Very British Problems #2384. Drivers hogging the middle lane on the motorway. Why do they do it?

I read a theory this morning that it was all about the British class system. The inside-lane is for lorries, and inferior vehicles that can’t travel very fast, otherwise known (according to the espoused theory) as the Working Class. Then by extension, the middle-lane is for Middle Class people, and the fast-lane is for the Upper Class, In that they have better, faster cars.

The theory seemed a little odd. The question, though, was quite intriguing (and, frankly, way more interesting than the student essays I’m supposed to be marking today). Intriguing enough to go on a short, ‘someone, somewhere already solved your problem’ exercise. On which, sure enough, there have been a number of surveys of lane-hoggers.  Perhaps not surprisingly the ‘middle-lane-equals-middle-class’ argument was not one of the cited reasons. It wouldn’t be, would it. Because no-one is going to give such an answer to a person with a clipboard and tape-recorder. A classic case of people doing things for good reasons and real reasons. Surveys capture the good reasons, but we have to do something different in order to capture the real reasons. Like understanding human bevahiour at a first-principle level. Using something like our Autonomy-Belonging-Competence-Meaning (ABC-M) model, maybe.

Then there’s another piece of the jigsaw missing: it’s not just the good and real reasons that govern behaviours, but the relationship between all those reasons. If we don’t understand the ‘betweens’ there’s no chance of understanding – actually – why drivers persistently hog the middle lane of the UK’s motorways. It was time for a Perception Map…

First up, then, I needed to formulate a question. I decided on, ‘Ideally, drivers don’t hog the middle lane of the motorway, but…’

And then I trawled through the literature to make a list of all the good ‘buts’. There were quite a few. Then I spent a few minutes thinking about and speculating on the (ABC-M) real ones. Here’s the overall list I ended up with:

A Inside-lane is for ‘Working Class’/grubby/slow/inferior people

B Middle-lane is for Middle Class people

C Driving in the middle-lane is a sign of control

D Drivers don’t understand why lane hogging is bad

E There’s a perception of increased safety margin when driving in the middle-lane

F Reduced effort staying in lane (laziness)

G Rules are not enforced (or enforceable)

H Being in the middle-lane saves having to think ahead for lane-changing to overtake

I ‘Better visibility in the middle-lane’

J ‘I drive at the speed limit so no-one should be overtaking me’

K ‘More options if there’s a problem on hard-shoulder or central reservation’

L ‘Everyone else does it’ (surveys show ~23% of drivers follow Code instruction)

M ‘Not aware of Highway Code requirement’

N ‘It’s faster in the middle-lane’

O ‘It doesn’t harm anyone else, people should mind their own business’

P ‘More likely there will be oil/debris on inside lane’

Q ‘It’s called the ‘cruising lane’’

And here’s what happens after using the ‘leads to’ question responses to map the betweens:

The upshot of which is a big vicious cycle preventing the problem from being solved. None of which has to do with Middle Class, Working Class or any other kind of Class. The only intangible ‘real reason’ element in the vicious cycle is the perception that driving in the middle-lane is a sign of control. Something along the lines that we enjoy breaking rules that we perceive as trivial… especially if, looking at the rest of the vicious cycle, we know were likely to get away with it.

Breaking the vicious cycle still looks like a tough one. But that’s what solving complex problems is inevitably about. An absence of silver-bullet solutions on the one hand, and the need for multiple partial yet complementary strategies on the other. Like using smart motorway cameras to spot and fine drivers, making those fines visible to all (overhead signs saying things like ’25 drivers fined for lane-hogging this week’), and public education programmes that show how lane-hogging has a real and tangible adverse effect on other road users.

Or, if I revert to mapping the overall contradiction on the Contradiction Matrix and see that Principle 13, The Other Way Around, is the most frequently used solution, I might suggest solving the problem by doing what other more enlightened nations do, and switch to a traffic system that allows drivers to go (and stay) in whatever lane they want. Self-organisation beats command-and-control. But then again, as we’ve been amply demonstrating to the rest of the world for the last four years, the reality of ‘taking back control’ seems to mean sticking with petty top-down, command-and-control rules. And then moaning about it.