How should you deal with this situation?

[SamHH]

I would like to know how you should deal with the following situation:

You are on a 4-lane road (two lanes each direction), waiting in the left lane to enter a traffic light controlled roundabout, with another vehicle waiting in the right lane. You are both going straight on. The lights go green, you both go round the roundabout and as you leave the roundabout and begin to accelerate, the car in the right hand lane is alongside or slightly ahead of you, but accelerating more slowly.

The core of this problem is obviously 'what do you do when someone is in an overtaking position, but doesn't wish to travel faster than you'. The roundabout is sort of extraneous, but it is an arrangement that is likely to cause this situation.

I found myself in this situation today and, with the person in the right lane not being far enough ahead to move to the left lane, but nevertheless being ahead, I had to slow down to allow them to get ahead of me. I realise that this might seem like a fairly minor situation that is solved simply by slowing down, but interrupting your normal acceleration in this way seems like an inelegant solution, and in my case today, meant that the traffic queued up behind us in both lanes made it difficult for me to switch lanes for the next roundabout. You could anticipate that this might happen and therefore travel more slowly round the roundabout than you otherwise would, allowing vehicle 1 in the right lane to be well ahead of you by the time you leave the roundabout, but besides the potential for irritating the drivers behind you, you may find yourself in the same situation with vehicle 2 in the right lane. I hope this all makes sense.

Is there a better way?

[LaSarthe+Back]

SamHH said:

I would like to know how you should deal with the following situation:

You are on a 4-lane road (two lanes each direction), waiting in the left lane to enter a traffic light controlled roundabout, with another vehicle waiting in the right lane. You are both going straight on. The lights go green, you both go round the roundabout and as you leave the roundabout and begin to accelerate, the car in the right hand lane is alongside or slightly ahead of you, but accelerating more slowly.

The core of this problem is obviously 'what do you do when someone is in an overtaking position, but doesn't wish to travel faster than you'. The roundabout is sort of extraneous, but it is an arrangement that is likely to cause this situation.

I found myself in this situation today and, with the person in the right lane not being far enough ahead to move to the left lane, but nevertheless being ahead, I had to slow down to allow them to get ahead of me. I realise that this might seem like a fairly minor situation that is solved simply by slowing down, but interrupting your normal acceleration in this way seems like an inelegant solution, and in my case today, meant that the traffic queued up behind us in both lanes made it difficult for me to switch lanes for the next roundabout. You could anticipate that this might happen and therefore travel more slowly round the roundabout than you otherwise would, allowing vehicle 1 in the right lane to be well ahead of you by the time you leave the roundabout, but besides the potential for irritating the drivers behind you, you may find yourself in the same situation with vehicle 2 in the right lane. I hope this all makes sense.

Is there a better way?

Mmmm, it's a difficult one. Much like two lanes on, one lane off situations, when you are correctly in the left lane to go 2nd exit, and those less knowledgable are in the right and will probably fight you to get off the roundabout.

Some anticipate a gap emerging between the cars in lane 2 (rarely happens) as they get going and some are slower to pull away than others. Serious question: Why are you in lane 1 to start with?

Perhaps an improved judgement of the situation that will happen on the roundabout exit can be anticipated according to vehicle/driver behaviour when coming to form the queue's at the lights.

Anyway.... weren't roundabouts supposed to negate the need for lights?? The roundabout's purpose is defunct with the lights installed.

Is this on a daily cummute? You may like to try different approaches, though the same situation will rarely repeat itself...

Cheers
Andy

[Jungles]

I'd say the most obvious solution is the best one, because it is the action more likely to be anticipated by other drivers than any other action.

So the most obvious, as you've suggested, as to merely slow down so that the offending car is clearly ahead of you.

There is nothing inelegant about it, IMHO, as long the action is performed with due attention and smoothness. Ideally, you would have anticipated that the situation might happen and accelerated slower, or alternatively accelerated faster if safe to do so.

Edited by Jungles on Tuesday 19th February 00:20

[Phisp]

The question is really when does "undertaking" actually become undertaking?

The way I see it is that you are already alongside the driver in the right hand lane. You pulled off together and maintained your positioning. The other driver should be fully aware of your presence - if not then there is a whole different scenario to worry about. I personally would not have a problem with accelerating at a greater rate than the other driver in this instance - I would not see it as undertaking since you are not entering a space on their nearside that was previously known to be clear to them.

Not sure what the Highway Code / Law would say on this issue.

Edited by Phisp on Tuesday 19th February 14:51

[The Black Flash]

For me it would depend on what the other car is doing. If he's accelerating fast enough that we'll still be alongside, or within a second or so of alongside, when I reach my top speed, I'll hang back a little and let him get past - otherwise you end up in one of those uncomfortable "racing but not" kind of situations. If he's dawdling, I'll just blast on and get out of his way...if he then wants to cruise at a higher speed than me, he'll catch up and go past in a bit.

