Advanced Driving Hub

This seems to be worse on some motorways than others. On the M6 a few days ago I was quite often finding lanes 2 and 3 bumper to bumper at around 65mph (not particularly safe ) with lane 1 empty.
My response was to do what I normally do and use lane 1 - convincing myself that by doing 67mph I am 'keeping up with the traffic' in that lane. Sometimes I gain ground, sometimes not; if I had a patrol car behind me though I would probably just keep pace with lane 2 - what would you do?

Match speed with lane 2, but not slow down/brake when they do.

I'm actually not sure that's a good idea.

The situation you are describing is quite common here and although the laws on undertaking are the same, I'm not in favor of undertaking at such a small speed differential.

The problem with undertaking (which is why it's technically illegal) is that drivers are less aware of what is happening across the cabin and to the nearside. Also, in many cars the mirror coverage to the right isn't as good as to the left and because people rarely adjust their mirrors to the best coverage, there is often a blind-spot to the right. It's usually not terribly big, but still a cause for concern to the undertaking vehicle.

It would only be logical to pass through that blind-spot rather briskly.

Partly, my decision to pass in those circumstances is based on a subjective assessment of the way the vehicles in the offside lane is being driven. Without some thinking, I'd struggle to give you an 'instant' list of what I'm using as criteria

At a recent local IAM group meeting our guest speaker, a former police officer, brought this up. According to him it hasn't been illegal to pass on the left since the Road Traffic Act was revised in 1972. Those hogging the outside lanes instead of moving back to lane one when possible leave themselves open to a charge of driving without consideration for other road users. If there were any patrols about to enforce this.

Jonquirk wrote:At a recent local IAM group meeting our guest speaker, a former police officer, brought this up. According to him it hasn't been illegal to pass on the left since the Road Traffic Act was revised in 1972.

AIUI, the rules explicitly stated that you're allowed to keep up with the traffic in your lane even when lanes to the right slow down, when it's congested, and that you're not allowed to 'weave' between lanes.

My answer to the problem is to make sure I establish myself in lane 1 for a significant time before passing vehicles in lanes to the right, and not changing lanes until a reasonable time and/or distance has elapsed after passing a vehicle on the left. Typically, in such congested conditions, I'll only use the other lanes to overtake slower vehicles before returning to lane 1. This is what an observer will see if they are watching for a while, so I'm not bothered if it's the police that are observing, (on the basis they've got more cause to have a word with the drivers that don't return to the left when reasonable to do so).

Might be helpful to quote the highway code:

Rule 268
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

Which is where Gareth's stance comes from. I do something similar but I still feel slightly uneasy doing it

martine wrote:Might be helpful to quote the highway code:

{b}Rule 268[/b]
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

Which is where Gareth's stance comes from. I do something similar but I still feel slightly uneasy doing it

Yes....From a safety point of view you are not in too bad a place, with the hard shoulder next to you as an escape route, but it always feels slightly strange having a clear lane ahead, all the way to a lorry maybe a quarter of a mile in the distance. It seems inconceivable that anyone would want to sit in a congested lane two in these circumstances

Many of the motorways have been extended to 4 lanes, yet the lemmings all occupy 3 and 4.

Often you travel round the M25 in lane 1 and 2 making considerable advantage on the the small furry creatures.

Plod tends to look for those hopping lanes for the undertake.

I reckon it's feasible to have combined cameras/sensors to pick up drivers who are lane hogging and/or tailgating on motorways. The former is annoying and potentially dangerous and the latter is my No.1 pet hate and most definitely dangerous. I'd support automatic prosecution by technology.