Overtaking legally on motorway

keithclancy

CiniO wrote: »

Heh nice advice.
And then Irish motorways are what they are - roads full of mess.

Try this in Germany - we'll see how far will you go?

In Germany they would drive up yer mans arse in the overtaking lanes while flashing lights until he got out of the way.

Bellemz

Ireland is one of the few european countries where people still 'sit' in the right hand lane. If you did it (obv left hand in this case) in Germany/France/Italy, drivers would react aggressively until you MOVED.

Irish motorways are HILARIOUS & DANGEROUS...you honestly seem to get places quicker when you undertake, weaving in and out of the 2/3 lanes, which is dangerous, ridiculous and illegal. Most drivers 'sit' in the middle lane when there are 3...to avoid having to deal with merging cars as those who stay in the left often find themselves trapped and unable to yield to merging cars as the people in the middle lane have boxed them in by driving SLOWER than they are...

I propose different speed limits for different lanes like in Italy or a driver cop on course lol...

djimi

R.O.R wrote: »

That's unless it's about 2km and you've a long line of truck's doing 80km/h on the inside lane.

Decisions then are:

Slow the auxillary lane / slip road down to 80km/h for everyone using it.

Overtake the trucks in lane 2 and force your way through lane 1 in to the slip road at the last minute.

Drive at 100km/h in the slip road and try to avoid those who do the above.

If youre referring to the likes of the auxiliary lanes on the M50 then Im even less likely to undertake. I have lost count of how many times Ive nearly been taken out by idiots who just swing into that lane without indicating or looking where they are going. Usually as you approach the exit, but not exclusively. I get where you are coming from but its still something Im very wary of doing.

CiniO

The whole thing of not overtaking from the left on the morotway is to help driviers.
If no did it (overtake on left) then changing lanes from right to left would be much easier. It would also encourage drivers to stick to the left.

Now we have radiculous situations when someone is on right hand lane, and even when he want's to change lane to the left, he can't because there's already load of cars overtaking him on this lane.

CiniO

keithclancy wrote: »

In Germany they would drive up yer mans arse in the overtaking lanes while flashing lights until he got out of the way.

And that what people should do in Ireland, instead of overtaking on the left.

djimi

CiniO wrote: »

And that what people should do in Ireland, instead of overtaking on the left.

Tailgating is no better than undertaking tbf, and is probably less safe as well. Acting like an obnoxious prick makes you no better than the plank who is planted in the overtaking lane.

Max Power1

djimi wrote: »

Tailgating is no better than undertaking tbf, and is probably less safe as well. Acting like an obnoxious prick makes you no better than the plank who is planted in the overtaking lane.

no, imo its the one thing idiots who sit in the overtaking lane seem to understand - most get out of the way when flashed.

Id say it would help if the "flasher" happened to be driving a relatively new mondeo in light blue!

coolbeans

djimi wrote: »

Tailgating is no better than undertaking tbf, and is probably less safe as well. Acting like an obnoxious prick makes you no better than the plank who is planted in the overtaking lane.

It works beautifully though. I've concluded that too much patience with idiots results in the compounding of idiocy. I drove from St Malo to Berlin for the 2006 World Cup sharing the miles with a buddy of mine who really had no clue how to use motorway lanes. I told him several times to pull over as we frequently had lines of frustrated drivers behind us when he drove. He didn't listen to me and the only thing that worked was the bullying tactics i.e tailgating and flashing, of impatient drivers behind us. We were never undertaken and he quickly learned his lesson.
As I said, if you're too patient with an idiot there is no incentive for him to change.

CiniO

djimi wrote: »

Tailgating is no better than undertaking tbf, and is probably less safe as well. Acting like an obnoxious prick makes you no better than the plank who is planted in the overtaking lane.

No one mentioned tailgaitng. You can easily flash light at someone without tailgating.

I agree, tailgating is dangerous, flashing light isn't.
Overtaking on the left is very dangerous.

Choice seems to be obvious.

Unless you like to be stock behind someone driving 80km/h on the most right lane for 50 miles.

djimi

If you start to tailgate and flash a driver then you risk panicking them, and panicking someone at 65mph+ is not a smart idea. Its safer just to undertake them and be on your way; while its still not legal if youre going to be impatient then its the lesser of two evils in my opinion.

A lot of people I know will simply ignore some prat who flies up behind them, sitting up their arse with their headlights blaring, so in a lot of cases you are not doing yourself any favours anyway. Ive lost count of the amount of times Im genuinely in the overtaking lane, say overtaking a line of slower moving vehicles, and some idiot flies up behind me at 90mph and starts flashing, expecting me to merge into traffic doing 50mph just because they have no patience. Doesnt make me any more inclined to get out of their way in a hurry...

djimi

CiniO wrote: »

No one mentioned tailgaitng. You can easily flash light at someone without tailgating.

