Why do people pointlessly overtake?

I over took loads on my way home from York the other day, Did it get me home quicker? unlikely as I cruised up the a19 at like 65mph. Was it fun nailing it and attacking corners at my own pace? You bet.

Most people on here enjoy driving so you will get a similar answer from most Id bet.
 
What is this I can't see the road ahead because of the vehicle(s) in front.

Correct me if i'm wrong but if you can't see the road ahead, stop tailgating? :confused:
 
It's one of my major driving irritations on a road where overtaking oppurtunities are limited that people don't overtake slower vehicles when it was perfectly safe to do so.
 
It's one of my major driving irritations on a road where overtaking oppurtunities are limited that people don't overtake slower vehicles when it was perfectly safe to do so.

Yeah that really boils my ****

Lorry doing 45mph along a NSL and you have a que of 5 cars behind. :mad:

I have to get a run up to do the full over take :( I need more power :D
 
It's one of my major driving irritations on a road where overtaking oppurtunities are limited that people don't overtake slower vehicles when it was perfectly safe to do so.

I wouldnt mind this if they didnt set 5ft from the car in front, meaning even if you wanted to overtake them one at a time, you cant!
 
I agree with you on the others, but surely a situation where you are relying on the drivers in front to create a gap for you to drop in to is not "a perfectly safe overtake."

Totally. No gap is a 'frustrating situation' not a 'dangerous overtake' as it shouldnt be an overtake at all.
 
Ok I work in a small town thats about 13 miles away from where I live. The vast majority of this journey is a single carriageway road that connects the two towns. Its busy most of the time but particularly commuter hours since people travel from one town to the other.

Its also fairly rural so you get farmers etc at times using the same road.

Its got 40mph at both ends and a small stretch of 40mph towards one end, rest is normal "60 mph" stuff. Its got some bendy bits and some long (2 mile plus straights).

Hopefully that sets the scene ;)

Its also a regular for accidents, and I mean probably twice a month there will be a "proper incident" either closing the road in one/both directions or causing a serious delay.

So why do people have to overtake when its just not going to get them any significant reduction in journey time? I just do not get the thought process (or lack of imo) to overtake unless its clearly going to speed you along.

E.g last night I caught up to a chain of 3 cars following a lorry, who incidentally was making good progress, he wasn't hanging about. A minute or so later a blue 306 diesel catches me up who was clearly doing more like 70-80 than 60. He weaves a few times and eventually forces his way past me and swerves in front of me to avoid oncoming lorry :eek:. Then sits in front of me for the rest of the journey, looking for a way past the car infront.
He put himself and me at risk overtaking for a gain of 20 feet of tarmac, he was clearly never going to get past all the cars and the lorry before we got to the 40 limit, as it was he gained nothing more than overtaking me and eventually went straight on at the end of the road when I turned right.

Its one of them roads thats just always going to catch you out, I have overtaken lorries etc myself when they are going slow and sooner or later you always seem to catch something else going slow, its too busy a road to expect to be able to get from end to end at a decent rate without interruption, yet people seem to have to keep trying to overtake. I have yet to see anyone overtake me who isnt within a car or two at the end of this piece of road, gaining them what, 10 seconds?

Any thoughts?, oh and sorry just wanted to get that off my chest ;) , spent a wasted hour stuck last week on friday night whilst the police and ambulance sorted what was clearly an overtaking maneauver gone wrong.
(Lots of yellow paint and skid marks from wrong side of road to right still exist)

Maybe 306 driver was enjoying the road, a road which he has never driven before and didn't know there was a 40 limit coming up soon?
 
Maybe 306 driver was enjoying the road, a road which he has never driven before and didn't know there was a 40 limit coming up soon?

This is a very valid point. I'll often make safe overtakes on roads I can see to be clear but have not neccesarily driven before. Around the bend, oh, a 30 limit. Never mind.
 
