Is everyone allergic to the inside lane??

[mapleleaf23]

Honestly I’m noticing it so much more and it actually infuriates me. Whenever I’m driving on A roads or motorways with 3 lanes, everyone just cruises in the middle lane even though they’re going super slow.
No one uses the inside lanes properly or use the overtaking lanes to actually overtake. Even 2 lane roads, the amount of people I have to undertake because they’re going 10mph below the limit and still in the right lane…

It actually infuriates me. Do they not teach this on tests anymore??

I always pull over after overtaking. It annoys me having to go right over to the outside lane to overtake though because of slow idiots in the middle!

Lorries in the middle lane completely do my head in. Often to be seen parallel to another lorry
I hate this too. They spend ages trying to overtake the other lorry and only end up doing the same speed or even worse, pulling in behind it again. Don't overtake if you're not going faster!

Electric cars don't all slow everyone down. I have an EV and if I'm not in a hurry I'll cruise along (on the left, obviously) at a speed to maximise battery consumption. But if I need to overtake it has excellent acceleration and I can put it into sports mode as well so I can easily overtake without slowing down anyone in the middle lane.

YANBU, - they keep adding lanes to aid congestion but it's the shit driving causing the congestion not the lack of lanes. You go on a 5 lane motorway and most cars are still stuck on the outside 2 lanes. 🙄

If it’s a smart motorway -yabu. no one wants to die because the cameras aren’t working

normal motorway - YANBU

I'm glad you posted this. I've been reading through the thread aghast at the undertakers! Also wondering myself whether I had it wrong after all these years!

Lots of people have smart motorway anxiety...they need to be reverted

Their is a post further up that explains why try reading it.

I think it's time the Govt and Ministry of Transport accepted they were a mistake and just have the big red X permanently illuminated for the left hand lane so that it can act as a hard shoulder.

Yes because I don’t weave. I stay in the left hand lane doing a consistent speed and the traffic in my lane is moving faster than the 65mph middle lane hogger. So I pass them on the left. Perfectly legal and within the Highway Code guidance.

i’n aghast at the folk who force undertaking by sitting in the middle. If you’ve ever been undertaken it’s because you’re driving badly. If you were driving appropriately you wouldn’t have space on the left to be undertaken.

so yes you have had it wrong all these years. Now you know better, please drive better 😊

Their is a post further up that explains why try reading it.
Yes their is and yes I did try reading it, thanks. It didn't answer my point.

That's not what is described in the HC. You seem to be describing undertaking one car, not a line of traffic. That's just undertaking. Apparently it's mainly women who undertake on motorways - which I can believe, reading this thread!

Anyway, I sometimes do it too, but it's not really what HC is describing. That's more about two or more busy lanes. And is also why undertaking is more common, and more acceptable, in smart motorways when they impose lower speed limits across all three lanes. It even sometimes warns you in those cases to 'stay in lane'.

The lane weavers in busy traffic, using the braking distance gaps to move from lane to lane, are the worst. That genuinely is dangerous driving and what would get you points for undertaking on the grounds of careless or dangerous driving. Someone did that to me last week, it was really scary - they were so close to us all.

I've been undertaken when I've gone around a middle lane hogger and gone to get back in the middle lane but there is someone going too fast for me to get back in ahead of them.
As PP said, the HC is talking about congestion. And anyway, if you don't tut loudly and shake your head dramatically as you're going around them, how will they ever learn?!

Then there is no situation in the Highway Code that applies to what I describe. I’m following the rules by keeping left, maintaining a consistent speed and overtaking where appropriate.

I simply don’t compensate my driving for people who are incapable of doing the same and I refuse to cross 3 lanes to accommodate their selfishness.

they should be left and are breaking the HC by not being so.

This annoys me too. Especially when they flash you. It's not like you're dawdling for ages in the fast lane, it's just to overtake the lane hoggers.

It doesn't really matter if they're going at 70 if they're going slower than the people in the slow lane, they shouldn't be there.

FurAndFeathers · Yesterday 20:21

i’n aghast at the folk who force undertaking by sitting in the middle.

Passing a slower car in the right hand lane isn't undertaking. Undertaking would be driving up in the same lane, then moving left and back into the right hand lane.

I didn’t say it was.

there are many situations (including undertaking) where cars pass on the left. They are generally all a result of someone else lane hogging and not moving left when they should

Highway Code says ‘Do not overtake on the left or move to a lane on your left to overtake.’
Which means it is still not allowed other than in the limited circs described even if you don’t have to switch lanes to do it.
(How realistic such a rule is when you are bowling along in the left hand lane and come upon someone going stupidly slow to your right is another question, but nonetheless that is indeed what the rule says.)

There is a situation to describe what you are doing and it's called undertaking. The car in the middle lane is at fault as well, but if it's not two congested lanes of traffic, just the one middle lane hogger, you are expected to anticipate, move to the middle lane then overtake.

I'm not saying I always do that either, but it's technically what you are supposed to do and to undertake by remaining left does risk a charge of careless driving.

I don't think it does risk a charge of careless driving at all, if you're going steady in lane 1, "undertake" aware of the dawdler in lane 2 and ready to sound your horn if they sway towards your lane whilst you're alongside, able to move over to the hard shoulder or verge if necessary to avoid them swaying into your lane, and then continuing at the same/steady speed after the undertake. If you do all that with "due care and attention", then you're not careless at all, because you are taking "care" with what you're doing! If there was a collision, the middle lane hog would be the "careless" one because they didn't check the left hand lane was clear before they moved into it!

Completely different to someone swerving from lane to lane or undertaking where there's no verge/hard shoulder, etc., which could be construed as careless.

What annoys me more is when I am in the middle lane doing 70mph due to slower loving traffic in the inside lane. I’m often undertaken by people clearly exceeding the speed limit. No one should be undertaking someone in the middle/right hand lane who is doing 70in a 70!! I’m not a middle lane higher but one as taught to read the road ahead and rather then over take a lorry, go back in and over take another one and so on, if there are lots of lorries or slower vehicles in the inside lane then when over taking to stay there until past them and then move back in.

Surely @FurAndFeathers is right. In the situation she describes, she’s just driving, whereas the car in the middle lane is at fault because it is failing to keep left unless overtaking. If the car then decides to change lanes without looking, it’s still at fault.