To think it's ok to want to travel at 70mph on the motorway...

[JacquesHarlow]

...or am I now completely unreasonable, and the Highway Code is irrelevant?

Hear me out if you will:

I have done a LOT of driving in the past two weeks. M1, A1, A23, M25, M40, M6, you name it.

I am middle aged, F, live in Surrey, for what any of that is worth. I am also it seems one of the stranger folk...in that when I join a motorway, I drive at 70mph on the dot. I also stay in the left lane until overtaking.

AIBU for doing this?

It seems so, judging by the habits of hundreds of road users I encountered, who come onto the motorway and automatically slide into lane 3 of 4, or lane 2 of 3. And sit there for absolutely ages, at around 60 mph.

I kid you not, 60mph.

It's maddening. I am driving at 70mph, in lane 1. It is clear in front of me.

Next to me is someone doing 60 mph. I know this because I am coming up on them quickly. I cannot however undertake them - this is against the Highway Code.

So I indicate, check it's clear, move out to lane 2 behind them. I then look to move to lane 3 to overtake.

Only I can't move over to lane 3, because there is someone doing 60 (or maybe less), right alongside them. Not overtaking, just cruising next to them in their own little lane.

So I indicate again, move out to lane 4. Where of course it takes me 30 seconds or so to overtake, at which point someone is barrelling down on me wanting to do 80mph in their private fast lane. (I'm fine with this, I assert my right to overtake legally etc).

So that's three lane changes to overtake two cars who due to their speed (and the highway code's rules) should be sitting in lane 1.

Why do people do this?

I notice that when I've brought this up years ago on here, or when I've spoken to folk in real life, people often say

"It's more dangerous to do all that 'weaving about' than stay in a lane"
"I'm not going to get trapped in a lorry sandwich"
"People join constantly on motorways and I don't want to have to move over"

OK, great.

So you're going to make me change three lanes, just because you want your own little personal bubble on the motorway, and are happy to be a rolling roadblock?

I think middle lane hoggers are not only selfish, but actually dangerous.

But AIBU?

This is why I always move out, and out again to overtake the middle laner. They are clearly so unobservant and/or ignorant, that the chances of them suddenly moving back to the 'correct' lane for their speed but with no idea I am there is worryingly high. Which I guess is why the no undertaking rule in freely moving traffic is part of the highway code.

Agree with post. Lane discipline in this country is awful!
So bad I'm surprised the DM hasn't blamed Labour for it yet!

This is intriguing. 11 pages in and posters can't completely agree on passing and overtaking (are they different / the same?) Add to this that in the summer there will be many visitors from other countries, and many EU countries do not make the difference between overtaking and passing, and it's no wonder that everyone is upset. As a British person who did not grow up in the UK, the driving in the left lane rule appears quite dangerous to me. As other posters have said - weaving between other moving vehicles to "overtake" when you can simply "pass" in your own lane seems crazy. In the majority of other countries I've driven in, the equivalent of the left lane is for lorries, trucks, very slow moving vehicles, and people leaving / joining the motorway; the middle lane is for those doing a decent clip; and the right lane is the fast lane - mainly used for high speeds and overtaking. Everyone weaving back in into the left lane between trucks and vehicles doing wildly differing speeds strikes me as dangerous.

I do it here, as it is the law - but I'm not convinced it's the safest way to organise a motorway.

The cars in the middle lane don't care what's happening in the inside though, that's the problem.
I would happily let them pull into the lane in front of me. They don't. You can go miles waiting for the person in the middle lane to finish the manoeuvred of overtaking and they don't. There's no accidents because they have no intention of moving. Nothing to do with blind spots - both mirrors have them.

I have several times driven in lane 1, seeing a car in the distance on an empty motorway in lane 3 / furthest right lane. So I've stuck to my speed and undertook in lane 1. And then in my rear view mirror, can still see them trogging along in lane 3 as I disappear into the distance on a still empty motorway. Ridiculous.

I just undertake and make sure to give them a good glare as I go past.

Worst for me is lorry drivers who don't understand a 50 limit. They insist on still cruising along at 60, so they get right up my arse and flash at me. Gives me the rage.

@Zimunya

In the majority of other countries I've driven in, the equivalent of the left lane is for lorries, trucks, very slow moving vehicles, and people leaving / joining the motorway; the middle lane is for those doing a decent clip; and the right lane is the fast lane - mainly used for high speeds and overtaking.

This is what 99% of uk drivers think and do.

This is a bizarre MN phenomenon and not reflective of how the majority drive in UK roads.

I wouldn't worry about it. Although occasionally you do see one in the wild. Where it's best to just wait for them to finish whatever it is they are doing then try to speed up a bit so your not permanently stuck in their vicinity.

whatever anyone else says, i agree 80 is much safer than 60, although i keep to 77 nowadays which is above the slow ones.
i think this link is very insightful to the speed limits on UK motorways.

I find this a lot. Drives me crackers.

Best response of the day! I was thinking the very same!!

How is it wrong to drive 70 on the inside lane if cars in the middle and fast lane are driving 80 or 90?

People are idiots and drive around in their own little world. I believe we should be made to do a refresher and retest every so often. Round here no one seems to understand merging in turn and will all queue in one lane blocking the roundabout they've just come off. Getting up to speed seems to be something many aren't capable of either.

Absolutely.

