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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

To overtake on the inside?

172 replies

MerryMarigold · 19/12/2023 22:36

There I am driving down the M11. I overtake a lorry so I'm in the middle lane but there is no one in the left lane so I move back over. I'm driving about 65 but there are so many people hogging the middle lane that they are going slower than the far left lane and so I overtake them on the inside. I felt bad but WIBU?

OP posts:
Original poster
MerryMarigold · 20/12/2023 17:57

Plsdiscuss · 19/12/2023 22:53

Depends if you were weaving in and out or not.

From West Yorkshire police website

"ON MOTORWAYS
Rule 268 of the Highway Code states – do not overtake on the left or move to a lane on your left to overtake. In congested conditions, where adjacent lanes of traffic are moving at similar speeds, traffic in left-hand lanes may sometimes be moving faster than traffic to the right. In these conditions you may keep up with the traffic in your lane even if this means passing traffic in the lane to your right. Do not weave in and out of lanes to overtake."

Ooh that's reassuring. No, I wasn't weaving. And I wasn't even trying to overtake the middle lane. I was done with my overtaking. It just so happened that the left lane was moving a bit faster because of the sheer amount of middle lane hoggers.

OP posts:
Original poster
MerryMarigold · 20/12/2023 18:05

It wasn't fully congested but probably all lanes going around 65mph. I was literally neck and neck with the middle lane hoggers but with a clear road ahead of me. I thought it was more dangerous to try and go back into the middle lane (heavy, speedy traffic) then the 3rd lane (where I would have had to stay). Both those lanes had more traffic than the left lane 🤷. I just stayed in the far lefthand lane so I suppose I didn't 'undertake'.

OP posts:
Fieldofbrokenpromises · 20/12/2023 18:10

The moral panic about this every time it gets mentioned is hilarious.
If you are on a motorway and a vehicle to your left is passing you why are you there?

Laiste · 20/12/2023 18:15

If a whole lane of traffic is moving faster than the lane of traffic to it's right it's just traffic flow.

Sometimes the fast lane gets so congested that the middle lane is going slightly quicker than them for a while. This doesn't mean the whole middle lane are 'undertaking' the fast lane does it? It's variable traffic flow!

One car deciding to drop out of the middle lane and use the slow lane to go past the middle lane is undertaking.

Marwoodsbigbreak · 20/12/2023 18:15

The bigger issue is when people hog the overtaking lane when there’s only two lanes.

Main road near me is like this, and there’s always some fucking idiot driving at 25 in outside lane when the limit is 40.

Everyone has to “undertake” them or you would all just be stuck driving along matching their speed

Grimchmas · 20/12/2023 18:18

I had a friend get her car crushed by a lorry who couldn't see her undertaking. Life changing injuries. It's just not worth it, and it takes fuck all effort to cross to the overtaking lane and back, even if that's more than one lane away.

happyshineyperson · 20/12/2023 18:19

AmethystSparkles · 19/12/2023 23:12

I’m a sensible driver…some would say that I’m too slow but the Highway Code says that 60mph on a motorway is perfectly fine (under 55 is not). I find that if I pull into the middle lane to help people joining the motorway, I can’t get back into the slow lane because idiots people are undertaking.

Not helped by the fact that people joining the motorway think that it’s a great idea to join in a big clump, leaving people little choice but to slow down or move.

You don’t sound like a sensible driver. You sound like a really annoying one. Why wouldn’t you drive at 70 if traffic is flowing well? At least when overtaking (don’t care what speed you drive in the left lane, but if you’re doing 60 you’ll constantly be pulling out to overtake lorries doing 56).

WilmaWonka · 20/12/2023 18:21

Middle lane hoggers are more and more common. I’ve been driving for 30 years, and you used to get an odd one, now it’s constant and has been like that for a good few years.

I always ‘undertake’ in the slow lane because I’m not a twat sitting blocking traffic in the middle lane, and what I’m actually doing is driving within the speed limit in the slow lane and only overtaking if there is a slower moving vehicle in front of me in my lane. This is how you are supposed to drive on the motorway.

