Motorcycle Forums

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Undertaking is a job entailing the preperation and presentation of dead bodies prior to burial.
What you're referring to is 'overtaking on the inside'

It is, other than one or two exceptional circumstances, illegal!
Plain and simple, if you do it, you're breaking the law, if seen you will be pulled aside from teh fact that you're putting yourself at a greater than usual risk.

At the end of the day 70mph in the outside lane is what they are supposed to be doing.

Tom

No, it isn't.
The only lane on a dual carriageway or a motorway that you should continuously travel in at speeds around 70mph is the inside lane, the middle and outer lanes are overtaking lanes, they are for the sole purpose of passing slower vehicles, not for sitting in at any speed.
(excepting short stretches where a motorway splits and to continue on one motorway you select the middle lane until it feeds back into it's own dedicated road)
It's a sad fact that plenty of company car rep types hog the middle lane plodding on at 80 thinking this is perfectly acceptable. Unfortunately it's such a commonly occuring thing that unless someones causing a blockage or problem the police won't intervene and they let people continue leading to the frustration of some people deciding to overtake on the inside.

Like others, i've never experienced this, i've had drivers deliberately move over to the right and refuse to let me pass, I even had one sitting there in standing traffic shaking his head, 'no', after he'd ignored my throttle blips, headlight flashing and progressed to giving a beep of the horn, he was stuck in the traffic, I had room to filter, he didn't want me to becuase some people are mardy arsed tossers.

Hmm

Its something (as this thread shows) that is heavily debated. I feel that , if someone is doing 30 in a 40 (I dont normally drive on motorways but apply it there if you wish) in the overtaking lane , they shouldnt be there (as shown by the highway code , "keep left") unless there is a good reason for it (avoiding road works maybe? what am i saying? This is the UK , they dont do road works here ) . If someone insists on staying in the overtaking lane doing well below the limit , why is it illegal to overtake them? Sitting behind them will only cause backlogs and really , they are breaking the law too. undertaking is dangerous , i agree , but at the same time  , so is a backlog of traffic.

If you are willing to bet your life on them staying in that lane then go ahead , should be allowed to do it , but on your head be it of course.

Highway code passing on the left.

stay in your lane if traffic is moving slowly in queues. If the queue on your right is moving more slowly than you are, you may pass on the left

 

And this one, also in Highway code.

Undertaking

As Macca says, it is legal & mentioned in the HC (HC Rule 163) that if the lane to your right is moving more slowly you may pass on the left. This is not undertaking (unless you move to the faster left lane, pass, then move back which is undertaking).

Think of 'undertaking' as a means to pass the vehicle in front by passing it on the left.

Think of 'passing on the left' as making progress in YOUR LANE which is moving quicker than the queue in other lanes to your right. IMHO it is the word 'queue' that changes it from undertaking to passing on the left.

The grey area would be (again my opinion) when you are doing 70 in lane 1 and there is a single vehicle in lane 2 doing 60. I would 'remain in lane' & pass with caution on the understanding that this may be illegal but the alternative would be to slow down to 60, and wait till the idiot moved to the left.

HC Rule 163 sets out the only occasion (that I know of) where overtaking (not undertaking) on the left is permitted and that is when the vehicle is indicating to turn right & there is room to do so.

 

signalling

im in the process of doing my das course, i own and run a cbf125 which i use for commuting into london when i can, however in some instances when i cant use the bike and have to take a van into town i have found myself in the outside lane stuck behind a slow moving vehicle, the route i use is a busy bike route and i have given two well spaced flashes of my right indicator to give notice to filtering bikes that i have seen them and am aware they are there they are ok to pass ME, i dont know what the car to my left will do as much as i dont know what the car in frint of me has intention to do. the reason i do this is to make the biker aware i know he is there, he will take the opportunity to undertake or not, his choice. the traffic is usually stop start (ish) on this route so may not be full flowing but if i believe he can see my signal i will show it while driving as right as is safe for the speed im travelling. i just see it as a common courtesy.