Why can nobody overtake?

[5s Alive]

cerb4.5lee said:

Golf!

Dark blue Mk 5 perchance?

[cerb4.5lee]

5s Alive said:

Dark blue Mk 5 perchance?

It was a grey one and he must have been on a deathwish or something?

[5s Alive]

cerb4.5lee said:

5s Alive said:

Dark blue Mk 5 perchance?

It was a grey one and he must have been on a deathwish or something?

More than one Mk 5 up here only too eager to pull off multiple overtakes but to be fair only one of them was unconcerned with what might be coming the other way. There's a cracking metallic blue R32 that looks nearly concours too.

[Short Grain]

brisel said:

Short Grain said:

Then you have the tts who decide that they're going to overtake as you're going for your overtake so just pull out without a signal, cutting you up and nearly causing you to rear end them!
Like the absolute tool yesterday in a silver Golf with windows so tinted I couldn't even see the shape of the driver through the rear screen. Rear wiper hanging down, totally useless in all the rain and spray, and the st covering the rear of his car! I'm already overtaking and he pulls straight out, maximum of a foot in front of me, no 'kin signal, then proceeds to floor it. Probably thinking "Ha-ha, fk You, I am Driving God!" Believe me, he fkin isn't!

I've been moving into my new place, with all the stress that involves, and was on the way back to collect the last car load from my old place. Feeling slightly aggrieved that this little st decides to cut me up and then try and accelerate away leaving me cursing in his wake, I've got to admit I did lose it for a split second and set off after him with full beam held on for a good 5 seconds, and was catching the little bd!! Think he realized what a tt he'd been as he flashed his hazards a couple of times, hopefully in his version of, "Oops, Sorry, Didn't see you there!" I do hope so but the cynic in me thinks probably not. Any way, the little st turned right at the next roundabout and fked off, and I realized I'd almost dropped down to his level of ttishness, so carried straight on at a more sensible speed!
So, you get the tts who can't overtake, the tts who refuse to overtake, and the tts who dangerously overtake. They can ALL cause you problems and can ALL drive up your piss to boiling point. Next job is to get a dashcam fitted, for my own protection I hasten to add, not to post up spurious footage of 'bad driving' more as a record to show my side if the worst happened and one of these little tts did cause a crash!
Sorry for ranting but I think that's maybe helped get the sheer piss boiling anger over the little ahole out of my head

Do you feel better now?

I had a dangerous experience last weekend, but the Audi driver who hung me out to dry did it deliberately. He had left a consistent 10 car lengths to the car in front, so I thought I’d take advantage of it. As I went past, he accelerated to close the gap. I shouldn’t have fed the ejit's ego by giving him the finger as he went past, though his sign language was more prolific. I dropped in behind him and fell back. No point in provoking further f***wittery eg. a brake check etc. He turned off a couple of miles later.

Some people just don’t like being overtaken for various reasons. It’s no excuse for making the situation extremely dangerous though. They don’t just walk amongst us, they have driving licences too

I did actually If they took the feckwits, idiots, and the incompetent off the roads, just think how much better the roads would be for the rest of us! And No, I don't consider myself a Driving God, I like to think I'm competent and considerate though, and I can read the road and anticipate way better than the crock of st that are being given a fkin license nowadays!

[MKnight702]

Short Grain said:

brisel said:

Short Grain said:

Then you have the tts who decide that they're going to overtake as you're going for your overtake so just pull out without a signal, cutting you up and nearly causing you to rear end them!
Like the absolute tool yesterday in a silver Golf with windows so tinted I couldn't even see the shape of the driver through the rear screen. Rear wiper hanging down, totally useless in all the rain and spray, and the st covering the rear of his car! I'm already overtaking and he pulls straight out, maximum of a foot in front of me, no 'kin signal, then proceeds to floor it. Probably thinking "Ha-ha, fk You, I am Driving God!" Believe me, he fkin isn't!

