Re. undertaking my view is as follows;
The rules around undertaking made sense 30 years ago when there was less traffic on the roads and vehicles were mainly divided into 2 camps
i - incredibly slow lorries and cars (i.e., all the small engined cars of the time)
ii - overpowered yet unstable large cars (rover v8s, range rovers etc)
Back then, it was absolutely clear to all traffic that was averaging 40-50mph at full revs to be tucked away to the left and have the landed gentry and neolithic senior managers in fully expensed company cars blasting down the outside lane at 100mph.
There is now much more parity in vehicle speed and acceleration across all vehicle types and hence it is starting to become less clear what lane to be in, some people are comfortable slowly overtaking with a +ve speed differential of 5-10mph and a 1/2 mile run up, some people think that overtaking should be done in a F1 "slipstream" style with a 30 mph speed differential. Point is everyone has the capability to overtake / pull in and it now becomes a question of CHOICE and JUDGEMENT as opposed to bleedin' obvious, once it is not absolutely clear to us humans what to do in a given situation and we are forced to make choices based on our judgement, invariably it descends into uncertainty, emotion and mistakes are made or perceived to be made.
To demonstrate my point, if you go back 30 years there is no way on earth that a Hillman imp on full revs in fourth doing 60mph would hog a lane, if only for fear of a v8 Range Rover with rubbish brakes charging into the back of them doing 100mph, let alone any road use etiquette / the law.
Another reason why some people hog the middle lane (esp. in the wet) is because more and more cars have wide profile tyres and so tramlining in the inside lane is an issue. My handbook actually states not to drive in the grooves made by heavy vehicles in the wet. So for some, the debate ends before they have even got onto the motorway.
My final point is that it is only a question of time before we legalise undertaking as it discernably improves speed / flow which is becoming more and more critical on our road networks. What is holding us back is the legitimate issue of the inside blind spot, as a nation of drivers we tend not to expect to find a vehicle in our inside blind spot on the motorway and so changing the law would require some adaptation that could be dangerous as we transition.
For the record, I believe everyone should drive within the limits of the law and that includes not undertaking. My personal driving style is fast and so you will often find me in the outside lane, so personally I prefer it when everyone scampers left as I approach. With legal undertaking the average journey time for faster drivers would decrease as they end up getting legitamately blocked by other traffic, but the overall average volume of traffic passing a given point would increase.
In any case it may all be a moot point, I was once told that undertaking was legal in 2 scenarios anyway
i - when queueing at low speeds at (say) traffic lights
ii - if you do not change lanes to do it, i.e., if you are doing 70mph in a clear inside lane and you approach another car at 50mph in the middle lane, as long as you haven't changed lanes in anyway, you may carry on past that car on the inside without changing lanes. does anyone know if this is true?
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