Motoring Middle Lane Hogging

[bickster]

Motorway middle-lane hoggers to face on-the-spot fines

Tailgating and middle-lane hogging will now incur fixed penalties

Motorway tailgaters and middle-lane hoggers are to face quick justice with on-the-spot penalties under new measures announced by the government.

From July, police will be able to issue £100 fines and three points for careless driving offences that would currently have to go to court.

The idea is to target offenders without the need for lengthy court procedures.

Current fixed penalties for using a phone while driving or not wearing a seatbelt will also rise by £40 to £100.

The move brings careless driving offences into line with the penalties for similar non-motoring fixed penalties. Drivers will still be able to appeal against any decision through the courts.

'Pet hates'

People guilty of careless driving will face fixed penalties or the chance to go on a driving course, but the more serious examples will continue to go through the courts, where offenders could face much higher fines and penalties.

Many offences currently go unpunished because of the bureaucracy involved in taking a case to court.

The Department of Transport has not yet released official guidance on which types of driving will attract fines.

But police are expected to focus on situations involving slightly aggressive and inconsiderate driving, such as:

Driving too close to the vehicle in front

Failing to give way at a junction (not requiring evasive action by another driver)

Overtaking and pushing into a queue of traffic

Being in the wrong lane and pushing into a queue on a roundabout

Lane discipline, eg needlessly hogging the middle or outside lanes

Inappropriate speed

Wheel-spins, handbrake turns and other careless manoeuvres

Not only does a motorist have to be stopped by the police, but a summons has to be issued and evidence presented in court.

Road Safety Minister Stephen Hammond said: "Careless drivers are a menace and their negligence puts innocent people's lives at risk.

"That is why we are making it easier for the police to tackle problem drivers by allowing them to immediately issue a fixed penalty notice rather than needing to take every offender to court."

The AA said responsible drivers would welcome the changes.

"We are also pleased to see that at long last new powers and fines will be given to the police to tackle the top three pet hates of drivers - tailgaters, mobile phone abusers and middle lane hogs," said AA president Edmund King.

RAC Foundation director Professor Stephen Glaister said: "Anti-social behaviour is as big a problem on the roads as it is in wider society.

"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.

"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."

Downplays the offence

Tim Shallcross, Institute of Advanced Motorists: ''For on-the-spot fines, you need on-the-spot policemen''

But the Institute of Advanced Motorists (IAM) said it had concerns about the message sent out by the changes.

Its director of policy Neil Grieg said: "This is a major change in traffic law enforcement and the IAM is concerned that issuing fixed penalty tickets for careless driving downplays the seriousness of the offence.

"Careless covers a wide range of poor to reckless driving behaviour that often merits further investigation.

"This could free up traffic police time and allow them to maintain a higher profile.

"But without traffic cops out on the road to enforce this new approach it will have little impact on road safety."

Motoring journalist Quentin Willson also questioned whether there would be enough traffic police to make the changes work.

He said: "It's broadly to be welcomed because it marks a shift away from remote policing - that's cameras - to actually using traffic cops.

Motorists' views: "Just a money-making thing'' or "fair enough"?

"But the problem is the amount of traffic police cars has been cut since 1997 by 50%, so the obvious question is 'how do you enforce this?' It's deeply faulted."

Richard Owen from the research group Road Safety Analysis said most motorists would welcome the changes.

He told the BBC: "We already know that the UK's motorways are some of the safest roads in the country, if not Europe.

"But of course, that relies on everybody playing their part and sticking to the rules and I think most motorists would welcome any further enforcement to make sure that people aren't lane hogging or maybe tailgating."

Yes some middle lane hoggers are a pain but why no legislation on the Elephant Racing Trucks?

Its them that cause 90% of the congestion on motorways, overtaking each other at 0.1 mph speed differential, what is the **** point, every time they do it it means every other car has to get in the third lane. They are the real middle lane hoggers, they are the ones that slow everybody else down.

[limpid]

I don't think it's ever correct for the police to be judge and jury. That's not their job and they shouldn't be doing it.

[mikeyp102]

Middle lane hoggers really bug me, but this will be extremely hard to police, can't really see there being that much difference.

^^agreed about the overtaking lorries

[mockingbird_franklin]

Hmmm so more legislation that will have your guilt of rule breaking an opinion. but lets not let a little thing like that get in the way of revenue and profit raising for UK PLC, more "justice" to be rubber stamped by unlawful and illegal courts de facto. I drive down to London and back every 4 days, whilst middle lane hogging is an annoyance, it's in no way the biggest problem, irritation or dangerous driving I experience. At busy times your forced to drive almost exclusively in the middle lane by the land trains of HGV's, otherwise you'd be weaving in and out every minute or so,

 

As Bicks said the "Elephant racing trucks" (Nice term) are a much bigger problem on the motorways, But then as previously stated, the legislation is about raising revenue and nothing to do with safety or sense.

[mockingbird_franklin]

I don't think it's ever correct for the police to be judge and jury. That's not their job and they shouldn't be doing it.

