To overtake on motorway left hand lane?

[brasty]

DP says I am. But I hate when you are on a busy motorway, and someone is sitting in the middle lane, and will not move to the left hand lane, even though it is empty. While at the same time the right hand lane is packed with cars, making it hard to pull out into the right hand lane and still leave decent distances. So I have occasionally just overtaken the middle lane hogger in the left hand lane. I know the Highway Code says you should not, but sometimes it seems the safest option.

It's rude and dangerous and you should NOT do it. YABVU

That’s undertaking not overtaking.

And it's not safe, it's really stupid.

I know it is undertaking.
It seems less dangerous than trying to pull out into a very crowded right hand lane to overtake.

I think it is vu as safety on motorways relays on following the rules. I think you could cause an accident like that.

If safety is your concern then stay in the left lane. It sounds more like speed is your concern. YABU

Surely no-one thinks this is safe?

It's undertaking and it's very dangerous. Please stop doing it. You have to move to the outside of the vehicle and overtake it there. Middle lane hoggers are very irritating, I grant you.

Why is it not safe?

Flash the people in the middle lane - they'll move over

If you can't overtake safely then don't overtake.

I've done it when a car is sitting for miles at 50 in the middle lane and my lane is clear ahead. Its fucking irritating. You shouldn't though.

It's not less dangerous

Not only is it stupid and dangerous to undertake on a motorway, it is also illegal.

I have only done it when the right hand lane is so busy that it is genuinely difficult to pull out. And the car in the middle lane is going relatively slow.

The thing is, is we all drove like utter fuckwits, it would be merry chaos. YABU.

It's unsafe because nobody expects you to do it (because you're not allowed). The car in the middle lane could choose to pull in at the same time.

www.gov.uk/guidance/the-highway-code/motorways-253-to-273

Why is it more dangerous? I am genuinely asking

It’s not safe and is dangerous but I do not disagree. However, I hate an empty motorway where someone is in the middle lane. I don’t always move across, I’m in the right lane at the right speed.

What I hate is the fast lane, slow lane labels. There is no such thing, it should be overtaking lanes.

The UK need a driving campaign and it should be enforced, people need to realise that just because there is a lorry 1/2 a mile away, they will just not move, that is also dangerous and lazy.
It also causes delays.

I love the driving in Holland, the UK population could learn something from observing the overtaking.

I do signal before I do it

Because what if they pull in. They won't be expecting someone on their inside lane to be going faster/past them.

iCoCo This happens occasionally to me because I do move across as you should.

How do you signal an undertake?

It’s more dangerous because each lane has an average expectation of speed, slowest to fastest- left to right. If you want to go faster you go to the right and slower to the left. Because this is the rule, people can and will pull in to the lane on their left when they want to go slower and if somebody is undertaking it’s very likely to cause an accident.