Mastering the motorway drive takes practice, with key skills including using slip roads to enter, staying vigilant of your surroundings, and keeping a safe distance from other vehicles. Drivers must also heed lane discipline and avoid undertaking.
Undertaking refers to overtaking on the left on a motorway, which the Highway Code generally discourages due to accident risks. A recent video by Owen Messenger, a Sergeant in Devon and Cornwall Police, Roads Policing, on George’s Car Media TikTok page sheds light on when undertaking is permissible.
Sergeant Messenger states: “You can’t undertake on the motorway. The only time that you can undertake is when your lane is genuinely moving slower than the other lanes. That’s generally when you’re going through roadworks, or it’s heavy traffic, or something like that.”
He adds, it’s mainly prohibited because “people aren’t expecting you” and as drivers tend to revert to the left lane, their “default position on the motorway”, it could lead to collisions.
“Please don’t undertake on the motorway, it’s really really dangerous,” he cautioned. George, the founder of the channel and a collaborator with local police forces in spreading road safety guidance, questioned whether drivers could face consequences for undertaking.
Owen replied: “Well, it’s just unnecessary isn’t it. The default position […] is to be in lane one, and if everyone stuck to the rules you wouldn’t have everyone darting around all over the place.” He added that it was more about “following motorway etiquette” to make everything as safe and efficient as possible.
Although not technically illegal, the Highway Code highly discourages undertaking, and states: “Do not overtake on the left or move to a lane on your left to overtake.”
However, there are exceptions, such if a car undertakes in a slow-moving traffic lane which is moving faster than the lane on the right.
Rule 268 of The Highway Code states: “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 you right. Do not weave in and out of lanes to overtake.”
It may also be acceptable if there’s an average speed check, where vehicles are advised to ‘stay in lane’. In these situations it may be safe to pass a car travelling below the average speed limit on your right if your lane is moving faster.