I know that, but you are just being argumentative for the sake of it, or you are not very observant on the motorway. I am not stating it is the law or you have a legal right, I am saying that most people in the outside lane are there to do more than 70mph.
Personally, if I can't be bothered driving at more than 70mph, I don't go in that lane so I don't get a-holes roaring up behind me. So by choosing to stick to 70mph in the outside lane (when traffic allows for faster) is going to piss people off, like it or not, that is what happens, and you might think you are doing the right thing driving at the speed limit but you are causing a dangerous tailback, causing cars to drive too close, people get impatient, people take risks, motorways are closed for hours and the rest of us get inconvenienced because someone at the front was doing 70mph.
See my point? innocence and a do good attitude can have a butterfly effect. Just because you think that those people shouldn't be on the road if that is how they drive does not change the fact they ARE on the road.
Besides being a matter of law , it is a matter of local culture : perhaps where you live speeding is rife , but here in Scotland most people are fairly compliant and only a very small minority disregard the speed limits . While I mostly pootle along in lane 1 at 50 or 60 mph , depending on my mood and traffic conditions , on the occasions when I do push it up to 70 I find very few passing me , and quite often those that do are to be found on the hard shoulder a few miles down having fallen foul of an unmarked police car .
Of course , with the differences in our laws and enforcement compared to those down south , those who choose to go significantly over the limits risk charges of dangerous driving and lengthy bans , as happened to an unfortunate former member on here - perhaps that explains the apparent difference in compliance ?
Of course , most of our motorways don't have the luxury of a third lane ( but neither do many of the autobahnen ) so quite often the right hand lane is occupied by people passing trucks and other slower traffic but who also don't wish to exceed the speed limits .
Then we have many sections of motorway which are subject to lower limits , which some choose to disregard , such as the areas where the M74 meets the M8 and the M8 past Glasgow Airport - again , I will not be bullied into speeding and if some fastard behind gets upset , tough - they can go past like the Starship Enterprise when the road opens up , and I will laugh out loud when I see them stopped further on .
As far as I am concerned , if I am legitimately overtaking slower traffic , I will return to the left when it is convenient , but I will not be pushed into speeding by an impatient driver behind , nor will I inconvenience myself just to facilitate their lawbreaking - if they get themselves into trouble they have only themselves to blame .