I've been moving into my new place, with all the stress that involves, and was on the way back to collect the last car load from my old place. Feeling slightly aggrieved that this little st decides to cut me up and then try and accelerate away leaving me cursing in his wake, I've got to admit I did lose it for a split second and set off after him with full beam held on for a good 5 seconds, and was catching the little bd!! Think he realized what a tt he'd been as he flashed his hazards a couple of times, hopefully in his version of, "Oops, Sorry, Didn't see you there!" I do hope so but the cynic in me thinks probably not. Any way, the little st turned right at the next roundabout and fked off, and I realized I'd almost dropped down to his level of ttishness, so carried straight on at a more sensible speed!
So, you get the tts who can't overtake, the tts who refuse to overtake, and the tts who dangerously overtake. They can ALL cause you problems and can ALL drive up your piss to boiling point. Next job is to get a dashcam fitted, for my own protection I hasten to add, not to post up spurious footage of 'bad driving' more as a record to show my side if the worst happened and one of these little tts did cause a crash!
Sorry for ranting but I think that's maybe helped get the sheer piss boiling anger over the little ahole out of my head

Do you feel better now?

I had a dangerous experience last weekend, but the Audi driver who hung me out to dry did it deliberately. He had left a consistent 10 car lengths to the car in front, so I thought I’d take advantage of it. As I went past, he accelerated to close the gap. I shouldn’t have fed the ejit's ego by giving him the finger as he went past, though his sign language was more prolific. I dropped in behind him and fell back. No point in provoking further f***wittery eg. a brake check etc. He turned off a couple of miles later.

Some people just don’t like being overtaken for various reasons. It’s no excuse for making the situation extremely dangerous though. They don’t just walk amongst us, they have driving licences too

I did actually If they took the feckwits, idiots, and the incompetent off the roads, just think how much better the roads would be for the rest of us! And No, I don't consider myself a Driving God, I like to think I'm competent and considerate though, and I can read the road and anticipate way better than the crock of st that are being given a fkin license nowadays!

I had someone try to pull out and overtake whilst I was already overtaking, however, in my case I was fully alongside at the time. Despite me laying on the horn and being in a big silver car the moron totally failed to look in his mirror or out the side window and ended up forcing me to put two wheels on the verge before his door mirror caught mine and the bang woke him up. Utter moron with no idea what was going on further away than his steering wheel.

As for sharing the roads with idiots, did anyone catch Radio 2 the other weekend. There was a story from a listener who had bought a new car, it was so complicated that it took her 20 minutes to get off the drive the first time. Plus she couldn't work out how to turn on the heated seats. The car in question, a Mini Clubman.

[Talksteer]

Heaveho said:

A good overtake is a thing of rare beauty and to be applauded. Sadly, the dashcam brigade seem to become infuriated by this once normal technique for maintaining speed and Youtube is now a forum for said sad fkwits to peddle their wares in an attempt to get those with common sense into trouble.

Hence overtaking is becoming less common. I'm pretty militant about just getting on with stuff, but I'm mindful now of the pettiness that seems to have infiltrated modern thinking and the potential nonsense I might be faced with as a consequence.

Overtaking is mostly becoming less common because there is more likely to be something coming the other way, plus many "slow" vehicles like tractors and lorries are much more powerful and faster and this more difficult to overtake.

[pointer7]

Deranged Rover said:

Driving home from work last night on my usual country B-road when I found myself behind a Zafira that was in turn behind a tractor doing 20mph or so. No worries, there's a straight coming up and, when we get to it, the entire length of it is clear - more than enough for about 5 or 6 of us to overtake if necessary but luckily, it was only the Zafira and me.

Well, Zafira indicates and pulls out - good stuff, i think, i shall follow suit. Except that said Zafira then proceeded to accelerate ferociously to about 22mph and take the entire length of the straight section to overtake - I quickly realised what was going on and had to pull back in behind the tractor. Zafira then proceeds to pootle along in front of the tractor and only ends up a hundred yards or so in front of it by the time we hit the traffic lights a few miles later.

Obviosuly it was a Zafira so my expectations of driving standards were pretty low, but even I didn't expect this!

I'd have expected the same as you, why would you not overtake as quickly as possible? you're temporarily on the wrong side of the road! people are too worried about their MPG these days rather than driving safely, you've got an engine bloody use it!

[Unreal]

pointer7 said:

Deranged Rover said:

Driving home from work last night on my usual country B-road when I found myself behind a Zafira that was in turn behind a tractor doing 20mph or so. No worries, there's a straight coming up and, when we get to it, the entire length of it is clear - more than enough for about 5 or 6 of us to overtake if necessary but luckily, it was only the Zafira and me.

