Undertaking VS middle lane hogging

[WatcherWatch]

I drive a lot on this motorway so this isn’t new. But I just wonder what other people do in this situation. (I was not driving while taking the photo. My mother was)

On joining the motorway our slip road becomes a lane. We stay in our lane and are doing 70mph along the road. There are no cars in lane 2 directly to out right. Because they are ALL sitting in lane 3 or 4. And they are ALL doing between 50 and 60mph. So we are technically undertaking them. But we’d either have to cross over from lane 1 to 4 just to get past them which is absolutely ridiculous. Today we could have got in to lane 4 if needed but some days that’s just as packed and going just as slowly so overtaking would not actually be possible. So I tend to stay in lane 1 and just maintain my speed. My mother was a bit worried about undertaking and would have preferred to cross all the way over to overtake but decided not to bother as we weren’t going far anyway.

What would everyone do in this situation?

Especially on days when lane 4 is also busy so overtaking would be impossible. On those days you’d need to slow down and squeeze into lane 4 to go slower than you would in lane 1. And you wouldn’t be able to overtake in the end anyway as they all drive at the same speed. While lanes 1 and 2 stay empty.

Yeah you can have a car in a blind spot in any situation, my point is that that a car can creep unexpectedly by undertaking. Maybe I’m over cautious. And yes hogging a lane is not ok.
In the US for eg there aren’t accidents from undertaking, but I would argue that it’s different when it’s legal and drivers are expecting it.

I thought it was a queue of traffic you can undertake in, not a lane. Is this not the case?

If you keep to the middle lane on cruise control all the time, that must be quite boring as well as inconsiderate. I find that left hand lane driving and overtaking when required keeps the drive more interesting. It’s important to stave off boredom and tiredness. However, motorway driving is never the most fun in any case. 😂

Yeah. I have to say this is my approach too.

Stay in the lane and go with the flow of the traffic. You would only be undertaking if you moved into a lane to your left to pass a car in your current lane instead of moving into a lane on your right.

I don't think it counts if there's a lane's clear gap between you. I wouldn't do it if the free lane wasn't there and would consider that undertaking.

It's so bad on the 4 lane section of the M4 it's carrying over to where it drops to three lanes - people sitting in lane 3 doing 60 so no lane for people to overtake. Blatantly driving passed signs that say "stay left unless overtaking".

I stay in the lefthand lane and maintain my speed - as many have pointed out it isn't undertaking and isn't illegal.

People who sit in lanes 2 or 3 doing 60 when not overtaking should have their driving licences revoked until they've done a "how to drive on motorways" course. Just sitting there oblivious, not pulling over when the person to their left is indicating to change lanes. Dangerous, stupid driving yet they think they're somehow in the right because they're going significantly under the speed limit.

I had this exact scenario today. I carried on in my own clear lane, doing 70 and passing them. It didn't feel unsafe as lane 2 was completely clear. I have never seen this before and have no idea why more traffic hadn't dropped left.

The other week I had someone sitting in lane 2 of the a14 (2 lanes), I got behind them and flashed, they moved over then MOVED BACK into lane 2 once I was past them, I couldn't believe it 🤯

Driving standards are shockingly bad, poor lane discipline, unable to maintain a consistent speed, just pulling out into the next lane when there's not really enough of a gap etc.

The other week I had someone sitting in lane 2 of the a14 (2 lanes), I got behind them and flashed, they moved over then MOVED BACK into lane 2 once I was past them, I couldn't believe it 🤯

Driving standards are shockingly bad, poor lane discipline, unable to maintain a consistent speed, just pulling out into the next lane when there's not really enough of a gap etc.

Undertaking is illegal but undertaking is deliberately moving to lane 1 to undertake and then back again.

In the photo I would carry on in lane 1. You are moving at the speed of your lane.

There's no rule against making progress in your own lane so you would have been OK in lanes 1 or 2 on this occasion with extra careful observation but you will get pulled over for going round the inside of another car to get past it.

I got caught red-handed undertaking some numpty in the middle lane somewhere between junctions 42 and 41 heading south on the M6 almost two years ago to the day.

In the dark, I hadn't spotted the marked police car. I think the police car was in lane 3, possibly about to challenge the lane hogger just at the moment I made my fateful manoeuvre - from lane 2 to lane 1 and past the roadhog. The blue lights immediately flooded the scene and the flashing headlights left me in no doubt it was me who they wanted to stop.

