Overtaking on the inside - undertaking?

[AdamW]

I heard a rumour I may be seeing you on Thursday S1st. Are you particpating in a evening of discussion in Sheffield?

Only just read this.....AFTER meeting you at the meeting....

Hope you had a good time.. ..and it was worth the travelling.....

It's a bit of a trek for me....but you had even further to go.....

I really enjoyed it, and it was worth the travelling for the humour alone.

Got home about 00:30, so not too bad!

Thanks for the escourt as well.

[Roadcraft]

Thanks for the escourt as well.

Hope I was in the correct lanes and my speed was in accordance with conditions....indications etc in line with RoadCraft..etc..

[AdamW]

I could see room for improvement, but we can discuss that at the next meet.

I noticed once we'd changed direction to you the gloves came off and the car made good progress by a slower vehicle.

[Roadcraft]

I could see room for improvement, but we can discuss that at the next meet.

I noticed once we'd changed direction to you the gloves came off and the car made good progress by a slower vehicle.

Ha...thought you might have seen that....

That small dual carraigeway from the roundabout is a NSL 70mph zone.....and the driver of the other car appeared like he wasn't too keen to be getting anywhere near that....

hence my quick decision.....quick look for safety, no need to indicate....out and past.....

[jibberjabber25]

Hi again. I apologise for replying in this "dead" thread, but I just saw something in the highway code that I think is worth mentioning.

242: 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 this means that according to the highway code, if my lane (left lane) is moving faster than the middle lane, I can remain in the left lane effectively undertaking some vehicles in the slower adjacent middle lane?

What exactly does it mean by "similar speeds"?

[vonhosen]

What exactly does it mean by "similar speeds"?

It's not law it's guidance & "similar" is not defined in the highway code. As with a lot of things it would come down to a reasonableness test.

[crr003]

So this means that according to the highway code, if my lane (left lane) is moving faster than the middle lane, I can remain in the left lane effectively undertaking some vehicles in the slower adjacent middle lane?

What exactly does it mean by "similar speeds"?

HC242 is one of my favourites. I'm assuming a three lane motorway. If there's nothing in L3, I wouldn't be sitting in L1 passing vehicles in L2. I'd move out to L3. However, if L2 and L3 were busy doing say 60, I'd have no problem doing 70 in L1 and overtake on the inside. LGVs permitting.

It's important not to weave in and out though.

"Similar speeds" is debatable (HC used to say "slowly") - some people say 10 mph difference is OK. You need to watch out for other drivers moving into L1 from L2, so a big speed difference might be risky - if L3 had stopped, L2 was only doing 20 say, would you be safe doing 70 down L1? Probably not.

[jibberjabber25]

OH OK. Thank you for the clarification. (I am new to this stuff as you know).

[crr003]

OH OK. Thank you for the clarification. (I am new to this stuff as you know).

No problem - but don't assume I'm right! That's my interpretation. There's lots to think about before applying some of these rules - safety first, what other road users might think/react.

When you pass the IAM and get to read the IAM members' forum, you'll find plenty of other opinions!

It sort of compliments the zip merging thread - using common sense to make progress. Why would you want to sit in a queue of slow moving traffic if you can legally and safely keep going?

IMHO