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?

Middle lane hoggers are the worst, just move over you annoying fool 😤

A lot of lorries are governed to 60 so they struggle to overtake cars doing 60 (60 on a car speedo is a bit under), and are not allowed in the outside lane, so you get chains of lorries trying to get past slow cars in the first and second lanes, no wonder they get really irritated with the middle lane brigade doing 60. Lorries have deadlines to meet and limited driving hours so travelling even a few mph under their max speed impacts them.

Flashing to just say have you forgotten to move over is OK, some scream up behind with full headlights on, which is not OK, but I understand it, if you are going a long distance and drivers are pottering about in the outside lane every few miles preventing overtaking it rapidly adds to your travel time.

Having said to a friend about queues caused by him driving slowly and blocking lanes, which he denied (stay in lane and it all flows well he said) he then noticed when his wife was driving the next time how clear it was ahead, he looked behind and there was a huge queue of cars trying to get past them. He actually got better at not lane hogging after that.

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.

look into this as I don't believe you are correct

undertaking is when you deliberately move lanes - whereas if you pass them on the inside lane at a continuous legal speed - I think you'll find you are not breaking any laws or rules

https://www.reddrivingschool.com/learners/how-do-i-do-it/highway-code/undertaking/#:~:text=Although%20not%20strictly%20illegal%2C%20undertaking,a%20lane%20on%20the%20right%2C

^Although not strictly illegal, undertaking is strongly discouraged by The Highway Code, stating “do not overtake on the left or move to a lane on your left to overtake.” However, there are exceptions that apply when a car undertakes in slow-moving traffic if its lane is moving faster than a lane on the right, undertaking in this circumstance is often deemed safer than weaving in and out of traffic.
^

There's a bit of road like this near me but it's 40mph yet people daily travel down it at 25mph
It's a clear road with no bends and I have no idea why people can't at least do 30-35
Every bloody day!

Whatever the feelings about UK drivers are, the UK is still one of the safest countries in Europe to drive in, and by extension from that the world.

You are about 50% more likely to die in a traffic accident in France than the UK, and about 4x more likely to die in one in the US.

Germany, Spain, Belgium and the Netherlands all have more road deaths per capita than the UK.

I think it has got worse since more people are using cruise control. They just switch it on and zone out. You need to be able to react to changing traffic conditions on a motorway - cruise control doesn't help!

You haven’t understood what undertaking is. It’s legal to drive faster in lane 1 than in lane 2, otherwise motorways would come to a standstill in crawling traffic. What you mustn’t do is move from 2 to 1, accelerate past a slower vehicle in 2 and then pull back out from 1 into 2 once ahead of them.

I was driving back to Scotland from England recently and encountered the lane hoggers all the way. I always move back in if the road is clear so sometimes I did pass someone in the middle lane. I am not going out over another 2 lanes to get by them. I don't think that's classed as undertaking. Undertaking is if you go in and back out to get around them.

Sometimes it would shame them to moving back over and sometimes they did not care 😂

It would be good if cars could be limited to 70mph the same way lorries are restricted. The aggressive twats doing 80/90 plus, weaving in and out and erratically braking are a menace. The amount of times I've seen them leaving it so late to move across to the left to exit is scary. Causing everyone else to brake and have seen a collision once where a car was overtaking from left to to rght at the same moment they swung across too fast.

It's more maddening when you're in the outside lane going at a decent speed and some twat weaves in and out of all three lanes.

Annoys me too op. Stay left unless overtaking seems to be completely ignored.

Also whilst you are not obliged to drive at the speed limit, on roads like motorways in good conditions you should be driving close to it, why would you being doing 50 (black Hyundai on M4 7pm yesterday I'm particularly thinking about you IN THE MIDDLE LANE!) On bendy country lanes, congested city streets, inclement weather conditions... different but you don't feel capable of 60 even you need to consider if you should be driving at all

Totally agree, I have been driving for 40 years and always lived just outside the M25 at one point I was using it daily, it was always bad, but in the last 5 years or so it has become ridiculous, in fact during the week if I can avoid it I will. I wouldn't be concerned about which lane you are in for over or undertaking as most drivers pick a lane and a speed and just drive, then the impatient men in their 'flash' cars weave in and out to same a few seconds. The M40/M3 part is particularly bad. I have recently driven London to Scotland, London to South Wales and drive London to the South Coast at least once a month, the best drivers are on the A1M north of the Midlands, and if you go down the M4 or M3 they get better the further you go.

YANBU

I got stuck behind someone doing 50 in the outside lane of the M3 at 4am a few weeks ago.

It was infuriating. I pulled across to lane 1 in the end.

One of my friends does it, despite being told a million times - his reasons include “it’s a limit, not a target”, he doesn’t want to have to move back out to overtake/let people merge from slip ways, he thinks people are “pushing in”

Where I live there are no motorways so people rarely drive on them, and when they do they take their strange driving habits and ideas with them.

That’s exactly what I was going to say. But in general I agree, lane discipline on M25, M40 seems to have deteriorated.

It’s not always the case but sometimes it’s people avoiding lane 1 on “smart” motorways that just should not and never be “all lane running” - the ones where the refuges are far far too far apart the cameras and gantries don’t work and the left hand verge is a solid brick wall so so much for getting over that to safety . You know when you’re driving at night and trying to figure out if the lights in front of you are a low moving car you are closing on or someone broken down that your about to kill - and if they have no lights due to the breakdown well then there’s no chance! the Highway Code does not take into account these utter death traps. (I don’t do 60 though I’m at 70+ in lane 2+ but I’m not going into lane 1 even if the road appears clear)

I find these threads so bizarre. It’s always the same thing over and over.

It makes me wonder if anyone actually drives on motorways.

Surely you just use common sense and slip in where you’re causing the least drama.

If that’s you going at 70mph on the dot then 9/10 the slow lane is not the correct lane for you.

It does confuse me. Most people I encounter on roads seem to understand this and it’s rare to get these weaving numpties (say once an hour or so). So how are there so many on here?

Oh and 35 miles an hour on the A36 where it's national speed limit (you know the white circle with the line) is ridiculously slow, it's 60mph basically so below 50 is just causing frustration, other unnecessary overtaking etc

You’re not wrong OP. I drive on the motorway more than most and I see it up and down the country, exactly as you described, hogging the middle lane when there left lane is clear.

It’s such poor driving and shows a lack of awareness of their surroundings. The scary thing is, it’s so common!

I did this once and the person then indicated and tried to pull into me. I slammed on the brakes and then went to go I to the middle to overtake them. They swerved back into the middle. I then had to pull into the outside to overtake.
She just didn't want me to undertake, even though I wasn't.
The entire road was clear apart from us for a couple of miles.
Absolutely ridiculous and dangerous behaviour!

This is a worringly clueless post. I mean yes, people travelling at 80/90 are definitely driving dangerously. But to even consider limiting to 70mph is ridiculous - we need to be able to speed up sometimes, even if that means going over the speed limit.

People weaving in and out and braking erratically are silly, yes, but for most of us, the point of overtaking is to be alert, realise in advance we need to change lanes, do so smoothly, continue past the car we are overtaking them smoothly slot back into the lane, all without any notable change in speed.

Interesting! I'll do this in future!

YANBU, OP, there are a lot of shit drivers around.

Driving on motorways is not covered in driving lessons or on tests. You don't have to do them to be able to drive on them. That combined with cruise control and lazy drivers results in people having no idea how to actually use them. Drives me crazy too op!

Smart motorways were always an idiotic idea.

Yanbu - only exception for me is I won't go in the slow lane if there is no hard shoulder, which seems to be the case further north on the M6 in certain parts.