This is a grey area, but if you using the left lane because your turning left then passing is legal. This issue of passing car because someone has decided to go slow in the over taking lane is not legal.

The issue of being safe for me depends on the speed difference and not the fact you are passing on the left. If you on the motorway proceeding at 70mph in the left hand lane and the far right lane is stationary then that to me is very dangerous. While if the right lane is doing 60mph, then not so.

Basically the law does not reflect the real dangers and therefore is pointless. in the US pass on the right (effectively our left) is ok and not an issue, so why is it all of a sudden a danger in the UK.

<<<But I do find it odd that the police prosecuted the undertaker, rather than the lane hogger. >>>

As far as we know?

>> I'm doing 70mph in the middle lane and if you go past me then you are breaking the law...sound familiar?

How do you know you're doing 70MPH?

Shall we let barney100 tell us?

Agree about tailgate overtaking - one at a time when overtaking a wagon, although this one takes it to another level:

www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-30028249

That undertake is astonishingly dangerous.

When I overtake, I hope I have judged the road correctly, plenty of space ahead, not taking risks etc. On one occasion while doing an overtake on a B road I checked my rear view mirror and nearly had a heart attack when I saw another car following me, a metre or so behind. Sometimes I wonder about the risk assessment capacity of some other drivers.

Another point is, there are now quite a lot of 4 or 5 lane stretches of road, how does this affect undertaking?

The UK 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

So until that changes its pretty clear to me overtaking on the left (or undertaking if you wish) is not legal and onyone found to be doing so is liable to prosecution. If they cause an accident whilst overtaking on the left I would expect the punishment to be particularly severe.

If I need to overtake a middle lane hogger I do it in the lane on the right. If that means holding up the law breakers who want to do highly illegal speeds then i do it. If I overtook on the left, was caught, prosecuted would my defence of "I did not want to use the outside lane since its used by reps who exceed the speed limit" hold any water, don't think so.

I think the problem with middle lane hoggers has got worse over the last 20 years

Of course it has, twice as many cars on the road thus twice as many complete to553er5 driving them.

due to lane 3 being stuffed full of high speed nose to tail German uber barges. Which is more dangerous, swerving into lane 3, or undertaking with a low speed differential once it has been established that twonk has had plenty of time to move left?

Neither is ideal but even in your first example there is usually a sufficient gap if you are patient enough to wait a short time. The 3rd lane is not permanently full of bumper to bumper traffic doing well over 70 mph.

In the past i have seen cars sat behind a lane hogger flashing constantly with no effect. But as soon as they pull left to "undertake" so does the hogger almost causing an accident. Overtaking on the left just demonstrates your impatience.

I'm not at all sure that foreign drivers are at fault here. When I've driven in Europe people seem to get back into the nearside lane pretty quickly.

I see a lot of middle-lane hoggers on the M1 between Junctions 8 and 11, which I cover frequently. They are virtually never foreign-registered cars.

It seems some people just have no regard at all for driving on the left except when overtaking. Often I come up behind someone doing 50 in lane 3 out of 4 when the road is relatively clear. This is especially common on the stretches where there is hard-shoulder running. If I've been in lane 1/hard shoulder for some distance I just continue and pass on the inside.

There's a lot of impatient drivers who will weave right across all four lanes and back at speed to get a few metres ahead - that frightens me to death.

Most of my A14 driving is not far from the USAF bases. Americans are used to undertaking. I suspect these could be some of the drivers I see middle lane hogging. Although for some other people they are probably oblivious they are doing anything wrong.

I'll go out on a limb here and quite likely inflame a few drivers. Oh well....
Courtesy vs safety? It's not a simple balancing act; there seems to be permanent conflict between the two. From my time living in the UK, and regular trips back, I know that courtesy is an important part of the culture and British drivers are IMHO the most courteous you will find anywhere.
Unfortunately, the overriding need for courtesy has unintended consequences.
The fear of being trapped behind/between HGVs, combined with a fear of being "discourteous" by blocking in a driver entering on a slip lane (even though that driver is supposed to merge in carefully) leads many drivers to stay in the middle lane all day. In my experience it is more often fear than pig-headedness that drives this behaviour. In Germany the police make no distinction and fine the lane hogger and the undertaker alike. Of course, this behaviour is extremely rare in Germany, except amongst British tourists!
Another issue is that, despite official wording to the contrary in the HC, headlamp flashing is invariably used to mean "after you" and subsequently "thank you" and then "not at all" and so on to infinity. In Europe, flashes mean the same as toots of the horn - "I am here". (Only rarely is a flash given as an "after you" and this really only happens in built up areas.)
As I am about to overtake an HGV in Spain, I give a series of flashes (as required by law!) and make sure the HGV driver - or even a car driver - has seen me. (On a single carriage road, I'm even allowed to exceed the speed limit by 10% to do so!) Of course, to engage in "safety" flashes in Britain would be suicidal - even to a European HGV driver, who is probably used to our "system" - so I overtake the left hand drive HGV when it is clear and safe to do so and "hope for the best".
My own solution to this is to legislate - three short flashes to mean "I am here/be careful" and one long flash for "after you". (No, I know it would never work!)

Edited by Bilboman on 30/07/2015 at 10:51

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.

So surely as long as you pass the car on the right without cut back into the right handland lane, it legal to pass anyone in cruising in lanes 3 or 2.

Driving on the M1 today I spotted a taxi, middle lane hogging.

BTW, There is no specific offence if undertaking or nearside overtake, it was removed from that statute books with the introduction of the 1972 Road Traffic Act, and even in the 1968 Road traffic act it was something of a grey area which is why it was removed altogether.

Edited by Avant on 31/07/2015 at 01:02

Only in congested conditions, read Rule 278 that you have pasted in. The rest of the time (which is most of the time) its overtake on the right only

For most of the time, even on Sundays, congested conditions apply on much of the M62 (which is where the first person was convicted of hogging lane 2.