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?

Totally agree with you @JacquesHarlow I have had this conversation with my retired police officer father many times. Actually less of a conversation, more of him ranting about middle lane sitters.

Do any of the posters who think it's ok to overtake to the left of middle lane joggers also think it's ok to undertake vans or trucks? ( I'm not talking about the particular times when it's permitted to undertake)

Borderline insane if it's a lorry likely to have significant blind spots I'd have thought.

I avoid passing middle lane hoggers on the left. I don't trust the unobservant zombies to not suddenly have an impulse of brain action and randomly move left without checking and crash.

Everyone should be monitoring their mirrors frequently and there should be very few surprises about what's going on around them.

I don't "weave" as in abruptly hopping from one lane to another, but I am happy to maintain pace with good space using any lane required while passing to the right and pulling in to the left when not overtaking. I like changing lane. I have to check my mirrors. It keeps me brain engaged with what's happening on the road ahead, behind and to the sides. There is no slow or fast lane, just degrees of over taking from lane 1 to lanes 2-4

The 70mph in the middle lane mentality is dangerous because it generally involves driving on autopilot and not anticipating problems and the behaviour of other road users.

Pass Plus was the best £100 I ever spent, a good while before learners could be taken on to motorways. They're fast, but they're simple- everything in one direction, fewer types of road user. Keep a distance (more if conditions are poor), go with the flow of traffic, and keep checking your mirrors and what's happening in sight up ahead.

Wishes there were automatic bans and retraining for the deathwishers attempting to merge into free-flowing traffic at 40mph backing 5 cars behind them up so they lose their gaps and forcing trucks and other lane 1 traffic into lane 2 so they don't plough into a 40mph string at 20mph faster when there were plenty of gaps for everyone to zipper merge at 60mph.

@JacquesHarlow I have noticed a lot of people freaking out about the left lane since smart motorways have come about and I cam understand that. I have 3 or 4 times in the last months alone had to slam.my breakdown where someone has broken down and with no warning having the cars infrontnof me coming to a stop from 70(ish) mph.

I also find that people seem to get in lane early. If they are planning to stay on tbe motorway and they know that the 2 left lanes come off they will stay in the 3rd or 4th lane. I suspect it's the sat nav users who are being td what lane they 'need' for coming off.

Obvs not saying it's right and it absolutely p1$$3s me off too but I suspect there is some getting used to the new way motorways work that is causing the issue.

Thank you for that! I have done that myself and felt terribly guilty about it, but wasn’t prepared to go weaving across three lanes to get past the bugger. I hoped seeing me go past on the inside might make them change in but it didn’t.

Sometimes it does so you're also doing a public service there!

How can you be undertaken if you are in the correct lane?

What are you on about? There is no different speed for the lane you are supposed to be in unless you are overtaking on one of the outside lanes from which you then pull back into the inside lane.

Yes!! So many people don’t know how to drive on the motorway! Or are too scared to move once they’re on. Bad driving and very frustrating, I don’t speed but like to travel at the limit when safe to do so.

The person joining is essentially at a junction. If they have to stop due to no spaces, then they have to stop. They do not have a right to force in between traffic if there is no space . They must slow down until they can join.

so he stays in the left hand lane then, is what you're saying

so he stays in the left hand lane then, is what you're saying

No, of course not. If he wants to overtake something going slower then he speeds up while he's doing it so he's not slowing anyone down. And he doesn't plod along in lane 1 past junctions with loads of traffic trying to merge - again adapts speed and lane as appropriate.

I think a lot of problems these days are caused by cruise control. People just want to carry on pootling along at 60 or 70 or whatever, set their cruise control, so can't be bothered to adapt by slighting speeding up or slowing down as that takes a bit more effort to reset the CC afterwards and they'd rather just lazily carry on at the same speed, causing potential problems for other drivers by preventing them changing lanes etc. Personally, I'm sure CC has really contributed to the clear and obvious increase in middle lane hogging as it just makes the driver lazy.

