Hacker News Reader

Comment by nthcolumn | Hacker News Reader

Driving in the UK is sheer hell. Most people drive in the middle lane regardless of whether they are overtaking or not. Go to the continent and it is pure bliss by comparison. Brits even mistakenly call the outer lane the 'fast' lane. It is actually the serious offense of 'Driving Without Due Care And Attention' but UK transport police are worse than useless. On education - there is no test of motorway/highway skills for your driving license! Also, many UK people even deliberately obstruct other road users. The law states that you _can_ undertake. It is detailed in what is known as the Highway Code. Undertaking is allowed in a one-way system eg. motorway provided the vehicle to your right is not overtaking e.g. maintaining a constant speed sitting in the damn lane like they own it making everybody else do their driving. I'll go now before rant mode fully kicks in....

View on HN

And yet the UK has the third lowest crash rate in the world compared with population and the second lowest crash compared per distance driven.[0]

Also, your facts are wrong. You are required to practice on your highway skills and you will almost certainly go on a highway (if location permits) during your test. I'm almost happy we don't train our newer drivers on the motorway, honestly, I'm not sure I would trust them not to mess up even with an instructor joining them. We do have debates about whether to let newer drivers go on the motorway [1], but people bring up the point that they're normally incredibly busy and a single mistake could kill 5+ cars travelling at 70mph.

Also, you say we can't call the outer lane the "fast" lane? It is fast when compared to the other lanes, but this doesn't mean we need to drive without care or attention! I think you don't understand that "fast" is a relative term and does not mean you can break the speed limit.

A couple of other points:

- You can't undertake normally, only in specific circumstances such as in queues or in separated traffic situations (like one-way traffic). You are NOT allowed to undertake on a motorway.

- "Many UK people even deliberately obstruct other road users" has never happened to me in my life but, I've heard others talk about doing it to others when they're not being considerate to others (for example when two lanes go to one, and a car thinks they can speed down the fast lane to overtake everyone and just bully their way into the left lane).

- "Pure bliss by comparison", really? Italy is notoriously bad at driving, Spain and other places also have similar problems with them. Generalising the entire continent to be perfect doesn't work.

[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_traffic-r... [1] http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-38464776

I think his issue with the word fast (and mine) is that collectively calling them "fast" lanes instead of "passing" lanes is part of the problem. Then you have incognizant drivers thinking "I drive fast, this lane must be for me"

>- "Pure bliss by comparison", really? Italy is notoriously bad at driving, Spain and other places also have similar problems with them. Generalising the entire continent to be perfect doesn't work.

Usually when I see people comparing the UK to continental Europe like that, they're really talking about northern Europe, and conveniently ignoring Spain and Italy.

It's like that here in the US: any time we say something positive about our country, we're usually ignoring the existence of the South.

> Most people drive in the middle lane regardless of whether they are overtaking or not.

This is not true. A small, highly annoying, minority drive in the middle lane regardless. Most people drive reasonably.

My least favourite thing is in these new 50mph limits on the motorway, where people will sit in the fast lane doing exactly 50, holding others up. They wouldn't do it on a regular section of motorway with a 70 limit, why do it in a 50?

>They wouldn't do it on a regular section of motorway with a 70 limit, why do it in a 50?

I would guess because 70mph is the default speed on a motorway, and the highest speed limit possible, and it's generally accepted that people often drive faster than that on motorways in the UK. Whereas 50mph is unusual and thus seems more intentional, and thus more likely to be enforced.

I'm fine with people driving at 50, I just think they shouldn't be doing it in the fast lane. They should get out of the way except when overtaking.

The 50mph limits are usually temporary and enforced by average speed cameras.

The number of people who blast through those sections well in excess of 50mph never ceases to amaze me.

I can only assume they don't understand how average speed cameras work.

I regularly drive through them at more than 50 and have never received a ticket from one. The cameras are either not operational or the enforced limit is higher than 50.

And my point was nothing to do with the speed camera. My point was that you have no right to sit in the fast lane holding other people up, regardless of what the speed limit is. Get out of the way if you're not overtaking.

EDIT: This isn't directed at you, just a general rant.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com