To think it's ok to want to travel at 70mph on the motorway...

Have not RTFT, but if your lane is clear you stay where you are. There is no need to move across 2 or 3 lanes of traffic because the car in the lane next to you is going slower than you are... That is not undertaking

Most of the time it isn’t cruise control with the drivers I encounter on the M62. It’s hilly, and the middle lane hoggers also drop speed on the uphill parts (because they are so unaware they don’t realise they need to press harder on the accelerator to maintain their speed) which of course wouldn’t happen if they were using cruise control.

🙄

A lot of PPs saying lane discipline on motorways isn’t taught - it’s a core feature of the theory test…

i have nver driven on a motorway and this thread is making me anxious
dh drives on the motorway and i navigate
but i would rather avoid motorways

This. When space in front of me is clear and I am doing the legal speed (70), it would never occur to me to slow down and move to lanes 2/3 to progress.

Around where I live that doesn’t seem to be an issue though, you rarely get people doing under 70 other than lorries/ vans, at a strict 70 I usually get left behind. I’ve been undertaken doing 70 quite a few times.

I drive on motorways a lot and see so many middle lane hoggers - I think it's a confidence thing so they don't have to change lanes - it wouldn't be so much of an issue if they kept up with the traffic but 99% of the time they don't.

I was on the M4 last week, came off the elevated section just before Heston and the car 2 in front of me moved straight into the middle lane and drove at less than 60mph. I overtook and moved straight back into the left lane but when I looked in my mirror, he was causing chaos and cars were overtaking on both side.

I have been known to pass on the left but prefer to move over and overtake if I can. Most of the time they're pootling along, completely oblivious.

Police are supposed to be cracking down on middle lane hoggers but I rarely see a police car.

There needs to be a separate test for motorway driving. First test gets you A roads/city driving, then after 6 months you can take a motorway test. It will ensure that people at least understand how they should drive.

People avoid the left land for all sorts of reasons...the massive lorry's for one. The idiots darting between lanes at 80mph are terrifying.

Oh yeah. The 42 is ridiculous sometimes, goes from no hard shoulder to don’t use hard shoulder randomly. And the ever changing speed limits. I try to avoid it now and do A roads until I can get on the M6 or M40 depending if I’m going north or south.

Yanbu - only exception for me is I won't go in the slow lane if there is no hard shoulder, which seems to be the case further north on the M6 in certain parts.

Smart motorways were always an idiotic idea.

Driving on motorways is not covered in driving lessons or on tests. You don't have to do them to be able to drive on them. That combined with cruise control and lazy drivers results in people having no idea how to actually use them. Drives me crazy too op!

YANBU, OP, there are a lot of shit drivers around.

Interesting! I'll do this in future!

This is a worringly clueless post. I mean yes, people travelling at 80/90 are definitely driving dangerously. But to even consider limiting to 70mph is ridiculous - we need to be able to speed up sometimes, even if that means going over the speed limit.

People weaving in and out and braking erratically are silly, yes, but for most of us, the point of overtaking is to be alert, realise in advance we need to change lanes, do so smoothly, continue past the car we are overtaking them smoothly slot back into the lane, all without any notable change in speed.

I did this once and the person then indicated and tried to pull into me. I slammed on the brakes and then went to go I to the middle to overtake them. They swerved back into the middle. I then had to pull into the outside to overtake.
She just didn't want me to undertake, even though I wasn't.
The entire road was clear apart from us for a couple of miles.
Absolutely ridiculous and dangerous behaviour!

You’re not wrong OP. I drive on the motorway more than most and I see it up and down the country, exactly as you described, hogging the middle lane when there left lane is clear.

It’s such poor driving and shows a lack of awareness of their surroundings. The scary thing is, it’s so common!

Oh and 35 miles an hour on the A36 where it's national speed limit (you know the white circle with the line) is ridiculously slow, it's 60mph basically so below 50 is just causing frustration, other unnecessary overtaking etc

I find these threads so bizarre. It’s always the same thing over and over.

It makes me wonder if anyone actually drives on motorways.

Surely you just use common sense and slip in where you’re causing the least drama.

If that’s you going at 70mph on the dot then 9/10 the slow lane is not the correct lane for you.

It does confuse me. Most people I encounter on roads seem to understand this and it’s rare to get these weaving numpties (say once an hour or so). So how are there so many on here?

It’s not always the case but sometimes it’s people avoiding lane 1 on “smart” motorways that just should not and never be “all lane running” - the ones where the refuges are far far too far apart the cameras and gantries don’t work and the left hand verge is a solid brick wall so so much for getting over that to safety . You know when you’re driving at night and trying to figure out if the lights in front of you are a low moving car you are closing on or someone broken down that your about to kill - and if they have no lights due to the breakdown well then there’s no chance! the Highway Code does not take into account these utter death traps. (I don’t do 60 though I’m at 70+ in lane 2+ but I’m not going into lane 1 even if the road appears clear)

That’s exactly what I was going to say. But in general I agree, lane discipline on M25, M40 seems to have deteriorated.

YANBU

I got stuck behind someone doing 50 in the outside lane of the M3 at 4am a few weeks ago.

It was infuriating. I pulled across to lane 1 in the end.

One of my friends does it, despite being told a million times - his reasons include “it’s a limit, not a target”, he doesn’t want to have to move back out to overtake/let people merge from slip ways, he thinks people are “pushing in”

Where I live there are no motorways so people rarely drive on them, and when they do they take their strange driving habits and ideas with them.

Totally agree, I have been driving for 40 years and always lived just outside the M25 at one point I was using it daily, it was always bad, but in the last 5 years or so it has become ridiculous, in fact during the week if I can avoid it I will. I wouldn't be concerned about which lane you are in for over or undertaking as most drivers pick a lane and a speed and just drive, then the impatient men in their 'flash' cars weave in and out to same a few seconds. The M40/M3 part is particularly bad. I have recently driven London to Scotland, London to South Wales and drive London to the South Coast at least once a month, the best drivers are on the A1M north of the Midlands, and if you go down the M4 or M3 they get better the further you go.

Annoys me too op. Stay left unless overtaking seems to be completely ignored.

Also whilst you are not obliged to drive at the speed limit, on roads like motorways in good conditions you should be driving close to it, why would you being doing 50 (black Hyundai on M4 7pm yesterday I'm particularly thinking about you IN THE MIDDLE LANE!) On bendy country lanes, congested city streets, inclement weather conditions... different but you don't feel capable of 60 even you need to consider if you should be driving at all

It's more maddening when you're in the outside lane going at a decent speed and some twat weaves in and out of all three lanes.