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

It would be good if cars could be limited to 70mph the same way lorries are restricted. The aggressive twats doing 80/90 plus, weaving in and out and erratically braking are a menace. The amount of times I've seen them leaving it so late to move across to the left to exit is scary. Causing everyone else to brake and have seen a collision once where a car was overtaking from left to to rght at the same moment they swung across too fast.

I was driving back to Scotland from England recently and encountered the lane hoggers all the way. I always move back in if the road is clear so sometimes I did pass someone in the middle lane. I am not going out over another 2 lanes to get by them. I don't think that's classed as undertaking. Undertaking is if you go in and back out to get around them.

Sometimes it would shame them to moving back over and sometimes they did not care 😂

You haven’t understood what undertaking is. It’s legal to drive faster in lane 1 than in lane 2, otherwise motorways would come to a standstill in crawling traffic. What you mustn’t do is move from 2 to 1, accelerate past a slower vehicle in 2 and then pull back out from 1 into 2 once ahead of them.

I think it has got worse since more people are using cruise control. They just switch it on and zone out. You need to be able to react to changing traffic conditions on a motorway - cruise control doesn't help!

Whatever the feelings about UK drivers are, the UK is still one of the safest countries in Europe to drive in, and by extension from that the world.

You are about 50% more likely to die in a traffic accident in France than the UK, and about 4x more likely to die in one in the US.

Germany, Spain, Belgium and the Netherlands all have more road deaths per capita than the UK.

There's a bit of road like this near me but it's 40mph yet people daily travel down it at 25mph
It's a clear road with no bends and I have no idea why people can't at least do 30-35
Every bloody day!

Next to me is someone doing 60 mph. I know this because I am coming up on them quickly. I cannot however undertake them - this is against the Highway Code.

look into this as I don't believe you are correct

undertaking is when you deliberately move lanes - whereas if you pass them on the inside lane at a continuous legal speed - I think you'll find you are not breaking any laws or rules

https://www.reddrivingschool.com/learners/how-do-i-do-it/highway-code/undertaking/#:~:text=Although%20not%20strictly%20illegal%2C%20undertaking,a%20lane%20on%20the%20right%2C

^Although not strictly illegal, undertaking is strongly discouraged by The Highway Code, stating “do not overtake on the left or move to a lane on your left to overtake.” However, there are exceptions that apply when a car undertakes in slow-moving traffic if its lane is moving faster than a lane on the right, undertaking in this circumstance is often deemed safer than weaving in and out of traffic.
^

A lot of lorries are governed to 60 so they struggle to overtake cars doing 60 (60 on a car speedo is a bit under), and are not allowed in the outside lane, so you get chains of lorries trying to get past slow cars in the first and second lanes, no wonder they get really irritated with the middle lane brigade doing 60. Lorries have deadlines to meet and limited driving hours so travelling even a few mph under their max speed impacts them.

Flashing to just say have you forgotten to move over is OK, some scream up behind with full headlights on, which is not OK, but I understand it, if you are going a long distance and drivers are pottering about in the outside lane every few miles preventing overtaking it rapidly adds to your travel time.

Having said to a friend about queues caused by him driving slowly and blocking lanes, which he denied (stay in lane and it all flows well he said) he then noticed when his wife was driving the next time how clear it was ahead, he looked behind and there was a huge queue of cars trying to get past them. He actually got better at not lane hogging after that.

Middle lane hoggers are the worst, just move over you annoying fool 😤

This!! I do this (keep driving I mean...not swerve round and undertake)

I flash my lights at people to get them to pull
in to the left. Drives me nuts.

You only need to be looking forward to know your lane hogging though.

if there is no traffic in front that you are actively overtaking then move over. It really shouldn’t be something complicated.

Having been on threads like this before, I'm quite surprised that we haven't had an influx of people saying, "but I am driving at the speed limit or below - it's a limit, not a target - so there's no reason why I should not be in the right hand or middle lane" which is what usually happens.

Another one absolutely nailing it. Totally agree

Exactly! there doesn’t need to be ‘weaving’ in or out if everyone sticks to the rules. we’d all get there faster if we did. It drives me round the bend..pun intended

I think the problem is that you can pass your driving test without driving on motorways.

Too many people don't know or understand how to drive on very dangerous roads and I think mandatory lessons on motorways once you've passed your test would be a good thing to introduce.

Too many drivers don't look in their rear mirror. They have no idea they are 'lane blocking'. Oblivious to the road.

If someone is sitting behind you (and you're in Lane 2) you should move over to Lane 1 if it's clear.

