In a recent thread, someone mentioned his dislike of people who drive slow in the center lane, forcing him to go slower still in the slow lane to avoid undertaking him.
Now there are laws against this in both the UK and the USA, but it seems that Brits are far more sensitive to passing in the slow lane.
One day I was watching one of those “world’s craziest drivers” programs, from the UK, and they were showing a car chase from a helicopter. The bad guy was blasting through traffic causing all sorts of mayhem, ignoring signals, running from the police, and the commentator said “Look at him! He just undertook that car!”
To my New Jersey ears, this sounds as silly (under those circumstances) as saying “Look at him! He just tossed a gum wrapper out the window!”
I see many folks doing this every day. Sometimes, when a fellow chooses to drive below the limit in the center lane, I simply hold my speed constant and he gently glides past me on the left of his own free will. Would a British friend be horrified by my actions?
Clearly, my experiences here are not a good sampling of American habits, so I would like to know if there really is an American/British difference in the perceived severity of undertaking.
How evil is passing in the slow lane? (as compared to speeding, running a red light, etcetera).
Passing on the left is very, very bad. It should only be done when there is a clear hazard in the lane to your right. It really gets on my nerves when people do it as without the rule you get almost anarchy on the roads, with cars overtaking all over the place as and when they like.
It’s not illegal in many states in the U.S. I do it frequently when I come up on a nitwit in the left driving at or below limit who doesn’t budge after a few moments. No big deal, but better if he’d pull over to the right.
(By the way, if you say “undertaking” here, people think you’re talking about running a mortuary.)
This is news to me. Here everyone pretty much weaves in and out of traffic as they please, and the slow people just kind of drive where-ever they want. Small wonder the traffic is so bad and there are so many accidents.
I was taught never to pass on the left of another vehicle unless in standing traffic (amanset’s hazard to your right would be another acceptable exception). There’s no need or excuse to do it habitually, and it’s bound to make accidents more likely, partly because it’s unexpected and partly because you have less visibility over your left shoulder on a British road.
BTW, I don’t know which side of the water Pablito is on, but undertaking means burying/cremating people where I live, so the driving practice carries an ironic double meaning here too.
As an afterthought, maybe it has to be more common in the USA because you have more lanes on your highways than we do - anything more than three is exceptional here.