Sorry JP, I'm struggling to understand most of that post if you could just read through and edit it to make sense I'll come back to you?

jp wrote:

I think a lot of new and Older driver's should read an up to date copy of the Highway code plus get a copy of the police Road craft book. Its all there in Black and white and its there for a REASON. Mainly for the safety for you me and everybody so we can be all happy bunny's, plus if you don't follow the highway code rules PC plod can nick you for what every rule you not following. (IT IS AN FENCE TO SIT IN THE MIDDLE LANE FOR NO REASON) it also tell's you about the use of fog etc,etc,etc, IT'S ALL IN THE BOOK.

Not much chance of the HC being read - most forum members cant even be bothered to read the FL2 owners handbook  2007 Freelander 2 HSE TD4 Manual with Premium Pack & Moonroof.
Stornoway Grey with Ebony Black Pleather, Clear Indicators, Body Side Mouldings etc.

i don't see any thing wrong with staying in the middle lane per se as long as you are aware of the road behind you as well as ahead (which you should really be the whole 360 in fact) if a car is approaching from behind simply move over to let him pass. unfortunately the majority of 2nd laners seem stuck in that lane apart from overtaking and exiting. we have a stretch of the A1 near Peterborough which goes from 3 to 4 and then back to 3 lanes the number of 2nd laners who become 3rd laners is unbelieveable I must admit that I generally just undertake them in the 1st lane and just give them 'the look' as i pass.

As for fog lights these are to protect you from being hit from behind, if you have a car behind you surely it is common courtesy to switch them off? 

Must admit Cristian I have done the same but there seems to be a lot of thick skinned drivers that do not take the hint when you go pass them in lane one when they are in lane three You should try the M25 nothing I feel now will amaze me to the idiots I have seen on there, lane three or four for maybe two or three miles and not pass anything then yards from the exit cutting across all the lanes and missing the exit and running on the hatchings. Staines to the M3 is better thats a five lane section with the two inside lanes going off to the M3 and they still stay in lanes four and five to the last few feet, amazing stuff.

On the earlier mention of FOG lights, I would like to propose a solution which I'm sure the EU could adopt as mandatory on new vehicles.....require the software in the management system to limit speed to, say, 20mph if the fog light switch is on. After all, if you really need them on you won't be going any faster than that!

Quite frankly i'm amazed at some of the comments in this thread.
What, you see nothing wrong with hogging the middle lane?
I don't care if you've a million excuses for doing so; it's bad manners, bad driving, bone idle, an offence and can be downright dangerous.
Repeat offenders should have their licence taken away.
And their steering wheels shoved up their

As regards fog lamps, the idoits who drive with the front fogs on are even worse. The law is the same for both front and rear and yet the main offenders are the young who leave the dammed things on all the time. They surely must have read the HC quite recently?

You cannot be undertaken if you are in the right lane, I think drivers who sit in the middle lane do so because they have not got the confidence to change lanes. The law is quite clear a motorway has three lanes, a nearside lane and two overtaking lanes, unless actively overtaking you should be in lane one.

I've just picked up this fred and I am frankly shocked. Maybe just a short rant:

1) Just because you pay your road tax it doesn't give you the right to drive in an antisocial way or to break the law.
2) If other drivers want to break the law by speeding it's not your job to get in their way or try to stop them unless you're a policeman/woman.
3) Driving in the middle lane when the nearside is clear is a good way to get yourself stopped and a fixed penalty. Plus if the police stop you for that reason they can nick you for any other little offence they might find. They can give your car a mini-mot if they feel like it, they can breathalise you, and they can waste your time for as long as they reasonably like.
4) Not pulling over to the inside lane, or driving with your fog lights on in the rain, both constitute bad driving as well as being illegal. They will also annoy other road users. And quite possibly cause them to drive badly and maybe cause accidents. And those accidents may involve you or will at least be partly your fault. Do you really want that?

Rant over, but seriously guys, re-read the Highway Code and consider WHY the rules are there.

Pegleg wrote:

Quite frankly i'm amazed at some of the comments in this thread.
What, you see nothing wrong with hogging the middle lane?
I don't care if you've a million excuses for doing so; it's bad manners, bad driving, bone idle, an offence and can be downright dangerous.
Repeat offenders should have their licence taken away.
And their steering wheels shoved up their

As regards fog lamps, the idoits who drive with the front fogs on are even worse. The law is the same for both front and rear and yet the main offenders are the young who leave the dammed things on all the time. They surely must have read the HC quite recently?

Can’t agree more
Just returned from a UK visit and encountered quite a few of these centre lane hoggers, who needed their steering wheels being placed in a more appropriate place as Pegleg suggests.

In Norway, it seems the worst offenders are drivers that do not use their indicator lights, not on roundabouts, not at junctions, not when pulling off onto a slip road, in fact not never. They may also benefit from rear insertion of their steering wheel as well.  2007 Freelander 2 HSE TD4 Manual with Premium Pack & Moonroof.
Stornoway Grey with Ebony Black Pleather, Clear Indicators, Body Side Mouldings etc.

AndyC wrote:

In Norway, it seems the worst offenders are drivers that do not use their indicator lights, not on roundabouts, not at junctions, not when pulling off onto a slip road, in fact not never.