Lane 2 and 3 are for overtaking.
Not cruising.

I agree OP. Drives me mad! As for the ‘undertaking’ I had dd in the car and we were talking about motorway driving. I said that there was a bit of controversy about whether you could maintain your lane speed and pass the car hogging the middle lane on the inside lane. I said I would go round as that kind of driver may pull in with little warning as they are usually a bit shit. The car I was talking about then swerved back in with no use of mirrors or indicators rather proving my point!

On my local MWay you'd have to be in the middle or even right lane to travel at 70.

The left lane seems to be full of petrified or elderly drivers "taking the car for a walk" never getting above 55mph...generally stuck at 50.

Lots of 60mph drivers happily planting themselves in lane 2, oblivious to the fact that dozens of cars are having to overtake (or even undertake).

If you're scared of ever reaching 70 mph, maybe driving isn't for you!

I’ve seen that described as “sarcastic overtaking” and I quite like doing it too, when traffic conditions allow. Bonus points if it coincides with someone impatient passing them in the inside lane at the same time. I average about 50% success rate in them pulling over afterwards.

I’m wary of passing in lane 1 mainly because of the danger of them suddenly realising they’re in the wrong lane and not noticing I’m there, particularly on smart motorways with no hard shoulder to move onto. I have done it cautiously when traffic conditions would make it more difficult to get out to lane 3 and back again. (And I would guess falls into the grey area of the Highway Code). I’m fine doing it when I’m in lane 1 and they’re in lane 3 though.

oh and I’m not a speed merchant. When traffic allows I stick my cruise control on at 72 mph (real speed 70mph), this is all people tootling along at 60-65mph in lane 2 and 3 because they can see a car in lane 1 a mile ahead and who haven’t looked in the mirror since they last reversed out of a parking space somewhere. Completely unaware of the traffic around them, which makes them the most dangerous drivers on the road IMHO.

TBH @JacquesHarlow I'm surprised that you manage to maintain a steady 70mph along any motorway.

IME Lane 1 is often congested with lorries or slow moving vehicles which means you sometimes get stuck behind them doing 50-60.

It's also very evident that very few drivers stick to 70mph. I don't and I'm an experienced motorway driver doing 300mile+ trips.

To overtake you normally need to do 70+ for the reasons you've said. That even in Lanes 2 or 3, the speed is 70mph.

The Highway Code is that we should all use Lane 1 unless overtaking. Sadly very few people do this. I do believe though that weaving in and out is dangerous. Not many drivers look far enough ahead or 'read the road'.

They overtake one lorry, filter back into Lane 1, then overtake the next lorry 100 yards ahead, zipping in and out.

What worries me though is they've already demonstrated they don't know how to drive, so the likelihood that they'll randomly decide to move over and not bother to check their blind spot first is fairly high.

Drifting OT, but on most UK motorways, during the day and especially near cities, it's impossible to do 70 anyway. It only takes a relatively short stretch of say 60mph "for air quality" (M5 drivers know what I mean) and you have effectively made a 15 mile stretch of motorway 60mph.

50mph if you have a stretch of temporary roadworks.

And that is well before you consider the knock-back effect of a 40mph limit in a 30 mile long line of traffic as "smart" motorways get involved.

It's not speed that's the issue, it's lane discipline. There's no problem with people doing 60 on a motorway as long as they're in the inside lane and accept that this means that they may have to sit behind the trucks limited to 56, or wait for a while to overtake them. I have noticed that lane discipline has gone to pot in recent years - not sure why. I think there has been a general downward trend in speed too, probably related to high fuel costs, but I think it's people unwillingness/lack of understanding re using the correct lane that causes issues rather than the reduced speed. I have seen a lot of people sitting at lowish speeds in the middle lane recently, going very slightly faster than the lorries but unwilling to pull in between them. I get that if there's a long row of lorries close together you might not want to pull in after passing each one, but if there's a decent size gap you really should. I was behind someone the other day who sat in the middle lane for miles even though there were big gaps in the inside lane. Lots of us overtook and then pulled straight into the inside lane but Mr/Ms Middle Lane Hogger seemed not to notice or care. Their speed was not an issue, the fact that they were in the wrong lane and seemingly completely oblivious to their surroundings was!

Another motorway peeve is when people pull into the gap you've left from the car in front but you and the car in front are driving faster than the left/middle lane so you have a nice flow, then bam someone thinks they can use your safe gap with no warning and no reason.

It's not a gap to let you in, it's a safe gap so I'm not tailgating and you have made me slow down now to create a new gap because you're already driving slower than me!

My language is abysmal when motorway driving.