a new species of gastropod being discovered.

Three points and a hundred squid find?

Interested to know – those who (truthfully) say that they’ve seen people pulled over for this undertaking (non)manoeuvre – have you ever seen anyone pulled over for middle lane hogging? Cos I haven’t. Not never ever

Thats terribly difficult to give a true answer for.. Plenty of times we’ve all seen folks that have been pulled over on the hard shoulder, difficult to know exactly what for unless you stop your self and go ask them..
So not really any kind of evidence seeking.

I’ll also dive in with any Motorway that has 4 lanes, for now it seems lanes 1&2 are distinctly left for HGV’s playing kiss chase with each other and 3&4 left for cars to use.. This brings other conflicts and usage issues into focus.

If Lanes 3&4 are going slower than 1&2 is common for Trucks to simply rattle on through at their designated speed and undertake all 3&4 slow moving vehicles, fine the Law says thats ok.. so thats what I do.. I hunker down on lanes 1&2 and pass all the 3&4 lane joggers… However, most 4 lane motorways are controlled by “smart” cameras dn are monitored by CCTV that controls and records the movements.. my question is whilst undertaking in sparcely populated motorways you surely can be “caught” and prosecuted for “undertaking” vehicles.. yet we hear nothing to this effect, no one has yet fess’ed up and said “I’ve been caught undertaking” therefore I think this issue the OP has brought up is an acceptable way of dealing with middle lane hoggers..
Provided you have room and the conditions dictate then its acceptable to undertake.

He said gastropod. More likely to be found driving sluggishly at a snails pace in the outside lane.

Three points and a hundred squid find?

He said gastropod. More likely to be found driving sluggishly at a snails pace in the outside lane

He said gastropod.

I know but it was close enough for the gag. ‘s all a load of molluscs innit.

jeez some of us need to find some work to do…. 😀

because it’s dangerous

Can’t agree with that.. All the dozy idiots I’ve gone past on the left have had no intention of changing lanes, even after they’ve been passed by me and any number of other cars they don’t move over. It’s as safe as if there’s a brick wall between the 2 lanes.

Can’t agree with that.. All the dozy idiots I’ve gone past on the left have had no intention of changing

There is always the first

I usually come up behind and flash my lights. 8 times out of 10 they realise what they’re doing and pull back in.

… and then as soon as you’ve passed, pull straight back out into the middle lane again.

if the act of undertaking was deemed to be driving without due and attention,

If.

no one has yet fess’ed up and said “I’ve been caught undertaking”

There’s a good reason for that.

All the dozy idiots I’ve gone past on the left have had no intention of changing

Quite. I figure, by the time they’ve seen me I’ll be half a mile in front of them anyway.

There is always the first

I must be better at spotting middle lane hoggers than you 😉

you must be, the I don’t put much stock in the observational powers or awareness of a middle lane driver.

I figure, by the time they’ve seen me I’ll be half a mile in front of them anyway.

Not if you play the ‘La Cucaracha’ airhorns as soon as you are alongside

Overtake move back to the left let them overtake then re overtake see how many times you can circle them before they get it.

You’re allowed to keep up with the flow of traffic in your lane, so just stay in Lane 1. It was covered on my IAM course so unless things have changed significantly then that should still work. You can’t go from 2 to 1 to get past 2, that would have to be 2 to 3. But you can stay in 1

On a related note, would you move into Lane 3 to overtake Lane 2 car in traffic, or would you stay in Lane 1?

My favourite if I’m not in a rush in these situations is to signal, move to the outer lane, overtake, signal, return to the inside lane, gently ease off, then repeat after the middle laner has overtaken me.

My record is six full circuits before they got the hint.

Undertaking in the situations the OP describes is against the Highway Code, whether a police officer observing would take action though is a different thing. What happened to the middle-lane-hogging fine/points thing that was being talked about a while back?

Personally I vary between moving all the way right and back in (often gesturing at the same time, but as someone else said it rarely makes the middle-lane hogger realise they’re being an idiot and move left). Other times I just can’t be arsed so undertake (having quickly checked mirrors for obvious police presence), I do so realising it’s a traffic violation though.

On a slight variation, what’s the rules on off-slips (once the dashed line starts)? Sometimes the off-slip lead-up is quite long and if I’m doing 70 and cars in the left lane are doing 50ish it gets annoying waiting behind them (but in the left lane off-slip). I generally don’t undertake in that situation anyway just in case someone moves left onto the off-slip at the last minute (likely without indicating) but occasionally I do…

I don’t like moving across all three lanes (I always feel there is more risk of not noticing approaching cars) but similarly I don’t like undertaking in case the other car suddenly decides that is the time to pull in.