It's also unlawful (as opposed to Illegal)

[bickster]

As Bicks said the "Elephant racing trucks" (Nice term)...

German term as told to me by a certain former resident of Nurenburg

[CI]

Just another **** stealth tax

words removed

[mockingbird_franklin]

Just another **** stealth tax

words removed

Well we only exist to provide the revenue to pay the private bankers their Ton of flesh, never mind, most sheeple will have a wine at how terribly unfair it all is and how there's nothing anyone can do but carry on regardless. They will continue to let themselves be farmed and milked

[theunderstudy]

Shall the police (and insurers) start cracking down effectively on motor insurance fraud and it's ever-growing effect and cost increasing more and more each year? Nah let's pour our attention onto middle-lane hogging. Idiots.

 

As stipulated up here, it's the lorries in the middle lane that cause the most bleeding traffic.

Edited June 5, 2013 by theunderstudy

[Davkaus]

I feel that using the word 'sheeple' should immediately invalidate any point that you make.

[rendelc]

If im bombing along at 70 mph in the middle lane , surely everyone in the outside lane who overtakes me will be speeding and thus breaking the law ?

[8pints]

I'm childish I know I apologise

[mockingbird_franklin]

I feel that using the word 'sheeple' should immediately invalidate any point that you make.

well thank you for your well considered and delivered statement that adds nothing of value. If you want feel free to add observation or comment on the situation that actually expresses a relevant position

[Meath_Villan]

Its the motha fukkas who stay in the overtaking lane on a motorway doing less than the limit **** move it soooooonnnnnnn

[stuart_75]

Another vote here for the mass gassing of Truck drivers who like to overtake at a snail pace.

 

They just love doing it at the bottom of a hill and then have to give up half way up only to pull back into the slow lane.

 

Twunts.

[chrisp65]

I'm a big fan of the M25

Lane 1 is lorries and scared pensioners in Nissan Micras doing 56mph

Lane 4 is vans and BMW's doing 58mph

 

Lanes 2 and 3 are mostly me doing illegals

 

Its populist crap to divert attention for a day or two.

[Nigel]

Im glad I was young before this came to fruition!

[The_Rev]

The motorways will be a much better place for everybody if the traffic flows.   I'm sorry, but if you are the doddering old word removed doing 68mph in the middle lane when there are 300 yards of clear road in front you on the inside lane then you are terrible driver. If you are too nervous to change lanes when it is time to overtake the lorry that you theoretically might see in six or seven minutes then stay off the motorway, clog up the A roads instead or take the train to work. By hogging the middle lane you are cutting a three lane motorway down into a dual carriageway because undertaking is a very dangerous thing to do and the fault of the the person doing the undertaking if there is a crash, even if they feel provoked.  Middle lane hoggers are one of my biggest pet hates.  May the fleas of a thousand camels infest their pubic hair.  

 

 

I don't think it's ever correct for the police to be judge and jury. That's not their job and they shouldn't be doing it.

 

I can't see the number of people getting done under this law being very high.  How do you enforce it?  I can't see how a camera system would work, it would be far too easy to beat on appeal and what is a police officer going to do? Pull somebody over on the hard shoulder of a busy motorway and write them a ticket?  It's legislation put out there to scare people and (hopefully) change their behavior.  I predict it will work, for about three weeks at least and then everybody will go back to normal. 

 

 

 

I do have a bit of sympathy for the lorry drivers though.  My grandad was a lorry driver for years and he explained to me one time just how big a slave to the tachograph they are. Even in his lorry driving days which ended in the 80s he would point out that a driver is boned if he goes over the number of hours he is allowed to be in the chair for, being stuck behind somebody in a slower lorry doing, say 55mph when you are capable of 60 or 65 can mean you lose ten or twenty miles a day. If you are crossing Europe and back that could mean an extra day or two before you make it home.  It is annoying being stuck behind one lorry overtaking another, especially if they decide to make the move when the road is uphill, but at least they have a better reason than the **** who just hog the middle lane because they are too nervous to drive on the motorway properly. 

Edited June 5, 2013 by The_Rev

[b23avfc]

I drive almost constantly in the left lane and absolutely detest when morons drive right up my rear when they have two or three lanes to the right to overtake me... I want to drive at 60, let me As long as I'm in the left hand lane and there's plenty of space for the speedsters then it's all good.

 

I used to pan it. Now I get 77mpg and sit in cruise control. I prefer to spend my cash on other things.

 

So my beef is not with the middle lane hoggers so much as the idiots that won't even venture into the middle lane when they're not happy with me doing 60. When I do go in the middle however, and I rarely go past 80 these days anyway, it is annoying when people go super slow in the middle lane. I'm no fan of undertaking. I've had to do a it a number of times from the left hand lane... and frankly that's just stupid.

[Ginko]

No real surprise. Rents, fees and charges are starting to become a bigger source of revenue expenditure so let's make up a few more ways to make everyone more miserable. Arseholes.