contact position

[Z.B]

A comment has been made in another thread about not favouring the adoption of a contact position for overtaking. It does seem to be a contentious issue - views of very able drivers I have spoken with vary from saying 'i overtake from a follow', to 'i get as close as I can - it could be a car's length if i can control it.' And every shade of grey in between.

So what do people think?

Personally I do use the contact position, sometimes quite a close one. The potential problems with this are obvious, but I mitigate these by aiming to occupy this position for a short a time as possible (frequently passing through it rather than remaining in it), keeping my view open throughout, and dropping back at the first sign of trouble. By doing this I feel I have more control over the situation than I would by getting committed too early.

But I'm happy to hear other opinions.....

[Z.B]

omegac said:

One other point specific to police driver training is that the contact position is taught for overtaking, so practised on single carriageways/m'ways etc, then further down the line when blue light training is introduced, what are the students told....hang back wait for them to see the lights and hear the noise!

Seen it many a time when a confused student is saying "but last week I had to close them right down", ah yes...."but that was last week!"

I don't see the confusion. Contact position is used to overtake a vehicle that is continuing on its way. If you're expecting the vehicle to slow down or move over it changes the game to hang back and let them sort themselves out. This will happen at times even without warning equipment - as in where the target vehicle is turning off, stopping, or more rarely slowing to allow you to pass.

[Z.B]

omegac said:

Z.B said:

I don't see the confusion.

Because the week before the student is told, make progress, close them down, one second from their bumper....the following week, noise and lights go on, adrenaline goes through the roof...and so what position do they naturally adopt?

Well I guess if that's what you see that's what you see! I'm a little surprised though for several reasons....

If use of contact position has been adequately caveated early in the course, and the candidates have been briefed on the hazards of blue light running, surely it isn't a great intellectual leap to realise it might not be wise to be up the back of someone who may well do something daft?

Also, isn't positioning generally going to be quite different on blue lights from anything that could reasonably be taught without them? So it will always be alien initially?

Having said that, I've seen plenty of blue light runs that looked more white-knuckle than they needed to be so maybe you do have a point.... I can also see why a police driving school might want normal driving overtakes to use the same technique as for blue light runs.

Out of interest, can anyone say how widespread the teaching of overtaking without a contact position is? All the police drivers I've driven with have used it, and I think it would be expected by IAM and similar....

Also, those that teach this alternative approach.... What would you prefer that page of Roadcraft to say?

Edited by Z.B on Thursday 8th May 16:29

[Z.B]

omegac said:

Z.B said:

Well I guess if that's what you see that's what you see! I'm a little surprised though for several reasons....


Out of interest, can anyone say how widespread the teaching of overtaking without a contact position is? All the police drivers I've driven with have used it, and I think it would be expected by IAM and similar....

It doesn't happen every time, but just at times it can cause confusion. I never had a problem with contact position on a road other than D/C or M'Way, just on those roads I found it uncomfortable and in my opinion looked unprofessional. And as I said, when a student questions the instructor with the "what if they brake test" they get the "do you want to stay on this course" from some instructors who can't justify it.

Re your other point, the Met still teach contact for three stage overtaking, i.e. on a A or B road, but I think this thread originated from the Motorway thread which is where I was saying I didn't like doing it and don't agree with it.

Ok maybe I misunderstood a little. Although I thought Reg was coming out against this even on single carriageway - or have I got that wrong too?

Whilst the contact position on single carriageway helps get you bin the optimum position to make the critical decision, on the motorway it really boils down to bullying people out of the way which is far more dubious, though effective at times.