Having spent all day trolling up and down the UK wonderful motorway network (3 hours one-way, and only 2 hours to come back! Why?). I saw several wonderful lane changes worthy of inclusion on www.How Can You Do That and Not CRASH.com, mainly caused by most people’s complete apathy in keeping left. (For those of a USA persuasion, you are only supposed to pass on the right in the UK.) So I thought how do you make people keep left. Hit them where it hurts - in the wallet. Using DGPS you can track which lane the car is in. Charging should be based on time spent in each lane, with the cost per mile of each lane from the far left doubling. So say, slow lane 1p per mile, overtaking (ha ha) lane 2p per mile, and fast lane 4p per mile.
Although it might all then degenerate into a fight to stay in the slowest lane.-- eight_nine_tortoise, Mar 18 2009 21 Q, I agree that you don't want to stop poeple using the third lane. The problem in the UK is that a lot of the time the third lane may be solid nose to tail and other 2 lanes have nothing in them.-- eight_nine_tortoise, Mar 19 2009 Just have a "Dorks Only Lane", with frequent overhead signs saying "Get in Lane NOW Dorks!" This should ensure that it stays relatively clear of traffic.-- xenzag, Mar 19 2009 ... until the half-con comes to town :)-- pertinax, Mar 19 2009 UK Highway Code, rule 163: "stay in your lane if traffic is moving slowly in queues. If the queue on your right is moving more slowly than you are, you may pass on the left "
So, if the third lane is busy, and the nearside lanes are free, what's wrong with passing on the left?** [edit] assuming that by doing so, you would not exceed the speed limit.-- coprocephalous, Mar 19 2009 The trouble with rule 163 is that most people interpret a queue as a stream of traffic moving at up to 80mph, and are quite happy to undertake faster than that, as they want to do 90mph.
To my mind a queue is until you can happily trickle along in 2nd gear (say 15mph), any faster and undertaking is an accident waiting to happen.
You learn not to undertake moving traffic on a bike as people just do not see you (or perhaps not even look) when they suddenly realise they want that exit.-- eight_nine_tortoise, Mar 19 2009 //You learn not to undertake moving traffic on a bike //Just Mr Darwin doing his job to ensure biker genes don't pollute the gene pool.-- coprocephalous, Mar 19 2009 Too late I already have.-- eight_nine_tortoise, Mar 19 2009 Here's a way to implement it with a twist. Put 90% of all motorway speed cameras on just the fast lane and make it widely known that this has been done. Voila, everyone stays out of the fast lane unless they have to overtake or there is heavy traffic.-- Bad Jim, Mar 19 2009 random, halfbakery