Am i in the wrong here?

[CJ1987]

On my way home from work i got pulled over by a Traffic cop for what he described as "Dangerous driving" and would normally give me a ticket but can't because he was single manned?

I joined the M8 at Hillington going eastbound and was sitting at 60 in a 70 in lane 1, half a mile down the road i passed 2 cars on the inside doing 50-55 in lane 2 but had no intention of pulling into lane 2 afterwards so was i in the wrong or was the cop just bored? As i understand it illegal undertaking is when i go from example from lane 2 to 1 to get past a car then back into lane 2.

Cheers

[sherman]

As I understand it. Undertaking is only acceptable if both lanes are full and you are queueing.

Youundertook which is illegal. Accept the rap on the knuckles and learn from your mistakes.

[CJ1987]

sherman said:

As I understand it. Undertaking is only acceptable if both lanes are full and you are queueing.

Youundertook which is illegal. Accept the rap on the knuckles and learn from your mistakes.

My understanding must have been wrong so won't do it again, thanks for your response sherman

[Craigie]

That's a wake up call for me as well - I normally do that sort of thing as middle lane hogging annoys the life out of me.

And I would imagine that in that situation I would probably talk myself into a ticket by arguing with the cop that he should have been stopping the middle lane hoggers!

[wolf1]

If you had changed lanes to undertake them then yes the officer would be correct. But what you have described was passing on the inside which is a legitimate maneuver and therefore the officer was incorrect.

[S2red]

Why did ne not pull the two in lane 2 who were lane hogging?

[Dr Jekyll]

I knew someone who was in exactly that situation, moved conscientiously out to lane 3 to overtake, then back to lane 1, and was accused of 'weaving in and out of the traffic'.

[anonymous-user]

Rule 268
Do not overtake on the left or move to a lane on your left to overtake. In congested conditions, where adjacent lanes of traffic are moving at similar speeds, traffic in left-hand lanes may sometimes be moving faster than traffic to the right. In these conditions you may keep up with the traffic in your lane even if this means passing traffic in the lane to your right. Do not weave in and out of lanes to overtake.

[Dr Jekyll]

bmw535i said:

Rule 268
Do not overtake on the left or move to a lane on your left to overtake. In congested conditions, where adjacent lanes of traffic are moving at similar speeds, traffic in left-hand lanes may sometimes be moving faster than traffic to the right. In these conditions you may keep up with the traffic in your lane even if this means passing traffic in the lane to your right. Do not weave in and out of lanes to overtake.

But in context the 'do not weave' is a qualification to the concession that you can occasionally pass on the left. It certainly doesn't mean you can't move to the right in order to pass.

[CJ1987]

S2red said:

Why did ne not pull the two in lane 2 who were lane hogging?

he had cut in between both cars and flash his headlights to get them to move over then waited and pulled me over

[jaf01uk]

There is no such charge as undertaking, you were established in lane 1 and the 2 cars in lane 2 were in the wrong, he should have pulled them and left you alone, bad call by cop and if he had been double crewed hopefully his partner would have corrected hi misguidance, you did nothing wrong!

[anonymous-user]

jaf01uk said:

There is no such charge as undertaking, you were established in lane 1 and the 2 cars in lane 2 were in the wrong, he should have pulled them and left you alone, bad call by cop and if he had been double crewed hopefully his partner would have corrected hi misguidance, you did nothing wrong!

I absolutely hate people who hog the middle lane and regularly pass on the inside. However, I know I will one day be prosecuted for it. In the case of the OP I don't think two cars can be defined as congested conditions as per rule 268 I previously posted.

If I was the cop if have pulled the other two and given them the macimum possible fine.

[jaf01uk]

bmw535i said:

I absolutely hate people who hog the middle lane and regularly pass on the inside. However, I know I will one day be prosecuted for it. In the case of the OP I don't think two cars can be defined as congested conditions as per rule 268 I previously posted.

If I was the cop if have pulled the other two and given them the macimum possible fine.

It's not a "Must not" and therefore it is not breaking any law where there has been a recent law change to allow the prosecution of middle lane morons, as long as you do not weave about to pass maintaining a legal speed which turns out to be faster than dawdlers in lane 2 there is no foul

[anonymous-user]

jaf01uk said:

It's not a "Must not" and therefore it is not breaking any law where there has been a recent law change to allow the prosecution of middle lane morons, as long as you do not weave about to pass maintaining a legal speed which turns out to be faster than dawdlers in lane 2 there is no foul

We're on the same page and in my opinion it should be allowed. However, you can be done for careless driving for doing it. I suppose you could contest it in court, but that's what the charge would be.

As far as I'm concerned, if I'm not speeding and I undertake people in the other lanes, then I'm not doing anything wrong. I'd imagine the police will have a different take on it though. I think the main problem being that if you are undertaking in L1 and someone is overtaking in L3, you can come together if you both move into lane 2 after the over/undertake.

[CJ1987]

Well it was only a slap on the wrist by the cop so will make sure in future to always pass on the right to save any future problems but thanks for your opinions

[DottyMR2]

CJ1987 said:

Well it was only a slap on the wrist by the cop so will make sure in future to always pass on the right to save any future problems but thanks for your opinions

I'd love to see him try and make a charge of dangerous stick too, totally ridiculous. Driving at 60, I assume not weaving/swerving etc. holding speed and causing no obvious distress to other drivers there is no way they'd make it a dangerous charge. Definition of dangerous is that your driving standard falls FAR below the expected standard of a competent driver. Police throw the word dangerous around a lot, most of the time it's not.

Continuing in your lane has always been an argument point, given you didn't make a defined move left to pass them, if the rest of your driving was to expected standards and there was traffic around, you could argue that having to move over to lane 3 then back to lane 1 to pass people going excessively slowly on a motorway is more dangerous than holding your lane and continuing.

I've certainly been pulled over for "weaving" too because of the sheer volume of morons who can't use the 3 lane sections of the M8 in Glasgow and me having to go from lane 1 to 3 and back to 1 repeatedly.

The officer also passed up on 2 guaranteed tickets to give a slap on the wrist. Strange given PSs target driven system!