Curse those centre lane hogs!

[new2ford]

Originally Posted by gozza

If im in the right lane on the M1 i won't do any less than 110...if someones comming up behind i'll move...if noone is behind me then i'll stay untill i have a reason to move...i know that techinically speaking the righ tlane is for overtaking...but if noones using the lane or im not holding people up(i am very concious of cars wanting me to move) i don't see a problem

You might see a problem when the polis book you for breaching the law by not keeping left!

I'm going to propose a renaming of the lanes for Australian conditions. We call the lane nearest the centre of the road the left lane that people keep left in, as opposed to driving on the wrong side of the road. The next lane to the left will be the centreleft lane - reserved for caravans and Commodores. The next on the left will be the far left lane used by reckless Falcon drivers to overtake the others (undertake? - is that where the word undertakers comes from, how appropriate!).

[Silver Ghia]

I think I know the real problem why drivers want to stay in the RH lanes, at least here in Victoria.

It is the way "traffic engineers" design the entrances and exits to freeways, where anyone entering has to merge with traffic before they can get up to the speed of this traffic. This is because the run-up and exiting lanes are far too short. Therefore anyone in the LH lanes have to keep braking for these cars joining/exiting. Why not just stay in the RH lane and not be disrupted by these cars?

In England, the motorways are much better designed to actually promote driving in the LH lane. This is done by making the LH lanes continuous, so that entering traffic does not have to change lanes when entering. Traffic travelling in the LH lane can continue without having to worry about traffic merging into their lanes, and when safe, they actually merge left into the new LH lane. It is the RH lanes that end, merging into the next lane. Therefore you cannot stay in the RH lane endlessly.

Have a look next time, here in Vic, the LH lanes end, and its so frustrating having to change lanes all the time when travelling in the LH lane. Hence most like to travel in the RH lane.

Personally I think the "traffic engineers" here need to be sent overseas to see how it should be done. This also includes roundabout traffic management (another issue).

[SB076]

I have seen a ute on the South Eastern (M1) with a sticker saying "Keep left unless overtaking you bloody idiot"

I thought it was good.

[Keepleft]

Originally Posted by Silver Ghia

I think I know the real problem why drivers want to stay in the RH lanes, at least here in Victoria.

It is the way "traffic engineers" design the entrances and exits to freeways, where anyone entering has to merge with traffic before they can get up to the speed of this traffic. This is because the run-up and exiting lanes are far too short. Therefore anyone in the LH lanes have to keep braking for these cars joining/exiting. Why not just stay in the RH lane and not be disrupted by these cars?

In England, the motorways are much better designed to actually promote driving in the LH lane. This is done by making the LH lanes continuous, so that entering traffic does not have to change lanes when entering. Traffic travelling in the LH lane can continue without having to worry about traffic merging into their lanes, and when safe, they actually merge left into the new LH lane. It is the RH lanes that end, merging into the next lane. Therefore you cannot stay in the RH lane endlessly.

Have a look next time, here in Vic, the LH lanes end, and its so frustrating having to change lanes all the time when travelling in the LH lane. Hence most like to travel in the RH lane.

Personally I think the "traffic engineers" here need to be sent overseas to see how it should be done. This also includes roundabout traffic management (another issue).

We do this in NSW and have done for many years now on 'new work' typically. A key VIC Roads chap should be following suit.

When addng a lane to a two lane section of freeway/motorway the new third lane starts off to the right as a marked seperate lane. This means traffic 'keeping left' on two lane sections are fed automatically into the left lane of the three leaned section.

WHAT WE DON'T DO YET - and this has been discussed and will be furthered, is when ending a third freeway/motorway lane, that we drop the RIGHT lane and taper that off instead of forcing left lane traffic to merge to the right as we do now.

Once that is done we will have an uninterrupted left lane. This will put the faster traffic in a position to having to adjust lane changes more than the 'regular' traffic that will not need to move about.

These changes take years to implement. Australia has in the past used both US style lane drops and start methods which contributes to poor lane discipline. That is, it removes the desire to do the right thing - to use the left lane first rather than the middle.

[Ghiadude]

i commute on the F6 (Wollongong to sydney and back) and generally people behave themselves out of hours. Its when i have to commute between say 0700-1900 that the problems start. At 5 in the morning its amazing to see how orderly people can be. Most travel WELL OVER THE LIMIT in the left lane with no problems. As soon as you get sunday drivers BOOM...chaos. Its the holier than thou attitude of right lane hogs that bugs me more than anything. They glare back at you after they get flashed as if you just killed their baby kitten!. MURDERER!!!!