Exceeding the speed limit whilst overtaking - opinions

[Codswallop]

chris182 said:

On a related note, has anyone been caught speeding mid-overtake?

My only speeding ticket was when my speed was taken mid over-take. It was a twisty coastal road with few good straights for overtakes, and clearly the police also knew which areas to hide in...

So despite the perfectly safe overtake, I still recieved a telling off for reducing my time exposed to danger

[John D.]

I never slow down for overtakes.

[Steameh]

Even if I could complete the overtake within the bounds of the speed limit (which I could otherwise I wouldnt have started it in the first place) I would still exceed the limit to minimise my time in the opposite lane.

I'm sure that you can get done for speeding like this, which only prove that there is no common sense in todays speed policing policies.

[redgriff500]

Centurion07 said:

66comanche said:

Just realised, this thread is discussing staying within the limit while overtaking, I'll happily overtake people akready doing the NSL, sometimes even if they're at 10-20mph more than NSL depending on my mood/the conditions.

You'd overtake someone doing 80 in a 60?!

You wouldn't ?

I do wonder whether some posters drive on the same roads I do.

Lovely A roads that have been reduced to 50 - no point even trying to stick to such a stupidly low limit.

[Jimmy No Hands]

joe_90 said:

Nothing beats the rush of getting past 6+ cars in one go

6 cars and 1 van on the A64...

[R300will]

There are times when it is okay to cruise past at the limit when overtaking someone travelling slower. However the driver being overtaken mmight percieve this as 'taking the piss' so tbh i always tend to exceed it to get past quickly before dropping back down to the limit and pulling away normally.

[zip929]

Just been arguing with my wife over this one.
She is a driving instructor, and says you should not ovetake unless you can stay within the speed limits for the road.
I said when overtaking I will aim to do it as quickly and efficiently as is possible. Being on the wrong side of the road during the overtake is then limited in time. This must be better, surely?

[R300will]

zip929 said:

Just been arguing with my wife over this one.
She is a driving instructor, and says you should not ovetake unless you can stay within the speed limits for the road.
I said when overtaking I will aim to do it as quickly and efficiently as is possible. Being on the wrong side of the road during the overtake is then limited in time. This must be better, surely?

logically yes but since when has the driving test been based on common sense. I know mine wasn't, i nearly failed the bloody theory test when i clicked to early on a few and was therefore outside of the marks bracket. I mean if you spot a hazard happening earlier you should get more marks?

[Alfanatic]

zip929 said:

Just been arguing with my wife over this one.
She is a driving instructor, and says you should not ovetake unless you can stay within the speed limits for the road.
I said when overtaking I will aim to do it as quickly and efficiently as is possible. Being on the wrong side of the road during the overtake is then limited in time. This must be better, surely?

I guess your wife and the law are saying that if you need to break the speed limit to make the overtake safe, you have picked a bad place to overtake. In other words, only overtake when it is safe to be on the wrong side of the road for as long as it takes to get past without breaking the speed limit.

Or, to put that another way, on most single carriageways, never overtake anything going faster than a tractor. Which sucks, but also seems to fit with the behaviour of the public at large when driving.

[rohrl]

I like to get an overtake done as quickly as I can so yes, I'll break the speed limit while doing so on occasion.

I have had the odd negative reaction from other drivers to being overtaken, even on a wide and clearly sighted NSL road. I suppose some people never overtake anyone themselves and can't imagine why I might want to overtake them. On the other hand if I see someone arriving behind me, normally a motorcyclist, I'll try and give them a bit of a hand by making it clear that I've seen them and pulling in to the verge a bit if they want to overtake me.

[vonhosen]

R300will said:

zip929 said:

Just been arguing with my wife over this one.
She is a driving instructor, and says you should not ovetake unless you can stay within the speed limits for the road.
I said when overtaking I will aim to do it as quickly and efficiently as is possible. Being on the wrong side of the road during the overtake is then limited in time. This must be better, surely?

logically yes but since when has the driving test been based on common sense. I know mine wasn't, i nearly failed the bloody theory test when i clicked to early on a few and was therefore outside of the marks bracket. I mean if you spot a hazard happening earlier you should get more marks?