Thinking about it, I guess I do whichever means that I change my aceleration least in order to get space between us quickest.

[R1_NUR]

Come on it is the real world.

Just put your bloody foot down a bit. If the traffic was lining up behind you and supposed benefit from avoiding the undertake (debatable anyway) is more than offset by the anger and frustration of the drivers blocked by you and the other more selfish driver.

[supermono]

I avoid the situation by always pulling away from a standstill as fast as I possibly can. That way 99% of the time he doesn't get ahead. But if he does get ahead it's no problem because he's accelerating hard enough that I can just let off slightly but still be getting up speed.

People pussying away from traffic lights as described restricts the number of cars through each cycle and causes congestion.

SM

[timskipper]

He who hesitates, loses.

[supermono]

SamHH, I notice your profile shows what might not be an especially fast car away from the lights.

I've found that provided it has a rev limiter, you can get the most out of a car like that by selecting full throttle just before easing out the clutch in first, but then each time the revlimiter cuts in quickly dip the clutch, select the next gear, and smartly re-engage the clutch all without moving the accelerator pedal off the floor.

You'll find that by using this method you won't tend to have the other guy beside you at the other side of the roundabout even in a car with not much power.

As long as the car's warmed up properly and you change the oil according to the schedule, this probably won't be as mechanically destructive as it sounds.

SM

[SamHH]

Thanks for all the replies and suggestions.

LaSarthe+Back said:

Serious question: Why are you in lane 1 to start with?

Because I was not overtaking anything before the roundabout, and upon reaching the roundabout I was the first car there before the lights went red, so there was no advantage to switching to the right lane. Had I been in the right lane on that particular occasion it would have prevented the problem from occuring, but on other occasions I could have had the opposite problem (i.e. the car in the left lane wanting to accelerate more quickly than me).

Jungles said:

I'd say the most obvious solution is the best one, because it is the action more likely to be anticipated by other drivers than any other action.

I'd guess that most drivers would anticipate you will disregard the person in the right lane and accelerate to 70 (although it's a 40 limit, it's newly imposed and, IMO, unneccesary). I'd still be uneasy about undertaking someone though.

Jungles said:

Ideally, you would have anticipated that the situation might happen and accelerated slower, or alternatively accelerated faster if safe to do so.

I don't think it's possible to anticipate how fast the people in the right lane are going to accelerate is it?

Phisp said:

The question is really when does "undertaking" actually become undertaking?

The way I see it is that you are already alongside the driver in the right hand lane. You pulled off together and maintained your positioning. The other driver should be fully aware of your presence - if not then there is a whole different scenario to worry about. I personally would not have a problem with accelerating at a greater rate than the other driver in this instance - I would not see it as undertaking since you are not entering a space on their nearside that was previously known to be clear to them.

Not sure what the Highway Code / Law would say on this issue.

R1_NUR said:

Come on it is the real world.

Just put your bloody foot down a bit. If the traffic was lining up behind you and supposed benefit from avoiding the undertake (debatable anyway) is more than offset by the anger and frustration of the drivers blocked by you and the other more selfish driver.

In one way undertaking would be safer because it would leave you in the other person's blind spot for less time. On the other hand, if they did start to move into the left lane when you were still to their nearside, I think it would be harder to avoid them if you were in the process of undertaking them. Also, I'm not sure how a police officer in the queue of cars behind would look upon this maneuver. Those issues aside, continuing with your normal acceleration and undertaking would, I think, be the best way of dealing with this situation.

supermono said:

I avoid the situation by always pulling away from a standstill as fast as I possibly can. That way 99% of the time he doesn't get ahead.

supermono said:

SamHH, I notice your profile shows what might not be an especially fast car away from the lights.

I've found that provided it has a rev limiter, you can get the most out of a car like that by selecting full throttle just before easing out the clutch in first, but then each time the revlimiter cuts in quickly dip the clutch, select the next gear, and smartly re-engage the clutch all without moving the accelerator pedal off the floor.

You'll find that by using this method you won't tend to have the other guy beside you at the other side of the roundabout even in a car with not much power.

Accelerating as fast as possible might work but I'd feel a bit stupid doing racing starts away from the traffic light. Think of the number of "some chav in a Fiesta just tried to race me away from the lights; what an idiod" posts you see on PistonHeads. This is especially so given that shortly after the lights I'd be sticking to the 40 limit whereas most other people will treat it as an NSL.

[supermono]

SamHH said:

Accelerating as fast as possible might work but I'd feel a bit stupid doing racing starts away from the traffic light. Think of the number of "some chav in a Fiesta just tried to race me away from the lights; what an idiod" posts you see on PistonHeads. This is especially so given that shortly after the lights I'd be sticking to the 40 limit whereas most other people will treat it as an NSL.

That's a fair comment. But since we're talking about avoiding a potentially hazardous situation I would avoid that as my primary concern. What others might think about my driving style and any speed limit are very much secondary to safety in my mind.

SM