To think if you're being undertook, you might be driving wrong.

[theundertakersmate]

NC for unpopular opinion.

I don't undertake on the motorway, for a disclaimer. But I do drive long distance on a smart motorway where there are 4 open lanes. I find it insanely frustrating the amount of people who do not move to the left. I understand it's hard when there are no hard shoulders but as I don't undertake, I fully go round people in overtaking and get back into the left lane, as we are meant to.

A colleague does a similar route and instead of my problems, he constantly complains about people repeatedly undertaking him. He says it always happens.

AIBU to think that, while undertaking is dangerous and not my way of driving, if you are ALWAYS being undertaken, to the point you rant about it always happening in your workplace... maybe you are the problem and are sitting middle lane??

Surely, if a person can physically undertake you, you aren't using the lanes appropriately?

Well done. You’re making dangerous driving doubly dangerous. Hope you’re proud of yourself. If you’re incapable of overtaking you shouldn’t be on the motorway at all.

This is appalling. You really think you are justified in glaring at someone when you are driving dangerously yourself? If you don't want to use the overtaking lanes, do us all a favour and please don't drive on motorways.

@SunsetsAndSandwiches You seriously can’t see that not only are you driving dangerously but you are actively trying to distract the other motorist with your shaky moral high ground???

Why do you think it is dangerous? The potholes?

I learnt to drive in Dorset, where there aren't any motorways (not that you're allowed on them as a learner anyway.) There are dual carriage ways, though, which have mostly the same rules.

When I got my first car, and by then living in Bournemouth, about 7 years after I passed my test, I took a motorway lesson. So you can get motirway lesson if you want (isn't there Pass Plus or something?) We went out to Southampton - and then she told me to drive back through the Forest on the A roads, because they're actually more dangerous.

Motorways can be challenging because of the speed and volume of traffic, and of course weather conditions cam make any journey more difficult, but I find they are usually easier to drive on than smaller roads. They were actually designed for driving, whereas some roads I grew up with, some were largely unchanged since the Iron Age or Saxons (and Romans, but they were good at roads, and believed in straight lines more than geographical features,) except for being tarmacked. I know drivers who would be freaked out by having to reverse down a narrow lane with high sided banks to make space for an on-coming herd of cattle or a tractor.

I am, according to passengers*, a good driver. But even good drivers have bad days, and while middle lane hoggers may be annoying, they're far from the worst thing I have to deal with in many journeys. The driver who undertook me and then over took the next lane at speed on a busy M3 last week was far more dangerous than someone consistently driving too slowly in a middle lane. (I wasn't lane hogging - I was avoiding traffic queing to turn off to Farnborough and slowing down in my lane because it wouldn't have been safe for me to try and get into the third lane,. I didn't stay in that lane once the road was clearer.)

If middle lane hoggers are the most annoying thing you encounter on a drive, it's probably been a good day.

*including my mother, who was a nervous passenger, who never gave us praise about anything; I actually spoke to my sister about it, because it was so unusual!

Nope, you have to slow down or overtake. The middle lane hoggers are dangerous and irritating but undertaking is also bad.

I do think some people are frightened to change lanes on the motorway and that's why they hog the middle lane and why others can't overtake them

You know what’s worse than middle lane hogging? Aggressive drivers who cut in and out of lanes, crossing over 2/3/4 lanes of traffic, undertaking on slip roads and cutting people up. I know everyone is really riled up about this here, but this second behaviour is much worse and you are more likely to kill someone, or yourself. And no, the fault does not transfer to the original middle lane hogger, you’re responsible for your own driving and your own aggression. Don’t be that person who I referred to up thread who likely killed himself by undertaking up a slip road and cutting in.

Ignore what I had written previously here. I can’t work out how to delete my post and realised I had forgotten what the OP was about.

My local motorways all have 4 lanes now but people just sit in the third lane (second overtaking lane) and force everyone to go round them in the outside lane. They are total and complete arseholes who can't drive.

It's better on weekdays but weekends just make me want to lose the will to live. If you can't drive on a motorway, find a different route.

It depends. I have people overtaking me going over the speed limit.

Middle lane hoggers, who should get very heavily fined in this country too, are not an excuse to undertake.

If you undertake, you should get fined too.

No, the fact that there might be a broken down car in that lane, which in other circumstances would at least be on the hard shoulder not in a live lane. This is one of the very many incidents.

www.google.com/amp/s/amp.theguardian.com/world/2023/apr/05/deaths-of-two-pensioners-on-m1-spurs-calls-for-end-to-smart-motorways

@MockneyReject I'm instinctively inclined to agree with you, as that seems to me the safest option overall, but I think @NerrSnerr is actually right, even though it sort of makes no sense!

I’m with you. If you’re constantly being undertook then you’re very likely in the wrong lane for your speed.

I'm moving to Dorset.

If someone flashes their lights at me and there are mother lanes to my right I refuse to move

Also remember this idiot killed this pregnant mum on the hard shoulder due to undertaking. Ok so he was speeding and filming himself but still Driver who killed pregnant mum in M66 crash has sentence increased www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-manchester-67099209

That is horrific. I see this all the time. You can always tell when someone is on their phone as they're all over the road. I'm on the road most of the day and see that numerous times. I've also seen very near misses where people have gone fully into the other lane as someone passes regularly. I wish they would do more to stop this.

Can I ask a question? I regularly drive on the M25 where my turn off has a very long run up right from the previous turn off. There are signs on the gantry that the left lane is for XYZ places and the rest of the lanes continue on as M25. At this point obviously traffic in the left lane that doesn't want to go to XYZ moves over and the left lane becomes fairly empty. Is it then OK to go faster than (and therefore technically undertake) the slow moving lorries in the 2nd lane (now first lane continuing straight on) because it is a slip road or should I wait until the roads actually physically separate? In other words at what point does a slip road become a slip road as opposed to the inside lane of the motorway?

Hate middle lane hoggers. If the left hand lane is free then MOVE OVER! If you’re too scared to change lanes then you shouldn’t be on a motorway.

Nope, you have to slow down or overtake. The middle lane hoggers are dangerous and irritating but undertaking is also bad.

@NerrSnerr you're completely wrong here. In the example given, the other poster would be right to continue driving at their speed.

I wouldn't undertake except if someone is in the far right lane and have not moved over for several miles, and even then if there's definitely enough room to get past quickly without cutting up anyone else.

Even though it's you in the wrong if you don't pull over to a left hand lane if it's clear?

Yes, that's fine. HC allows it - you can continue in your own lane if the cars to your right are slower. Just be very careful and watch what the cars are doing and be ready for them to move over without warning.

You sound like an incredibly dangerous driver.