Well, Zafira indicates and pulls out - good stuff, i think, i shall follow suit. Except that said Zafira then proceeded to accelerate ferociously to about 22mph and take the entire length of the straight section to overtake - I quickly realised what was going on and had to pull back in behind the tractor. Zafira then proceeds to pootle along in front of the tractor and only ends up a hundred yards or so in front of it by the time we hit the traffic lights a few miles later.

Obviosuly it was a Zafira so my expectations of driving standards were pretty low, but even I didn't expect this!

I'd have expected the same as you, why would you not overtake as quickly as possible? you're temporarily on the wrong side of the road! people are too worried about their MPG these days rather than driving safely, you've got an engine bloody use it!

I'm not criticising but you're falling into the trap of driving the other person's car as well as your own. It's one the main reasons people rear end others at roundabouts. You hear it all the time: "why didn't they go?" "there was loads of time" etc. It's not the easiest thing to do, but in the absence of evidence, and in any potentially tricky situation, you have to assume other drivers are dangerous, incompetent imbeciles.

Edited by Unreal on Monday 13th March 16:42

[Pan Pan Pan]

5s Alive said:

Pan Pan Pan said:

modifiedrides said:

I guess some people have cars that are not even capable of overtaking

This must be a large part of it. My every day driver is not exactly quick off the mark, but it does keep up with everyday traffic, and give me very good MPG figures, which is all I really wanted, and expected from it.
If I want to over take things, I just use another car!
I guess the ones with the least options, are those who for a variety of very sound reasons, can only have one car.

Certainly easier with some grunt but more a question of planning overtakes within the car's abilities and, for those with some power under their right foot, avoiding getting carried away and maintaining a reasonable speed differential.

I carried out some epic overtakes on the way to and through France in this beast... all 903cc of it. Couldn't afford the autoroute tolls and wouldn't have got there much quicker anyway. 40 odd years ago!

I used to do they same in the other half's FIAT 500, when she let me drive it, but had to plan each overtake some weeks in advance!

[Evil.soup]

Pan Pan Pan said:

5s Alive said:

Pan Pan Pan said:

modifiedrides said:

I guess some people have cars that are not even capable of overtaking

This must be a large part of it. My every day driver is not exactly quick off the mark, but it does keep up with everyday traffic, and give me very good MPG figures, which is all I really wanted, and expected from it.
If I want to over take things, I just use another car!
I guess the ones with the least options, are those who for a variety of very sound reasons, can only have one car.

Certainly easier with some grunt but more a question of planning overtakes within the car's abilities and, for those with some power under their right foot, avoiding getting carried away and maintaining a reasonable speed differential.

I carried out some epic overtakes on the way to and through France in this beast... all 903cc of it. Couldn't afford the autoroute tolls and wouldn't have got there much quicker anyway. 40 odd years ago!

I used to do they same in the other half's FIAT 500, when she let me drive it, but had to plan each overtake some weeks in advance!

I had a similar situation with my first car, Lada Riva Estate.

Overtaking took some planning, this usually involved anticipating a straight, you had to know the road, dropping back to give yourself a run up and then giving it a bit of choke!! To be honest, you would just look a bit mental hanging back then racing, slowly, up to the back of a bin wagon and ultimately not being able to pass as the road was no longer clear lol! As a 17 year old I would persevere with this approach but it rarely came to anything.

A few years ago I had to use a 2005 Tucson CDTi with a 4 speed auto for 18 months, nice car to live with, but you have to accept you are simply not passing anything at all. In my maturity, unlike as a young man, I accepted the fact I couldn't pass and just chilled at whatever speed the other cars were traveling at.

Ironically, I managed to get myself a speeding ticket driving it while pulling a caravan of all things!!

[courty]

