Is undertaking on a motorway actually an offence?

You frequently receive correspondence from people referring to the problem of 'CLOG's (Centre Lane Owners Group). That will frequently lead to retorts about 'undertaking' and its illegality. I'm not sure this is right. I don't really like the word 'undertake' in this context anyhow; 'overtake on the inside' is what is illegal, if performed in the manner in which a normal overtake is performed. That is, a movement from a right-hand lane to one to the left with the intention of overtaking another vehicle. If you move past the other vehicle without adopting the actions that amount to an overtake manoeuvre, then surely you become a lane of traffic, albeit just one vehicle long, moving faster than the lane to right, and so is not an illegal overtake at all.

Asked on 30 July 2011 by GB, South Shields

Answered by Honest John
Agreed. Some police have been trying to make 'passing on the inside' an offence, but it is actually impossible to make it an offence because when traffic travels in lanes and an outer lane slows down it would be ridiculous to try to stop traffic in an inner lane from passing it.
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