First of all, unless coming up to my motorway exit, I never drive in what has become lane 1, and usd to be the hard shoulder.

I believe that's what's called a lane hogger. I lost count of the number I undertook on the M1 yesterday, several in lane 3 with two empty lanes to their left!

First of all, unless coming up to my motorway exit, I never drive in what has become lane 1, and usd to be the hard shoulder.

I check everything I reasonably can on the car weekly, travelling or not.

What do others do to stay safe/?

Yesterday I was in slow traffic betweeen J21 and 27 eastbound on the M25 and was nicely surprised at the good level of driving and attention to speed limits. It was slow for a while, " no ducking and diving" not even on the infamous J23 exit!

I adjusted my normal route from Colchester to Ealing and back because of congestion on the North circular/A41 Hendon way a couple of weeks ago.

I wasn't aware that the A1 (South Mimms) junction was 'infamous' - the only 'memorable moment' I recall (as a local) was when someone was caught by Plod peeing on the verge at the slip on from the roundabout - featured on Police Camera Action or similar!! :-)

I tend to avoid the 'hard shoulder lane' from part time smart motorways because they still seem to be infrequently swept to remove debris, which is an obvious hazard. I only really use when needing to pull off soon for a slip-off.

I suppose it also very much depends on the road in question - whether its part time, a full time all-lane-running system and/or mostly filled with HGVs running bumper to bumper or not. I would tend to advise giving more room to vehicle in front, just in case someone was stopped in a live lane and you needed to take evasive action with little notice.

I'm nervous of lane one as I've witnessed some smart motorway horror stories with lorries suddenly swerving to avoid a breakdown. I witnessed two in one journey on the M1 a few months ago. If very clear I will drop into lane one though.

Lane hogging is an issue espeially people hanging onto lane 3 or 4 when the motorway is otherwise clear - infact you can be prosecuted for this now, although this rarely happens.

However undertaking (unless slow moving traffic) is really dangerous and has always been illegal in this country.

Slightly related my son witnessed a problem of the current Covid situation. Driving on the M62 Friday he saw 7 broken down motorhomes over 52 miles.

Edited by Big John on 02/08/2020 at 22:57

Adaptive Cruise Control. An absolute godsend in these cases. Position yourself at a safe difference behind the car in front, enable ACC (ideally when moving at whatever the speed limit is), and let it track the car in front as it slows down or speeds up through the slow sections.

I've never had it before my current car, and from now on it's very high indeed on my list of desirable extras. It makes it so much less stressful when driving in start-stop traffic, or indeed for almost all driving where there's other traffic about.