To think people should move left after overtaking?!

[GinDaddy]

A mildly infuriating situation yesterday on the M25, just one of dozens I’ve experienced this year alone:

I’m in lane 1, at a bit under 70 mph. Come across someone doing 60 mph.

Just ahead of me are three cars, all spaced across the second, third and fourth lanes. All doing 70 mph, no one overtaking the other.

They are soon joined by more cars in lanes 2 and 3, none of them trying to indicate or move into another lane to overtake.

So essentially we have a rolling roadblock, where drivers have picked “their” lane, got nice and comfy on the cruise control, and sit there in their bubble.

As for me, I had to wait ages for a safe gap, move out, overtake and got back into a totally clear lane 1.

Clear to the point where if I hit 70mph I would be comfortably overtaking the second, third and fourth lanes.

What on earth goes through folks heads is all I’m asking - the Highway Code states “keep left unless overtaking”, yet no one was actively trying to overtake. I know speed cameras are an issue, yet if you move back over, others can also accelerate safely to 70 mph, then move back in.

Sadly this is why we have “smart” motorways coming in - because fewer people seem to accept overtaking, claiming “it’s more dangerous to change lanes all the time” (?!)

So, AIBU to think people should keep left?

I have to say, rightly or wrongly, I will sometimes judiciously undertake people who are lane hogging under the speed limit, if I can’t overtake them.

This is really dangerous. If someone is stupid enough to not understand how to use motorway lanes, or not to bother acquainting themselves with the way the motorway operates before they start using it, do you trust them not to be stupid enough to move left without checking their mirrors?

The M6 is bad for this. The speed limit is generally 60mph around Birmingham as it’s so busy.

The hard shoulder is open as a lane a lot of the time, but nobody uses it. So you end up with lorries in lanes 2&3 as a rolling road block and BMW/golf drivers sitting on each other’s bumpers in lane 4, intimidating anyone who tries to overtake but stay within the speed limit.

If you go on the hard shoulder you end up undertaking unless you pull out across 3 lanes to lane 4.

Sometimes it rains to add to my joy and the general level of danger.

I'm a bit surprised at all these cars sticking to the speed limit. My usual annoyance is being forced back into lane 1 when I'm going faster (still only doing 70) than the cars in lane one. So I want to over take them but then have cars speeding at 80+ up my backside and sometimes flashing me so I move back into lane 1 and end up stuck behind someone doing 60 again but cant get out safely as lane 2 is full of speed demons.

So many drivers seem allergic to the left lane, it's so annoying and incredibly dangerous when the regular morons are cruising at 50 or 60 in the middle lane.

I don't know the solution, but it does drive me mad.

On busy motorways undertaking is the norm. You can’t change lanes every time you find yourself creeping faster than someone in lane 2 who has found themselves stuck behind a lorry. I think half of you would simply expire on the M25 at rush hour

I have an amusing theory why I think people are allergic to the left lane - it’s sort of around a “class” thing where some people think the left lane is for lorries and “slow” cars only.

As a result we see all the big German cars join at a slip road, then automatically sweep over two lanes into the third lane, then sit there as if to say “this is my domain, I don’t sit where paupers drive”.

I’ve found people undertaking a lot recently and driving home from work recently I was overtaking a car and ended up behind a big 4x4 thing going at 60 so sat behind for a bit and it didn’t move just drove along as if I wasn’t there, then cars began to undertake as he wasn’t moving, that still didn’t get him to move (3 lanes of traffic and he was doing 60 in outside lane) I was pulling of onto m73, anyway so moved over but it’s so dangerous as he’s making people frustrated and has no awareness of the traffic about him, then when he does want to pull in people are undertaking him, makes you wonder what’s going on in people’s heads when driving at times

The speed thing is a red herring though. Motorways don't work along the lines of "inside lane for 50 mph, middle lane for 60mph, outside lane for higher speeds". Doing 70mph in the inside lane is perfectly acceptable if it's a clear road.

