I’ve had two more trips to lovely Milton Keynes this week, and today’s featured horrid weather and a hold up on the M1 due to an accident. The bad weather seemed to make one aspect of motorway driving much worse:

The loooong queue in the outside lane, and big empty space in the other two. Are people at the front completely unaware of what is behind them? Is the front being held up by a self-appointed speed guardian making sure no-one goes above 70? have people forgotten what lane 2 and 3 are for?

Who knows. Whatever it is, it’s way more dangerous than driving above the 70 limit but letting traffic flow correctly. This preesents a dilemma if you are in lane 1 or 2: The outside lane slows. Do you

1. Overtake on the inside- risky, and illegal, perhaps.
2. Slow down in sympathy- dangerous and obstructive.

The other thing is truck speed liniters. They’re set at ~60mph. But they vary. This means truck A (61mph) has to try to overtake truck B (60mph), with the resultant logjam.

It makes me like the M6T even more- cars only, really (not that I’m having a pop at truckers), low traffic volumes (less people in the outside lane queue!) and a fairly high average speed. That makes me happier, so I’ll stop whinging.