Drivers who speed up when being overtaken

BrianD3

Rant time. What is it with morons who dawdle along at 45 mph on a National primary road and as soon as you try to overtake them they speed up to make life as difficult as possible for you. Are these just begruding Irish w*nkers who can't stand to see anyone making better progress than them.

The worst is whn nyou're stuck behind a queue of 4 or 5 indecisive dawdlers who are following a lorry at 45 mph and are refusing to overtake even when perfect opportunities present themselves. So they have no intention of overtaking but God Forbid that anyone further back in the queue tries to make progress by "leapfrogging" their way to the front of the queue. What will generally happen is the dawdler you're trying to overtake will *deliberately* close the gap to vehicle in front to block you from overtaking putting you in a dangerous situation if you've already started your maneouvre. Eg you start your maneouvre with the intention of slotting into a 100 foot gap but by the time you get to the gap it has shrunken to 10 feet becasue the ****** you've overtaken has floored the throttle. Pure begrudgery IMO. Does this happen in other countries? I can't imagine that this happens much in England because drivers actually know how to make progress over there and don't have a phobia about overtaking or being overtaken.

Ther was good thread on this topic a while back where a few posters were trying to justify this speeding up behaviour. It was said that the dawdlers close the gap to the car in front "becasue they feel threatened" :rolleyes: Yeah and by speeding up when you're being overtaken you're increasing the danger to everyone in the vicinity so this makes no sense.

IrishRover

Yeah, I'd say it's Irish begrudgery alright.

The solution is turbo power (sorry )

Squirrel

I thought it was illegal to speed up when being overtaken

junkyard

What about the w*****s who pull out in front of you at speed, then slow down. They should have their licence taken off them!

murphaph

Squirrel wrote:

I thought it was illegal to speed up when being overtaken

It is.

murphaph

The worst ones are the ones who slow down for really long sweeping bends and then speed back up to on or over the speed limit on the straights so you can't overtake-all the while failing to make use of the wide hard shoulder which they should be moving into to allow you overtake safely.

I don't drive fast, keep to the limits and all that. Dangerous overtaking is worse than any slowcoach though and I find since getting on a motorbike that people seem happy to force oncoming motorcyclysists to alter course, moving over to the hard shoulder which can be very dangerous on 2 wheels!

CJhaughey

I had this happen about a year ago, citroen dawdler speeding up and slowing down in the end I went to overtake and he pulled across to stop me as I was level with his drivers door, it was either hit some ugly stone hidden in the untrimmed verge or stripe my door on his wing mirror, guess which one won?
I pulled back in and left a black stripe from his wing mirror all down my side from behind the front wheel to halfway down the door.
Once I was past him I continued on my way, he must have been in shock because he flashed me from 1/2 a mile back but no way was I stopping!

OLDYELLAR

Oh god , I had some tw*t speed out in front of me the other day , I slowed down left him out wasnt too pissed next thing hes literally doing 10miles an hour , I just thought oh I dunno hes forgetting his indicators must be pulling in , but oh no he continues like this and right out to the white line where nobody else could pass him , so Irritating! :mad:

Our man in Havana

Indecisive dawdling should be an offence with points attached.

Ever driven Waterford-Kilkenny (N9-N10)? You will know all about indecisive dawdlers after a few days of driving that road. On the very few overtaking spots the indecisive dawdlers will floor it to stop you overtaking. Kilkenny has earned its well deserved title of slowest drivers in Ireland.

mike65

Bond-007 wrote:

Ever driven Waterford-Kilkenny (N9-N10)? You will know all about indecisive dawdlers after a few days of driving that road. On the very few overtaking spots the indecisive dawdlers will floor it to stop you overtaking. .

Down the hill under the bridge into Ballyhale per chance?

Mike.

unkel

Bond-007 wrote:

Ever driven Waterford-Kilkenny (N9-N10)? You will know all about indecisive dawdlers after a few days of driving that road. On the very few overtaking spots the indecisive dawdlers will floor it to stop you overtaking

Yep exactly what happened to me going down from Dublin last Sunday. Tinker family in a Toyota Hiace. I could see the children jumping around the double cab area, possibly researching the ideal launching position :rolleyes:

Going back up tomorrow. As previously posted and of not much help to the OP but the torque of a V8 petrol does help to get rid of the problem

Our man in Havana

mike65 wrote:

Down the hill under the bridge into Ballyhale per chance?

Mike.

Indeed Mike, have you played this game before.

I always try to get away from the trucks and dawdlers on the downhill strech, the skoda has achieved some speeds on that hill. Sadly the boys in blue from Thomastown are well aware of the antics down that hill.

