u/Jazz-Potato6385

What do you think of this?

Before you downvote, I'm open to hearing different opinions on this. I just don't think I understand this sub's obsession with the overtaking lane.

"Everyone should drive in the left lane!"

In an ideal model, with low traffic and consistent speeds maintained by all road users, this is exactly how it should work, with people sporadically moving into the right lane to overtake.

In the real world though, this would mean increasing the amount of lane merges, accelerations and brakings nationwide by tens of thousands everyday - all massive factors in accidents.

If I'm driving for forty minutes on a two-lane motorway, and I'm driving the speed limit of 120kmh, and it's busy-ish, that means that there are lots of cars who are going slower than me on the road too. Changing back into the left lane every time I overtake a car, even when I know that in a matter of seconds I'll then have to switch lanes again, back into a right lane that has cars travelling at 120kmh in it, increases the risk of being involved in an accident when compared with simply staying in the lane I'm in.

If you are someone who drives at the speed limit and spend any amount of time driving on the motorway in this country, repeatedly switching back and forth between two lanes in busy traffic (which you'd end up doing for every trailer, lorry, old person etc) makes it far more likely that there'll be an accident than if you just stay in one lane the whole time.

"People shouldn't hog the middle lane!"

On a three lane motorway with a lot of junctions, say the M50, being in the middle lane means you're not at the mercy of cars merging onto the road every 2-3 kilometres. Cars merge too slowly, or too fast, or without checking properly - the safest place to be is not on the lane that they're merging into. If you're on a road with the number of ramps that the M50 has, this means the safest thing to do is stay in the middle lane and avoid relying on someone merging not being on their phone, or distracted, or just not going at a safe speed.

Now you can downvote.

EDIT: If I'm going 120 in the right lane and a car behind me is going faster, I'd obviously pull into the left lane so they could pass. I'm not interested in blocking anyone. If there's not much traffic about, that's the lane I'll be in for most of the journey unless overtaking.

But if there's lots of cars on the road - I'll pull back into the right lane to overtake and stay in it until the next car comes up behind me and I've to let them pass. It's still less lane merges (and thus interaction with other cars) than pulling back and forth every time I go past a slower car in the left lane.