Ray Massey's column

Is it just me, or are more people claiming 'squatters’ rights’ in the middle of motorways and bigger three-lane A-roads?

1st September 2007

I only ask because I seem to spend a lot of my time these days driving along otherwise empty roads to see a car ahead hogging the middle lane at a relatively low speed. These freestyle drivers demonstrate a complete disregard for lane discipline and for the Highway Code, which is now being revised ready for publication in autumn. Are they hogging the middle lane for security because they are nervous about getting too close to the inner and outer sides of the road, and like the comfort of having lots of space around them? Or are they just selfish, unthinking and stupid? Probably a bit of both.


	I’m always nervous about driving behind a car with a ‘fish’ symbol on the boot. I’m not ready to meet my maker yet, even if they are

But for drivers seeking to overtake, it creates a dilemma. Do you make a sweeping arc from the inside lane to the outside lane and drive around them, as you are meant to do? Or do you ‘teach them a lesson’ by whizzing past on the inside and hope they take the hint? That is a matter of individual conscience, though I am told the latter – dubbed ‘undertaking’ and having its own inherent risks – is usually quite effective. Yet it highlights a fascinating divide between the theoretical rules of the road – as exemplified by the 76-year-old Highway Code – and real life. And it has already led to parody. The anarchic ‘Not The Highway Code – The Unofficial Rules of the Road’ (Weidenfeld & Nicholson, £7.99) advises that when driving on a three-lane carriageway: ‘Use the left hand lane if you are a pensioner, a vicar or a boy racer overtaking someone on the inside. Use the middle lane if you are a middle-lane hogger’.

Another pastiche, ‘The Myway Code – The Real Rules of the Road’ (Boxtree, £10), sets out stopping distances for cars which include: ‘average post-office queue; gawping distance; seeing your life flash before your eyes; and screaming ‘We’re all going to die’.’ The jokes are clearly based on reality. Take, for example, the stand-off at two-lane traffic lights on dual carriageways. The outer lane is usually for overtaking traffic. But how many times does that BMW driver or white van man on the inside feel compelled to accelerate away in front of you to prove a point when the lights change from red to green?

There is a fascinating university PhD study to be written on the social, national, gender, ethnic and religious background of freestyle drivers, and their effect. From experience, I am always nervous about driving behind any car with a ‘fish’ symbol on the boot. It’s not that I have a problem with committed followers of the Christian faith, it’s just that I’m not yet ready to meet my maker, even if they are.

A colleague pointed out another real life alternative Highway Code – how the inside lane on motorways has become ‘the mobile phone lane’. Despite new rules which can give drivers a £60 fine and three points for using a hand-held mobile at the wheel, you can drive for miles overtaking lines of young women in hot hatches, delivery drivers in Ford Transits and super-reps all with mobiles clamped to their ears. Fat chance of them ever being caught, given the 13 per cent reduction in traffic patrols.

The real Highway Code was created in 1931 – four years before the first driving test – at a time when there were only 2.3 million cars on British roads, compared to the 33 million today. And despite a 14-fold increase in traffic, it has helped halve from 7,000 the number of people killed in accidents.

Now, though, after decades of revisions, and about a million sales a year, experts say fewer than one in five drivers ever read it after passing their test. Doesn’t it show!