That's because you have to distinguish between a hazard & a developing hazard. It's developing hazards you are being marked on & not all hazards are developing hazards.

[R300will]

vonhosen said:

R300will said:

zip929 said:

Just been arguing with my wife over this one.
She is a driving instructor, and says you should not ovetake unless you can stay within the speed limits for the road.
I said when overtaking I will aim to do it as quickly and efficiently as is possible. Being on the wrong side of the road during the overtake is then limited in time. This must be better, surely?

logically yes but since when has the driving test been based on common sense. I know mine wasn't, i nearly failed the bloody theory test when i clicked to early on a few and was therefore outside of the marks bracket. I mean if you spot a hazard happening earlier you should get more marks?

That's because you have to distinguish between a hazard & a developing hazard. It's developing hazards you are being marked on & not all hazards are developing hazards.

But i was seeing the hazards developing and clicking before the mark bracket came in.

[zip929]

R300will said:

But i was seeing the hazards developing and clicking before the mark bracket came in.

My wife says this is a problem with the hazard test! You should not be too quick to spot the hazard. Seems daft to me but they expect you to take time to spot it. Too early and you are deemed to have missed it.

[R300will]

zip929 said:

R300will said:

But i was seeing the hazards developing and clicking before the mark bracket came in.

My wife says this is a problem with the hazard test! You should not be too quick to spot the hazard. Seems daft to me but they expect you to take time to spot it. Too early and you are deemed to have missed it.

Exactly, i mean since when is it a bad thing? you clock something happening before somebody else means you have more time to observe it and decide what action to take. See it last thing and you may be more at risk obviously.

[limpsfield]

Urban Sports said:

joe_90 said:

Nothing beats the rush of getting past 6+ cars in one go

I can easily do 7+

8+ with one eye shut here

[vonhosen]

zip929 said:

R300will said:

But i was seeing the hazards developing and clicking before the mark bracket came in.

My wife says this is a problem with the hazard test! You should not be too quick to spot the hazard. Seems daft to me but they expect you to take time to spot it. Too early and you are deemed to have missed it.

You don't press when you spot it, or you'll be pressing all the time (& you can't have a timing zone or distinguish those who are just pressing all the time) , you only press those that develop.

[blueg33]

I have 3 points to demonstrate that the police take a dim view of it, even though the plod that pulled me said "I would have done the same overtake in the same way". My speed was logged by a guy at the side of the road with a LTI2020 and radioed to the plod in the car.

I was passing a fking "weekend gypsy" that I had been stuck behind for miles and would have been stuck behind for another 5 miles or so if I hadn't passed there.

[veryRS]

anonymous said:

[redacted]

Then theres those (of us) who think that arbitraty NSL's are outdated and pointless, dont spend 90% of our time checking the speedomoter and would prefer to "make progress" safely on open roads.

[lazystudent]

I was in North Wales last summer and was on the A5 where it goes into a crawler lane and there's a long straight sans junctions- there were about 4 police cars waiting for people to see the straight and put their foot down to make perfectly safe overtakes to get past lines of caravans, dawdlers etc. Albeit a lot of people when "frustration overtaking" will exceed the speed limit. Bet they filled their quotas that day

[blueg33]

lazystudent said:

I was in North Wales last summer and was on the A5 where it goes into a crawler lane and there's a long straight sans junctions- there were about 4 police cars waiting for people to see the straight and put their foot down to make perfectly safe overtakes to get past lines of caravans, dawdlers etc. Albeit a lot of people when "frustration overtaking" will exceed the speed limit. Bet they filled their quotas that day

Quite common there. I am extra careful, i watch the speedo like a hawk and occasionally glance at the road