Blocked from overtaking

[llewop]

rev-erend said:

Ah, the A272.

A hard road to over take on for sure .. very few oportunities unless you are on a motor bike and even then its not so easy.

Sometimes just better to enjoy the scenery on that road.

All true, especially with the increase in double white lines and speed limits - I should have known better

[brrapp]

I'm not going to join this thread. It'll just get all wound up again about all these a-road conga dancers. I don't dance the fking conga at a party so I'm not going to do it in my fking car. Get out of my way you grey haired nylon wearing st smelling pensioners and if you block me I'll elbow you into the fking buffet table.

[TurboHatchback]

Biker 1 said:

Bank holiday A road. NSL, usual nobs doing 50, & very few places to safely overtake. Eventually get to long straight where its possible to overtake, even with oncoming traffic, as nice wide bypass. I check mirrors, indicate, drop it a cog, pull-out & floor it. What does the nob in front do just as I am starting to pass him?? Floors it so I have no way of continuing the manoeuvre & have to drop in behind him again, braking hard. wker!
1. I don't understand what he was trying to achieve
2. It was fking scary & downright dangerous
3. Is that sort of behaviour legal??

Am I misunderstanding your post or are you suggesting that it's OK to overtake three-abreast on a single lane road if it's wide?

[durbster]

For those this happens to, maybe you are driving in a conspicuously aggressive manner beforehand so the other driver has already legitimised making your overtake difficult. By that I mean driving too close; or doing that thing where you put the car almost on to the centre line to show everyone how ready you are to pass; or both.

Neither of those actually helps an overtake of course - if anything they're counter-productive because you don't leave any room to accelerate - but driving like that will put people's backs up before you start your move.

I find the surprise attack approach to overtaking avoids this scenario.

If you're leaving a polite gap behind the car, they're not constantly watching you in their mirror so you can sneak up and be well on the way past long before they think about being a dhead.

Before there's a pile-on, I'm not jusifying anyone blocking an overtake because that's beyond stupid, but I do think the way you drive affects how people treat you.

[TooMany2cvs]

TurboHatchback said:

Biker 1 said:

Bank holiday A road. NSL, usual nobs doing 50, & very few places to safely overtake. Eventually get to long straight where its possible to overtake, even with oncoming traffic, as nice wide bypass. I check mirrors, indicate, drop it a cog, pull-out & floor it. What does the nob in front do just as I am starting to pass him?? Floors it so I have no way of continuing the manoeuvre & have to drop in behind him again, braking hard. wker!
1. I don't understand what he was trying to achieve
2. It was fking scary & downright dangerous
3. Is that sort of behaviour legal??

Am I misunderstanding your post or are you suggesting that it's OK to overtake three-abreast on a single lane road if it's wide?

TBH, even if that was what he was doing, it actually makes the overtakee's block even worse, because it increases the time the overtaker is in a dangerous position.

Two wrongs never did, and never will, make a right.

[SVTRick]

You can never have too much power and there is no substitute for cubic capacity and horse power.

Overtaking day dreaming blockers with 575 Rear Wheel HP and torque curve to match in a two ton pickup truck - EPIC

[Atomic12C]

durbster said:

If you're leaving a polite gap behind the car, they're not constantly watching you in their mirror so you can sneak up and be well on the way past long before they think about being a dhead.

Before there's a pile-on, I'm not jusifying anyone blocking an overtake because that's beyond stupid, but I do think the way you drive affects how people treat you.

Very true.


One of the main problems on the roads is aggressive driving. In as much as not leaving 2 second gaps and making irrational overtakes when all you are effectively doing 'is' pushing in front of a rolling vehicle queue - especially on single-carriageway roads.

I'd hazard a guess that many people question the purpose of 'jumping' a vehicle or two when all they are doing is rushing towards another vehicle within a 'rolling queue'. All it seems to do is cause people to brake in order the non-existent gap they've pushing to becomes 'safe' again.

Of course it can be argued many different ways to support different viewpoints, but the HC leaves such different viewpoints open for scrutiny by some text contradictions and lack of blunt rule(s) to support a single cause of action that all can understand.

[Guybrush]

I think the problem with the blockers is more deep seated than merely a righteousness from a driving point of view. I'm sure they have a failure complex and see someone overtaking them on the road as somehow synonymous with how they are losing in life and to block someone from overtaking them is the only way they can have an effect on someone else, to assuage their feelings of failure elsewhere in their life.

[Frik]

Not that it makes it correct at all, but was he also looking to overtake? It can be a little annoying to have your opportunity to overtake ruined by someone behind who has started the manoeuvre before you. Your subsequent reaction is of course the important part here.

[TooMany2cvs]

Guybrush said:

I think the problem with the blockers is more deep seated than merely a righteousness from a driving point of view. I'm sure they have a failure complex and see someone overtaking them on the road as somehow synonymous with how they are losing in life and to block someone from overtaking them is the only way they can have an effect on someone else, to assuage their feelings of failure elsewhere in their life.

Not always. The bloke who pulled it on me the other day was in a 65-plate Lexus LSh. I think he thought I wasn't important enough, and should remember my place in life.

