But my biggest gripe and what I think is the most dangerous is something not mentioned here. The failure to indicate.

I drive a BMW.. It didnt come with indicators!

[Over Carl]

Tbh, I think it may actually make more sense to do away with the official definitions of the lanes - left lane normal, middle lane and right lane for overtaking only.

Why not change it to how they are practically used - e.g. left lane 50-60, middle lane 70-80, right lane 90-110. With less pissing around changing lanes, and with drivers in a lane with other drivers comfortable at the speed for the lane, I'm not certain how cutting out all the unnecessary lane changes makes this more dangerous.

[tombott]

I bet a huge amount of people reading the news today are baffled that driving in the middle lane is a bad thing.. It seems that for some its best practice. I see soo many driving round teh country who seem to think driving in the middle lane is the accepted norm!



I drive a BMW.. It didnt come with indicators!

Did it come with a 'I have a small penis sticker' ?

[Goldberg]

Back on topic, a few things happened to me last week.

On the road - I won't undertake people. I was in the inside lane doing 70. There was an idiot in the middle lane doing roughly 60.
I had to overtake in the outside lane to then go back into the inside lane. There was simply no need at all for them to be in the middle lane and I thought to prove a point I would do the maneuver I did...

As a pedestrian - Me and the wife were walking back from the Hospital on Friday. I never just walk across the zebra crossing, especially in London.
Some complete knob in a red corsa was bombing down the road and it was clear he was not going to stop. As he got closer I started giving him the thumbs up and clapped.. He then looked up from his phone, where he was texting, but just continued on. it could have been kids, women with a pram or anyone and he would have killed them (40pmh road).

I would be all up for cameras on crossings, you could then report an incident and the law can refer back to the time/date and take action.

It has always been this way and I guess it always will.

[DejaVu]

I'd be amazed if there are actually any police on the roads to enforce this anyway.

They're all too busy sitting on their arse in front of computers trying to nick the odd downloader.

As do people undertaking.

The only time I've ever been undertaken is when some old granny is poodling along in lane 2 decides to overtake the slightly slower 3 wheeler in front of her... and the boy racer behind me gets impatient.

Lane 3 driver here. Purely because I trust myself more overtaking than I do others overtaking me.
Lane 2 drivers that drive at 50-60 mph should be forced to take an advanced motorway test.

I use lane 1 if the opportunity arises, but it rarely does due to too many idiots cruising in lane 2.

The 'argument' I've heard from lane 2 hoggers is the grooves in the road HGV's make or lane 1 is full of old knackered car bits.

[greaseweasel]

I have no problem undertaking if someone's being a nob in the middle lane. My commute is too busy to mess about with all those lane changes for one idiot.

Its not actually illegal, but you have to do it carefully as you'll get done for dangerous driving if there's an accident as a direct result.

Also I can call the missus on my mobile easier in the slow lane.

[Goldberg]

Lane 3 here usually also unless the road is clear.
If the road is clear and your bombing along in the outside lane, you are going to attract any coppers attention that are sat with a gun and they are likely to give chase if they can be arsed. This is why I stick to the inside then.

When it is busy I will jump between lane 2 and lane 3. If lane 3 is a bit mad with nose to tail I will back out of this and sit a good couple of car lengths behind the car in lane 2 until I feel it is safe.

I was involved in a bad accident in lane 3 a few years back. 70 mph rush hour on the M1, cars in front nose to tail and at junction two 'bang'. I saw what was happening, slammed the anchors on and stopped before hitting the car in front. However the knob behind me right up my arse did not see anything, not even me stopping and smashed into me when I was static pushing me into the car in front.

You learn a lot from those situations.

[Wario]

This piss me off. What wrong using the middle lane. All the lanes max speed is 70mph. The left lane is mainly use for slower traffic. But doesn't mean you have to drive slow.

I drive in the middle lane, at 70mph. I only over take cars on that lane that are driving at a slower rate, only using the right lane.

I don't see the issue here.

But if government think its better and safer for driver to stay in the left hand lane and keep on over taking traffic every two minutes (which is more dangerous).

As for no police cars, the government found a cheaper way to give tickets its called cameras.

Sent from my Nexus 4 using Tapatalk 2

[Goldberg]

I agree with the 70 comment, however more often than not you do get the knob doing 55-60 and just will not shift.
The scary thing is they usually have kids in the car too.

[DJ OD]

I've been in cars that have had collisions on the motorway twice now, not me driving, but even so it was a terrirfiying experience.

Also anyone that has been on DFirc will know I witnessed an awful accident only last Friday on my way home from work.

There are just too many cars on the roads these days. Too many idiots. And the rules of the road are not properly enforced.

I have always said, make the driving test much harder, stop foreigners driving on a foreign licencse, raise the age to 21, make people retest every 5 or 10 years...


DJ OD

[tombott]

I have no problem undertaking if someone's being a nob in the middle lane. My commute is too busy to mess about with all those lane changes for one idiot.

Its not actually illegal, but you have to do it carefully as you'll get done for dangerous driving if there's an accident as a direct result.

Also I can call the missus on my mobile easier in the slow lane.

How much quicker do you actually think driving the way you do makes your commute?

[TAR]

Rule of the road is keep to the left. I dont do a lot of motorway driving, but when I do, I always find someone hogging the middle lane and have to cross 2 lanes to overtake. Although I think this is a way of taxing the motorists again and makes making more money from us.

[Bald Bouncer]

For anyone saying they should do away with lane control, undertaking is fine, don't see the problem with driving in the middle lane you have obviously not spent time driving in a country without lane control, I lived and drove in Australia for 10 years and it's a real pain in the arse having no lane control.

You see people undertaking all the time, blocking lanes doing 50 mph, all 3 lanes crawling along all the time, loads of accidents through undertaking and cars pulling into the inside lane and tailgating is the norm as if you leave a reasonable gap someone will pull into it.

I'm like others and won't undertake anyone so either end up being forced to do the speed they are doing or have to switch lane again if they won't pull over, they have no argument to drive in the middle lane when not overtaking it's what the road laws say and there are a lot of laws I don't agree with but that does not mean I don't also have to abide by them.