[TW]Fox;17154380 said:
This is a very valid point. I'll often make safe overtakes on roads I can see to be clear but have not neccesarily driven before. Around the bend, oh, a 30 limit. Never mind.

Sat in an F10 today by the way... awesome ;)
 
[TW]Fox;17154380 said:
This is a very valid point. I'll often make safe overtakes on roads I can see to be clear but have not neccesarily driven before. Around the bend, oh, a 30 limit. Never mind.



And anyway, 30 limits eventually give way to NSL.



M
 
A perfect summing up. If the road is full as far as the eye can see, then I won't bother. But if there are breaks then I'll start leapfrogging (but never pushing in). Because you never know: sometimes you get past one person and the road ahead is free for several minutes. Sometimes it isn't. But now I have got control back, and my progress is no longer dictated by the biggest lackwit on the road ahead. It may last ten minutes, it may last ten seconds - but it's mine.


M

Absolutely.

I cannot understand why people just sit and crawl along behind stuff like tractors and caravans for mile after mile after mile.
I'm almost never first in a line behind a caravan or a tractor because as soon as I see them I'm planning where and how I'm going to overtake him and 9 times out of ten when I get near them I'm either going past them or prepared to go past them.
I was in the lorry yesterday on the road between market rasen and Binbrook I came up behind 3 cars following a horse box, there were ample straights for the cars to get past, they just sat there, dawdling along at 40 odd miles an hour, there was a bend coming so I couldnt go straight past, so I hung back a bit knocked it into 4th, started accelerating as the bend opened up and took them all in one go and not one of them even looked like trying to get past and make progress.
Matey in the horse box was flashing his lights and calling me allsorts as I went past, sorry fella, the world cant wait for you to stop wetting your pants and wringing your hands so you can get a ******* move on.
 
I enjoy driving and overtaking. I would have bought a 1.0L Yaris or something if i didnt..

I can't stand being stuck behind a slow hesitant driver

I particularly hate it it when someone pulls out of a juntion in front of you when they really shouldnt have(causing you to brake) and then carries on at an incredibly slow pace. I mean, why risk an accident by pulling out in front of me, only to then slow me down and drive like a snail :confused:. i make it my mission to overtake these people at the next safe opportunity.

Furthermore, I never really get annoyed at someone overtaking me. For example, the other day i was being a bit naughty and doing about 55mph in a 40 zone, and a chap in a porsche 911 overtook me (must have been going at least 70+) but i didnt get annoyed. I just though to myslef "fair enough". You don't buy cars like that to get stuck behind a toyota celica :P

But obviously it hurts the man pride a bit :p
 
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I overtake if the person in fron is being a proper muppet.

I did something I don't do too often on the way back from Ford Fair, which was undertake, twice, lol.

One of the instances was a truck was trundling along in the left hand lane, a coach goes to overtake at about 0.1 mph more, queue; all 20 cars into the right hand lane, that's my queue to enter; I go down the left hand lane past as I say 20 cars, now if I'd been a proper maniac, I could have shoehorned my car infront of the coach before it got past the truck and I could have been away like a fast thing that goes fast. But I chose to go in the 10 miles gap that the guy behind the bus had left, so before all the accusations fly in here, I didn't hoon it down the inside, stick my middle finger out the window, and wipe out the guy behind the coach's bumper with the back end of my car, lol.
 
People say you dont get anywhere quicker by overtaking etc. However thats really true is it? Often you might get stuck behind someone for ages, getting caught at every traffic light etc etc. If you had overtaken them you would have got to your destination quicker and less stressed!
 
What is this I can't see the road ahead because of the vehicle(s) in front.

Correct me if i'm wrong but if you can't see the road ahead, stop tailgating? :confused:

:confused::confused: Who said anything about tailgating? Large vehicles block your view of the road even when driving at a safe distance. Perhaps you have some kind of x-ray vision that can see through HGVs?
 
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