Safe Speed Forums

I used the term "road rage" based on modern parlance.

Probably thanks to my decisive/aggressive/lousy driving as a youngster, there were a few occasions when I was on the receiving end of threats, varying from boy scouts semaphores through hollering out of the window at me to kicking the car (motror cyclist) and one or two worse, like the transit incident above. Earlier, one chap who took umbridge to one of my moves (I forget the detail, but didn't rate it as a bad bit of driving on my part at the time - I think he was just jealous I'd gained several places on him to get to the lights before him), while we were both waiting for the lights to go green, got out, opened my passenger door, tore me off a strip, grabbed the keys from the dashboard (mini) and threw them to the passenger footwell. By the time I'd started the car, he was lost in the distance.

I actually think Road Rage even then was common. It was just not public knowledge and didn't have the "RR" title/stigma.

The transit incident ranked up the hit parade and I really did not want an altication of any sort. I have no idea how many were lurking in the back of it, but I'll lay odds given my car load it was more than just the driver. I was glad to have the horses to pull off the overtake, which I judged as safe before I committed to it, but I also knew it was going to be tight - and it was.

Another problem with following through the car in front's overtaking manouvre (even if it was your idea!) is that you don't know what they are going to do when they have finished.

I followed someone round a truck recently who then (possibly spite? Who knows? ) decided to slow down to almost the truck's speed when he tucked in. He actually braked, despite no-one ahead.

This left me much less room to tuck in myself than I had anticipated, annoying the truck (who I was very close to the front of), the first overtaker (who I was up the arse of), and scaring me.

Won't do that again.

Perhaps they should ban single carriageway overtaking like that cretin on the T2000 messageboard suggested recently......

Banning overtaking on SC roads would only make matters worse - if truckers stuck to the 40mph limit you would have miles and miles of frustrated and probably tailgating drivers who, due to the decreased speed are less likely to be paying full attention to the situation. You would also get the knock-on effect of massive queues of traffic on side roads or waiting to turn right from the affected road.

The more realistic and safer option would be to re-engineer roads / remove obstructions to vision, and to teach people to drive and overtake properly!

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Science won over religion when they started installing lightning rods on churches.

it wasn't that old chestnut, "overtaking some old git ambling along in a powerfull car who suddenly decides he needs to speed up as you pass" was it? your overtaking window is closing and your rear quaterside is full of this tool, you've got nothing left in reserve and you have no option but to emergency brake all the way back past him or swing in and chance it.

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Fear is a weapon of mass distraction

No. It was a fairly wide single carriageway road that opened up to 2 grids at the lights. As I recall I often used to "filter" down the centre in my nice narrow mini on this road. I am guessing that the bloke - in an Audi 100 I think - was waiting for the opportunity to do the same when the white lines said he could, but took umbridge cos I'ds beaten him to it. We both ended up in "pole position - him on my left. Something like that. Remember this was 30 years ago and I wasn't too worried paradoxically. I was much more concerned about the closing order transit that could have caused at least a 3-car pile up, me being one - with a carful of people. That was only about a year later when I was still a very inexpeerienced driver.

I see this sort of thing time and again when out and about on the A roads round here. I travel across to Harrogate on the A65 / A59 a fair bit, and the typical pattern is bunches of traffic held up by HGVs / Caravans etc.

Typically, you catch a car up and see him completely ignore 2 or 3 prime overtaking opportunities, so on the third you go yourself. If you clearly indicate your intentions I would say there is as much as a 50% chance you'll wake him up and - as others have said earlier - he'll "barge out" then cruise past in 5th gear, taking all of the safe opportunity and half of the next corner to complete the maneoeuvre. The only silver lining on the cloud is that at least you move one step closer to the front of the blockage.

Worse still is when they barge out, you brake, then they decide against it and pull back in, so you end up back where you started!

After many such incidents, my tactics now are to observe the behaviour of the vehicles in front for a bit, then do a "stealth" overtake, ie...

1. DON'T indicate
2. DON'T close to a 1 second gap beforehand and wake him up
3. DON'T offside so much for observation, but move around a bit more from a bit further back to get your checks in from a wider variety of more subtle angles
4. aim to pass through his blind spot as you start the manoeuvre, then slant diagonally away.

Ideally, the first he catches wind of your manoeuvre is when you are alongside, by which time you have the maximum possible lateral separation, so that even if he does "instinctively" jink out you still have time to get past him before he can hit you.

This also has a spin-off advantage that the slightly "longer than optimum" following distance means you move out from a huge gap if another vehicle is behind you both. This gives you a much bigger breathing space to prevent the "transit situation" should you still end up baulked by the car in front.

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CSCP Latin for beginners...
Ticketo ergo sum : I scam therefore I am!

Not my way at all I'm afraid. I try not to do stealth anythings these days

Your prelude (observe the target vehicle) and your number 3 I agree with fully - take every opportunity to get as many valuable snapshots from every conceivable angle you can to complete the picture before taking any closer order. However, I want the chap in front to know what I'm at. If he chooses to play SBs, he's then doing so from knowledge and not ignorance. In my experience, whilst there are one or two dipsticks, I think speeding up when being overtaken is a rare activity, provided that the vehicle knows he is being overtaken and can be confident that the overtaker is being decisive and safe.

The chances are, not only will I indicate about 3 - 4 seconds before the overtake manouevre is about to commence, but I'll also give a quick full beam flash, particularly at night. The tiniest chink to the left of the vehicle being passed is a 90% certainty (probably involuntary but watch for it - it happens), and when it does, you can be very confident (99.5% +) you have been seen, your manouvre anticipated and that the target will play ball throughout.

How interesting that we have each evolved in diametrically opposite ways, I guess the important thing is that we have evolved!

My thinking is that if the guy in front is an alert driver he'll know what I'm up to even when employing the approach I outlined earlier - I like to think I would! But if he's not then I don't really want to bring him round at all if I can help it, let alone do anything that might in any way be interpreted as aggressive, such as following closely, let alone a full beam flash!

But all of this applies solely to situations where I don't particularly need any form of co-operation from the overtakee, such as reasonably fast A roads. On narrower, slower roads a whole different approach is needed, and here I will make the car in front abundantly aware of my intentions, as I really want him to wake up and smell the coffee, and be as alert as possible whilst I nip past.

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CSCP Latin for beginners...
Ticketo ergo sum : I scam therefore I am!

I think it's generally half-alert drivers who have been following the lorry for a while in autopilot mode who tend to do this. They see you coming and suddenly realise that they could make better progress if they pass the lorry. This then leads to a semi-spontaneous decision to pull out, in front of you of course! I think it is also a partially subconcious feeling that if they don't pull out and pass quick they'll get left behind. Never mind the fact that they could continue their current speed for a few seconds more, let you pass, and then pull out.

At least it's something that you can spot well beforehand and anticipate.