There must be a lot of Viking blood in Lowestoft then that seems the rule here too.
The few that DO signal seem to indicate left two exits before the one they are going to take (making me nearly pull out in front of them).

After a week in Devon the journey home enlightened me to some of the worst driving I have seen! Now let me get this absolutely clear, I am not some holier than thou, I've never driven like a cretin. I have done my fair share of things in 25 years, most of which involve not concentrating on the job in hand, but I have managed to drive through 1 hedge when I was 17 and knew more about driving a car than Nigel Mansell, and 1 speeding ticket...

But, we encountered numerous cars stuck in lane 2 doing 70mph on their speedo. This is given away by two things, 1 they are actually doing about 65 mph and two they are completely oblivious to anything else on the road.

One of them was on a stretch of Motorway that was completely clear, no issues with lane 1, it was smooth, so everyone that knew how to drive needed to cross 2 lanes and back again. Numpty.

The best was the pratt who was stuck in lane 2, lane 1 was empty. So why is this a problem? The was causing a tailback. Cars in lane 3 were overtaking cars in lane 2, the cars in lane 2 were then reaching wit and were having to overtake. Some were not inclined to accelerate to 80 / 85 to match the speed of lane 3 so they were causing the traffic to back up in lane 3. Traffic in lane 2 now had nowhere to go and was backing up....

That is how you drive down the road, sit in traffic for 10 minutes and then drive off wondering what that was all about.

Don't do it. It is crap. Hi Darling, I'll be home in 10 mins. If I'm not back, please read this message again...

Middle Lane hoggers really annoy me, I take a pretty even split between pulling across 2 lanes and back again or just straightforward undertaking them.

I just don't understand it, what am I missing that's so bad about the inside lane? I accept that if it's back to back lorries and you are going quicker than them all then stay in the middle lane as you will be using it for it's intended purpose, but when the inside lane is clear, use it! Blue

1STFREELANDER wrote:

You cannot be undertaken if you are in the right lane, I think drivers who sit in the middle lane do so because they have not got the confidence to change lanes. The law is quite clear a motorway has three lanes, a nearside lane and two overtaking lanes, unless actively overtaking you should be in lane one.

Being Undertaken involves a hearse, Overtaking on the nearside is what you're looking for

Past master wrote:

I've just picked up this fred and I am frankly shocked. Maybe just a short rant:

2) If other drivers want to break the law by speeding it's not your job to get in their way or try to stop them unless you're a policeman/woman.
3) Driving in the middle lane when the nearside is clear is a good way to get yourself stopped and a fixed penalty. Plus if the police stop you for that reason they can nick you for any other little offence they might find. They can give your car a mini-mot if they feel like it, they can breathalise you, and they can waste your time for as long as they reasonably like.
4) Not pulling over to the inside lane, or driving with your fog lights on in the rain, both constitute bad driving as well as being illegal. They will also annoy other road users. And quite possibly cause them to drive badly and maybe cause accidents. And those accidents may involve you or will at least be partly your fault. Do you really want that?

Rant over, but seriously guys, re-read the Highway Code and consider WHY the rules are there.

2) I suppose you'd stand by and let an old lady get mugged too.
3) Like police officers have the time or inclination to waste someones time when they have paper work to catch up on
4) I'Ve NEVER been pulled over by a police officer in over 40 years of driving, and have never been convicted of an offence

Blue wrote:

Middle Lane hoggers really annoy me, I take a pretty even split between pulling across 2 lanes and back again or just straightforward undertaking them.

I love it when that happens, Especially when I still don't move over

[quote="Junior/]

2) I suppose you'd stand by and let an old lady get mugged too.
3) Like police officers have the time or inclination to waste someones time when they have paper work to catch up on
4) I'Ve NEVER been pulled over by a police officer in over 40 years of driving, and have never been convicted of an offence
I love it when that happens, Especially when I still don't move over [/quote]

2) Where I live, yes. The muggers have knives and sometimes guns. Luckily they normally mug/stab/shoot each other here in Peckham.
3) Depends on your attitude to them. I take it you're not black, prone to mouthing off, uninsured or into drugs!
4) Lucky boy. Always a first time.

And when you've caused that accident, I expect you'll still be loving it.

Some while ago I went on trip to the south of France via Calais. Two things struck me.

1 (off topic) from Essex to Dover 3 delays for road works, From Calais to St. Tropez (10 times the distance) 1 slight delay.

2 Drivers ONLY used the outside lane for overtaking, moving back in as soon as they had cleared the slower traffic. bearing in mind these are French drivers it was quite disconcerting at 1st but it works..

How come lane 1 is so bad that it is too rough for their delicate little a55es if they are always being repaired?

With modern tail light lenses rear fog lights are only really needed in daylight anyway and obviously only in severe reduced visibility, not when there is a little rain. I have always been a little puzzled by the number of cars with front fogs on in normal visibility. Most cars have switches which force them off when you turn off the noraml lights so drivers must be diliberately turning them on.

Its all very well talking about fines and points for improper use of lanes, lights etc. but when there is hardly ever any police on the roads it's not going to happen. One of my biggest gripes about speed cameras is not that they do you for speeding (shouldn't be speeding anyway ) but they can't check for bald tyres, dodgy drivers or otherwise illegal vehicles which a live policeman can.

I can't say that I have noted better behaviour since my FL (back on topic). Prog rock is cool!
2012 XS SD4 Indus Silver