scott wrote:
>>> What do you do?
>>
>> I've had a few problems with the CLOC. (Center Lane Owners Club.) 
>> Annoying, isn't it? Still, sometimes there just isn't a lot you can do.
> 
> On 3-lane roads it less of a problem (I've very rarely seen an outside 
> lane hogger on a 3 lane road that wasn't going really fast), you can 
> usually overtake CLOCs eventually without issue.

The fun happens when you have a CLOC travelling at 50, so some truck 
decides he wants to overtake it at 55. So you now have the CLOC blocking 
the middle lane, and the truck blocking the fast lane.

I've seen it result in utter mayhem as a huge queue develops in the fast 
lane, and in the middle lane because people haven't grabbed the fast 
lane soon enough, and *then* some rich twat in his expensive BMW comes 
along and undertakes along the slow lane and then tries to dice around 
with the traffic merging from the correct side...

All this trouble and strife just because some foreigner doesn't know how 
to drive properly. :-P

Actually, I recall that on my driving theory test, one of the questions 
was about this. Something like "which lane do you use?" and the options 
were "any lane", "the lane with the least traffic in it", "the left 
lane" or "the left lane except when overtaking". If you didn't know, 
some of those other options do actually sound plausible... I guess a lot 
of people don't know. (Or just aren't paying attention to where they're 
going...)

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scott wrote:
> (Note left/right here is for driving on the right, for driving on the 
> left countries reverse the left/rights).
> 
> Here we have two important rules for multi-lane roads, one is that you 
> should only move out to the left to overtake someone, and secondly you 
> are not allowed to pass anyone on the right side (there are some 
> exceptions for queues etc).  I know it's not like this in all countries.
> 
> As anyone who has driven probably knows already, the problem comes when 
> someone stays in the left lane when they are not overtaking anyone and 
> you want to go faster than them.  What are you meant to do if you are 
> behind them in this situation?  What if you are directly behind in the 
> same lane, or what if you approach them in the right lane?
> 
> I always wanted to ask someone in authority this question as appears 
> there is no perfect option.
> 
> For me I usually wait around 5 seconds behind them in the same lane, 
> then usually pull over to the right lane and wait there for a further 
> 5-10 seconds leaving them plenty of space to pull over if they want.  If 
> they still do not move then I usually accelerate and swiftly pass on the 
> right being ready to move over into the hard shoulder if they suddenly 
> decide to change lanes.
> 
> My girlfriend says that I should flash them and not overtake on the 
> right, but IME this is easily interpretted as quite aggressive behaviour 
> and could lead to more problems (eg them still not moving over or even 
> worse deliberate braking or other aggressive behaviour).
> 
> What do you do?

I am not aware of any law in my jurisdiction prohibiting passing on the 
right, so that's what I would do.  If the lanehog thinks this is rude, 
then maybe he/she/it ought to learn some manners and make the maneuver 
unnecessary.

And why should passing on the right be any more dangerous than passing 
on the left?  Drivers are supposed to check for other vehicles when 
performing any lane change.

My peeve has always come on portions of divided highways where there are 
two lanes in each direction:  The driver being passed is going at a 
certain speed (say, 60 mph), and the driver who is passing is going just 
slightly above that speed (say, 60.1 mph), so that by the time he gets 
past and goes into the non-passing lane (if he does), I and a dozen 
others are backed up behind him.

Regards,
John

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John VanSickle wrote:

> My peeve has always come on portions of divided highways where there are 
> two lanes in each direction:  The driver being passed is going at a 
> certain speed (say, 60 mph), and the driver who is passing is going just 
> slightly above that speed (say, 60.1 mph), so that by the time he gets 
> past and goes into the non-passing lane (if he does), I and a dozen 
> others are backed up behind him.

Extra fun: Some guy is doing 65 MPH, so you go to overtake. But as soon 
as you do this, the driver wakes up and decies to speed up. And no 
matter how fast you go, you can't get past.

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On 6/7/2010 7:22 AM, Stephen wrote:

>

> How close were you driving to the car?
> Tailgating is one of the things that irritate me most.
>

Yep, Somebody parked on my bumper and flashing their headlights are not 
going to get the desired result from me.

It's a bit annoying when someone rides your bumper as you're in the 
passing lane and overtaking. I generally don't have a desire to drive 
80mph down the road, but I also don't want to be stuck by the ninny 
driving 60mph when the speed limit is 70mph.

What's worse is when you're stuck behind someone driving at 50mph, and 
the fast lane is  moving at 80mph.


> refuse to drive in the slow lane when I know that every couple of
> minutes I will have to pull out and cross at least one lane.
>

Eh, my view on it is this for 3 lanes each way:

* The left lane is passing. Use this to overtake, don't hang out for too 
long, get back over when it is safe to do so.

