gh0$t wrote:
from my own observation though; most motorcyclists are obsessed with overtaking
It could be said 'Most car drivers are obsessed with tail gating', they catch the veh ahead and FAIL to overtake the slower veh for a number of reasons but do they space themselves at a safe dist apart or do they queue till the next dual carriageway or their turn off? the choice is yours if you can see the answer.
Couldnt you look at bikers as riders who catch slower vehs then correctly and safely overtake them ? I doubt it.
Overtaking is a natural fear/concern for most drivers as they are taught very very little on the subject and virtually nothing in a practical sense, yet it is a perfectly ligitimate action and should get more attention in training (or perhaps it should be banned
), the fear of the unknown clouds judgement. Bikes overtaking gets bad press from the majority of startled drivers who often fail to see the bike and only visualise the sudden blur of a biker zipping passed quickly and dont see the skill and judgement or efficiency or simply a perfectly ligitimate overtake, yet overtaking slowly is the wrong option, the less time you spend on wrong side of road the safer.Im not saying bikers are all good riders, far from it, but where overtaking is concerned they do it cos they can and most car drivers are either incapable of doing it , poor at doing it, feel they shouldnt do it or see no advantage in doing it and of course there are occasions where they simply cannot do it and happy or not join the queue and being in the uniformed queue gives them a sense of belonging I suppose
,whereas a biker can make advantage from it.There will always be the 'us them' viewpoint circling about the brain receptors of many ,which also clouds judgement. In many many yrs of driving and perhaps 3million miles so far,all the times bikes have passed me and the number of times Ive ridden with other bikers I have only had cause on a few occasions to think they got it dangerously wrong in some way (speeding not really the issue) but I can assure you I have seen hundreds maybe thousands of car drivers get it dangerously wrong over my 34yrs on the road.