Game of Cones

Just returned home from our latest wee break in Yorkshire and Cumbria feeling pretty relaxed and even the road works didn't bother me. Well, not until we got almost into the home straight on the M74 that is   A stretch of the road is being resurfaced so there is the usual closing of lanes, speed restrictions etc and it's slow going. So what do we get, a procession of cars and vans pushing up on the closed lane forcing their way into traffic further slowing everyone down. Meanwhile, up ahead, numpties in the two open lanes keep switching because they think the other one is going a bit faster. Result, it takes us all longer to get through 

Why can't folk be patient in traffic queues?

Is it the police or the highways agency that recommend that all lanes should be used, until one reaches the actual closure and then vehicles should filter in turn. No system will work until it  is made mandatory and failure to conform punishable by hanging.

It's been said here before but... this is one area where the Americans have a better convention - they put up a sign saying "Alternative priority" and it means that people in each lane take it in turns to go through the obstruction - so both lanes get used right up to the point at which the lanes merge into one.

(We would use "Alternate priority", as they use the words alternate and alternative the other way round to us).