Left hand

[sobrique]

In the UK, with a limited number of exceptions (namely filtered lanes, queuing traffic and when you are turning right), no one should ever be passing you on the left hand side.

There are two reasons for this.

The first is that it's illegal, and therefore a hazardous manuever because the other driver may not expect it.

The second is that if there is a space large enough to safely do this, then YOU SHOULD BE IN IT.

Thank you.

Comments

[karen2205]

umm - I thought you can when someone is turning right????

[sobrique.livejournal.com]

Hmm, OK. Another exception.

[ehrine.livejournal.com]

One of the reasons that it is illegal is that not all cars in the UK are required by law to have a nearside wing mirror. Sure, all new cars are required to have them, but my old B reg Nova didn't have one and I was under no obligation to fit one. Now, seeing if someone is "undertaking" you is possibl via a shoulder check, but it means taking your eyes off of the road in front of you and just adds to the number of blind spots you have.

Undertaking is definately on my list of "obnoxious driving habbits" that people exhibit.

[malal.livejournal.com]

"The second is that if there is a space large enough to safely do this, then YOU SHOULD BE IN IT."

Not if it means that if you move over, you're going to be forced to slow down by some slow truck within a few seconds...

I will, whenever I consider reasonable, be in the leftmost lane. But factor in that I'll probably be driving as close to the speed limit as possible, and genuinely don't care about anyone's desire to go faster, except for emergancy veichles.

[malal.livejournal.com]

Ahh... I knew I forgot something!

I have actually Undertaken a couple of times. Every time, I was behind a car doing about the same speed, but wasn't moving in. So I move in, and then the bloody car starts to slow down. Not for any actual reason, and that pisses me off immensely. At first I started to slow down as well, but it got to the "taking the piss" point, so these day's I undertake if that happens.

I've also caused undertaking a couple of times. You try to overtake a car, and they decide to speed up part way through, so you can move in properly... What do you do? I slowed down, and pulled back in behind them.. Again, rather annoying...

[sobrique.livejournal.com]

Not if it means that if you move over, you're going to be forced to slow down by some slow truck within a few seconds...

You'd consider overtaking when there's a truck in the lane 'a few seconds' ahead a 'safe maneuver'?

... I'll probably be driving as close to the speed limit as possible, and genuinely don't care about anyone's desire to go faster, except for emergancy veichles.

In which case, regardless of law, you become a hazard. Any point at which you are making other cars react to your driving style you are presenting a danger.
Regardless of your opinion, there are cars who will drive faster. Are you prepared to gamble that a person doing that already is going to react to you?

[sobrique.livejournal.com]

It's a bad driving habit. I have to say, I have done it though - on the way home, a member of the middle lane owners club doing 60...

[malal.livejournal.com]

"You'd consider overtaking when there's a truck in the lane 'a few seconds' ahead a 'safe maneuver'?"

WTF? You may want to re-write that so it actually makes sense.

A few seconds was probably a wrong time measurement, a few minutes is also gives the wrong impression the other way. But you should know what I mean, moving in just in time to move out again...

"In which case, regardless of law, you become a hazard. Any point at which you are making other cars react to your driving style you are presenting a danger.
Regardless of your opinion, there are cars who will drive faster. Are you prepared to gamble that a person doing that already is going to react to you?"

I'm sorry, but if I'm presenting a hazard to them by going along at a steady speed in one lane, then they *really* should not be driving. I'm not going to pull out right in front of them (that's just dumb). But if there's no way to sensibly move in, then I'm not moving in, and you shouldn't be sticking your bonnet up my arse.

Stop and re-read what you've written again. Your argueing that rather than make them react to me, I should react to them. I think not. I've lost count of the number of times some car breaking the limit has rushed up behind me, slipped over, undertaken, and cut me up because it was either that, slow down, or ram into the back of a truck doing 60. None of this with indicating. They're moving faster & are more unpredicatble, I'm moving at a legal speed, and always indicate my intentions. Which one of us is going to be easier to react to?

[malal.livejournal.com]

Oh, that really annoys me. In all my motorway experiance, it works best when the left hand lane is for those doing under 70 (usually 60ish), the middle for those doing 70, and the outer lane for those speed freaks doing more. Heavy traffic can bumb things over to the right occationally, but... Dual carrage ways just don't have the "over 70" lane. Heck, a lot of the time you can't hit 70 on them, because a truck doing 60 feels the need to overtake one doing 59. When they're both going up a hill & slowing down. Bastards.

[sobrique.livejournal.com]

"WTF? You may want to re-write that so it actually makes sense.

A few seconds was probably a wrong time measurement, a few minutes is also gives the wrong impression the other way. But you should know what I mean, moving in just in time to move out again..."

Makes sense to me.
I suggest that if there's space for someone to safely overtake you on the left hand side, you should be in that space.
You reply that you're not going to move into the left hand lane if there's a truck a short way ahead.
The implication being that you'd consider it safe for someone travelling faster than you to whizz past and cut you up when they run out of road space.

It's possible that I misinterpreted that, but on re-reading, I still get the same...

And yes. I do think that every driver has a responsibility to be aware of other drivers on the road, and optimize the flow of traffic. In my book that means I try to track other cars positions on the motorway and try and avoid situations where manuevering is going to be necessary.

After all, I know I'm aware of them, and can avoid a risk. I don't know what's going through their head, if they're tired, drunk, or otherwise not as alert as they could/should be.

I consider 'travelling at a steady speed in one lane' to be a very bad habit when that lane is the wrong one. Specifically referring to those drivers who feel the need to stay in the middle lane at 60, when there's no traffic in the left hand lane. This effectively cuts the motorway down to one lane because undertaking is illegal.

Just cos it's legal, doesn't make it a good idea.

Cruising at 70 in the middle lane, when the lefthand lane is filled with lorries (or 'other traffic' for that matter), I have no problems with.

[malal.livejournal.com]

"Makes sense to me."

Then explain where the hell overtaking comes into this?

Sorry, I again appear to have not made something clear. The description of being undertaken, and the description of when it's safe to move in, but not desireble, are not linked. I've also been undertaken on occations where it was as safe as it's going to get for them to do that (accepting the inherant "not", and their speeding, etc), but I wasn't going to move in because there's a truck just a little bit ahead which I'm catching up on, so if I move in, I'm just going to move out again pretty much immediately.

I should mention, if I'm close enough to tell I'm clearing catching up on something, I'm close enough to start the MSM for moving out....

As for the tried / drunk speeding driver, I'm *much* more confident that they can spot my car than spot my signalling to move in (or notice that I'm begining to move in). It's a much bigger thing to notice after all...

In the end of the day, if some twat is going to pile into you, some twat is going to pile into you, and there isn't much you can do. Here we're basically trying to double guess someone who's not fit to drive, that never results in the kind of odds you like to see....