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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

To overtake on motorway left hand lane?

522 replies

brasty · 31/10/2017 22:49

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.

OP posts:
Babbitywabbit · 01/11/2017 09:50

FlowerPot- the OP has now clarified that she moved across from the left lane to overtake the middle lane vehicle, but then decided it would be ‘safer’ to move back to ‘undertake’ rather than continue her overtaking manoeuvre.

I completely agree that the middle lane hogger was an idiot and in the wrong, particularly to continue for 20 whole minutes rather than moving over, but two wrongs don’t make a right...

However I’m now doubting the 20 minutes scenario because the OP also subsequently said it’s a motorway with lots of lorries and other vehicles going at a slower speed in the left hand lane, which implies the middle lane driver would have actually been overtaking the left hand bigger, slower vehicles for at least some of those 20 mins. If the middle lane hogger was seriously driving for 20 whole minutes, always at the same or slower speed than the left hand lane lorries, and simultaneously the OP could at no point move to the right hand lane, then frankly that’s bizarre. But the OP should still have overtaken on the right, definitely not the left.
We need a diagram! Grin

Mustang27 · 01/11/2017 09:50

Undertaking is not legal and if traffic police spot you they are going to pull you fine you and give you points and rightly so. I’m kind of wondering if you are just being goady tbh.

FlowerPot1234 · 01/11/2017 09:50

Apologies, I meant "I would urge everyone to pass non-overtaking, slower moving vehicles..."

FlowerPot1234 · 01/11/2017 09:53

Babbitywabbit - not sure if you're disagreeing or agreeing with my post. I was making a general point to clarify the rules of motorway driving after there are so many factually incorrect (and dangerous) posts on here.

BucksFrizz · 01/11/2017 09:54

caoraich you should only go fastwr than the cars on your right once you're in the dedicated filter lane. That's normally once you've gone under the gantry.

dissapointedafternoon · 01/11/2017 09:54

I do not do this because you catch people by surprise in the middle lane, who should be trying to come back into the left lane.

I always drive a polite distance behind and then when there is a place for them to go in I come up closer. If they don't go in I flash them until they get out my way.

People have got a complex about being "over taken" and it's frustrating at, but undertaking is dangerous!

Remember to go on a diagonal so you don't have two cars going for the same gap at one.

YABU

sayshellsunderwaterblblblb · 01/11/2017 09:57

It is nice to hear stories from the USA where overtaking is allowed in whichever lane you're in. I agree that it is much less stressful driving on those freeways. It's worth noting that the speed limit over there is lower than in the UK, and that drivers in the USA have a greater tendency to keep to the speed limit. In the UK many drivers overtaking will be doing a lot more than 70. On the other hand, many European countries have long stretches of motorway with speed limits higher than the UK, and a lot of people cross borders, moving seamlessly from one driving culture to another.

rosesandcashmere · 01/11/2017 09:58

Undertaking leads to an undertaker so the saying goes

derxa · 01/11/2017 10:01

@derxa yes 70 is the speed limit but that doesn't give you the god dam right to sit in the middle lane at 70 on cruise control when the left lane is empty! FFS you are probably as shit a driver as that taxi driver. Grin

Babbitywabbit · 01/11/2017 10:13

FlowerPot- I wasn’t disagreeing, just clarifying that the OP has now said she was driving in the left hand lane, pulled into the middle lane to overtake, but instead of completing the manoeuvre correctly, and then decided to ‘undertake.’ So it definitely wasn’t the case that she was just maintaining her position.

ThePants999 · 01/11/2017 10:25

@BucksFrizz - totally disagree re indicating. Indicators are there to let other drivers know your intentions so that they can react. If you only ever indicate as you're right about to execute the maneuver, you might as well just not bother - I can see you're changing lane from the fact that your car is leaving one lane and entering another, thanks.

I appreciate other drivers signalling their intention to move lane and will often slow down a little to let them out if it's safe to do so.

FlowerPot1234 · 01/11/2017 10:42

ThePants999 - sorry, you are wrong here and BucksFizz is correct.

Indicators are to be used as an indication of the move you are about to make. One which you are about to make ONLY after you have actioned MIRROR, SIGNAL, MIRROR.

Indicators should never be used to say:
"I want to move out, please somebody let me out"
"I'm about to move out right now, I haven't checked if there is a safe space to move into, but I'm going.. right now.. oh yes I am..."
"I've come right up the rear end of a car, this is my instant reaction is to signal, for some vague intention in the future of moving round them"

A million times no.

Indicators are there to let other drivers know your intentions so that they can react.

Indicators are nothing to do with vague intentions like this - otherwise how would any driver know when you are going to act on those intentions? React? How so? Do you mean take evasive action because you are about to endanger my life by moving into my safe stopping gap?

This is such a dangerous attitude, but one shared by so many poor drivers.

