THE RANDLE REPORT

LEARNING LANES

Until now, just about all of the people driving on British motorways have not been specifically trained for the purpose. As of now, the plan is that ‘learners’ will be allowed access to the motorway system, so their first venture down a sliproad won’t be a journey into the unknown.

Interest groups have been campaigning for this for decades, so the decision must be good news, mustn’t it?

I’m not so sure.

There’s a hell of a lot of theory involved in getting a licence to drive these days. Theory is all very well in theory, but believing what should occur theoretically is the quickest way to wind up in the soup.

A woman in a white Kia ahead of me on the M25 yesterday knew the theory of mirror, signal, manoeuvre, but she didn’t know the law of physics that says two white Kias cannot occupy the same space, so almost collided with the one passing her at  the time.

Another one in a Honda Jazz doggedly held on to the inside lane despite the fact that a homicidal lunatic in an articulated low loader was driving less than a car length behind her.

A bloke in a Toyota Land Cruiser simply stopped dead in front of me on the M20 slip road. A BMW made all its lane changes at forty-five degrees to the carriagway and a self-righteous dolt in a Mondeo cut across me to prove that I have no right to decide which lane to be in, before braking sharply to avoid running up the back of the lorry the rest of us knew was there.

Somebody told him you should always hew to the left hand lane and return to it as soon as you have passed something slower moving. This is largely nonsensical, and also dangerous.

The principle of motorways and dual carriageways is that everything is oriented in the same direction. If everyone is going forward at a similar rate, nothing too serious can occur.

But, if someone stops and those behind him or her have not left sufficient reaction space, the principle falls down.

And it doesn’t apply at all in lane changing, when the vehicle is moving at an angle to the direction of flow, and this is by far the most potentially dangerous factor in motorway driving.

Which is why you should keep lane changes to a minimum. If you can see that you will need to come out to pass another lorry a few hundred yards ahead, stay where you are until you can safely move back into the left hand lane and stay there.

It’s also why lane changing should be gradual, keeping the vehicle as close to the straight-ahead as possible, so that you flow with the traffic and maintain your space on the road.

It seems to have eluded the self-righteous that all the vehicles on the motorway at any one time will not fit in a single lane. That’s why the roads have several of them.

As it is, the nearside lane gets by far the most punishment because it is full of lorries.

If there are general rules for safety and good order, they are:

1. If a police car, an ambulance or a Belgian is coming up behind you at high velocity, get out of their way. If there’s no one anywhere behind you and the left lane is full of lorries, pick a lane you like and use that one.

2. Don’t leave it too late to overtake. If you know you’re going to have to do it, do it smoothly and early, and allow for those who habitually do leave it too late, so you can let them out or move out to another lane until they have passed and you can safely return.

It’s also no help to anyone if you’re in the nearside lane at a junction. Where the cost is justified, the Highways people designate the nearside lane as a sliproad extension. That’s because it’s a good idea and helps keep the flow going. If everyone who isn’t getting off moves out to lane two until both the off and on sliproads are cleared, it is best for all.

Yes, it’s important that drivers should experience the workings of motorways, but I would suggest that someone already experienced should take them out the first few times, so they can see the reality of what can happen, rather than someone’s theory of what should.