I agree, tailgating is dangerous, flashing light isn't.
Overtaking on the left is very dangerous.

Choice seems to be obvious.

Unless you like to be stock behind someone driving 80km/h on the most right lane for 50 miles.

Oh come off it, how many cars do you ever see on a motorway sitting 50 yards back from a car when they flash them to move? 9 times out of 10 the car behind is usually practically in the back seat of the car ahead when they start flashing. Thats tailgating. I agree, a polite flash as you approach the car is a different thing, but in reality thats not what happens.

CiniO

djimi wrote: »

Oh come off it, how many cars do you ever see on a motorway sitting 50 yards back from a car when they flash them to move? 9 times out of 10 the car behind is usually practically in the back seat of the car ahead when they start flashing. Thats tailgating. I agree, a polite flash as you approach the car is a different thing, but in reality thats not what happens.

I'm not writing about what people do.
I'm writing about what's the best way to do. And also I'm writing about what I do.

CiniO

djimi wrote: »

If you start to tailgate and flash a driver then you risk panicking them, and panicking someone at 65mph+ is not a smart idea. Its safer just to undertake them and be on your way; while its still not legal if youre going to be impatient then its the lesser of two evils in my opinion.

No. I'll never agree that undertaking on the motorway in safer then a flash.
Whole idea of motorway traffic is that cars overtake each other on the right side. That's very simple. You drive left lane, if overtaking change lane to one more on right, overtake, if needed you change lane to more right (depends how many lanes there is), and when finished overtaking you go back to left lane. It's really as simple as that.
If you start overtaking on the left, then someone might have problems to change lane back to left, or even he might crash into you because he might not expect you to be on his left side. Do you know who will be most likely resposible for the accident then - you, not the idiot who didn't look on left mirror. All because you are not allowed to undertake on motorway.
The main rule is that we overtake on the right and everyone should stick to it. Then driving on a motorway will be much nicer and safer.
I wrote it before but i'll repeat it. I feel much safer on German motorway doing 200km/h while other cars go even faster, then on Irish motorway doing 120km/h while other drivers have no clue how to drive on motorway.

Mimikyu

This post has been deleted.

keithclancy

CiniO wrote: »

And that what people should do in Ireland, instead of overtaking on the left.

I'm not saying it works in Germany either, I've moved out into the Overtaking lane to safely overtake trucks while doing around 200km/h and some left lane cruising toolbag flys up the overtaking lane flashing his lights to get out of the way. So you've a choice, sit there or pull in and agressively push on the brakes to slow down to the speed of the vehicle your overtaking.

i.e. I'd be in the overtaking lane overtaking, but wouldn't be overtaking fast enoughfor the gobshíte behind me.

Turbulent Bill

Captain Morgan wrote: »

This post has been deleted.

It's compounded by poor road design too, especially where roadworks are in progress. The M50 northbound between the N4 and N3 junctions is a good example. The auxilliary and left hand (lane 3) lanes both become sliproads to the N3 junction, so all of the continuing traffic on the M50 use lanes 1 and 2 (complete with lane 1 blocking, undertaking in lane 2 etc.). The exceptions are people using lane 3 who want to go northbound on the M50 and don't know the road layout / won't read signs, and those using the same lane to undertake the M50 queues, diving in at the last minute before the road splits.

I arrive on the M50 from the Red Cow, and want to turn off at the N3 junction. The obvious choice is to use lane 3 (as I'll be going faster than the merging traffic from the N4 junction), but this puts me in danger from the ignorant and the impatient going northbound. If I use the auxilliary lane I'll probably end up undertaking the dawdlers in lane 3, hold up traffic or get cut up by someone trying to enter the lane.

What should I do?

Anan1

keithclancy wrote: »

I'm not saying it works in Germany either, I've moved out into the Overtaking lane to safely overtake trucks while doing around 200km/h and some left lane cruising toolbag flys up the overtaking lane flashing his lights to get out of the way. So you've a choice, sit there or pull in and agressively push on the brakes to slow down to the speed of the vehicle your overtaking.

i.e. I'd be in the overtaking lane overtaking, but wouldn't be overtaking fast enoughfor the gobshíte behind me.

That happened me there from time to time too - it can generally (but not always) be avoided by watching the mirrors and planning overtakes well in advance. Either that or get a faster car.;)

keithclancy

Anan1 wrote: »

That happened me there from time to time too - it can generally (but not always) be avoided by watching the mirrors and planning overtakes well in advance. Either that or get a faster car.;)

200km is PLENTY fast overtaking a line of trucks, no matter how fast your car. You stand some sort of chance when a truck pulls out.