I was actually stuck behind someone going 50mph in a 70 bit but I condoled myself with the fact it goes down to 50 a bit further along.

I was both and when we got there and they slowed to 30 🤦‍♀️

Honestly, this is almost never true. It is true that sometimes the gaps are smaller than you'd like, and of course, you need to get moving into the next lane as quickly as possible as otherwise the gaps are too small, but its extremely unlikely that with minor speed adjustments during the length of the slip road you can't find a gap,

I'm not sure 'sorry Officer I was forced to speed' will cut it if they decide to stop you. The whole 10% yada yada thing is discretionary, not an absolute. And why is it ok for you to break the law but not others? Baffling.

Culturally they are a tad more selfish on the roads but it’s also not part of their road laws/driving code. You must give way to any vehicles already on the motorway and you would be at fault if you hit a car when joining the motorway.

I was surprised to find out that UK motorway traffic is meant to move across lanes when I moved here. It’s a really good rule in some respects but it also means that people really lack merging skills like matching the speed of the motorway.

If you'd seen my subsequent posts you'd see I was using incorrect terminology. I thought the inside lane was the far right lane. I was wrong. So my question is, are you driving on the outside lane at 70mph (ie the far right lane). If so, that's a problem.

Lots of people have taken to doing it on Smart motorways in a protest and to avoid hitting broken down vehicles particularly if your following a high vehicle that suddenly pulls out leaving you running into a broken down car. The M25/M3 and M25/M4 junctions are also really bad for people not getting into the right lanes then stopping dead trying to pull in last minute so it's safer to go into the middle lane.

Everyone weaving back in into the left lane between trucks and vehicles doing wildly differing speeds strikes me as dangerous.

People shouldn't be weaving in and out. But if the lane to the left of you is mostly empty, you should move over to that lane. You probably shouldn't if it's not a big gap and you're clearly going faster than the average speed in that lane. There will be exceptions like if you're making space for an emergency services vehicle (but you shoukd still move over safely) or if you're about to take the east bound J5 exit from the M25, which goes off on the right side, not the left like every other motorway junction. Nearly as weird as travelling west to go eastwards towards Portsmouth on the M27.

I often see people pull out to overtake and then slow down. Why do they do that? I like to speed up a bit so I can complete the overtake in good time and get out of everybody's hair.

I didn't know that people are supposed to move out of the way in this country, I always just thought it was a sensible thing to do - if you can see that the cars will struggle to merge, and there is space for you to move out into the next lane, then surely that is just the obvious thing to do? Certainly, in South Africa (where I took my test) I don't remember this being something I specifically had to learn, but it was definitely something that I was told by my father and paid driving instructors as good practice.

This is now going to change how I view drivers in this country. It used to make me roll my eyes that they don't have the ability to think ahead, but now I'll be annoyed as they're actually apparently acting against the HC?

One thing that I've noticed as a foreigner driving here is that quite often there is a lack of forethought - I find it fascinating when I used to drive up and down to Cambridge - I forget the road name? M11? M1? Basically, it's a bit more hilly and the lack of foresight to anticipate those hills in order to maintain speed always blew my mind. So I'd be cruising along at 70mph or a bit under, regularly get overtaken by cars going a bit over - fine. And then 5 minutes later I'd overtake the same car that had dropped down to 60 or less as we went up the hill. But then, I'm from Cape Town - hill driving is practically basic learning!

@Mrsttcno1 Undertaking is only if you go past them and then move into their lane infront of them OP. If you’re staying in your lane (lane 1) and continuing in that same lane, there’s is no undertaking

This is incorrect. Passing anyone on the inside lane is undertaking, regardless of whether or not you move into their lane.

Passing people in this way creates a hazard as it increases the risk of collision if the car in lane 2 was to try to move into lane 1 as you were passing them.

When driving, try to stick to a "staggered" formation so that cars in the lanes beside you are either in front or behind your car (ie. not driving directly side by side). Only drive beside another car when explicitly passing it to overtake.

The Australian rule keeps the traffic flowing at peak times. You do find that U.K. motorways slow down around junctions when it’s busy as people try to move away from the left and people joining the motorway do so without the requisite speed to merge like a zip. Google Maps traffic has red zones around each junction!

I don’t know if I’ve read this thread wrong or if I’ve just realised I don’t know how to drive on the motorway!!

I hate driving on the motorway. I will do it, but I avoid it if possible because I don’t like it. The majority of my motorway journeys are short. Half an hour max. I stick to the left or the middle lane doing the speed limit. If there are cars merging then I will move to the middle to let them in or if someone in the left lane in front of me is going really slow I will over take them in the middle lane and then move back to the left.

If I am in the left lane going 70 and someone in the middle lane is going 60 I will continue going 70 in my lane because I didn’t think this was under taking? I thought under taking would be if I was in the middle lane and then move to the left lane and then back to the middle to over take the person in front of me.

Have I been driving wrong on the motorway all of this time? I thought lane progression was different to under taking?

Oh the ZIP thing. My word, constantly shocked at how around where we are (London/SE) the zip thing is so difficult. Not just on motorways but, for example, if there are roadworks ahead. People get into a single lane of traffic queue for MILES before, causing chaos further back, especially if there are intersections, then give those who go in the other land with the goal of zipping further down deathglares. DS and I laughed our heads off at a man in a situation like this once who was SOOO determined not to let us Zipper in that he nearly drove into the car in front of him.