What constitutes an undertaking

[Kenai]

So no further forward then lol. it's early afternoon, I'm in lane 1 doing 65-70mph and the motorway is quite except a car in lane 3 doing 65mph am I ok to carry on in the lane I'm in or do I move into lane 3 sit behind him until he pulls over then pass him and move back into lane 1?

To the letter of the rules, you move to 3 and wait for them to get out of the way so you can pass on the right. The rules are fairly clear, you may only pass on the left in queues of congested traffic.

No one is going to pull you over for carrying on in 1 though.

The only time you'd run risk of getting pinched is if you swing from 2 to 1, blipping past in a small gap and then cutting back across.

It's one of those rules that won't be enforced to the letter so don't worry.

 

[Rroff]

What about if he's in lane 2 and lane 3 is free? See what I mean about it being a very grey area, everyones opinion and judgement has been different. And I'm guessing a lot of police officers will see it differently also.

If he is in lane 2 then there should be a time when its clear to overtake on the right.

 

[Barks]

Just out of interest, why aren't you allowed to undertake? I've yet to see a problem with it over here

I guess it's because most drivers are accustomed only to check the RHS mirror before making a manoeuvre. You generally don't expect to pull in left and have someone in your blind spot. It makes logical sense to me, but then you get crowds of retards hogging the right lanes in motorways which is so frustrating.

 

[iamtheoneneo]

Just out of interest, why aren't you allowed to undertake? I've yet to see a problem with it over here

Because we have an outdated highway code that refuses to acknowledge moronic drivers and how to deal with them.

 

[Rroff]

Maybe because it is more dangerous to mix high and low speed traffic in the same lane especially around busier traffic? the more to the left the more likely to be a limited vehicle like a lorry, etc.

I wouldn't mind seeing higher penalties for those who effectively impede the traffic flow though i.e. sitting out in lanes 2 and 3.

 

[Dr Who]

Undertaking is changing lanes to pass a car in front of you, staying in the same lane and passing slower traffic in a lane to your right does not constitute undertaking under the law.

(as explained to me by a police traffic sergeant)

 

[theone8181]

Undertaking is changing lanes to pass a car in front of you, staying in the same lane and passing slower traffic in a lane to your right does not constitute undertaking under the law.

(as explained to me by a police traffic sergeant)

What happens if you have to pull back into lane 2 after entering lane 1 because you want to overtake something in lane 1? After already joining lane 1 from 2, i.e.lane 2-1-2 (because of traffic in lane 1, not just to undertake)?

 

[Nasher]

Normally congestion the average speed of traffic would be below the limit right? pretty much anything else and if you pass on the left its undertaking.



EDIT: Guess I can see where you are coming from but still - a single car doesn't count its specifically lanes of traffic.

Theres nothing that says how many cars make "traffic" or "congestion", therefore it can be any number. Including one car going slowly or possitioning themselves so that they are an obstruction

 

[Joe T]

Funny story:

On the M1 where the hardshoulder can be opened from time to time to ease congestion, it's possible to 'make progress' on it as many drivers (including the truckers) can't be bothered to use it.

One particular day I 'might' have been making the most of it. A BMW X5 came up behind me (he was 'making more progress' than I was), and actually flashed me out of the way! He wanted me to move over to lane 2 so he could come past! I couldn't quite believe it!

 

[geekman]

The thing that's interesting about undertaking is that it's the only passing move you can do on a motorway where you're likely to have an escape route - i.e. the hard shoulder. If you're using lane 3 to overtake a few cars in lane 2 as you should, it's quite possible one of them will pull out without seeing you, and that way you're straight into the barrier. So I'm not sure undertaking is quite as dangerous as people say.

When I used to commute every day on the M25 I'd stay pretty much exclusively in lanes 1 and 2 as they'd move quicker, and the very few times I had people pull in on me, it was pretty clear they were doing it maliciously as they didn't like the traffic in the slower lanes moving faster than them, rather than them simply not having seen me.

 

[joeyjojo]

Just out of interest, why aren't you allowed to undertake? I've yet to see a problem with it over here

You're kidding right? All the Americans and Canadians I know who drive here are in awe (I exaggerate only slightly) at the orderly nature of our motorways compared to the nightmare that is NA motorway driving.

 

[lordrobs]

I'm not sure of the legal definition but when I passed a car on the inside with the old bill behind me it was the other driver that got pulled. I was doing a steady 70 and they were doing a steady job of being a rolling road block on an otherwise empty stretch of dual carriageway.