So I end up doing a mixture of both depending on road conditions at the time.

My favourite if I’m not in a rush in these situations is to signal, move to the outer lane, overtake, signal, return to the inside lane, gently ease off, then repeat after the middle laner has overtaken me.

My record is six full circuits before they got the hint.

The last time I played Trips Round The Idiot on an otherwise empty motorway, they responded by eventually moving over… into the third lane! I stopped doing it after that.

What happened to the middle-lane-hogging fine/points thing that was being talked about a while back?

It was just a hollow promise to buy off lower middle classes at the last election. We’ve laid off 80% of traffic cops over the last 10 years, so there’s no one left to actually enforce anything.

. We’ve laid off 80% of traffic cops over the last 10 years, so there’s no one left to actually enforce anything.

Yep every single one of those new traffic laws and initiatives are meaningless without enforcement.

Overtake move back to the left let them overtake then re overtake see how many times you can circle them before they get it.

My favourite if I’m not in a rush in these situations is to signal, move to the outer lane, overtake, signal, return to the inside lane, gently ease off, then repeat after the middle laner has overtaken me.

My record is six full circuits before they got the hint.
In future, I will be doing this 😆 😆

they responded by eventually moving over… into the third lane! I stopped doing it after that.

At least you’d be easily able to pass on the inside lane with no fear of them accidentally merging into you 🙂

Few months ago I watched Cheshire Police signing people to move left out of the middle lane.

Once they’d shot off to get more people, they just moved back into the middle 😯

Only got as far as reading page 1.

I would notice them driving in the middle lane from a long distance back as I am an awesome driver, start flashing my lights at them furiously. Of course because they are a middle lane driver they wouldn’t even notice. So I would get right up there arse and keep flashing and start gesticulating at them. When that doesn’t work its pull in to lane 3, drive along side continuing to call them an anker.

When that doesn’t work (because they are still blindly looking ahead with no idea whats going on around them) I would give them a punishment pass, indicating to the left lane and then brake hard to again pull up along side them. Again they would still have no idea I was there. So I would then floor it in to the distance, at which point they would flash their headlights, as they begin to realise that they are not the only person on the road, and I was in fact behaving like a right c@ck.

That will teach them a lesson

On a slight variation, what’s the rules on off-slips (once the dashed line starts)?

It’s only an undertake if you pass on the left *and* then move right into the same lane

You can pass slower moving vehicles on the left if you’re the exiting the motorway

Is it bad form, when travelling in convoy with mates, to do powder 8s between multiple dawdlers?

Are all motorways now like the M40 then?

Lorry Lane
Car Lane
German Car Lane

What if the driver is doing 20mph in the 4th lane of the M25 at night in free flowing traffic, still okay to undertake?

[video]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_MGrDcxC2Gg[/video]

to do powder 8s between multiple dawdlers?

What does that mean?
Having the displeasure of a few miles on the M25 once or twice a week I do find it fascinating how useless four lanes are assuming people are debating undertaking the muppet in the third lane.

20mph in the 4th lane of the M25

Well they must have had a good excuse because it looks like they were allowed to carry on… 😕

I was genuinely scared for them as they tried to move left at that speed.

Pull parallel with them and continue to match their speed until they get the message!

That really is quite special. What did she say to you?

My record is six full circuits before they got the hint.

My record is 4 before the passenger gave me the old Nescafé advert sign and they accelerated away 😆

aracer – Member
That really is quite special. What did she say to you?

She was lost?!

I was livid at her for stopping, told her to get back into her car accelerate up to at least 50 and get in the first lane until she could get off the motorway.

Meanwhile the missus was on the phone to the police. We thought they were drunk, and at least if I was covering her from behind until the police arrived (watching my mirror and accelerating up when someone got a little close) that I could go home with my conscience intact. What I wasn’t anticipating was her stopping, hence my final manoeuvre to turn my wheels in case someone hit us. Needless to say those seconds stationary were possibly the scariest of my driving career.

P.s. the video was uploaded for the police, but they can’t decide who’s boundary it falls under….so nothing has been done about it probably.

The ‘no undertaking’ rule, however it’s interpreted here, is nonsense and leads to drivers assuming that there is no-one on their left and so not bothering to look before moving left. As we all know, assumption is the mother of all gitweazles.

Try driving in the middle lane for no good reason in Germany and you’ll be flashed by everybody and then pulled over by the police, who are rather stern. They are likely to lean a bin against your car too…

Whilst I don’t disagree, there aren’t many British Roads in Germany. You can turn right at a red light in the US, doing that here would probably be unwise.