Well, no-one reads the smallprint that litters everything these days, including the road surface.

If they put all that marking paint in some of the potholes, it'd be more use.

I get less trouble than most when I overtake, because of the way I look: Put a small blonde woman in a fast-overtaking Honda to see all the failure-men get really into a tizzy.

 

Yes it is a good point that not everyone wishes to drive fast, and I am often reminding myself of this when stuck behind a few 'slower' drivers. These drivers feel no need to overtake things as they are driving at the pace they wish to, or feel comfortable at. I sometimes have to check that I am not being too aggressive a driver in this situation too, not getting too close when I can't overtake, trying to make them drive faster for me etc.

I do agree with the comments made about people trying to stop or making an overtaking manoeuvre dangerous, these are the ones that are afraid or don't have the power in their vehicle to overtake and become belligerent about being overtaken themselves, 'arseholes' is a good word for them.

 

Hard to disagree here

But any really expereinced driver will only rarely encounter this

For the simple reason that the overtake plan will have included an assesment of the drivers all round

Just takes a little patience and reading the clues, but too many people rush into it

 

Had a drive down to Dorset a couple of weeks ago, had to make good progress as I couldn't get away from work early.

Anyway, there were a lot of overtaking opportunities down the A35(I think). On the whole no problem.

What does frustrate is not so much others not overtaking (if they want to go slow or whatever, that's fine by me) but not leaving gaps so that those that do want to overtake can.

Did seem like I was the only one overtaking although once I passed some people, they decided that they could overtake. Maybe it just takes one to "lead the way".

 

Just to highlight a point here, the vehicles causing the queue of traffic were travelling very slowly, 25mph in the case of the tractors, and were much shorter than an HGV (which has to obey a speed limit of 40mph on NSL roads) and therefore were a very easy overtake and yet no-one seemed interested in doing so.

The ease of overtaking was reinforced in that I was comfortably able to overtake a line of 15 vehicles in one go.

I'd like to think that 15 years ago, most people would have tried to overtake, nowadays it seems not.

I should perhaps add that I've had the benefit of some RideDrive training which included lots of useful overtaking tips.

 

that's some overtake, by any standards

not sure I can remember ever overtaking so many cars in one move

I don't generally like multiple overtakes for a number of reasons

but mostly because the limited opportunity time for such a move makes it much harder to assess everything

 

Those people are certainly idiots, no disagreement from me there !

It was just the impression of your post was that close shaves seemed to happen to you fairly often, rather than the occasional mistake (which we all make).

I've found that the square approach (go out, take a look, overtake, pull in) combined with strong acceleration tends to avoid people closing the gap - either they close the gap early on in which case you can just pull back in, or you accelerate past them quickly before they've had a chance to react. More of an issue perhaps with multi-car overtakes, and more of an issue with a triangular overtake where you're committed while pulling out.

So far, touch wood, I haven't had it happen.

 

Also, playing devils advocate here, why is it unfair to criticise your driving when this whole thread is about criticising other peoples driving?

At least you have an opportunity here to defend yourself - the ones we are criticising don't have that chance.

 

Like I say, it was only possible because of the low speed of the tractor and the straightness of the road. It took no more than 10 seconds or so I should think. Come to think of it, it might not have been as many as 15, I didn't count them as I went past, certainly between 10 and 15.

A 220 yard queue (15 cars using 15 yards each) I suppose, or 1/8 of a mile.

Queue is travelling at 25mph, me at 75mph, so a 50mph difference.

1/8 of a mile at 50mph takes 9 seconds, not that scary at all really. I'd assessed where the gaps were large enough for me to drop back in, so all in all, quite a relaxed manoeuvre

I should add that I didn't make these calculations in my head at the time

 

I believe that in this instance lovegroova was on a road that forms part of the route covered on his famous breakfast run. If so he knows it like the back of his hand and would feel more confident about overtaking than other road users. Love following him.

Some people just don't feel moved to want to overtake. It was a revelation to me when my husband declared that he has never overtaken for pleasure even though he has owned sports cars in the past. I just can't understand it.

Took him out in the S the other day and if he had his way we would have sat behind a caravan for miles. He just doesn't get driving for pleasure. We always end up arguing.

Also I think a lot of people are driving conservatively to save petrol now. Frightened to downshift to set themselves up for a safe manoevre because it decreases the mpg.