Keep Left Unless Overtaking

Keep Left Unless Overtaking UK

Highway code rule 264: "You should always drive in the left-hand lane when the road ahead is clear. If you are overtaking a number of slower-moving vehicles, you should return to the left-hand lane as soon as you are safely past".
The UK motorways have multiple lanes for a reason: efficiency and safety and the rules are unambiguous. You should drive in the leftmost lane that is available for the route you are taking unless you are actively overtaking another road user. The left lane is not the "slow" lane.
If you sit in the middle lane you make it harder for people to overtake you because you reduce the capacity for overtakers. By preventing people from using all of the lanes you will cause people to have to slow down to overtake you and causing less optimal use of the available lanes. If someone driving correctly in the left lane has to move two lanes to their right to get past you and then move back across two lanes then you are the problem.
And if you do have someone coming up faster behind you, try and get out of the way and not drive erratically by accelerating to make it harder for them to overtake
You can be prosecuted under the laws for driving without due care and attention if you are hogging a lane and not moving left, and anyone who undertakes could also be prosecuted under the same law and can result in penalty points or fines.
So what reason do people give for not keeping to the left lane?

"I'm driving at the speed limit"

The Reality: Ignoring the fact that your speedometer might be calibrated different from others, the rule is clear in the UK and it's not your job to police other people's driving. Concentrate on your own. If someone else chooses to go faster then you should not make it hard for them. If you're in the middle lane of a three lane motorway and the left lane is clear then you are preventing full use of the lanes by overtaking traffic..

"I'll get stuck behind slow lorries if I stay left"

The Reality: This is one of those things which is only a problem if everyone is selfish and thinks the same way. If everyone is courteous and avoids driving too close to the car in front theen there should be plenty of space to allow you to indicate and move out when it is safe to do so. But please bear in mind that indicators are "indicators of intent" and do not automatically give you the right to move out when it is not safe to do so. Consider whether your action will result in another driver having to change course or speed suddenly. If you are already in the middle lane, keep alert and allow people approaching slower moving traffic in lanes to the left to move out to the one you are in.

"The road surface is better in the other lanes"

The Reality: While that may be true on some motorways those are few and far between. If there are any surface problems react to them when they occur, not based on a potentially incorrect perception of what the surface mnight be like.

"The left lane is the slow lane!"

The Reality: No it isn't. There is no "slow" lane dedicated for people driving "slowly". You can (and should) drive at the speed appropriate to the road conditions in any lane, and if you're not overtaking that should be the left lane.

"People can just overtake me on the left"

The Reality: Highway code rule 268 states "do not overtake on the left or move to a lane on your left to overtake." unless there is congestion. Someone sitting in the middle lane with no-one around them does not count as congestion therefore you should not pass a lane hogger on the left. If you are hodding a middle lane, you are reducing the capacity of the motorway as you are reducing the lanes available for overtaking.

"It takes effort to change lanes"

The Reality: If you are not alert enough to handle switching lanes on the motorway you probably shouldn't be behind the wheel. I do see people who seem to stay in a middle lane regardless of what speed they're doing. If they catch traffic the slow down rather than overtake even if there's a lane to their right, then when the traffic ahead in "their" lane speeds up they'll do the same. Maybe it's just laziness and relying in driver assists but it does always make me think that the driver is not paying attention.

What do the police say?

This is a good, simple video. However one thing I do personally slightly disagree with on this his suggesting that indicating left when moving to the left is not required for a few reasons. Obviously you should be checking before you move regardless, but I'm not sure I'd trust other road users enough to not recommend being in the habit of indicating every time. Here are a few examples to think about:

When passing a lorry at a motorway on ramp you might not have visibility of a car on the slip road who may be passing to join in front of the lorry.

motorbikes may be legitimately be filtering past to your left.

And of course some people behind you may move to your left to undertake regardless of the highway code and it's better for them to be made explicitly aware when you are intending to move left even if they are in the wrong. If you move across into someone's path in another lane and cause a collision it'll still be your fault.

Keep Left Unless Overtaking UK

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