Overtaking safely with an on-coming car

Overtaking safely with an on-coming car

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Discussion

Wilmslowboy

4,189 posts

205 months

Sunday 22nd June 2014
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Highway code said:
130
Areas of white diagonal stripes or chevrons painted on the road. These are to separate traffic lanes or to protect traffic turning right.

If the area is bordered by a broken white line, you should not enter the area unless it is necessary and you can see that it is safe to do so.
I guess it comes down to interpretation of necessary

7db

6,058 posts

229 months

Monday 23rd June 2014
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Ask Richard Parker.

monthefish

Original Poster:

20,439 posts

230 months

Monday 23rd June 2014
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7db said:
Ask Richard Parker.
Which one?

I've googled it, and the top three are:

1. Richard Parker is the name of several people in real life and fiction who became shipwrecked, with some of them subsequently being cannibalised by their...
2. Richard A. Parker (born 1953), mathematician. ... Richard Bordeaux Parker (1923–2011), American diplomat and ambassador ...
3. Richard and Mary Parker are fictional characters of Marvel Comics. They were the parents of Peter Parker, the boy who one day would become Spider-Man.

0000

13,812 posts

190 months

Monday 23rd June 2014
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Seesure said:
90%+ of Joe Public believe those road markings to mean "no over taking"... A48 from Gloucester is a prime example

http://goo.gl/maps/lPpYz

... the amount of people that refuse to overtake and sit diligently at 40mph for mile after mile beggars belief... if you then have the audacity to overtake you get all the usual numpty re-actions... coffee bean shakers, lights being flashed, maniac tailgaters who feel the need to point out it's not British and you should queue in an orderly manner...
I used to commute between Gloucester and Newport down that road. It suited me that many wouldn't overtake there and other similar spots, bunched up nose to tail, as I could pass more cars.

Definitely preferable to stretches where they haven't put those markings down the middle as then people tend to position themselves close to the centre line without paying much attention to oncoming traffic, but it would be even better if they were made designated overtaking lanes.

7db

6,058 posts

229 months

Monday 23rd June 2014
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monthefish said:
Which one?

I've googled it, and the top three are:

1. Richard Parker is the name of several people in real life and fiction who became shipwrecked, with some of them subsequently being cannibalised by their...
2. Richard A. Parker (born 1953), mathematician. ... Richard Bordeaux Parker (1923–2011), American diplomat and ambassador ...
3. Richard and Mary Parker are fictional characters of Marvel Comics. They were the parents of Peter Parker, the boy who one day would become Spider-Man.
The cannibals used the defence of necessity for eating Richard Parker. They were starving and would surely have died if they hadn't murdered and eaten him. The defence was rejected. Poor Mr Parker always occurs to me when I enter a hatched area about whether my presence there is necessary.

Thirsty33

250 posts

235 months

Tuesday 24th June 2014
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Provided that you genuinely believe it to have a been a safe move then of course it's fine to overtake with oncoming cars in view at some distance. Safe means a few seconds comfortably back in your lane before the oncoming car passes, not having had to slow at all. I won't define "a few", I am not an expert.

You will from time to time get annoyance from oncoming cars or those you have passed. You just have to ignore them or raise you left hand courteously to acknowledge their communication, "thank you". This may of course wind them up even more.

I actually took some additional training for this very reason - I was basically advised it was them, not me. I was actually encouraged to overtake in places I normally would not with tighter margins. I won't be doing that, but it proved to me I was OK yet still get this reaction from time to time.

Blakewater

4,303 posts

156 months

Thursday 26th June 2014
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The central overtaking lane on single carriageway roads used to be nicknamed the "suicide lane." There are still a few places I can think of where some exist. An alternative replacement to cross hatchings is this set up with a solid white line to one side and a broken line to the other.

https://www.google.com/maps/place/Long+Preston/@54...

I was once coming up here in the outside lane when a Volkswagen Up driver decided to play chicken with me by overtaking a coach. I had to move into the inside lane to avoid a head on collision. I don't know if the other driver miscalculated or just expected me to move in.

A lot of people think moving onto the opposite side of the road to overtake is always wrong, then when they come across a tractor or a cyclist they can't stay behind they don't know how to handle it. They just past cyclists where they catch up with them and far too closely because they don't want to cross the centre line. They sit behind tractors for miles before inching past as in the example given above. Knowing how to overtake safely applies to all overtakes. Even the most timid driver with the least interest in overtaking has to get past stuff sometimes, even if it's only moving smoothly round parked vehicles without avoidable stopping or getting too close to anything,so it shouldn't be seen as something scary that good drivers don't do.