Overtaking is a maneuver that requires confidence combined with good tactics. Confidence combined with poor procedures or execution will bring unnecessary risk. Lack of confidence will prevent many drivers from considering or attempting an overtake. Lack of knowledge or experience of good practice will mostly result in lack of confidence, and therefore, no attempts or readiness to attempt any overtakes, which is the lesser of the two evils. Getting a good view ahead is the most basic skill which most drivers don't practice. This can involve checking for oncoming traffic before a bend in the road if sight lines allow, hanging back from a slow vehicle, and helpful road position, crossing the carriageway to gain a good view before committing etc. All basic stuff that most drivers don't practice. As to the original question why this is the case, there is no easy answer, but the race to the bottom of joining the back of the queue and considering overtakers as violent offenders seems the order of the day. I had a guy pull out in front of me on a rural road (he was obviously in a hurry); no worries, I braked a bit and settled behind him. After 2 mins we caught up with a rural bus service. This fella proceeded to closely follow the bus. A good overtaking opportunity soon arose...I waited, no...this fella just kept blind behind the bus. As I was forty or fifty yards behind I could see all clear...just sailed past both of them, very satisfying lol!
Or the road from Brenzett to Rye, good sight lines out of corners. Yesterday morning I happened upon a trail of two cars and three vans following a slow delivery lorry. I had caught up with them on a long straight, nobody had even looked for an overtake. As we approached a 90 degree bend, said lorry slowed to a crawl, with the queue bunched and crawling behind. Thankfully good sight line beyond the bend, no traffic approaching, I was able to carry speed through the bend and sail past all of them, simple safe maneuver, just basic simple observation that most drivers don't care or think about.

[Evil.soup]

Out of curiosity, what is the general consensus on overtaking on a bend?

I am not talking about a blind bend of course, but a bend with good line of sight. I have done this safely and quickly a few times over the years and it seems to enrage the person you are passing even more than an overtake on a straight.

So what are your thoughts on this, is it only yobs who over take on bends or is it simply that people think you must be mental to do so?

[vikingaero]

Evil.soup said:

Out of curiosity, what is the general consensus on overtaking on a bend?

I am not talking about a blind bend of course, but a bend with good line of sight. I have done this safely and quickly a few times over the years and it seems to enrage the person you are passing even more than an overtake on a straight.

So what are your thoughts on this, is it only yobs who over take on bends or is it simply that people think you must be mental to do so?

I used to overtake on the long sweeping U-bends around all the Lochs in Scotland where you have fantastic views of any traffic and was a safe move. Probably frowned upon now with shouts of Maniac!

[cerb4.5lee]

vikingaero said:

Evil.soup said:

Out of curiosity, what is the general consensus on overtaking on a bend?

I am not talking about a blind bend of course, but a bend with good line of sight. I have done this safely and quickly a few times over the years and it seems to enrage the person you are passing even more than an overtake on a straight.

So what are your thoughts on this, is it only yobs who over take on bends or is it simply that people think you must be mental to do so?

I used to overtake on the long sweeping U-bends around all the Lochs in Scotland where you have fantastic views of any traffic and was a safe move. Probably frowned upon now with shouts of Maniac!

Like most of us I've done some crazy overtaking manoeuvres when I was younger, but I have to say that I only tend to overtake on the straights now. Even just doing it on the straights you're still classed as a maniac by some people nowadays though!

[911hope]

Evil.soup said:

Out of curiosity, what is the general consensus on overtaking on a bend?

I am not talking about a blind bend of course, but a bend with good line of sight. I have done this safely and quickly a few times over the years and it seems to enrage the person you are passing even more than an overtake on a straight.

So what are your thoughts on this, is it only yobs who over take on bends or is it simply that people think you must be mental to do so?

The criteria for a safe overtake on a bend(exit, or sweeping) are exactly the same as on a straight..

Clear line of sight, with plenty of space to complete the overtake and plenty of space to return to the correct side of the road.
You will clearly be able to maintain control and don't need an absurd speed to succeed.
No opportunities for your path to be occupied (junction, overtakee needing to pass a cyclist etc)
You are not following another overtaker
You have checked behind, in case someone want to overtake you.

So nothing wrong in principle with overtaking if everything is right.

If people often find that people are enraged by their overtakes, then it is possible that there is a reason.

Edited by 911hope on Tuesday 14th March 12:18

[vikingaero]

I managed to overtake a bus at the weekend.

What was special about that? Well the bus was travelling a little too slowly at 30-35mph on NSL 60mph single lane carriageway (straight road, countryside, dry, sunny). We were in Mrs V.'s Mitsubishi i-car, 660cc and a whopping 57bhp screaming to 7,000 rpm as I executed a perfect overtake.

The bus was only the second vehicle I remember overtaking in the i-car - the other one being a horsebox.

[AF07]

Talksteer said:

Overtaking is mostly becoming less common because there is more likely to be something coming the other way, plus many "slow" vehicles like tractors and lorries are much more powerful and faster and this more difficult to overtake.

