But if it's not safe to get past .... then it's not safe and it doesn't matter if it's someone else creating that problem, it's your responsibility to react safely to it. If there is a chance you won't make it all the way past safely then you don't start the overtake in the first place.

Everyone has a right to be on the road, we are all responsible for ourselves.

Sometimes you just have to knock off the overtake, accept that progress isn't going to happen at the speed you'd prefer and try and enjoy the drive instead.

I sympathise with Lorry drivers, a lot of them are paid bonuses based on fuel economy and pulling over every X miles to let impatient car drivers past will hit them in the pocket.

 

but gary was trying to overtake and make progress.

his point is the vafira and the polo drove dngerously as he was overtaking.

 

Hence my point if you don't know you can make it safely all the way past whilst taking into account other users then you shouldn't overtake.

I guess we're spoilt in Milton Keynes as the entire place is DC

 

I probably didn't describe the overtake clearly.

The road ahead was clear. There was time enough for the Zafira driver to look and make a decision whether he wanted to overtake the car in front of him or not and subsequently for me to decide that there was enough time and space for me to over take him.

I had indicated out, pulled out, and was progressing past the Zafira. As I overtook him the gap in front of him closed from being plenty of room to being a manoeuvre which would look like I pushed in. This was entirely due to the Zafira driver accelerating as I overtook him.

If I'd accelerated up to 100 and whipped in and out at high speed he wouldn't have had time to close the gap. As it was I made the move at an appropriate speed. Until he decided to be a tw*t. He had no other reason to accelerate than to make life difficult for me and potentially dangerous for us both. For me to pull out of the overtake at that stage would leave me exposed on the wrong side of the road while he passed me (and who's to say he wouldn't slow down with me as he'd already demonstrated how wreckless he could be). And who's to say that the driver behind hadn't closed the gap on the Zafira?

Where would I go?

In summary. It was safe to go past.
The only unsafe element was the idiot in the Zafira who chose to make a safe situation unsafe by his actions.

 

I don't disbelieve you Gareth, but never presume malice when arrant stupidity is also a plausible explanation.

The Zafira driver was probably rattling the armrest thinking it was a bog roll & didn't notice your overtake or his increasing velocity.

Remember 50% of the polulation is of below average intelligence & I don't like where the average is.

 

Expect the worst from absolutely everyone and you may have the odd pleasant surprise - it's a motto that has served both me and my blood pressure well.

 

i am with this guy.

and as nick says if he was fiddling with his armrest surely that is driving without due care and attention.

 

What gareth clearly should have done is pull alongside the polo, shoot the driver with his uzi and then drive off

 

I've seen this gap closing thing too often. Has to be malice. Although the reaction times of the average driver is woeful.

 

Sadly I wasn't packing the uzi that day. The Mrs had an AK in the passenger seat but it got caught in her handbag and the opportunity passed.