overtaking an overtaker

[andrew]

i'm not a frequent visitor to this area, but could do with some help please

on a single carriageway, is it legal to overtake a car whilst that car is in turn are overtaking another car ?

thanks in anticipation

[LosingGrip]

Struggling to work out how? Surely if it's a single carriageway, the first car would be across the centre line, where would you over take?

Depending on the circumstances, it could be due care. I certainly wouldn't be doing it.

[anonymous-user]

Highway Code 163 makes it awkward, but not necessarily illegal

Overtake only when it is safe and legal to do so. You should

not get too close to the vehicle you intend to overtake

Also, if the overtaker is indicating right, rule 167

DO NOT overtake where you might come into conflict with other road users. For example

when a road user is indicating right, even if you believe the signal should have been cancelled. Do not take a risk; wait for the signal to be cancelled

I’d be surprised if it worked out well on a single carriageway road. If it was seen by police, it would be a sure pull for a chat wouldn’t it?

Edited by anonymous-user on Saturday 2nd March 21:53

[Pica-Pica]

I can’t picture how there would be the road width. If there were 3 lanes, or two wide lanes, then it may be physically possible. Legal? I suspect it could be classed as driving without due care and attention, driving without due consideration for other road users, or even dangerous driving.

[carlove]

I've seen it happen a few times here, road is wider than the image makes it look, I still think it's dangerous and would not consider it myself. Doesn't happen really now as the road is a 50 limit with average speed camera plus I only use it once every month or so now.

https://www.google.co.uk/maps/@53.0622488,-1.10620...

[Mr Tidy]

I did it once in the early 80s on the A23 just South of Pycombe - between the junctions with the A273 and A27.

It was a single carriageway with 4 lanes, and the centre markings weren't solid lines, just long ones with short gaps so crossing them might not have been advisable but wasn't actually an offence! (Although I may have crept over the speed limit, possibly).

Anyway I was about 20 years old with a Rover P6B 3500S and I was (always) in a hurry back then.

A year or two later I got to know that road really well as my GFs parents moved to Rottingdean.

The suicide lane up near Hassocks was always exciting as well!

[theboss]

I’ve done it before on the wide stretches of the A5 between Shrewsbury and Oswestry.

[silentbrown]

Single carriageway just means no central reservation or divider. You can still have any number of lanes.

Highway code 135 said:

Single carriageway
135
Where a single carriageway has three lanes and the road markings or signs do not give priority to traffic in either direction:
use the middle lane only for overtaking or turning right. Remember, you have no more right to use the middle lane than a driver coming from the opposite direction
do not use the right-hand lane.
136
Where a single carriageway has four or more lanes, use only the lanes that signs or markings indicate.

[phil y]

There’s a stretch of the A34 south of Congleton which is pretty wide, although only one lane each direction.

Someone from behind me was overtaking a line of cars when the car in front of me pulled out as the first car was about to pass me.

Some quick and decisive thinking by the original overtaker meant there was a brief moment of 3 side by side, could have ended very differently.

[V8LM]

carlove said:

I've seen it happen a few times here, road is wider than the image makes it look, I still think it's dangerous and would not consider it myself. Doesn't happen really now as the road is a 50 limit with average speed camera plus I only use it once every month or so now.

https://www.google.co.uk/maps/@53.0622488,-1.10620...

And the reason there are cameras on that road now is largely down to the six killed in the fireball after their cars collided in 2009. Lots of accident black spots on the road.

[jagnet]

V8LM said:

And the reason there are cameras on that road now is largely down to the six killed in the fireball after their cars collided in 2009. Lots of accident black spots on the road.

despite no evidence that the driver of the 206 was speeding. Inexperience and poor judgement caused that accident and a 50 limit won't prevent that happening again.

I've seen it done a few times, most notably on the A303 Ilminster bypass prior to the current road layout, but it's not something that I ever felt comfortable doing myself. I've not seen anything in the Highway Code that explicitly states that you must not.

[akirk]

Arguably - on the right road it is no different to three lanes of traffic on a motorway...

Biggest issue is expectations and reactions of other drivers...

[anonymous-user]

akirk said:

.

Biggest issue is expectations and reactions of other drivers...

This. Why take the risk?

[NDA]

I would imagine the first overtaker has his attention on the road ahead and the car he's passing.... not imagining that someone is simultaneously overtaking him. I would say it's a dangerous manoeuvre in a car - less so on a motorcycle.

[irish boy]

Happens in the south of Ireland a lot where the norm is for people to pull as far left as they can and indicate when a faster car comes behind. Often it will not be necessary to even cross the white line to overtake and it’s simple/safe/accepted to pop out and overtake both.

I’d never do it in the north or mainland uk.

[NDA]

irish boy said:

Happens in the south of Ireland a lot where the norm is for people to pull as far left as they can and indicate when a faster car comes behind. Often it will not be necessary to even cross the white line to overtake and it’s simple/safe/accepted to pop out and overtake both.

Why can't we do this in the UK? I've never driven in Ireland, but that sounds a good way to drive.

[s55shh]

phil y said:

There’s a stretch of the A34 south of Congleton which is pretty wide, although only one lane each direction.

Someone from behind me was overtaking a line of cars when the car in front of me pulled out as the first car was about to pass me.

Some quick and decisive thinking by the original overtaker meant there was a brief moment of 3 side by side, could have ended very differently.

if it was a white bmw it might have been me...

[macushla]

NDA said:

irish boy said:

Happens in the south of Ireland a lot where the norm is for people to pull as far left as they can and indicate when a faster car comes behind. Often it will not be necessary to even cross the white line to overtake and it’s simple/safe/accepted to pop out and overtake both.

Why can't we do this in the UK? I've never driven in Ireland, but that sounds a good way to drive.

Because in Eire they seem to have this great big chunk of unused tarmac on the left of roads, that over here would either be used more effectively as a permanent second lane, or less effectively as a cycle lane, or worse a pavement.

When a vehicle moves left onto a part of the road that isn’t used a lot they also kick up all sorts of crap from the gutter. I think you’d be less chuffed when your car gets splattered with that. Even if it is for just a moment, those moments add up when you’re overtaking a lot of cars a day over the weeks, months and years.

[GC8]

Whether legal or not, Id suggest that it was foolish in the extreme.

[Mr Pointy]

I've done a four-level overtake in Egypt once. Knacked old tipper truck full of melons overtaking a decrepit even older JCB overtaking a donkey pulling a cart all overtaken by me in the rattiest hire car on planet Earth.

Happy days.