I often find the slow lane completely empty on stretches of the motorway. Are we supposed not to use that lane then because all the twat drivers decide to stay in the middle because they’re too lazy to move back?

I make sure I slightly reduce my speed when coming alongside a middle lane hog just in case they decide to move back in though as such bad drivers can’t be relied upon to indicate either.

TippledPink · 20/12/2023 18:22

I can't stsnd when first two lanes are completely empty and everyone has to go in the 4th lane to overtake a load if idiots
who just sit in the 3rd lane for no reason. I don't undertake but if I am in the first lane I am not moving out to overtake someone who sits in the 2nd lane if its all clear ahead. I give them time to move over though just in case and then speed up so it doesn't take too long.

Abra1t · 20/12/2023 18:27

You were moving at the speed of the traffic in the inside lane you were already in, not undertaking.

Unscientific observation: most middle-lane hoggers are now nervous-looking men in their late twenties, with beards, in small cars.

Grimchmas · 20/12/2023 18:28

Fieldofbrokenpromises · 20/12/2023 18:10

The moral panic about this every time it gets mentioned is hilarious.
If you are on a motorway and a vehicle to your left is passing you why are you there?

Tbf sometimes that's because you're genuinely about to overtake somebody ahead, and some absolute knobhead comes so fast they come out of nowhere, undertakes you and then cuts you up to overtake said car you are about to.

Probably the same type of knobhead that squeezed between me on a slip road and fast moving traffic on the road we were joining in the dark. One moment there were no headlights behind me, the next I saw then, they were next to me and for a split second that seemed to hang forever there was me, them, and two vehicles in lanes 1&2 all side by side. I didn't have time to be scared in the moment (and I'm not the type to scare easily) but I was shaking afterwards.

Grimchmas · 20/12/2023 18:32

That's the thing though @WilmaWonka - middle lane hoggers are almost by definition unreliable drivers. Why wouldn't you drive defensively in accordance with that? It's your side of the car and YOU that takes the impact if they do move left without warning if you're undertaking.

Magenta82 · 20/12/2023 18:34

AmethystSparkles · 19/12/2023 23:12

I’m a sensible driver…some would say that I’m too slow but the Highway Code says that 60mph on a motorway is perfectly fine (under 55 is not). I find that if I pull into the middle lane to help people joining the motorway, I can’t get back into the slow lane because idiots people are undertaking.

Not helped by the fact that people joining the motorway think that it’s a great idea to join in a big clump, leaving people little choice but to slow down or move.

You do not sound like a sensible driver, more like a dangerous one who drives at speeds too slow for the flow of traffic and holds up the middle lane by doing so. You also sound quite smug and self righteous about it. Are you my late grandfather? Never in an accident but the cause of many.

macaronicheezepleeze · 20/12/2023 18:36

CanIExtend · 19/12/2023 23:07

You’re not “overtaking” as you haven’t pulled out to overtake them. You’re just driving in your lane at (what I assume to be) a constant speed. There just happens to be someone who doesn’t know how to drive properly on a part of the road near you.

Omg this. This bloody topic comes up all the time. It's not your fault that someone is driving slowly in whichever lane they are in. You are in the correct lane and to weave about and make all sorts of convoluted manoeuvres to overtake them "correctly" is just bonkers.

You driving in the correct lane and going faster than someone who is in the wrong lane is not overtaking.

Mummyofthewildones · 20/12/2023 18:38

YABU. That's what the third lane is for.

enchantedsquirrelwood · 20/12/2023 18:39

If there is a long line of traffic in the middle lane and they aren't moving over, it's better to move into the third lane to overtake, but I can see why you would undertake. I get annoyed with all the shrieking about middle lane sitting on here, but I did see exactly that scenario on the M25 last weekend!

However do remember that they could decide to move in at any moment, and although they should check both blind spots before moving, they might not!