The middle and outside lane are purely for overtaking and this is the bit that so many people don't get. Maybe things will improve now that learners can go on motorways under suprvision.

Meanwhile, mateyboy is driving well over the speed limit at 90 mph + in the fast lane, cuts across all the over lanes at the last minute without use of indicators to exit and no one bats an eyelid.

YANBU. I have seen an accident caused by someone sitting in the outside lane for ages. Person in front of us decided to undercut after about ten minutes of this, when they suddenly decided to pull back in without indicating, possibly because someone else was tailgating them and they got flustered. No one in that situation exactly covered themselves in glory, but if the lane hogger had just pulled over instead of puttering along at sixty it wouldn't have happened. I have first responder training so stopped a bit further on on the hard shoulder, everyone was okay thankfully, but could have been a lot worse. It enrages me, people have no idea how dangerous it is. If you can't drive safely on the motorway, time to take the bus.

If there are lots of slip roads I prefer to avoid the left lane if possible, because you have to keep slowing down when people joining the road pull out in front of you.

I think part of the problem is that so many people, as shown on this thread, refer to the lanes as "the slow lane" or "the fast lane", and now upthread we have "the next in line lane". WTF is that? I even remember a thread on here a few years ago asking if the "slow lane" is only for poor people!

They are the inside, middle, and outside lanes, the middle and outside being overtaking lanes.

I get what you're saying about people who stay in lane but 'All doing 70 mph, no one overtaking the other.'
I'm not sure if I've understood you but they're not going to overtake one another, they're at the speed limit.
Surely they're all overtaking the car in front of you doing 60 in the left hand lane?
You're stuck because you're behind this car everyone else is passing it by at a greater speed?

If there are lots of slip roads I prefer to avoid the left lane if possible, because you have to keep slowing down when people joining the road pull out in front of you.

and that one sentence sums up the bad driving on motorways.

They are the inside, middle, and outside lanes, the middle and outside being overtaking lanes.

This is confusing though, because on a two-way road the ‘outside’ lane is on the inside of the road. Took me ages to realise which way round people meant when saying ‘outside’ lane when I was a new driver.

Maybe there should be a public information campaign about safe motorway driving.

donkey is right. The speed is irrelevant.

If your not overtaking a vehicle you move back in. If a car is a mile ahead of you up the road that doesn’t class as overtaking!

It amazes me how often I end up being able to pull out behind the “hogger” then overtake them and move right back in - and still they stick in the middle lane!

Welcome to Mumsnet. Home of the perfect driver.

Classic M25

So understanding how the lane system on a motorway works makes you a perfect driver? In that case so I must be!

YANBU in that situation. Though sometimes it's so busy on the M25 that it is then reasonable and indeed much safer to stay in your lane. And effectively sometimes there are one or two lanes of lorries.

I recently drove on the M6 and it wasn't particularly clear when you could use the hard shoulder and when you couldn't, and it seemed to switch a lot from one to the other. It's a dumb motorway, not a smart one!

I drive a lot on the M74 in Scotland which is nowhere near as busy as the M25 or M4. The curse of the middle lane hogger is every bit as bad. And they have NO excuse because the left hand land is totally empty.

I used to moan about that 30 years ago. Back then it was peculiarly Scottish trait to join a dual carriageway, immediately move to the outside lane and stay there.

I commuted from Glasgow to Edinburgh for a while and just used to drive up the inside lane of the M8. Totally clear. Saved me hours.

I have just travelled on a fairly quiet M6. One car was tootling along in the middle lane - three cars moved out and overtook him and had plenty of space to move back in before he got close to needing to overtake anyone.

I was wondering this the other day- let’s say you’re in lane 1 going 70 but you come up on someone in lane 2 going 60. Are you required to slow down so as not to ‘undertake’? If there are only 2 lanes do you just have to stay there in your lane going 59 until they wake up or you get to your exit junction, whichever comes first?

I have moved out behind them and put my right hand indicator on. Usually they move over.