Have you ever asked yourself why it is that many driver's who use our motorways seem to have an aversion to using lane-one, i.e. the inside or nearside lane?

Everyone should know that the appropriate way to drive on a motorway is to use the furthest lane to the left, except for the purpose of overtaking, in which case you would then use an outer lane. Once the overtake is complete you then return to the left hand lane again; giving mirror checks and signals throughout so as not to inconvenience other drivers of what you were doing at all times.

Bearing in mind that almost all of the Ride Drive team are either serving traffic patrol police officers, or have been in that role prior to retirement, none of them can come up with the definitive answer to the question of why some people perminantly remain in the middle of three lanes on a motorway? What is even more fascinating is that when a three-lane carriageway changes into a four-lane carriageway, the Lane-Two Shareholder immediately moves over one more lane to become a Lane-Three Shareholder! Why? For what reason? It doesn’t make any sense! If they were actually overtaking, or about to overtake something, their actions would not be a problem and could be understood, but that is rarely the case. They will just change lanes on an empty section of motorway and then sit there mile after mile, very often at a speed that is less than the maximum permitted rate for the road.

I personally have actually spoken to drivers who I have seen to be claiming Lane-Two as their own and asked them why they use the lane in that way, but not even they have ever told me the answer.

I also have actually tested the firmness of Lane-One by jumping up and down in it with both feet and I can tell everyone out there that it is as solid and as durable as any of the other lanes – so what is the problem?

Some of the theories we have thought of are:

Laziness - Basically sitting there with thumb up bum, mind in neutral and can’t be bothered to do anything else. This type of driver will very often be completely oblivious as to what is going on behind as they very rarely look in the mirror. Yet they cause quite a high degree of congestion and certainly frustration to others.

Lack of confidence - This is a driver who does not feel comfortable with their ability to judge the speed of other vehicles approaching from behind and who has a fear of being a nuisance by getting in someone's way when pulling out into Lane-Two from Lane-One. Their answer to this is to stay put in Lane-Two and let everyone else sort their lives out around them, whilst pretending not to notice.

Lack of consideration - Well this one is included in most of the examples. Basically this is the driver that doesn’t give a monkey’s and who will carry on regardless of what effect he or she is having on everyone else.

Lack of knowledge - Do you know that there are actually people out there who think that on a three lane motorway Lane-One has a 50mph speed limit, Lane-Two is 60mph and Lane-Three is 70mph? Where did this come from? This explanation has been heard often and yet is totally wrong. The speed limit is the same whatever the lane you are in (unless signed individually by overhead gantry variable speed limit signs). Actually, let us look at the lack of knowledge argument, or shall we call it lack of training, more closely?

Who was ever taught to drive on a motorway correctly?  Being the type of road it is, and with having restrictions on what type of traffic can use it, this is not a road that you can drive on when taking your learner driving lessons.  Therefore, as a learner, you will be prohibited from using this type of road.

What else is there?  Pass-Plus, you shout!  Pass plus is a relatively recent introduction in the world of basic driver training and is an additional set of driving lessons that can be purchased as a follow-up to passing the driving test.  However, with no legal requirement or incentive to complete the Pass Plus programme, other then the promise of an associated motor insurance discount scheme, percentage-wise only a very small number of people only will go through the process.

One of the modules that is included within the Pass Plus programme is that of motorways driving, because now that our learner has passed his or her driving test, he or she is allowed at last to go onto that God of all roads.  Before you get too excited, have you ever stopped to consider this question?  How is the L-plate instructor qualified to deliver a motorway driving lesson?

The odds are that when the driving instructor passed his or her driving test, and because Pass Plus in real terms is a reasonably new innovation, he or she will not have been afforded the opportunity to receive any motorway driving lessons at the time of passing their own driving test, so that is not where their experience comes from.

