vonhosen wrote:Abort if there is the chance of anything pulling out to affect your purpose.
Lady Godiva wrote:vonhosen wrote:Abort if there is the chance of anything pulling out to affect your purpose.
Dear Vonhosen - does that include something that isn't there yet? By that I mean that you cannot see into or onto the road (there may be hedges, etc.). But, although the side turniing is hundreds of yards away, if something DID pull out it would cause a problem. Therefore should you say to yourself "although I can't see any vehicles, there is a chance that one will appear and if it did and then pulled out it would cause a problem, therefore I won't overtake".
Regards
Sally
Lady Godiva wrote:....... But, although the side turniing is hundreds of yards away, if something DID pull out it would cause a problem.
7db wrote:This gets trickier when you only see the junction when you are engaged on the overtake...or in the instance which I can think of, a rather concealed driveway. I completed the overtake and got a ticking off for it.
On reflection it is impossible to complete a safe overtake in a narrow road such as it was, as you can never be 100% sure that there's no driveway, even when you've got a good view that there's no oncoming traffic. And in any case you'll need active cooperation of the target.
It comes back to my earlier restatement of the limit point as being not the furthest that you can see to be clear, but the nearest that a surprise can come from.
Lady Godiva wrote:As far as I can tell Roadcraft, the IAM, etc, all recommend NOT overtaking, as a vehicle MAY appear and exit the junction during the overtake. However, if you abort the overtake and pull back in, you can see the confusion on the driver in fornt (and sometimes those behind).Regards
Sally
Lady Godiva wrote: After moving into the overtaking position (i.e. closer than normal and over the central line) you take a good long look forward. In the distance you now see that there is a junction (lets assume that it wasn't visible before due t o road layout). For the purpose of this example you cannot see along the road forming the junction, so you don't know if another vehicle will be at the junction by the time you get there. There is nothing there yet, but who knows, and you would reach the junction before fully pulling back in (an overtake on an NSL can take longer than many drivers realsie).
Roadcraft wrote:Lady Godiva wrote: After moving into the overtaking position (i.e. closer than normal and over the central line) you take a good long look forward. In the distance you now see that there is a junction (lets assume that it wasn't visible before due t o road layout). For the purpose of this example you cannot see along the road forming the junction, so you don't know if another vehicle will be at the junction by the time you get there. There is nothing there yet, but who knows, and you would reach the junction before fully pulling back in (an overtake on an NSL can take longer than many drivers realise).
Sally...
This is why proper overtaking procedures should be learned and practised....
ie: an 'overtaking position' for me in those circumstances would be in the opposite lane...looking down the road....neither gaining nor dropping back on the vehicle I intended to pass....But allowing me a proper view of the road ahead, (nearside and offside)....
and of course my wheels would be pointing in the right direction when I decided to apply power...
TripleS wrote:I know the recommended technique is to match speed at the contact position, go offside, have a good look and then start to accelerate positively, but I must admit I don't usually do that quite so formally. When I've seen this demonstrated it seems to take about three weeks* to have a look and decide it's on, and I just don't feel to have that time available, the chance would be gone even if it was a goer to start with.
What I often do is weigh up the situation as I close on the target vehicle, constantly updating the plan as I approach, and then if everything looks OK at decision time I go straight past without matching speed - I retain and exploit my speed advantage.
Now I know I may get criticised for this method, but I think there is a legitimate use for my flying start techinique if applied with caution, and I feel it enables me to do safe overtakes that would not otherwise be feasible.
It has been pointed out to me that one of the dangers of my flying start (or slingshot) technique is that I am closing on the target vehicle at a time when he may be going into a hazard situation - so what happens if he needs to brake suddenly? That is a very fair point, which is why I say the technique needs to be used with caution, so you need to be wary and have no large speed differential when you get close to the target vehicle. Once again it's a matter of balance, and having time and space to make adjustments in the light of what may reasonably be expected to happen.
* slight exaggeration there.
Best wishes all,
Dave.
Roadcraft wrote:
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