It doesn't matter what speed they are going. If they aren't overtaking then they are in the WRONG lane

You can undertake if the lane to your right is traveling slower than your lane.
what you can’t do is swap from lane 2 into lane 1 to overtake.
ive come across a lot of numpties traveling at 40mph in the middle lane of the M25.

I sort of disagree, the problem is stupid drivers, and you can't fix stupid. I use CC constantly, set at 77 and the amount of jerks that you start overtaking and they start speeding up so you pull in behind and they slow down again - repeat. When i am travelling at my 77 and someone approaches behind I courteously speed up to get out of the way, pull over and then slow back to my 77.
Middle lane drivers and including those driving in lane 3 of 4 when not overtaking deserve no less than to be held up in a JSO protest, eternally.

@Uglyandgrumpy
I use CC constantly, set at 77

That's a neither here nor there speed. My CC which I use a lot slightly over estimates my speed by 2 or three MPH so I set it at 74 or 75. Although technically I will be speeding it’s only by a couple of MPH. If I had my CC set at 77MPH I could still get done. When I did a speed awareness course there were a few people there who had be caught doing 74 MPH on the motorway.
So, if your CC is like mine, I’d suggest you either speed up a bit and then if you get caught it’s fair enough or I’d suggest slowing just a teeny bit so you won’t get caught at all.

I guess that poster's speedo is out by closer to the full permissible 10% than yours and she's set it at what the speedo says when a satnav reads near 70.

I don't know why by now car speedos can't be regularly recalibrated using gps data so they read more accurately though.

I don’t think I said I was in the correct lane! 😉
I might stay in lane 3 if there’s a lorry say 0.5 miles ahead instead of dropping to lane 2 for a very short time. I’d be doing 70, person in lane 4 also doing 70, and we get undertaken by someone that wishes to drive at 80 🤷‍♀️

Technically doing 70 one shouldn’t get undertaken or overtaken but that’s not how motorways work around here, tends to be 75 usual speed but 80 isn’t unusual.

Lane hogging at 60 I rarely see, these people are genuinely in lane 1 in this part of the country.

I did the pass plus too! 6 hours of motorway driving to build my confidence, night driving, driving in country lanes and deeper hazard perceptions because I was able to drive in the motorway with a qualified instructor. This was in 1998, but feel strongly that you shouldn’t be allowed to drive in the motorway until you have had motorway lessons either before or after passing your test.

I also did pass plus and that was before 20 mph in Wales came in. It helped loads. Also think all new drivers should have a black box fitted as standard. Stops you getting bad habits too quickly and over a decade later, still gives me discounts on my car insurance!
Lots of 60 mph - speeding in the 50 and then too slow when it briefly goes up to 70. Utter arses and CC should be taken out along with lights that are too bright.
Have seen learners recently indicating wrongly off a roundabout. Dunno what's so hard about it as a roundabout should be treated like a junction. Saying that I've also seen people indicating wrongly at a normal junction. I despair.

I didn't do pass plus, but only because my Dad was a driving instructor! (Not MY driving instructor, I hasten to add - he refused!). He did, however, go out with me on supervised drives when I was learning and on the motorway with me after I passed my test.

Only a couple of weeks after my driving test I was driving on the motorway with my mum and grandmother in the car and a little old lady doing about 20 mph pulled straight out in front of me, causing me to have to do practically an emergency stop. Both my mum and grandmother were super impressed that I'd reacted so quickly!

If someone else can "undertake" you, then you WERE in the wrong line, half a mile or not, you shouldn't be in an overtaking lane if you're not actively overtaking. Speed is irrelevant, both for yourself and others. It's not your job to police the speed of others.

Noted, I’ll get back in my lane 😉
Sometimes it just seems a bit pointless getting into lane 1 or 2 for about 30 seconds to get right back out again on an empty motorway, if I’m driving fast and not below speed limit.