To look into this further, let us take the story of Roger as an example.  Roger passed his driving test for cars when he was 17-years of age.  Now at the age of forty-five he has decided that he is fed up with his hum-drum life working as a travelling sales representative and has gone in search of a change in career is what he needs.  Wishing to now be his own boss he has embarked upon the process involved to become a self-employed driving instructor.  In order to qualify for his newfound vocation, Roger needed to become a Driving Standards Agency Approved Driving Instructor, which meant he had to get his ADI badge.  To get this ADI qualification, Roger had to get through three examinations. Part-1 came first and consists of answering a series of Highway Code Related questions and participating in an interactive computerised hazard perception test.

Having successfully completed that task Roger then moved on to Part-2, which involved him re-taking his driving test.  Once Part-2 was out of the way, next in line came Part-3 and this involved Roger delivering two 30-minute driving lessons, back-to-back, one being with a student who was completing a driving lesson for the very first time, and the other with a student at the stage of being ready for a driving test.  Roger is not let loose with a real student for this test, as the examiner acts as the hapless learner whilst driving the car and the whole process is performed through a role-play exercise.

Providing Roger passes all three parts of the ADI qualification process, he is now a fully-fledged driving instructor and qualified to administer learner driving lessons in exchange for financial reward.

Two years later, Roger decides that he would like to extend his teaching repertoire by being a DSA authorised Pass Plus trainer, and to do this he must complete an application form and send it off to the Driving Standards Agency (DSA), together with a cheque for the registration fee.  At some stage following that submission, Roger receives a letter from the DSA informing him that he is now an authorised Pass Plus scheme instructor and he is provided with an A4 sheet of paper with details of six topic headings that he needs to incorporate into his Pass Plus lessons, one of which is a motorway driving lesson.

The question that needs to be asked here is this.  At what point during any of the procedure that Roger went through to become authorised to deliver a motorway driving lesson under the Pass-Plus scheme, was he ever assessed, tested or trained to perform that role?  He may try and argue that he has experience of driving on motorways, as he used to be a sales rep travelling the length and breadth of the country before becoming a driving instructor, and that his experience of driver training will equip him for the role, but without ever being properly assessed, there is no guarantee he is doing it right.  Pass-Plus wasn’t around when he passed his initial driving test, so here we have a DSA authorised driving instructor delivering a driving lesson that he has never been trained to administer.  Therefore, any Pass-Plus student that Roger has pass through his hands could be in a situation whereby the motorways training they receive is totally inappropriate, inaccurate and yet the motor insurance industry buy into the Pass-Plus scheme by rewarding entrants with cheaper insurance!  No wonder the British motoring public don’t know how to use a motorway, because not even the trainers have been trained to do it.  This may well be why we have the Lane-Two shareholders?

When hogging Lane-2 it should be remembered that large lorries, buses and coaches are restricted from using the outer-most lane of a motorway by law, as are vehicles towing trailers, so the drivers of these vehicles are prone to becoming rather annoyed when they are held back by someone else who has poor lane discipline.

So how do you deal with the Lane-2 or Lane-3 shareholder, should you encounter any of them in your travels?

The first rule is to stay calm, rational and level-headed. Remember that the driver in front is very much an unknown quantity, and as such must be regarded as being somewhat unpredictable. We can all get carried away with the idea that we are wonderful drivers and expect that everyone else should be of the same calibre. What we do need to remind ourselves of is that for the person in front, this could be their very first visit to a motorway and so they are only just finding their feet. It could also be that they have just that day passed their test, or they may have an eyesight defect, so don’t judge others by your own perceived standards. Always regard the ability of other drivers to be of the lowest and minimum level, and make allowances accordingly.

You could easily become involved in a collision, not necessarily through the actions of the Other Driver, but as a direct result of your actions completed in response to the actions of that Other Driver.

When they encounter someone driving erratically people will insist upon getting up really close to them. That really is the last position you would want to be in. If you have a ditherer or an erratic driver in front of you then back away – right away. Think unpredictable. Think DANGER! Think space! Don’t get tangled up with them – keep out of it. There is nothing heroic or macho in using your vehicle to breathe down another’s neck, especially when you are the one losing your no claims bonus when it all goes wrong. It could all so easily end in tears and you could be the one that is deemed to be at fault! So many incidents are caused in this way.