Your indicator should not be on at all unless you have checked your mirrors, you have identified a safe gap to move into which does not involve causing any other driver to act evasively to avoid crashing into you or endangering their life, then you indicate, then you do a final check of your mirrors again to check for anything that has changed, and if at that point there is not already existing a safe gap for you to move into, you cancel your indicator immediately and start all over again.

Sitting in the middle lane with your indicator on whilst a queue of overtaking vehicles passes you in the outside lane (and therefore there is no safe gap for you to enter), meaning every single one of them is unsure if you are about to suddenly push out into their safe space at any time, is one of the highest displays of motorway idiocy there is.

BucksFrizz · 01/11/2017 10:42

ThePants999 You need to read my post properly.

Indicators are there to indicate that you're about to do something, not that you want to. The clue is in the name.

Blobby10 · 01/11/2017 10:47

Is it 'undertaking' if you are in lane 1 and going faster than some dimwit in Lane 2 and you stay in lane 1 as it is clear for another half mile or so?
I always thought undertaking was moving out of lane 2 (or 3) into the adjacent lane then back out into lane 2 or 3 once you have passed the car in front?

PurpleMinionMummy · 01/11/2017 10:49

So you can't indicate and wait for a space in the outside lane because it's not safe, but are happy to undertake, which is unsafe? Ok then Confused.

PurpleMinionMummy · 01/11/2017 10:51

Yes blobby of course it is.

No wonder the motorways are so bloody awful to drive on these days. We should have the same rules as other countries where the other lanes are for overtaking only and then you have to move straight back over again.

FlowerPot1234 · 01/11/2017 10:51

Blobby10

Is it 'undertaking' if you are in lane 1 and going faster than some dimwit in Lane 2 and you stay in lane 1 as it is clear for another half mile or so?

No, that's passing on the inside. Perfectly allowable and I'd urge everyone to do this more, checking the idiocy of the lane 2 hogger that it is safe to do so. Entirely permissable though.

FlowerPot1234 · 01/11/2017 10:52

PurpleMinionMummy

Yes blobby of course it is.

No, it isn't.

RB68 · 01/11/2017 10:53

THe ONLY time it is legal to pass traffic on the lefthand side is in slow moving queued traffic, that does not mean bloke doing 40 in the middle lane when rest of road is clear. The other exception is where the road markings change for a junction and the lane becomes the exit lane e.g. going from M6 to M54, notice the white lines change and then road splits to become two lane slip road to next motorway. Once the lines have changed it is legal to pass traffic on the left hand side (effectively as it is two roads now running parallel). Even doing that though is dangerous if lorries haven't seen you or you are sitting in a blind spot before moving forward.

Flashing them is also frowned upon - move out to right overtake and then pull in.

Hoggers are v annoying though I agree

BucksFrizz · 01/11/2017 10:54

Purple It's not one or the other, and if you think it is then you're a very poor driver.

Migraleve · 01/11/2017 10:57

No, that's passing on the inside. Perfectly allowable and I'd urge everyone to do this more, checking the idiocy of the lane 2 hogger that it is safe to do so. Entirely permissable though.

HmmConfused

Passing on the inside?? It’s the same fucking thing. You DONT do it!!!!!

HungerOfThePine · 01/11/2017 10:59

You just put up with sitting at 50mph then op if you can't overtake sensibly, impatience is what gets driver's killed, there isn't a massive time difference arriving at your destination at 50mph than 70mph, sit back and chill.

Admittedly I have stuck to middle and right hand lanes once because I was petrified of being surrounded by massive trucks on the two left lanes, can't remember how many lanes there were but more than average atleast 4 possibly 5/6, don't think I was the only one.

PurpleMinionMummy · 01/11/2017 11:02

Congested conditions mean all 3 lanes are busy. Not just the outside one, a hogger in the middle and an empty inside lane. When the lanes are congested it's more difficult switch to ANY lane easily and the traffic all tends to be going at a similar speed.

SomethingNewToday · 01/11/2017 11:10

Passing on the inside?? It’s the same fucking thing. You DONT do it!!!!!

So if you're in the left lane doing 70mph, lovely clear road for miles ahead of you...then you approach someone in the middle lane doing 50mph...you're not allowed to pass them?

What would you do? The only alternative would be to reduce to 50mph, pull out into the middle lane behind the tosspot and drive there until they move over. Then pass them in the middle lane and 10 seconds later pull back in front of them in the left lane.

If anyone actually does that in rl I'll eat my hat.

PurpleMinionMummy · 01/11/2017 11:11

I'm a terrible driver for not undertaking? Ok then. If the 'dimwit' is going slower than you through choice and because they're lane hogging, chances are you're undertaking them. If the dimwit can't go any faster because of congestion (in which case they're not actually a dimwit) chances are the inside lane is also busy but just happens to be flowing slightly faster it's ok to 'pass on the inside'. I'd draw a diagram but I don't have time Grin