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?

I do understand that but people also pull out ages before they are actually going to overtake the car. This can be because everyone else is already in the outside lane - wrongly and people think they won't be able to get out. Along with those that won't let you pull out when you would genuinely be overtaking.

There is some lag with gps data. However, I have wondered if the speedo in my car is linked to the GPS as it seems to be very accurate.

Yes... lane 2 is often a long line of people overtaking hgvs etc.

One of the main problems is too many people don't leave an appropriate gap, both for their own stopping distance and for people wanting to merge from slip roads or to move over into for overtaking.

There is some lag with gps data.

Yes, that's why I don't think it should be used instead of the speedo but there might be a way to used it for calibration.

I find the best ones are the ones that light up the mph you are going at. Usually the 20 or 30 mph sensors in towns

I remember this driver.
https://www.lbc.co.uk/news/woman-driver-who-shared-dashcam-of-man-swerving-into-her-is-also-punished-for-la/

Glad they prosecuted her too but will she be educated enough to get in the right lane? That was an empty road at night. Wonder what her reasoning was for being in the rightmost lane?

She wasn't prosecuted or punished. She was issued with a "notice of intended prosecution" but opted to take an education course which is not a punishment and shouldn't be regarded as one, so she was never prosecuted.

LBC are misogynistic arseholes. The word "woman" in the headline was only there to attract the attention of misogynistic arseholes to help feed their confirmation bias. And the writer of the article needs to go on a driver education course too because they used the words "fast lane" to describe the 3rd lane which is only a term used by people who don't understand the rules of the motorway.

The reason she was sent a notice of intended prosecution was because the course is offered as an alternative to prosecution. If you don’t accept that you did anything wrong then you can refuse the course and the matter will go to court. Do you not accept that apart from the journalistic reasons you have stated in some circumstances education is better than a fine and points?