If you encounter an Outer Lane Shareholder who is impeding your progress, and you are wondering what to you do, consider the following options.

Firstly, try to assess the occupant(s) of that vehicle. Are they elderly? Are they foreign (remembering that in some other countries their rules of the road allow overtaking on either side)?

Is the driver apparently paying attention to what it he or she is doing, are they chattering or have unruly kids leaping around inside the car?

Have you found yourself a car containing yobs who are just waiting for an opportunity to bait someone into an incident? It does happen.

All these matters are what we call Impact Factors, and that simply means that you should ask yourself the question, “what impact could the vehicle and its occupants have upon me and what can I reasonably expect to happen as a result of any action I make in response to it?”

Having considered all these matters, and made the judgement that the driver ahead is just perhaps having a lapse in concentration, keep a nice safe distance back and give one flash of your headlights, this lasting for a period of no more than about two seconds. Now wait for about twenty to thirty-seconds to see if you get a response before trying it again. We would recommend that this should be attempted on no more than three occasions, after which you are just going to have to be patient and be content to follow. If you are really smart you will move left and let someone else have a go. After all it won’t be you that is seen as being aggressive in that case, and if the other driver does get a result, you can perhaps take the opportunity to pass also.

If you do achieve a favourable result, overtake the vehicle smartly and then, when you are ahead, show some common courtesy by acknowledging the other driver’s actions by raising your left hand to the internal mirror for a moment. Keep the fingers closed together so as not to make the action look like any other form of salute.

W ith regard to the headlight flashing procedure, it may serve well to remember some very important points.

Always make sure that the driver ahead actually does have a break in the traffic into which he or she can move. It is no use getting angry with someone who is along side an articulated lorry and so is not instantly moving out of your way.

When making a flash of the headlights always have a good look into the other driver's mirrors to see if they have seen you and are in fact looking back at you.

Don’t get in so tight to the vehicle ahead, especially if it is a van, as your lights may be outside the field of view offered by their rear-view mirrors. It can also be regarded as intimidating, bullying or aggressive – not only that you could end up having a shunt into the back of it.

Don’t, under any circumstances, use multiple flashes as this really is aggressive and will be regarded as such. Very large areas of British motorways are now covered by CCTV so think to yourself how your actions would be perceived in a Courtroom when the Magistrates are watching a playback of a video of your behaviour. With no commentary sound track and with only the part where you were apparently intimidating another driver being captured, what will that look like? We have dedicated a whole edition of Tip-Offs to this topic, listed under the heading of Third Party Perception, as that is what it is.

Don’t sound your horn and don’t pressure or intimidate others, no matter how much you feel it may be justified. If you don’t want to get into real hot water certainly don’t get mean and angry with someone who has his or her children in the car. This will really bring out the primeval instincts in someone and you could then have a whole heap of serious problems to deal with.

Don’t overtake on the inside. This can also be picked up on camera and is something for which you can be prosecuted for in Court.

Don’t overtake using the hard shoulder. This can actually result in you spending a term in prison. Not recommended.

And lastly, just chill out. Getting angry does not make your vehicle go any faster. It clouds your judgement and your sense of reasoning. It can also bring upon you a whole heap of trouble. Take deep and slow breaths, and remain focused away from emotion. Keep your wits about you, stay safe and within the rules.

To finish off this edition we would just like to say to those that do like to claim Lane-Two or Lane-Three as their own, this may be a good opportunity to re-evaluate your driving habits by taking a good, long and hard look at what it is that you do. Be honest with yourselves, and if you can admit that you are perhaps lacking in some way, then why not do something about it? Get yourself a refresher or an advanced driving course. There are plenty of companies and organisations out there delivering good service. It will make life so much easier in the long-term.