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Q When is a third lane not a third lane on a motorway?
Page 141
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I ask this because I frequently come down M6 and join M5, and for several miles the gantries are arranged so as to divide the traffic. Strangers are given the impression that the first lane leads to various junctions, leaving the straight-ahead travellers to go along the second and third lanes, although in fact the first lane also goes ahead (until Quinton where one is ordered to "get in lane"). At every gantry somebody leg a law-abiding caravan tower) plants himself in the middle lane at 40 mph, causing a queue of "big boys" who had been enjoy
ing 60 or so, to do a bit of braking. Do you think that we heavies can legally use the third lane to overtake, having been given the impression that we only have two lanes to choose from?
AIt seems fairly clear that if travelling
on a three-lane motorway one is faced with overhead signs indicating that the nearside lane is to be occupied by vehicles wishing to leave the motorway at one or more junctions ahead and the two offside lanes are to be occupied by vehicles wishing to continue straight ahead on that motorway, then that section is only a two-lane motorway and as such allows drivers of vehicles over 3 tons unladen to use the outer or third lane.