* The right lane is for vehicles entering/exiting the freeway. Hanging 
out in this lane means you'll need to deal with those who don't seem to 
want to merge at the flow of traffic.

* The center lane is best for general driving. Provided you move to the 
right well before your exit comes up so you're not cutting someone off.

On a related note:

* The acceleration lanes for entering the freeway ARE NOT PASSING LANES. 
DO NOT ATTEMPT TO PASS VEHICLES IN THIS LANE. You'll run out of road and 
cut off the vehicle you're passing, or worse. This is my biggest pet 
peeve, and has happened numerous times at one particular spot on the way 
home. I actually had one kid try to run me off the road after blasting 
my horn at him for nearly taking out my front bumper as he attempted 
this maneuver.

Anyhoo ... back to better subjects.. ;)

-- 
~Mike

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> car behind, in my rear view mirror. The other thing I forgot to mention 
> are those drivers who overtake you and pull in about 4 feet in front of 
> you.

So long as they are going faster than me (so the gap is increasing) I don't 
mind that so much.  Another thing which is funny is the people who overtake 
you, pull back in, and then slow down forcing you to overtake them back!

> Yes every couple of minutes is OK, I was being imprecise. It is the car 

> into the RH lane. Overtakes and returns into the LH lane only to repeat 
> the manoeuvre 10 seconds later that gets on my wick.

Yeh that's an unnecessary risk to take, generally if I can see that nobody 
is behind me I don't pull back over unless it is quite a big gap (ie I 
wouldn't actually be overtaking anyone for the next 2 minutes).  If there is 
a car behind me I usually try to estimate how quickly he will pass me if I 
move over (you can usually tell quite well from how quickly they approached 
you).  If the driver is obviously wanting to go pretty quickly and looks 
like he has a powerful car then I'll move over into a quite a small gap, 
knowing that I can probably pull back out again pretty soon without having 
to slow down at all.

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> * The acceleration lanes for entering the freeway ARE NOT PASSING LANES. 
> DO NOT ATTEMPT TO PASS VEHICLES IN THIS LANE.

Also, you are meant to ACCELERATE in these lanes!  On Saturday I followed a 
car that stayed at a steady 40-50 km/hr and attempted to join a pretty empty 
autobahn where the cars were doing ~120 km/hr.  When you're stuck behind one 
of these people there isn't much you can do, and you will be the one who 
gets the horn blast and flashing lights for pulling out so slowly.

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> Actually, I recall that on my driving theory test, one of the questions 
> was about this. Something like "which lane do you use?" and the options 
> were "any lane", "the lane with the least traffic in it", "the left lane" 
> or "the left lane except when overtaking". If you didn't know, some of 
> those other options do actually sound plausible... I guess a lot of people 
> don't know. (Or just aren't paying attention to where they're going...)

Thing is, you can get that question wrong and never drive on a motorway, let 
alone have these things explained to you, then you get your full driving 
license.  It's no wonder so many people get it wrong.

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> My peeve has always come on portions of divided highways where there are 
> two lanes in each direction:  The driver being passed is going at a 
> certain speed (say, 60 mph), and the driver who is passing is going just 
> slightly above that speed (say, 60.1 mph), so that by the time he gets 
> past and goes into the non-passing lane (if he does), I and a dozen others 
> are backed up behind him.

IIRC we recently got a law here that said you are not allowed to overtake 
for longer than 45 seconds.  It's meant for trucks (they are all physically 
limited to 90 km/hr in Europe) but I think it applies to cars too.

As usual though, I doubt it will ever get enforced, the police much prefer 
to just leave a speed camera for a day so they can go off and do other 
stuff.

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scott wrote:

> Thing is, you can get that question wrong and never drive on a motorway, 
> let alone have these things explained to you, then you get your full 
> driving license.  It's no wonder so many people get it wrong.

They say that air travel is statically the safest way to travel. And it 
is! Think about it: Any random weirdo can apply and get a provisional 
driving license and go drive around (theoretically with a qualified 
driver supervising them) the same day. WTF is *that* about??

By contrast, becoming a commercial aviation pilot takes years. And there 
has to be two of you. And the entire plane undergoes regular mechanical 
checks. (Theoretically you're supposed to check your tires every time 
your drive your car. HOW MANY PEOPLE DO THIS??) And you've got air 
traffic control directing you. And... get the picture?

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scott wrote:
>  which I guess is around a 4 second gap.  

Four seconds *is* tailgating at any speed where you're worried about going 
faster.

-- 
Darren New, San Diego CA, USA (PST)
    Eiffel - The language that lets you specify exactly
    that the code does what you think it does, even if
    it doesn't do what you wanted.

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