PS forgot to say that if the traffic in the middle lane is slow moving the Highway Code says it's fine to go faster in the inside lane. But the point about blind spot checking and moving over suddenly still applies.

yikesanotherbooboo · 20/12/2023 18:41

It isn't safe. If someone has proven to you that they are a poor driver( driving overtaking lane) don't take a chance on them having super spatial awareness for the sake of a few minutes. It is frustrating.

enchantedsquirrelwood · 20/12/2023 18:43

I find that if I pull into the middle lane to help people joining the motorway, I can’t get back into the slow lane because idiots people are undertaking

yes this is really annoying. Or when motorways merge and you come in on the outside. People merging from the left just won't let you across and then undertake as if to say middle lane sitter.

If someone allows you onto the motorway let them back into the inside lane and then overtake.

If you come onto a merged motorway from the inside, allow people to get over from the outside and then overtake.

Undertaking isn't sensible in either scenario - usually people don't want to be where they are and just want to get back over!

Astonishing · 20/12/2023 18:45

Isn't this an example of underpassing rather than undertaking? E.g catching up to someone while you're in the left lane who is going slower in an overtaking lane but not deliberately moving lanes to undertake?
I find most often the hoggers are in the third lane, it must be far more dangerous for me to move from the left lane across three lanes to overtake and go back again (on a four lane motorway) than to stay exactly where I am, doing an appropriate speed in the usually empty left lane.

SDTGisAnEvilWolefGenius · 20/12/2023 18:46

Grimchmas · 20/12/2023 18:18

I had a friend get her car crushed by a lorry who couldn't see her undertaking. Life changing injuries. It's just not worth it, and it takes fuck all effort to cross to the overtaking lane and back, even if that's more than one lane away.

Does this sound like ‘moral panic’ @Fieldofbrokenpromises? Undertaking is dangerous - I’m not sure why objecting to unsafe driving is a bad thing.

Hesma · 20/12/2023 18:46

You mean undertaking? That’s illegal

enchantedsquirrelwood · 20/12/2023 18:48

Middle lane hoggers are more and more common. I’ve been driving for 30 years, and you used to get an odd one, now it’s constant and has been like that for a good few years

It really isn't. There are good reasons to move into the middle lane, eg if the inside lane becomes a slip road or because you can see someone up ahead you want to overtake. That may be a bit earlier than you would move over, but it doesn't make them a middle lane sitter.

A middle lane sitter is someone who does exactly that - sits in the middle lane even though nobody is on the inside for a good distance ahead. As I said above, the other day the inside lane on the M25 was empty and there wasn't a junction coming up. THAT was middle lane sitting, and by quite a few people!

Flickersy · 20/12/2023 18:48

Hesma · 20/12/2023 18:46

You mean undertaking? That’s illegal

Undertaking is not illegal. You may need to undertake in congested areas or if you are in a filter lane.

Undertaking can in some circumstances be considered dangerous driving. It is not an offence in and of itself.

AmethystSparkles · 20/12/2023 18:49

Magenta82 · 20/12/2023 18:34

You do not sound like a sensible driver, more like a dangerous one who drives at speeds too slow for the flow of traffic and holds up the middle lane by doing so. You also sound quite smug and self righteous about it. Are you my late grandfather? Never in an accident but the cause of many.

Show quote history

Haha I’m not smug at all….I’m not a great driver! Never said I was..,,I’m an inexperienced motorway driver trying my best to drive as safely as possible. I’ve never caused an accident. Why do the people doing 60mph get all the blame? If everyone else was driving at the speed limit (that’s 70mph) then 60mph wouldn’t be particularly slow would it? But they’re not are they? They’re mostly doing 80mph.

I stand by what I said….undertaking on a four lane motorway is very dangerous (and it’s illegal).

SDTGisAnEvilWolefGenius · 20/12/2023 18:55

@Flickersy is right - undertaking is not strictly illegal - it is strongly discouraged by the Highway Code, and if it causes an accident, it could leave the driver open to a charge of careless driving - according to the RAC.