The foul weather no doubt helped my cause - no one wants to be on the hard shoulder of the M6 even in nice weather. The policeman was very sympathetic and just wanted me to acknowledge what I had done wrong and I'd hear the only words any sane person wants to hear in this situation - "On your way"

"Why have I pulled you over?"
"I'm sure you'll enlighten me, officer"

Oops - that wasn't the right move in the slow dance - I'd trodden on his toes. One more chance before it escalated. He asked me again and I made a snaking "undertaking" gesture with my right hand, "I got frustrated", I conceded.

To my amazement he actually said to flash my lights and give the middle lane driver the finger next time. "Road rage is stupid, officer", I smiled as he gave me the usual advice about gaining speed on the hard shoulder before rejoining the traffic. Phew.

Hadalifeonce · Today 16:48

I may be wrong, but I don't think you are undertaking, it's just that your lane is moving faster than the lane outside the one you are in.
In my mind, undertaking is where someone deliberately moves inside you, passes the moves out in front of you.

You're 100% correct.

I had one a few days before Christmas. I was on a dual carriageway, I was going straight on on a roundabout, followed a white Audi tank from my right, which went off at my exit, in the right hand lane.

It was about a mile to the next roundabout, she was doing 20 to 25 mph and the left lane was clogged (40 mph limit).

There was more of the same, until I got a gap, so I moved left and accelerated gently and as I got alongside, she blasted the horn and did a little swerve at me, before tucking in behind and weaving about, flashing her lights.

I probably technically undertook, but she was doing it on purpose.

It's only undertaking if you go into a lower lane to "undertake" and return to a higher lane after the undertake. If you are cruising at a set speed in one lane, and you are then passing a car sitting in a higher lane because they are going slower than you; they are hogging, you are not undertaking.

I thought undertaking was moving from the right lane to the left lane and then moving back into the right, but then someone told me that undertaking is also passing a car on your right on a multiple lane road. The Highway Code also says this.

If someone is in the right lane and doing under the speed limit, what are you meant to do? Slow traffic down in the left lane? I'm passing them, but I'm observing them like mad to make sure they don't try entering my lane whilst I'm passing.

What a stupid and dangerous thing to do.

That’s not what undertaking is. You weren’t undertaking. Your lane ahead was clear and you maintained your speed and continued. Not undertaking, not illegal. That’s correct driving.

Undertaking is coming up behind someone in an outside lane, and then going round them using the inside lanes to undertake. The reason that is not allowed and is considered dangerous is that when you come up behind someone, they might move into the inside lane themselves to allow you to pass. If you’re doing the same manoeuvre, you can collide as you move in and speed up to pass if they move at the same time and they’re maybe don’t see you or you’re not there when they check their mirrors because you move at the same time or you end up both moving in and out with you trying to pass and them trying to give way to you. That’s why you don’t undertake.

Continuing on at your constant speed in your lane and therefore passing people to your right is not undertaking and you are allowed to do it.

I would maintain my speed in the left hand lane in your situation. It's not your fault the other drivers don't know how to drive.

However, if I was doing that and they were in the lane next to me I would think twice about moving past them. You should only do that in slow moving traffic. If they are that shit at driving I wouldn't put it past them to pull over into your lane without looking or indicating just as you're moving past them.

There are so many atrocious drivers on the roads these days. Standards have really slipped.

I don't think you're correct. You shoujld only pass someone on the left in the adjacent lane if the traffic is moving very slowly like in a traffic jam or city centre traffic backed up at traffic lights and all the lanes are doing slightly different speeds. Even then you should be very careful.

You really shouldn't be going faster than the car in the lane to the right of you. When people indicate to move over to the left they generally don't do it when they're passing the slip road onto a motorway unless it's glaringly obvious no-one is on it. They glance in their mirror to check behind them and they glance over their right shoulder and then manoeuvre. They would not expect someone to be speeding up to the left of them to pass, and that's exactly what undertaking is, it doesn't necessarily mean that they are going to pull over in front of you to the lane tht you're in. You could be in their blind spot completely. it is dangerous.

I've done it though, very cautiously and not suddenly, because it's often more dangerous to have someone hogging the middle lanes of motorways at 50 as it usually means they don't know what the hell they're doing and it's safest to just get past them.

From junction 12 going east all the way to the M25 junction at 4a - possibly further but haven't been passed that point for a while. Has been four lanes and variable speed limit for some years.

Passing on the left is fine if the flow of traffic dictates it. You just need to be careful the dozy middle lane hoggers know you are there.