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

What are you on about? There is no different speed for the lane you are supposed to be in unless you are overtaking on one of the outside lanes from which you then pull back into the inside lane.

How can you be undertaken if you are in the correct lane?

Sometimes it does so you're also doing a public service there!

Thank you for that! I have done that myself and felt terribly guilty about it, but wasn’t prepared to go weaving across three lanes to get past the bugger. I hoped seeing me go past on the inside might make them change in but it didn’t.

@JacquesHarlow I have noticed a lot of people freaking out about the left lane since smart motorways have come about and I cam understand that. I have 3 or 4 times in the last months alone had to slam.my breakdown where someone has broken down and with no warning having the cars infrontnof me coming to a stop from 70(ish) mph.

I also find that people seem to get in lane early. If they are planning to stay on tbe motorway and they know that the 2 left lanes come off they will stay in the 3rd or 4th lane. I suspect it's the sat nav users who are being td what lane they 'need' for coming off.

Obvs not saying it's right and it absolutely p1$$3s me off too but I suspect there is some getting used to the new way motorways work that is causing the issue.

I avoid passing middle lane hoggers on the left. I don't trust the unobservant zombies to not suddenly have an impulse of brain action and randomly move left without checking and crash.

Everyone should be monitoring their mirrors frequently and there should be very few surprises about what's going on around them.

I don't "weave" as in abruptly hopping from one lane to another, but I am happy to maintain pace with good space using any lane required while passing to the right and pulling in to the left when not overtaking. I like changing lane. I have to check my mirrors. It keeps me brain engaged with what's happening on the road ahead, behind and to the sides. There is no slow or fast lane, just degrees of over taking from lane 1 to lanes 2-4

The 70mph in the middle lane mentality is dangerous because it generally involves driving on autopilot and not anticipating problems and the behaviour of other road users.

Pass Plus was the best £100 I ever spent, a good while before learners could be taken on to motorways. They're fast, but they're simple- everything in one direction, fewer types of road user. Keep a distance (more if conditions are poor), go with the flow of traffic, and keep checking your mirrors and what's happening in sight up ahead.

Wishes there were automatic bans and retraining for the deathwishers attempting to merge into free-flowing traffic at 40mph backing 5 cars behind them up so they lose their gaps and forcing trucks and other lane 1 traffic into lane 2 so they don't plough into a 40mph string at 20mph faster when there were plenty of gaps for everyone to zipper merge at 60mph.

Borderline insane if it's a lorry likely to have significant blind spots I'd have thought.

Do any of the posters who think it's ok to overtake to the left of middle lane joggers also think it's ok to undertake vans or trucks? ( I'm not talking about the particular times when it's permitted to undertake)

Totally agree with you @JacquesHarlow I have had this conversation with my retired police officer father many times. Actually less of a conversation, more of him ranting about middle lane sitters.

This!

I drive on motorways a lot and am so fed up with cars driven by unconfident drivers who stick in the middle lane.
Who force everybody to work out strategies to drive at 70 mph! Whether overtaking, undertaking or weaving between lanes.
I've never heard of anyone actually prosecuted for middle lane hogging.

Learners are able to drive on a Motorway only with a Fully Qualified Instructor ie: not a trainee and only in a dual controlled car. Once the law was changed, I used to take my learners on the Motorway regularly. However, we are lucky to have 2 junctions serving our area. Ideally, once they have passed their tests ALL newly qualified drivers should have Motorway lessons but atm they are voluntary. It would be very tricky to enforce this especially in remote island areas

See I think this is a design flaw in the UK highway code.

In the parts of the US I have driven in (where to be fair it helps to have more lanes) the inside lane is mostly only used for entering or exiting the freeway. Then you move out to the other lanes as needed. If you stay on the inside lane you are likely to find yourself leaving the freeway when you didn't mean to, as lanes often peel off at exits.

In the UK the inside lane is still a series of hazards (people entering and exiting and big trucks) but you are supposed to drive in it.

So if the inside lane is not completely empty but also not fully congested then you either have to break the speed limit so you are always overtaking or play a kind of continuous game of chicken against the hazards.

Which doesn't seem like a good rule.

You are allowed to undertake if you do so in a safe manner if there is traffic in the other two lanes. As per the rule above this is classed as staying in lane during congestion. If you are able to drive to cross two lanes to overtake then you should do so.

We drive to New Milton often.
There aren't many people driving at 90 mph or above on any UK motorway. In fact, there is a decreasing trend in driving speeds across all networks.

Well to be fair the southern end of the m3 for years had average speed cameras in place around Eastleigh/Winch for the lane widening works, but they’re now gone, and yes, the Portsmouth bound section of the 27 is now average limit too.

That's a really fast bit of road. I was quite impressed to discover my car can do 90...

Don't go east on the M27. You will find many miles of roadworks, to which they have just added a contraflow.

Yes they do.

You obviously don’t use the m3 and m27 then,, the motorway I spend most of my time on. Theres a bunch between j3-4 around the farnborough area, and then not a single one until you reach the edge of Bournemouth. And I regularly see drivers doing 90+, especially on the bit between Basingstoke and Winchester. See this website to see what I mean…

www.scdb.info/en/karte/

I live in ROI and it happens every night I drive home (2 lane motorway)

I came to say the same. It’s only undertaking if you are behind them and use the left lane to pass them and then move back over.
if I’m in lane 1 (note it’s not called a slow lane) and I pass a car doing a lower speed than me in lane 2 (not called a fast lane) the. I can legally do so. The lane 2 driver is in the wrong. You should move the left hand most available lane unless overtaking and, if over taking you should move back to the left lanes as soon as it is safe to do so.

You don’t think there are cameras on all the gantries do you?

DP and I cover about 100000 miles a year travelling the length and breadth of the country. The gantries are on all the main motorways.
Very few drivers are bowling along at 90 some on this forum talk like it's 1995.
Plus the M1 is now basically roadworks from Sheffield to Northampton and beyond.

I wouldn’t say they’re covered with cameras, there’s the odd one here and there. It’s very easy to spot them.

Agreed, but some people seem to have the mindset that they are driving at the 70 limit so why should they move over to let people past.

Only they aren’t actually driving at the 70 limit.