Only being able to overtake on the right makes perfect sense as long as people see everything other than lane 1 as an overtaking lane. It means you only ever need to check that it is clear to pull out on your right and that you've cleared the car on your left before you pull back in. With freeway style driving you need to be checking all lanes for everything all the time and even if a bit of road is clear someone could be pulling into it at any time.

The reality though is that for a number of drivers the default lane is lane 2 (or anything other than the inner and outer lanes when there are more than 3 lanes to choose from) so large stretches of road go unused and overtaking moves take multiple lane changes or an undertake.

 

[timmeh]

You're kidding right? All the Americans and Canadians I know who drive here are in awe (I exaggerate only slightly) at the orderly nature of our motorways compared to the nightmare that is NA motorway driving.

It may be orderly but it's also bat **** crazy to have to change 2 lanes to overtake someone hogging the middle lane when it'd be much safer to just carry on in the current lane and pass them on the left.

The only things that makes it a 'nightmare' here are the crazy drivers, it has nothing to do with undertaking. If you're going the around the same speed as all the other traffic it's fine and is completely efficient as no one is changing lanes all over the place. If I couldn't undertake I would spend my entire time changing lanes whenever I went anywhere.

 

[Blackhawk47]

Afaik undertaking is no longer a thing, it's overtaking on the left? Pretty sure. And aslong as the person in lane 2 or whatever is doing less than the limit and it's safe to pass on the left without exceeding the limit, its quite legal.

Agree, this how I see it too.

 

[Phil99]

My take on it is:

* It's still undertaking (/overtaking on the left) whether you change lanes beforehand or not (the highway code makes this clear by including both definitions in Rule 268)

* It's not strictly illegal to pass on the left even when it's not congested (do not vs. must not)

* It's probably not really advisable to pass on the left in non-congested cases as the people you're passing aren't likely to be the most observant in the world considering that if you're lining up to pass them on the left, they're more than likely middle lane morons in their own little world.

* It can still depend on judgement of whether it was safe or not and land you in a bit of trouble with the law.

 

[Tripperuk]

It's my understanding that if you're going slower on the motorway, you should be using lane 1 as lanes 2 and 3 are technically for overtaking. If you are doing the speed limit and are in lane 1 with lane 2 going slower than you with a potential blockage in lane 3, preventing you form passing on the right hand side, then you are more than OK to pass in lane 1.

 

[HangTime]

I'll also undertake a moron sitting at 55mph on a DC in the right hand lane when lane 1 is clear, there's a section of DC on my commute that's terrible for this, it's 2 miles of DC on an otherwise SC A road, with a roandabout in the middle with no right turn. Cars will join in lane 2 and sit in it for the entire length becuase they're turning right at the 2nd roundabout 2 miles away...

Where do you draw the line though in terms of getting in the right lane for a roundabout? A good example is M27 J9 Westbound which has a ludicrously long two lane slip road (over a mile at least) leading up to a roundabout. It's a sliproad so people are naturally lining themselves up for their turning, but on the other hand cars have come steaming off the motorway at 60mph into effectively a dual carriageway.

 

[Housey]

I have given up worrying about idiots with no lane control. I don't race in and out of traffic, but I also don't sit there wondering if they will one day pull over as there is no car for 10 miles. Pull in, slide past and gone.

 

[Uther]

I used to move out from lane 1 into lane 3, past the idiot dawdling in lane 2, then pull back into lane 1, sometimes they would get the hint and I would see them in the mirror pulling in, but I have noticed recently they seem totally oblivious. Now I just sit in lane 1 and undertake. All at the speed limit.

 

[Semple]

Undertaking is changing lanes to pass a car in front of you, staying in the same lane and passing slower traffic in a lane to your right does not constitute undertaking under the law.

(as explained to me by a police traffic sergeant)

This was always my opinion on it.

An overtake is classed as moving into the right-hand lane to pass a vehicle, and then moving back into that lane after the overtake. If you swap that round to an undertake, that would mean going from the middle lane, to the inside lane to pass the vehicle and then pull back into the middle lane.

If you're sat in the inside lane and pass a vehicle in the middle lane, that's not classed as an undertake as you've not swapped lanes.
If you're sat in the middle lane, you would need to move out into the right-hand lane to overtake and pass the car.