Its actually more dangerous too pull in and let the guy behind you pass as in one of the vehicles in line in front will see you indicating to pull back in, take it as an opportunity to pull out and then theres a gap between when you pull in and they pull out that the guy flying up the overtaking lane has a very short time to react.

whyulittle

Surely the whole point of the auxiliary lane is to stop cars entering the mainline of the motorway. They are only going to be on until the next exit, and having them go into Lane 1, into Lane 2, overtake the slow moving truck, back into Lane 1, and then back into the Aux Lane defeats their whole purpose.

Anan1

keithclancy wrote: »

200km is PLENTY fast overtaking a line of trucks, no matter how fast your car. You stand some sort of chance when a truck pulls out

That was actually a joke, hence the

keithclancy wrote: »

Its actually more dangerous too pull in and let the guy behind you pass as in one of the vehicles in line in front will see you indicating to pull back in, take it as an opportunity to pull out and then theres a gap between when you pull in and they pull out that the guy flying up the overtaking lane has a very short time to react.

What I meant is that you can sometimes adapt your speed when approaching the trucks so as to either go before the faster car or let them pass first. Of course depending on traffic density this may not be possible, but it does generally help.

keithclancy

Anan1 wrote: »

That was actually a joke, hence the

What I meant is that you can sometimes adapt your speed when approaching the trucks so as to either go before the faster car or let them pass first. Of course depending on traffic density this may not be possible, but it does generally help.

Yeh .. Deffo .. I hate slowing down though ... much prefer to keep the speed constant, saves fuel

It is possible to do this, sometimes theres the lad behind you that either:
1. Decides to f*cking floor it as you pull out
2. Keeps speeding up or slowing down unsure as to whether he should pass or not.

Either one makes you have to brake :P

SC024

maybebabie wrote: »

if anyone flashes at me, i deliberately won't move out of the way lol

Why?

Is that just out of bizarre ignorant stupidity or is there a valid reason for that?

limklad

Bellemz wrote: »

Ireland is one of the few european countries where people still 'sit' in the right hand lane. If you did it (obv left hand in this case) in Germany/France/Italy, drivers would react aggressively until you MOVED.

Irish motorways are HILARIOUS & DANGEROUS...you honestly seem to get places quicker when you undertake, weaving in and out of the 2/3 lanes, which is dangerous, ridiculous and illegal. Most drivers 'sit' in the middle lane when there are 3...to avoid having to deal with merging cars as those who stay in the left often find themselves trapped and unable to yield to merging cars as the people in the middle lane have boxed them in by driving SLOWER than they are...

I propose different speed limits for different lanes like in Italy or a driver cop on course lol...

Would you mind quoting the Piece of Law that you claim it is illegal.

People who hog the overtaking lane for Driving when driving lanes are free should be banned from driving. It is irresponsible and very dangerous. They can be pull over by the guards for reckless driving once reported.

coolbeans

It is illegal. If you drive you should know this. Look up the RotR. It's online somewhere. Google it for yourself.

CiniO

coolbeans wrote: »

It is illegal. If you drive you should know this. Look up the RotR. It's online somewhere. Google it for yourself.

Why?
That's interesting topic.
I just spend 15 minuts browsing through irish statute book, and didn't find anything that would forbid to overtake on motorways on the left side as described in the way like in rules of the road.

Trampas

Haven't read it all but I think OP is talking about middle lane sindrome.

If you try on the N7 between Newlands and Naas either way you find it is over taking lane is fastest followed by driving lane followed by middle lane.

bazzachazza

I'm going to email a few people who are Supposed to know the law and finally get a professional opinion on this matter I would love to know once and for all what the law is.

coolbeans

limklad wrote: »

Would you mind quoting the Piece of Law that you claim it is illegal.

People who hog the overtaking lane for Driving when driving lanes are free should be banned from driving. It is irresponsible and very dangerous. They can be pull over by the guards for reckless driving once reported.

From the RotR:

You must not overtake when

* You are at or near a pelican crossing, zebra crossing or at pedestrian signals.
* A traffic sign or road marking prohibits it.
* You are approaching a junction.
* You are on the approach to a corner, bend, dip in the road, hump-back bridge, brow of a hill or on a narrow road.
* You are in the left-hand lane of a dual carriageway or motorway when traffic is moving at normal speed.

bazzachazza

Doesn't answer fully this specific scenario Coolbeans.

I agree thats what the law says but does it cover being separated by two whole clear lanes. It needs to be updated IMHO I don't think the law has been updated to cover 3 lane roads let alone 3 laners with extra lane. What if said twat is doing 65k in that lane. What if you join doing 100k and pass him without knowing are you considered to be breaking the law.

sesna

Another potential problem with 3-lane motorways is when one driver is in the left lane, the other drive in the right lane with the middle lane free.

If both are roughly at the same point laterally on the motoway, and try to change lane into the middle lane, there is collision hazard.It's not clearcut from the law who has right of way in this situation, or who would be at fault if a collision occured.