Road position

an langer

I remember years ago when learning to drive my instructor told me to stick as much to the left as possible.
On a motorway, when in left lane stick to the left line as much as possible, and when right lane, stick towards the right line.
When driving in UK I saw everyone do this on the motorway. But here I notice a lot of people driving in the middle of the lane or even sitting on the middle line , on the motorways. Because they drive in the middle of the lane or sitting on the middle line they tend to swerve sometimes on to the next lane. It tends to be older drivers too. Were they taught something different back in the day? My father drives in the middle and says that's what he was taught years ago.

Sir123

an langer wrote: »

I remember years ago when learning to drive my instructor told me to stick as much to the left as possible.
On a motorway, when in left lane stick to the left line as much as possible, and when right lane, stick towards the right line.
When driving in UK I saw everyone do this on the motorway. But here I notice a lot of people driving in the middle of the lane or even sitting on the middle line , on the motorways. Because they drive in the middle of the lane or sitting on the middle line they tend to swerve sometimes on to the next lane. It tends to be older drivers too. Were they taught something different back in the day? My father drives in the middle and says that's what he was taught years ago.

At the moment I'm being thought the same thing as you have been. Although you should keep as close to the left as possible, but not too close as you have to allow for cyclists etc who would use that part of the road. Some people drive too close to the left and are nearly skinning curbs. I hate this and I see it a lot whilst driving. It's terrible driving.

I'd say stay to the left but somewhat out toward the middle if that makes sense.
Anyone wanna help us out??

ProudDUB

The left lane is the one that you should stick to, unless you are turning right soon, or the lane is left turn only & you are going straight on. It is very tempting to want drive in the right lane as you can avoid buses, cyclists, parked cars etc etc by doing so. I am guilty of doing that myself. But if you are a leaner driver, and you drive in the right lane during your test for no real reason other than you just want to drive in it, you'll get marked down for incorrect road positioning.

On the motor ways, the middle lane and far right lane are for overtaking only. You shouldn't drive in them for long periods of time. But this is Ireland. People do it all the time. There are lots of posts & threads over in the main Motoring forum with people giving out yards about "middle lane hogs" who stick to the middle lane and slow things down for everyone else. Whether or not they do it because they never got any proper instruction on the the correct way of driving on the motorway, or they did, but they just couldn't be bothered doing things the right way, is anyone's guess.

ADIDriving

I read this differently. ProudDub is correct for lane selection. But for position in a lane: Normal road position for a normal road can be either slightly to the left of the centre of the lane or centred in the lane. When driving in a lane with other lanes going the same direction as you, correct road position is centred in your lane. Subject to you following the road straight and no obstructions.

woodchuck

Learner here. I did a pretest recently and was told to stick to the left side of the lane. I think I had gotten into a bad habit of going too far into the middle/right. A trick I've gone back to using (think I heard it somewhere on here actually!) is to drive with the steering wheel in the centre of the road. This works out about right for road position on the straight.

Edit: Sorry, might not be answering this right, think you're talking about what lane to be in? I've been told stick to the left lane unless I need to change lane in order to turn right or overtake (obviously standard rules of the road apply in terms of not crossing solid white line etc)

teR_

Not sure about motorways but, my driving instructor and accompanying driver who drives the country everyday for a living say; The lane to the left is the driving lane the others for overtaking. I think in England they take the whole learning process more seriously than they do here making for more educated drivers.

Best Driving

ADIDriving wrote: »

I read this differently. ProudDub is correct for lane selection. But for position in a lane: Normal road position for a normal road can be either slightly to the left of the centre of the lane or centred in the lane. When driving in a lane with other lanes going the same direction as you, correct road position is centred in your lane. Subject to you following the road straight and no obstructions.

Would agree entirely with this answer. Also when passing a parked car or similar obstruction ( non - motorway ) open door clearance is what's advised as long as you don't obstruct traffic in oncoming lane, in which case less space means less speed.