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.

This time of year is the worst for this but every day is fucking awful. I drove Christmas Day and everyone was in lane 3 or 4 of the m1 doing either 50 or 70 and all getting in everyone's way. I stayed in lane one doing my typical 73 on cruise control. I got off as soon as I could as I can't stand the "I'm alright Jack" mode of driving where people think it's safer to stay there than move completely missing how everyone else is having to avoid them!

I always stay in my lane and then do a passive aggressive left indication hinting ag them to move over. Most don't fucking understand. Pisses me right off.

I actually nearly started a thread over Christmas asking when the police and traffic officers were going to sort this out! It's so fucking dangerous.

I HATE middle lane hoggers. They are my pet peeve. I tend to move into lane three then very obviously move quickly from lane 2 back into lane one in front of them. Sometimes that then makes them realise that they are in the incorrect lane and will move into lane one. Sometimes it doesn’t.
I don’t understand it either - the safest place to be is left, so that you can easily move into the hard shoulder if there’s a sudden problem. So I don’t understand why people petrified of motorway driving doing 50 sit in the middle lane with traffic coming in and out around them. Surely that’s the most dangerous place to be? If I was a nervous motorway driver I’d just sit in lane one behind a lorry doing 50

@sofski91 totally agree with you. I'd say that they weren't scared, and just lazy bastards tbf.

People sit in the middle lane often during long distance driving because they want to just zone out. If you're in the left you have to be mindful of traffic entering the motorway coming into your lane and you have to be mindful of being spat out of the motorway if you suddenly find yourself in the lane that will force you onto an exit.

I'm not defending it, I'm just saying that's why it happens. It's people who just want to cruise along and zone out.

Anyone who wants to / expects to zone out while operating a car needs to have their licence permanently revoked and very possibly shoved somewhere painful! (Yes, I know you weren’t condoning what they’re doing)

@Spudthespanner it's always good to zone out while driving a metal killing machine at somewhere between 50-70mph. Why do they think it's ok?!

I suppose a lot of people think it's more faff/hassle/dangerous to be pulling out to let traffic in, only to pull in again afterwards. Especially on long stretches of quiet roads.

A lot of it is purely psychological I imagine. A false sense of security, or easier driving. I don't know. People do all sorts of weird things and you can even study the way pedestrians move on pavements and the way drivers move on the roads. Studies have indeed been done. Human beings are odd and will often do things that seem obviously counterproductive.

The number of people who will (as pedestrians) turn a corner so tightly and then be shocked to their core when someone bumps into them is insane to me. If you turn the corner hugging the wall of whatever building is there, then you can't see who's coming. Then when the person round the corner is doing the same you're both going to collide aren't you?

I think human beings are just drawn to the path of least resistance even when it isn't actually the path of least resistance on a societal level. It seems easier for the individual to just cruise along in the middle of the motorway, but it's worse in the bigger picture.

Yes agree they do seem to do that as soon as they get on!

It's so annoying that they block the middle lane, especially when there are lots of lorries and you can't get out for them sitting there!

If I had a passenger in the car with a phone (or was the passenger), I would photograph every single car of those you refer to and report them to the police.

If you cannot use the left hand lane when it is available, you should be deemed as mentally unfit to drive and have a lengthy driving ban.

We should stop seeing having a driving licence as if it were a human right.

Undertaking is not de facto illegal. You also have to be driving carelessly or dangerously to meet that criterion. I think in the image that @WatcherWatch posted the authorities would have a hard time proving she was.doing either.of those things...

If you are passing on the left, however, the onus is on you to keep a close eye on the traffic and be aware that others might pull over from the middle lane.

it’s not illegal to undertake.

No apparently not, and I'm not disagreeing with you, but you can be fined for it. How does that work? Is it the same as staying in a parking place for longer than your ticket says? Is that illegal? I'd have thought that if something incurred a potential fine, it might be illegal 🤣. Don't mean to sound so naive here, just baffled.

It's not illegal to undertake.

You should avoid undertaking where possible, but in the situation posted it's perfectly reasonable to undertake because the flow of traffic in lanes 3 and 4 is in a much slower-moving queue.

If, say, you approach a middle-lane hog in lane 2 of an otherwise deserted three lane motorway, then you should move over to lane 3 to overtake them and then return to lane 1, rather than undertake them in lane 1.

The roads would be a lot safer if the worst 5-10% of drivers were removed from them.

It’s not illegal to undertake. I suggest you read the Highway Code.

Undertaking is something where it's okay in some circumstances and not others. So there's not a blanket law against it, but it would still be the wrong thing to do (and therefore, I suppose, technically contrary to the law as showing that you were driving without due care and attention) in a particular situation.

So, killing someone is not illegal. You're allowed to kill someone if you are acting in self-defence and it was not your intent to kill. But murder is illegal, but murder requires both killing someone and intending to kill them, or to cause them so much harm that you are being reckless about their survival.

The offence would be driving without due care or dangerous driving depending on what happened. In and of itself undertaking isn’t illegal. If an accident occurred, then it would be one of the above.

Undertaking is NOT illegal. I am a driving instructor and DH is a police officer so we know!

Undertaking is more dangerous because it’s harder for the driver to check their left blind spot than their right.

If undertaking was illegal then the Highway Code wouldn’t tell you that you can pass a driver on their left if your lane is moving faster than theirs.

there was a tv public service ad on recently about middle lane hogging, it didn’t make much sense though.

Thank heavens most posters know undertaking isn’t illegal.

It’s nice to know there are some safe and knowledgeable drivers out there as I see and experience idiots on the road ALL the time in my job.

My pupils are always being passed dangerously and unnecessarily because people assume they are going slow as they are learners. Inevitably those passing end up speeding as my pupils are, in fact, driving to speed limit.

@pinkstripeycat so I'm on a dual carriageway, the speed limit is 40, they are doing 35 in the right hand lane and there is someone inevitably up their arse. I'm on the left and I hang back, giving them the opportunity to move over, they don't and so I decide to pass them very carefully observing. I'm undertaking here, and they decide to pull over, I beep but they still hit me. Is this my fault? It seems as though I'm undertaking, but actually, they were lane hogging and potentially causing more serious accidents.

It hasn't happened, I'm just curious as to what you think.

Info from a police website -

Rule 268 of the Highway Code states – do not overtake on the left or move to a lane on your left to overtake. In congested conditions, where adjacent lanes of traffic are moving at similar speeds, traffic in left-hand lanes may sometimes be moving faster than traffic to the right. In these conditions you may keep up with the traffic in your lane even if this means passing traffic in the lane to your right. Do not weave in and out of lanes to overtake.
OFFENCE
Overtaking on the left is lawful if done in accordance with the above guidance. However, whilst there is no specific offence of overtaking on the left, if a driver undertook another vehicle, other than in the circumstances described above e.g. in the case of someone hogging lane 2 on a motorway, they may be prosecuted for careless driving.

I would settle down comfortably at the speed of the traffic. It’s a busy motorway. 50-70 is fine.

Often, if you stay in the left lane, as you generally should unless overtaking, you'll have more stopping distance because others don't seem to use it.

I've driven quite a bit in the last couple of days, and I suspect there have been more drivers than usual who are not very used to motorway driving, especially with the added fun of fog.

It's not illegal. It's not advisable for obvious reasons but it's not illegal.