Ok, every day I jump onto the M6 for a couple of junctions and then onto the M56 for about 10 miles.

Most days lane 1 consists of me and a few evenly spaced artics with half a mile or so between them. Lanes 2 and 3 are nose to tail with 50mph traffic.

I could quite happily maintain 70mph between the artics and then move into lane 2 to pass them at the crawl speed of lane 2 but that means undertaking all the other cars in lanes 2 and 3.

If lanes 2 and 3 adopted the correct lane discipline we'd all travel much faster but the fact of life is they don't.

By law, am I therefore supposed to limit my speed to that of lanes 2 and 3 even though I have a clear lane in front of me?

 

no.

i always thought that if the outside lanes were traveling below the speed limit you can pass them on the inside.

its in the highway robbery code.

 

It's a bit of a grey area and there are lots of internet debates on it.

Moving from lane 3 to lane 1 and back again to "undertake" is not good, and if you're caught, expect punishment.

Doing what is described by the OP might attract a word from the Police but you'd be unlikely to get punished as such.

 

I think I'll go buy a copy to keep in the car then to slap people with who show me hand signals to show their displeasure at me going quicker than them..

 

I think there's something about 'due care and attention'.

And, I think, the outside lanes have to be queuing traffic rather than just going slower than the limit.
You can’t just hammer past on the inside of a car doing 50 on the motorway because he might change lane, but if the traffic is queuing then there’s it’s likely they won’t chance lanes back into the left lane.

 

I never use lane 3 (Its too slow unless the motorway is emptyish).

People react very badly when you undertake them but if they used the lanes properly they'd have nothing to complain about.

 

if they can be undertaken wihout being forced to change their driving in any way

then they are in the wrong lane

it's a simple enough test

if you undertake and force them to brake to allow you in, or slow/brake to re-establish a safe braking gap, then you are in the wrong

 

I dont think there is a grey area. From my recollection of the highway code 25 years ago it quite clearly talks about lanes 2 and 3 being for overtaking. You can undertake in lane 1 or 2 if the traffic is moving slower but in a traffic congestion situation.
In 25 years of driving I know exactly what a legal undertake is and what is not and it comes from what I learnt when I started driving. I also know exactky about lane discipline so I cant understand where all this moving diirectly to the right hand lanes come from. Why is it the UK that has terrible lane dscipline?

 

All explained here http://www.honestjohn.co.uk/motoring_answe...ndex.htm?id=147

 

Ah, I suppose it's the definition of queue that is where the confusion lies for me.