Sir,

The middle lane of a three-lane road should not be used for overtaking “blind,” nor when already occupied by an overtaker coming in the opposite direction.

The I.A.M. and police rule goes much further and is that overtaking should not be done between opposing vehicles. (“Don’t be the meat in the sandwich,” the police say.) Under quiet conditions this rule can be obeyed by adjustment of speed, but under usual conditions it virtually prohibits any use of the middle lane.

Thus, worries about sufficient clearance, which are the motives for this rule, reduce a three-lane road to a two-lane road, and presumably reduce a two-lane road to an impossible hazard?

Just what is this so-called Advanced Motoring of which the above super-cautious nonsense is only one small example? (They have their super-dangerous nonsense, too!) After 20 years of motoring, attendance at police lectures, failing and then passing the I.A.M. test, and extensive correspondence with their H.Q., I have to conclude that advanced motoring is the suspension of the exercise of skill, judgement, experience and sense, and its replacement by a restricted “drills by numbers” technique alleged to ensure 100 per cent safety.

E.G. Stirzaker – Whitburn.