Overtaking Slow Traffic Queues

[Scooter]

Overtaking seems to be the favourite topic at the moment so here goes ..

A thought occured to me whilst on holiday in Devon. A friend was driving and we were stuck in a line of cars following a slow tractor. As an advanced driver I would be looking for an opportunity to make progress but in this situation, given a safe opportunity, would it be seen as queue-jumping? Should we stay in an orderly queue waiting for the guy at the front to make a move?

Any thoughts?

[crr003]

As an advanced driver I would be looking for an opportunity to make progress but in this situation, given a safe opportunity, would it be seen as queue-jumping? Should we stay in an orderly queue waiting for the guy at the front to make a move?

Any thoughts?

I'd normally wait a few seconds and see if anyone was interested in overtaking. Sometimes you can tell that the cars in front have no interest in overtaking - bunched up/low power.

Some people would advocate a nice headlamp flash, but that can be seen as aggressive by some. Unfortunately these days any overtake on a SC can be seen as aggressive.

On the other side, the tractor driver should be looking to pull over and ease the congestion. Some do, some don't.

[jibberjabber25]

Sorry, what is SC?

Thanks.

[Lynne]

Sorry, what is SC?

Thanks.

Single carriageway JJ.

[jibberjabber25]

OH, thanks. LOL, makes sense now.

Sorry about that.

[vonhosen]

A lot is going to depend on the size of gaps between vehicles.

If there are gaps that you can get into (using acceleration sense) & if it is safe then take those gaps. If you consider that the gaps are such that if you went into them it would appear very pushy don't go, you will instead have to wait for an opportunity to take all the vehicles in one overtake.

What you mustn't do is start the overtake without already having identified your safe gap to return to. A lot of people launch themselves into the overtake because they can see the vehicle towards is some distance away but at the point they commit to passing others they have no idea where their safe gap is, instead just making their way down the offside & then throwing the left indicator as some sort of distress flare as the oncomer approaches.

It's no identified safe gap for return, no go.

[wenlocksimon]

As a general (personal) rule, I tend to wait my turn in the queue unless I have just one vehicle on front of me preceding the offending slow vehicle at the front of the queue. This assumes, of course, that the vehicle in front of me is judging an overtake.

If not, then I tend not to overtake in a multiple line of traffic unless I see a gap between the two vehicles in front of me that will allow me to pass safely then return to the nearside lane without braking. I feel uncomfortable passing a car in front on a SC if I have to brake having overtaken. In such cases, it seems a badly judged manoevre.

If there are only two vehicles in front (one of which being the slow culprit), then I judge the road conditions, approaching traffic (hopefully none), visibility of the road ahead, and the overtaking ability of my car. If all are favourable, then I pass both.

Favourite overtaking tips (from motorcycle riding friends) are to i) look through the windows of the car in front to look further ahead; ii) in left-hand bends, move left to gain a possible better view; iii) know the optimum engine speed and gear of your vehicle for the quickest and safest passing manoevre. In my case, at 40mph, the engine is spinning at just over 1600rpm in 4th with max torque (246lb/ft) just 200rpm away.

[Stephen]

All good advice I suppose the best information to look for when someone somewhere in the line of traffic wants to overtake is when they swan neck,unless they are an advanced driver then they will of course undoubtedly follow the correct procedure for overtaking.
Stephen