Why don't they keep left

[obi_waynne]

In the UK we are not permitted to undertake or pass a car on the left (inside). We still get whole streams of cars sitting in the right lane and an almost empty left lane!

I can't see why people can't just keep left.

By using the left lane I usually make more rapid progress as there is not the sudden braking and bunching you get in the outside lane.

Getting really really annoyed by this!

 

[Lunchmoney]

In the UK we are not permitted to undertake or pass a car on the left (inside).

Whilst the HW code (rule 267) agrees with that, in practice it's not quite true.
I asked a policeman friend of mine about this, when he was in my passenger seat and we were on a motorway with slowing traffic in the middle lane.
I asked him, " As we are in the left lane, and it is clear, am I ok with just cruising by these other cars?"
"Yes," he says, "as long as you aren't weaving between lanes and accelerating in the left just to undertake, in other words just maintain your speed and stay in the left."
Which is what I do now. Just have to keep an eye out for people who move from the middle to the left without checking behind them first.

 

[gladrags]

I really don't see what the big deal is about undertaking, I lived for a while in the US where it's legal to overtake, undertake, come in and out the HOV lane (provided there's breaks in the lines) and it all works OK, especially considering the volume of traffic there.

Here I see people barely getting the wiper blade past me and heading straight for the L/H lane only to have to come back out again because of merging traffic from the slip road or coming up against slower moving traffic.

Looking at Lunchmoney's post, how complicated does it have to get? Is it OK to do this? Yes, but..... that depends... Aaaaaaarghhh

 

[Lunchmoney]

I lived for a while in the US where it's legal to overtake, undertake, come in and out the HOV lane (provided there's breaks in the lines) and it all works OK, especially considering the volume of traffic there.

I would argue that it doesn't work OK as they have a higher traffic accident per capita than the UK does. The UK has 2.9 road fatalities per 100,000 people per year, and the US manages 10.6. Or over 3 and half times as many. I'd rather drive on roads that are little repressed without people weaving about all over the place and not get killed.

 

[gladrags]

Stats like that don’t mean diddly squat, you can’t say that overtaking and undertaking is to blame for the difference. Maybe tiredness is a bigger factor, the US is such a huge country that people spend ridiculous lengths of time at the wheel. I knew a woman there who said she drove 30 hours just to attend a funeral.

Besides if you look at some of the freeway interchanges – the Orange Crush for example where you had 10 lanes reducing to 6 at the LA county border or further south at the El Toro Y junction where the I405 and the I5 merge, from memory there’s about 8 lanes both Southbound and Northbound and HOV lanes transitioning. How you ever going to try and keep a tight parochial grip with “Oh no, you’re not allowed to pass on that side…..”. Even so, it’s not as chaotic as it seems, I drove it plenty of times and never had a bump once although I saw a few.

 

[obi_waynne]

I love the fact we cover so many different countries and cultures on here. It really rounds out the debates!

I feel happy knowing that you can maintain a faster speed on the inside lane as long as it's constant and you're not weaving in and out to overtake/undertake. That makes perfect sense.

 

[FourD]

This is when I become an asshole. I won't drive right up the persons arse, but if they don't move over when they can clearly see they are holding me up (as well as the cars behind me) I'll overtake with not as much as a hair width between the two cars. Accompanied by a facepalm gesture.

 

[TCJBOLDIE]

Wouldn't recommend your overtaking as eventually you may give the other driver a fright and that can end in tears or worse.