There might be a tiny element of truth in that but not much. I’ve been in many situations where people have failed to overtake very slow moving lorries/tractors when they could have done so easily.

I think it’s just a wider aspect of a major lack of common sense and driving ability in this country.

For example the amount of times I’ve been stuck behind cars that take 10 mins to adapt to a higher speed limit, all in the fast lane of course, creating a massive tailback.

Or people that come to a complete stop at an empty roundabout so they can check if any cars are coming, instead of checking whilst they are approaching the roundabout.

The list goes on. The other day everyone was merging into the middle lane because there was a fast lane closure 800 yards ahead!!

The joke is, and the reason why it will never change, is those people will genuinely believe it’s me thats driving badly or dangerously when it couldn’t be further from the truth.

[Evil.soup]

911hope said:

Evil.soup said:

Out of curiosity, what is the general consensus on overtaking on a bend?

I am not talking about a blind bend of course, but a bend with good line of sight. I have done this safely and quickly a few times over the years and it seems to enrage the person you are passing even more than an overtake on a straight.

So what are your thoughts on this, is it only yobs who over take on bends or is it simply that people think you must be mental to do so?

The criteria for a safe overtake on a bend(exit, or sweeping) are exactly the same as on a straight..

Clear line of sight, with plenty of space to complete the overtake and plenty of space to return to the correct side of the road.
You will clearly be able to maintain control and don't need an absurd speed to succeed.
No opportunities for your path to be occupied (junction, overtakee needing to pass a cyclist etc)
You are not following another overtaker
You have checked behind, in case someone want to overtake you.

So nothing wrong in principle with overtaking if everything is right.

If people often find that people are enraged by their overtakes, then it is possible that there is a reason.

Edited by 911hope on Tuesday 14th March 12:18

"If people often find that people are enraged by their overtakes, then it is possible that there is a reason."

Usually no other reason other than the fact they don't like or want to be overtaken.

Point in case, driving to work earlier this week I was stuck behind someone doing the usual 40 in a 60 in their 1.2 Corsa. I knew there was a short 2 lane section coming up with a set of traffic lights, so I didn't attempt an overtake.

I take the right lane at the lights that merges into a single 30 zone then opens back to a 60. I pull off in a sensible manner, not exactly like I was at the drag strip, but the guy in the Corsa clearly took offence and tried to accelerate and cut me up. I dabbed the throttle and got in front and drove at the 30 speed limit. Angry Corsa guy was now 2 inches off my bumper like I had just committed a carnal sin and he had to prove a point. Come the 60 zone I drove at 60 and he remained at 40 and fell out of sight.

My point is, it seems people need no excuse to get enraged other than the fact someone dared to pass them, certainly you must have experienced this at some point?

[kiethton]

We used to drive to Croatia/Brac fairly regularly and some of the best overtaking spots were when the road followed an inlet/bay - full view own to the right corner at the bottom of the bay and back out the other side. Example of the road just outside Bol below

[_Neal_]

911hope said:

Evil.soup said:

Out of curiosity, what is the general consensus on overtaking on a bend?

I am not talking about a blind bend of course, but a bend with good line of sight. I have done this safely and quickly a few times over the years and it seems to enrage the person you are passing even more than an overtake on a straight.

So what are your thoughts on this, is it only yobs who over take on bends or is it simply that people think you must be mental to do so?

The criteria for a safe overtake on a bend(exit, or sweeping) are exactly the same as on a straight..

Clear line of sight, with plenty of space to complete the overtake and plenty of space to return to the correct side of the road.
You will clearly be able to maintain control and don't need an absurd speed to succeed.
No opportunities for your path to be occupied (junction, overtakee needing to pass a cyclist etc)
You are not following another overtaker
You have checked behind, in case someone want to overtake you.

So nothing wrong in principle with overtaking if everything is right.

If people often find that people are enraged by their overtakes, then it is possible that there is a reason.

Agreed but I think more care is needed than on a straight as (depending on the road layout) there's definitely the possibility of the person you're overtaking "straight-lining" the well-sighted bend and leaving you with nowhere to go. I had this happen to me when I was overtaking a (very slow) motorcyclist in Wales (on the way up the Black Mountain I think) a few years ago - luckily it was a bike not a car, so I had space!

Think about possibly high beam as well as a signal when you pull out to do it?