Safe Speed Forums

Prompted by the thread on overtaking speeds, and interest in what the advanced drivers here would do. This is less about whether overtaking is safe, more about the thinking behind a decision to take an overtaking opportunity or not.
Okay, the answer does depend on the road, conditions, type of car you have, type of car numpty has... type of numpty as well for that matter. So I'm going to describe a situation I find myself in from time to time:

• Fairly flat and straight NSL single carriageway road
• Road surface in good nick
• Dry weather and clear visibility
• Moderate traffic in both directions
• Obvious performance advantage over numptymobile (not necessarily NSX vs Trabant, but you know you can accelerate quickly enough to pass and return to the left safely)
• You know the road well, and for the sake of argument there are no side turnings on this stretch and no dual carriageway coming up
• Variable speed numpty who sometimes does about 60 but is usually closer to 45-50, and also hits the brakes every time he sees a car coming towards him
• Numpty has a gap the size of a couple of runways in front of him
• You are being delayed but it is not critical to get past (imagine you're on the way to a meeting you don't want to go to with people that you don't like, but the boss will yell if you're late)

Now, on the one hand there's a case for passing assuming you have a safe opportunity to do so, and since there's no one else ahead of him you can put some distance between you. On the other hand I sometimes feel safer keeping him where I can see him, which means staying a safe distance behind him. Plus you don't have to worry about him suddenly deciding to accelerate again just as you draw alongside.
If the guy looks like an accident waiting to happen it almost comes down to whether it's better to blissfully unaware since you passed him ages back, or to have it happen far enough ahead of you that you can stop safely. When I've got all the time in the world I tend not to bother overtaking, but in other circumstances I normally prefer to get past and put half a mile or so between us. But it's a bit of a toss-up sometimes, and if my usual inclination is a poor choice I'd rather hear it from the IAM mob here than find out the hard way.

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Make everything as simple as possible, but not simpler - Einstein

I answered: "overtake", but it was a pretty marginal decision. The factor that REALLY makes the difference for me is what's behind. I hate to sit in a numpty sandwich, and I don't like to see anything nasty in the mirror.

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Paul Smith
Our scrap speed cameras petition got over 28,000 sigs
The Safe Speed campaign demands a return to intelligent road safety

Close call for me too but I was swayed the other way.

May be down to what you consider moderate traffic. Round here that means a car every hundred yards. In Pauls area of the country it might be a car every few miles.

Untill I could put another car or half a mile of road between me and the numpty I would probably stick behind and keep him where I can see him.

My pet hate is the numpty's who break for no aperant reason... and i generally look to pass them if possable as having been a passenger of a car that rear-ended someone who slammed there brakes on for no reason the drove off leaving us unable to move due to the damage... my fear when on a bike is having that happen and having some numpty rear-end myself as i achor on for the numpty in front, however it would depend on circumstances at the time as always!!!

Roadworks are my friend though, (never thought i'd say that!) if possable i tend to try pass any numpty's at the traffic lights as at least i know they can't move anywhere

I answered to stay behind, at a safe distance, if only because that was the right thing to do when I found myself behind a numpty about an hour ago. The numpty in front had a slow car in front of him. Numpty was weaving from side to side, looking for a chance to overtake. I know this road well, and know there is only one place where safe overtaking is possible. Numpty continued weaving, but passed up the opportunity to overtake when reaching the only place where it would have been possible. I would have passed the car in front at that point, and could have passed both. But with Numpty weaving and being somewhat erratic, and a young driver possibly light on experience, I decided to sit it out - just in case he did make the overtaking attempt just as I was passing him.

I did vote - to stay behind - although if I was in a hurry I would pick my moment.

This is one wherer I almost sat on the fence. It really does depend on the situation. However, if in doubt, hanging behind it - well behind it - is the safest of all.