A & C Driving School

You should know the purpose of each lane on the motorway.

To help you understand when you should move from one lane to another, the picture below gives a number to each lane. The lane nearest the hard shoulder is lane 1 (also known as the inside lane). On a two-lane motorway, the lane nearest to the centre of the road is lane 2 (or the outside lane). On a three-lane motorway, lane 3 is the outside lane.

• Lane 1 – You should always use this lane for normal driving. Stay in this lane unless you are overtaking.

• Lane 2 – You should only use this lane for overtaking. You must move back to lane 1 once you have finished overtaking and it is safe to do so. you can also move into lane 2 to allow vehicles coming from your
left to join the motorway.

• Lane 3 – You should only use this lane if traffic in lanes 1 and 2 is moving in queues and you need to overtake or make room for merging traffic.

Again, you should move back to lane 1 as soon as it is safe to do so.

When overtaking, only move between two lanes at a time. For example, to move from lane 1 to lane 3, first move into lane 2 and wait to move to lane 3 until it is safe to do so.

Do not use the outside lane if you are driving:
• a goods vehicle with a design gross weight of more than 3,500 kilogrammes such as a lorry or heavy goods vehicle (HGV);

• a passenger vehicle with seating for more than eight passengers; such as a bus; or

• a vehicle towing a trailer, horsebox or caravan.