trashbat wrote:Kimosabe wrote:The way I
ideally prefer to overtake is to observe the driver(s) infront for as long as possible while looking for how they drive ie do they swerve manholes and drains or does their speed vary and why, then find a safe time to pull out for a look at a safe following distance. When I'm sure I can make the overtake
I'll pass the car at speed so I'm already at the speed I need to be at to pass them and not in the early stages of acceleration. I recently discovered that this is the method being taught to Police Advanced Drivers in Sussex. Who knew?
Somebody is surely going to pull you up on this, so I think I'll be today's volunteer, assuming I understand you correctly.
Why do you think this is better?
If your potential out-of-nowhere hazard appears while you're doing this, you have to dispense with your closing speed on the overtakee before you can return to the following position. Additionally if the overtakee breaks the trend and moves into your path while you're taking your run up, you're going to hit them and it's going to be your fault.
I can eschew various pieces of AD teachings but I hold the Roadcraft overtaking method in quite high esteem.
Hmmmm.... But you didn't pull me up on anything and why would you want to anyway? Just out of interest, do you relate to perceived mistakes other road users make as a need to 'pull them up'? I'd suggest a more friendly approach would achieve far more than being defensive. Your choice.
How I overtake depends on the situation, so for me, there is no one true way. I did say '
ideally' after all and even emboldened it for emphasis to show support for the Roadcraft method.
Overtakes are a rare thing in a Freelander 2 and the amount of planning, forward vision, time and space needed to move it from say 40mph ish to 60mph is vast, so relying on the car's ability to shift itself from match-catch-dispatch isn't always ideal, though it is sometimes possible and I do use it sometimes when appropriate, just like other methods of steering than PP.
If the hazard from hell appears, while passing the overtakee, don't the same rules apply in either method? If they move into my path and side-swipe me, don't the same rules apply? Forward obs, planning and creating choices pay dividends.
While we're discussing the merits and faults of both methods mentioned, while engaging the random 'what if' generator of AD possibilities, what if while you're tailgating the car infront with a fraction of a second between you and it with the intention of overtaking it, what if the car infront suddenly brakes and you slam into the back of it before you move out because you were too close to it? This could happen if they react negatively to someone looming in their rear view mirror by braking to teach you a lesson. It happens. In fact I've seen that happen more times than I have ever seen either of the outcomes you mentioned.
While being driven in a Porsche Cayman recently, the overtakee decided to block the overtake by vindictively accelerating. The choice left to the driver sat next to me was to abort (which he did) or out accelerate the overtakee for doing so. We had followed, observed and chatted about where and when to do this and once we pulled in behind them again after the aborted overtake, they slowed to their original speed. Had my friend passed them at a speed which would have negated this, we would have safely passed them. Better to have more than one tool in the box, no?
So yes, I am in disagreement with being less than a couple of seconds directly behind the car infront, at any speed. This is what the IAM and RoADAR teach associates to do and I'd say this can be far more potentially dangerous than dogmatically interfering with how someone holds the steering wheel or banging on about balancing a car at 6mph before and during a turn, sans BGOL, because 'it's unstable' etc. But we've done that to death in other threads.
I'd really like to get straight on that too because it still troubles me and if I want to train as an observer, I need to be congruent with this.
Thanks for engaging in this.
A wise man once told me that "it depends". I sometimes agree.