[AW111]

Frik said:

Not that it makes it correct at all, but was he also looking to overtake? It can be a little annoying to have your opportunity to overtake ruined by someone behind who has started the manoeuvre before you. Your subsequent reaction is of course the important part here.

I have seen this a few times.
Queue of cars behind slow-moving vehicle, waiting for an oppertunity to pass, and then when you get one some complete knob at the back of the queue jumps out and tries to pass everyone at once.
I have nearly been rammed by some idiot doing that : I indicated and pulled out to pass, only to be almost run in to by someone doing the "slingshot" thing from two cars back.

[Dr Jekyll]

People who sit in queues and never overtake often don't understand that in front of the truck 6 cars ahead is a clear road. They always sit in the queue all the way to their destination so assume the queue stretches along the entire route, so see moving a few places up as pointless impatience.

[brrapp]

AW111 said:

I have seen this a few times.
Queue of cars behind slow-moving vehicle, waiting for an oppertunity to pass, and then when you get one some complete knob at the back of the queue jumps out and tries to pass everyone at once.
I have nearly been rammed by some idiot doing that : I indicated and pulled out to pass, only to be almost run in to by someone doing the "slingshot" thing from two cars back.

Not serious surely!!!
You pull out in front of someone who is already committed to overtaking you and he is the idiot? If he was two cars back and has already pulled and caught you up before you pull out in front of him then I think you need to look at your own driving/observation skills.

[AW111]

brrapp said:

Not serious surely!!!
You pull out in front of someone who is already committed to overtaking you and he is the idiot? If he was two cars back and has already pulled and caught you up before you pull out in front of him then I think you need to look at your own driving/observation skills.

I mentioned the "slingshot" maneuvre - when I pulled out, he hadn't pulled out (yet), but from the speed he was travelling when he arrived in my mirrors, had obviously started his run-up while still in the left lane a few cars back.

FWIW, I started to overtake as soon as the solid white line became broken, and yes, I did check before pulling out.
Knob was just in too much of a hurry to notice me as he tried to overtake 3 cars and a truck in one go.

[hora]

Johnnytheboy said:

Some people think a line of cars is a queue, and that any overtaking is "jumping the queue".

The standard of driving in holiday periods is woeful as well, which doesn't help.

This being SP&L, someone will be along to to turn this into a four page thread about speed limits shortly.

Agree (first paragraph). I had this a few times. Someone tried it on Snake pass this weekend. I think should actions are very dangerous and I wonder how many crashes have occurred because of such reactionary driving

[Biker 1]

Just to be clear:

1. wker who blocked me was definitely NOT trying to overtake the car in front of him
2. I was keeping at least 2 seconds back from said wker: I am very careful to keep a decent braking distance. Always
3. wker for sure saw me in mirros & deliberately closed gap & accelerated hard
4. Road is a 2 lane A road: very wide bypass section, with enough space to overtake in both directions. I have been down this road many times & there is never usually a problem
5. The 'more powerful car, this is PH' issue: I have a motorcycle for the adrenaline rush!!

[Terminator X]

Biker 1 said:

Bank holiday A road. NSL, usual nobs doing 50, & very few places to safely overtake. Eventually get to long straight where its possible to overtake, even with oncoming traffic, as nice wide bypass. I check mirrors, indicate, drop it a cog, pull-out & floor it. What does the nob in front do just as I am starting to pass him?? Floors it so I have no way of continuing the manoeuvre & have to drop in behind him again, braking hard. wker!
1. I don't understand what he was trying to achieve
2. It was fking scary & downright dangerous
3. Is that sort of behaviour legal??

Completely agree, some drivers are 100% clueless! The amount of really slow drivers you come up behind who then get a bee in their bonnet if you dare to overtake is incredible. Also annoying though are the idiots who won't overtake a slow driver causing massive tailbacks

TX.

Edited by Terminator X on Tuesday 30th August 13:00

[Oliverrun]

Had this a while ago. The other car didn't exactly floor it, but the speed differential seemed to get a fair bit smaller during the manoeuvre (maybe they were just absent mindedly accelerating onto the straight) so I braked and dropped behind. What made this more confusing was that they pulled over 30 seconds later to let me pass

[dxg]

Dr Jekyll said:

People who sit in queues and never overtake often don't understand that in front of the truck 6 cars ahead is a clear road. They always sit in the queue all the way to their destination so assume the queue stretches along the entire route, so see moving a few places up as pointless impatience.

Especially the ones (i.e. nearly everyone) who drive so close to the truck that they can't *see* that the road ahead of it is clear.

I wonder what goes through their mind. Are they so disengaged with the act of driving that they are literally just following the box in front of them? Are they so petty minded that they dare not drop back to improve their vision lest someone overtakes *them* into that gap?

Used to see this so many times when driving in the Scottish Borders it really winds me up. The trade off was the odd thank you left hand gesture from a biker when I'd single flashed to the left to let them know I was *expecting* their overtake...

Gah!

[Johnnytheboy]

On the rare occasions when I am the only car in front of someone that wants to go faster, I really don't enjoy it, and am more than happy for them to overtake.

I'd be faintly annoyed if I wanted to overtake and they got there first, but I really don't think this is what 99% of overtake blockers are thinking.