My first middle lane 'hog', what would you have done?

[ExCwmbranDweller]

I just had to do a rather long journey by motorway, used to do a LOT of driving but since moving rurally the motorway stuff has dropped by about 90%. Today on a very fast moving section of the M4 I pulled out of the inside lane to go round a caravan and then noticed the traffic ahead was very disjointed, lots of brake lights, the lovely free flowing traffic was looking quite sketchy in places. Then it became apparent there was a slow moving vehicle in the middle lane, I was up to it quite quickly as doing 70mph and they were doing around 55mph in the middle lane. The inside lane was completely free, the outside lane was full of the people who like to do minimum 70+++ and then people trying to go round the slow car by pulling into the outside lane but it was busy. It was actually scary because people weren't matching the speed of the 80mph people before trying to pull round the slow guy. I stayed behind him as I was there then, matching his speed and the outside lane was flying past, also because people were coming up behind me at 70 and having to adjust to the drop in speed. It was a little scary so I tentatively flashed at him to see if he noticed the inside lane was free, then gave a little 'bip' of my horn in case someone was lost in an audio book and had forgotten the need to manoeuvre on a motorway (not a big blare aggressive horn, just a quick one). Nothing changed so I moved down a gear and waited until I had space and time to get up to speed and go round. By this point people were undertaking the guy as well, like water flowing round a rock in a stream.

I feel bad now for flashing and going 'bip' at him now though, don't want to seem like an aggressive driver, I was just concerned for the state of the motorway and hoping he'd be all 'ah, oops, back in the inside lane for me'. What is the best way to behave in this situation?

I think if he was causing a danger the road I would have under taken if the fast lane was too busy to get into. I don’t think you should feel bad for flashing or hooting.

I hate middle lane hogs but unless you have a blue flashy light on your car, you are not the motorway police and shouldn't be trying to police others' driving. Just hang behind the slowcoach until you can safely overtake.

I see middle lane hogs every time I am on the motorway. It's irritating but all you can do is follow the Highway Code and drive properly yourself. That does not include flashing lights or beeping your horn at other drivers.

A bip and a flash is not aggressive. It's such a dangerous thing to do, to sit there forcing all vehicles into lanes 1 and 3 just to keep moving.

I hate this - it essentially closes a lane off of the motorway and does risk other drivers making risky decisions. I wouldn't feel bad. I would either hang back in the middle lane or eventually undertaken with great care even though I know that's wrong (and risky!)

It's also not 'policing' other drivers - it's a little nudge, in case they'd just forgotten what they were doing.

Thank you, I feel awful now, but it was dangerous! So drummed into me not to undertake that it never seemed like an option. Was surprised there wasn't an accident, very hard to spot someone going 55 when the traffic is still flowing, I was sure someone was going to slam into the back of me. Very glad I had the whole 'look ahead on the motorway' bit forefront in my mind so I could spot what was happening before I got there. Also VERY glad we were in a magical no lorry time.

I take your point eurochick, once I had time to think about it rather than reacting to traffic and getting to a safer space on the motorway I did feel the same. Hence posting now!

I'd read about it, and the legislation they now have to police it but as most of my driving is on A and B roads nowadays, plus motorways have got a lot busier it seems, I'd not come across such an extreme and obvious example before.

You weren't aggressive OP, the minimum speed on the motorway is 50 so for this idiot to be sat in the middle lane doing barely above that is dangerous.. as you say other cars approaching at 70 would have to brake potentially quite severely because of this plonker. You weren't wrong to try and get his attention to make him move to the correct lane.