[T67M]

...running the risk of being charged with carless driving ...

I somehow like the idea of being charged with carless driving!

[Miscellaneous]

Aye, me too.

[cockney steve]

On one of the rare occasions my Ex was driving, faced with some dweeb trundling in the middle- lane, she did, indeed undertake. I remonstrated and pointed-out that said vegetable was liable to swerve into the nearside lane when "it" realised there was another set of headlights very close. I survived ~ 1/4- million miles in Company vehicles and very quickly learned that it's better to drive defensively, It's easier to drive among professionals ,after closing-time, at night. Avoid commuter -routes at commuting times!

[Bill McCarthy]

I’m going to delay comment until page 120.

[seanxair]

Has anyone blamed instructors and currency yet? Glad the opening clip wasn't of a taxi

[TheKentishFledgling]

What if you were already in the left hand lane.

You'd been happily driving along in lane one for miles and miles before you come across this nugget dawdling along at 61 mph in the middle lane...

I can tell you what I do, and it's not making a total of four unnecessary lane changes just because someone else is too retarded to be in the correct lane... One such middle lane tool actually flashed me for doing this. And then continued sitting in the middle lane as he disappeared off in the distance behind me.

I had to attend a "motorway awareness course" recently, and when discussing the above situation the impression given was that cameras on smart motorways would in future be used not just to go after middle lane hoggers, but for those who undertake as above. Surprised me, I have to say.

[Chris Martyr]

What if you were already in the left hand lane.

Precisely !
If you are already in the LH lane and some clueless oaf is 'cruising' down the middle lane with his brain in neutral ; what is the safest option ?

He is hardly likely to make a knee-jerk manoeuvre into the inside lane is he ? So sliding through safely on the inside , is probably a lot safer [ for you ] than taking the long route around him and back to the inside .
And you are many times less likely to get the BMW grille looming large in the rear-view mirror doing it via the inside , than you are the other way .
OK,,,I know it isn't wholly legal , but it's a whole lot more logical and safer than doing it 'the British way'.
It works in the U.S. because they actually do drive with their heads up their rrrrses . And this is the problem that we are trying to surmount isn't it ?

[malcolmfrost]

I wouldn’t undertake if there isn’t a hard shoulder to escape into, but I do reason that as they’ve been in the same lane for the last 10 miles, they’re ipunlikely to suddenly realise!
My wife hates me doing it, I usually wait until she drops off!!
The Surrey RPU on Twitter have said that they aren’t looking for undertaking specifically, they’re more worried about changing 2 lanes and back again rapidly.

[Miscellaneous]

And you are many times less likely to get the BMW grille looming large in the rear-view mirror doing it via the inside , than you are the other way .

Not if @stevelup's around you're not!

[Korenwolf]

The French are so much better at lane discipline (astonishingly) than drivers on UK motorways, but so much worse at tailgating, sitting centimetres off your rear bumper with the left indicator permanently on as they wait for you to complete your overtake of slower traffic.

Rob P

Yep, I had exactly that in Normandy a couple of years ago. We were on a dual carriageway (110kph limit) with a lane closed off for roadworks. Nobody about of course, must have been lunchtime Anyhoo, we're sticking to 110 just in case of Gendarmes, when behind us appears a small white van. Closer and closer he gets to the back of the car until it was impossible to tell whether it was a Citroën Berlingo or Peugeot Partner (both the same shape, but the grille was now below our rear window). I stuck to the 110kph, and he got closer. Finally, the roadworks ended and I moved over, to a long blast of the horn from the Frenchman, and an evil glare through the van side window.

Off he went, and I thought "well, that's the end of it". Not so. Further up the road, he passed a truck, and when I went to do the same, the van driver slowed down to the truck's speed until we caught up, blocking the outside lane. I held back, and eventually the turn off to our destination appeared. We left the main road into the village. Again, I thought we wouldn't see him anymore. However, he had seen us turn off, for as we parked the car in the square, there he was again. He'd doubled back and followed us - fortunately the cops were about for some unrelated reason, and he didn't stop.

I can only assume that he was peeved with me for not breaking the speed limit, but I wasn't about to, and although I've been monstered by white van man a few times before and I really don't give a flying one normally, this was a different level of nasty.

[seanxair]

Probably ex-pat

[riverrock]

If someone is tailgaiting me when it isn't appropriate for me to move left a lane, I leave more space to the car in front so I can stop in a more gentle way if required (and so slightly reduce the change of being hit from behind. Strangely enough people don't seem to like me doing that but it is defensive driving.
Unless moving in lanes of traffic, or it is 4 lanes and they are in lane 3, I wont undertake. There is a slightly bigger blind spot to the inside and if a driver is being an eejit by not moving left, I can't be confident what they are about to do.

On the slowing down after overtaking, a lot of cars (all electric / hybrids but also some ICE only cars) now have brake lights which come on when you decelerate, not just when you press the brake pedal. If you are on cruise control, accelerate to pass, then resume cruise control, your brake lights will come on. It use to really annoy me when I saw it happen, but when i noticed the reflections of my brake lights on the car behind I realised it may not be just the driver being an eejit. I'm a bit more relaxed about it now!

[Paul_Sengupta]

Had a weird one last night coming up the M4. I was just past the Bristol section and going down the hill towards the Severn Bridge. The road here is a two lane motorway. I was doing 70-ish mph and there was a car in lane 1 doing 40-ish. I pulled out into lane 2 to overtake. After I did so, the car indicated and pulled out into lane 2 in front of me.

That's odd, thought I, so I had a look to see if there was something in the road that it had pulled out for. I couldn't see anything so I pulled into lane 1 to go past as I was going significantly faster. As I pulled into lane 1, the other car indicated left and pulled across so it was straddling the centreline. At this point in time I just had to brake and slow down to its speed. After straddling both lanes for a few seconds it pulled into lane 1, and I accelerated again and overtook it.

No idea what that was all about. Maybe they saw an octopus or something.

Another couple of things on the M3 last night, on the way to Popham a bit earlier, which involved someone in lane 2 not overtaking anyone, then someone in lane 3 just sitting on their outside. It happened twice. I came across one set and sat behind for a minute or two. Eventually the car in lane 3 pulled in behind the car in lane 2. In another set, the car in lane 3 eventually got ahead of the car in lane 2 and pulled in right immediately in front of it with very little room to spare.

Whenever I see someone just sitting there further to the right than they should be, overtaking but not overtaking or just creeping past, I find myself trying to tell them...."that pedal....the one under your right foot....just press it...a little bit more...."

Some people seem to think that if they exceed what their speedometer says is 70mph, even for a few seconds to complete an overtake, they'll open up some sort of rip in the space-time continuum.

[flybymike]

Or open up a door to the nearest speed awareness course......

[Rob P]

Paul I'd suggest the scenario here could be car in lane three on cruise control and CBA to override it, car in lane two either being a pillock and matching the overtaker's speed, or doing so subconsciously.

Rob P