driving slow : your views ?

IamNotAllowedToUseMyName

Paradigm wrote: »

This actually rings true...

Just got home today after a week in sunny Cornwall & driving the nearly 300 miles home I can't count the number of times I've sailed along the clear inside/middle lanes at a steady 75mph with the outside lane totally clogged with "overtakers" travelling at 60 or so in some cases....

The classic example of the problem of that is the single lorry in the far distance, with 5 or more cars in the middle lane doing about 60.

The odd thing is that often there is nothing in the outside lane.

Sometimes the act of coming up behind them inspires them to pull out, but often they will wait until slow car no.1 pulls in and then the whole queue accelerates.

If they waited in the first lane and pulled out in turn, they'd create more capacity. I'm sure many of us are very willing to help cars who keep out of the way and are less co-operative when we perceive someone is just sitting in the way.

Many drivers are just incapable of changing lanes.

There are plenty of drivers who will drive at 80+ in the middle lane, until they arrive at the next car, then drive at 60 until eventually that gets out of the way and then they will race off again.

matttye

nobbysn*ts wrote: »

That's the problem. Everyone hogging the outside lane imagines they're ready to overtake the vehicle in the distant. Reality is you're overtaking the one in front, providing it's a reasonable distance away. If you think you get exclusive use because you want to overtake the one in front of the one in front of that, that's why you keep having nasty surprises when other traffic decides to use your 'exclusive' lane, to overtake the vehicle that's actually the one in front of them at the time.

Overtaking multiple vehicles is a perfectly legal manoeuvre, there's nothing wrong with that. Cutting me up to perform an overtake is wrong though. They should wait until I've gone past.

I'm not saying it's my exclusive lane, I'm saying that when I'm in the process of overtaking the vehicle behind the one I'm going to overtake next, and I'm advancing quickly and not far away from the next vehicle, it should wait for me to pass first.

There's no rule saying you can only overtake one vehicle at a time, but the highway code does say that you should not perform a manoeuvre if it will cause other traffic to alter speed or direction.

nobbysn*ts

matttye wrote: »

Overtaking multiple vehicles is a perfectly legal manoeuvre, there's nothing wrong with that. Cutting me up to perform an overtake is wrong though. They should wait until I've gone past.

I'm not saying it's my exclusive lane, I'm saying that when I'm in the process of overtaking the vehicle behind the one I'm going to overtake next, and I'm advancing quickly and not far away from the next vehicle, it should wait for me to pass first.

There's no rule saying you can only overtake one vehicle at a time, but the highway code does say that you should not perform a manoeuvre if it will cause other traffic to alter speed or direction.

Overtakers seem to fixate on that single aspect of the highway code to justify any overtake, and that all other road users should assist them. What about the very first line in the highway code 'Overtake only when it is safe and legal to do so' and then 'it takes longer to pass a large vehicle - If in doubt, do not overtake' and also 'make sure that the lane you will be joining is sufficiently clear ahead and behind' - It's not safe if the truck further up the convey is about to overtake, and wants to move out, it's not safe to expect to overtake the convoy in one go. So, follow the highway code, you'll have a lot less near misses.

matttye

nobbysn*ts wrote: »

Overtakers seem to fixate on that single aspect of the highway code to justify any overtake, and that all other road users should assist them. What about the very first line in the highway code 'Overtake only when it is safe and legal to do so' and then 'it takes longer to pass a large vehicle - If in doubt, do not overtake' and also 'make sure that the lane you will be joining is sufficiently clear ahead and behind' - It's not safe if the truck further up the convey is about to overtake, and wants to move out, it's not safe to expect to overtake the convoy in one go. So, follow the highway code, you'll have a lot less near misses.

How can I possibly know if a truck further up the convoy is about to overtake when they're all travelling at roughly the same speed?

You're not thinking this through at all.

nobbysn*ts

matttye wrote: »

How can I possibly know if a truck further up the convoy is about to overtake when they're all travelling at roughly the same speed?

You're not thinking this through at all.

If you really can't read the road ahead, stick with 'If in doubt, do not overtake', don't expect others to have to make allowances for you.

matttye

nobbysn*ts wrote: »

If you really can't read the road ahead, stick with 'If in doubt, do not overtake', don't expect others to have to make allowances for you.

I can read the road ahead but I'm not psychic. If several trucks, all restricted to 56mph, are travelling along in convoy at roughly the same speed, there's no possible way I can tell if one of them is about to overtake.

I'm not expecting others to make allowances for me, I'm expecting others not to cut me up when I'm performing a legal manoeuvre.

nobbysn*ts

matttye wrote: »

I can read the road ahead but I'm not psychic. If several trucks, all restricted to 56mph, are travelling along in convoy at roughly the same speed, there's no possible way I can tell if one of them is about to overtake.

I'm not expecting others to make allowances for me, I'm expecting others not to cut me up when I'm performing a legal manoeuvre.

As my quotes stated, maybe they're not expecting you to try to prevent them executing a legal manoeuvre by trying to pass them as they are trying to overtake. If it's not safe, and it clearly isn't as you keep being carved up, don't do it.

Nearly_Old

nobbysn*ts wrote: »

Overtakers seem to fixate on that single aspect of the highway code to justify any overtake, and that all other road users should assist them. What about the very first line in the highway code 'Overtake only when it is safe and legal to do so' and then 'it takes longer to pass a large vehicle - If in doubt, do not overtake' and also 'make sure that the lane you will be joining is sufficiently clear ahead and behind' - It's not safe if the truck further up the convey is about to overtake, and wants to move out, it's not safe to expect to overtake the convoy in one go. So, follow the highway code, you'll have a lot less near misses.

So under the "rules" quoted clearly the truck driver did not check that the lane behind was sufficiently clear if the manouvre caused another vehicle the change speed and/or direction?

nobbysn*ts

Nearly_Old wrote: »

So under the "rules" quoted clearly the truck driver did not check that the lane behind was sufficiently clear if the manouvre caused another vehicle the change speed and/or direction?

If the truck driver said he checked, and in his opinion the car was far enough away? Again, don't overtake if it's not safe. If you get killed hitting the back of a truck, because the law you shouldn't need to change speed, will you really feel better if you can blame the truck driver?

matttye

nobbysn*ts wrote: »

As my quotes stated, maybe they're not expecting you to try to prevent them executing a legal manoeuvre by trying to pass them as they are trying to overtake. If it's not safe, and it clearly isn't as you keep being carved up, don't do it.

It's THEM making it unsafe by cutting ME up, not me making it unsafe. All I am doing is overtaking multiple vehicles that are travelling a lot slower than me.

This is akin to a car pulling out of a junction into a lane where you have priority.