Responsibility not to scare oncoming traffic

[Somewhatfoolish]

The majority of drivers have no idea, or at least seem not to have, of how quickly one can overtake in even a not especially quick car, but faster than they know about.

Is there any responsibilty on the behalf of an advanced driver to moderate tight overtakes? I made one today that was entirely safe; I actually made it towards an car that was already at the head of a queue and travellign quite slowly, and it was within a fairly restricted piece of space which I could already see - so it was a perfect overtake from my POV - but from theirs it may have been worrying as it was from a gap in traffic here - it was perfectly safe in my car but would have been suicidal in a 1.4 litre citroen or something.

Anyhow there was a look of terror in the peopel I was overtaking towards, even though there were several seconds between my leaving their side of the road and when we'd have hit. Actually there was a bit more thna that but I could see they'd done a comfort brake - not a proper emergency brake but a tap thing... the thing that emergency brake assist is for.

But they could have floored it and not hit me. From a purely physical POV, there was nothing wrong with my overtake.

I am wondering though... what' the A/D perspective on worrying peopel who are driving towards you when overtaking. Now I am driving reasonably powerful cars this is happening more and more often and it seems almost a moral question... should us that have reasonable speed/distance/time computation slow down just to avoid worrying basically senile or generally confused people?

It's a conundrum.

[Somewhatfoolish]

F i F said:

Too many people don't consider:-
a) what if I meet myself coming the other way? and
b) what if I meet someone travelling the other way physically as fast as possible. Scenario b) means no compromise given to sight lines, stopping distance relative to clear road and so on, physically as fast as possible without binning it.

exactly - which is why I prefer to overtake towards traffic.

[Somewhatfoolish]

I would say in a line of a dozen cars behind a tractor, there will be at least ONE nutter who will take exception if you were to take the whole lot out in one go.

Must have been a perfect storm of a queue, each vehicle slightly less timid than the less, but not quite brave enough to get past what was in front. And lets face it, by the forth or fifth vehcile most drivers wouldn't even be planning the overtake yet.