AMurphy

BrianD3 wrote:

.....
The worst is whn nyou're stuck behind a queue of 4 or 5 indecisive dawdlers who are following a lorry at 45 mph and are refusing to overtake even when perfect opportunities present themselves. .....
.

And then you find the lorry (or JCB) driver who will not pull in even when the possibility exists and so the merry dance continues mile after mile....
Generally here if a truck, camper, large slow moving vehicle fails to pull in to the "turnouts" they get a prize also for pbstructing traffic.

Our man in Havana

AMurphy wrote:

And then you find the lorry (or JCB) driver who will not pull in even when the possibility exists and so the merry dance continues mile after mile....
Generally here if a truck, camper, large slow moving vehicle fails to pull in to the "turnouts" they get a prize also for pbstructing traffic.

Pity the Gardai don't do they same here. :mad:

IrishRover

I have to say I have found that pretty much without expection, every trucker I have met on the roads (Irish and other) has been both an excellent and courteous driver. In my experience, truck drivers always puill to the side to let people past when they can and often signal to let you know when it's safe to pass.

I know why this is too - they drive a big dangerous object long distances for a living and so their priorities are to minimise the chances of having an accident and keep their stress levels low while at work. They're not interested in picking battles with other drivers, they just want to get where they're going safely and with the minimum of aggro.

AMurphy, I don't think we're talking about turnouts or climbing/slow moving vehicle lanes here but hard shoulders or lay-bys so the truckers are under no obligation to pull into these - in fact these lanes aren't for driving in, but most of our main roads here have these "unused lanes" and so that's what they get used for.

oilsheik

Tractors are another problem, however last yr a farmer was in court for causing a mile long-tail back on the Kilkenny/Waterford road. I'm no legal expert but I think once a slow moving vehicle has more than 10 cars behind it has to pull in at the at a suitable place to let the traffic through. In fairness some tractor driver do it but other feel the road is an extension to their farm.

ambro25

I've had that happen a fair few times over the years. As an inexperienced young driver, it's scary enough when attempting an overtaking manoeuver (in the right circumstances: bright clear day, 2-miles stretch of road with no oncoming traffic, no side wind, etc, etc... ) and as a seasoned driver, it can still be pulse-quickening depending on the curcumstances.

I'm now fairly 'resolute' when that happens (i.e. when the car I'm overtaking speeds up), and (provided I'm alone in the car) I usually take it upon myself to 'educate' the motortits with not accelerating faster, but matching his acceleration and pulling closer-and-closer (laterally) to him - i.e. forcing him off the road until he brakes. Usually does the trick. Requires a smidgin' of balls, a fair bit of skill and absolute disregard for the paintwork.

Needless to say, it's downright dangerous and in all probability breaching several dozens rules of the road and statutes, so do not attempt this at home

stevenmu

Tbh I've done both (speeding up with someone overtaking, and going slow in the bends and speeding up in the straights) but only in certain circumstances. If someone behind me is obviously going faster or tries to overtake properly, I'll do whatever I safely can to help them get past me and on their way. But then there's always the f**ker who thinks that driving within centimeters of your back bumper is a good idea. Like ambro25, I've taken it upon myself to educate these c**ts, and usually after a few miles of crawling around every bend behind me, and having to pull back in behind me when they try going around, they learn there lesson and back off a bit.

iregk

I would never speed up when being overtaken but I think the reason is the who ego thing. Your over taken your not quite fast and powerful as you thought.

But what I hate is the other side of the fence. The ass who thinks he has the gap and actually doesn't. Driving from wicklow ever day I see it and seen it wednesday morning while I was driving. Truck way down the road in front of me and about 5 cars inbetween me and the truck. The gap between me and the car in front was very short, it was early and I was in no rush so I had no intention of over taking and was quite happy to keep to 50mph. The car behind me though has other ideas and decides when he hit some straight he is obviously going to try and over take both of us with another truck oncoming. By the time he got his nose out he was slamming the breaks and diving back in behind me. What kind of asses are they that try it and dont have the gap.

Add to that when we got to the lights he was still behind me but rather than wait 10seconds for the light to change no, up onto the path to drive around traffic and take the turn off...

ambro25

stevenmu wrote:

But then there's always the f**ker who thinks that driving within centimeters of your back bumper is a good idea. Like ambro25, I've taken it upon myself to educate these c**ts, and usually after a few miles of crawling around every bend behind me, and having to pull back in behind me when they try going around, they learn there lesson and back off a bit.

You *may* have gotten me wrong, m8 - I'm educating motortits that speed up when I'm overtaking them, not faster cars that want to overtake me (doesn't happen often, I must shamefully add )

Edited my earlier post to make it clear(er)

Cyrus

some people on the road are just so stupid and they dont realise how dangerous there poor driving is. personally im neither a speed demon or a dawdler, i like to move along and generally keep within the limits but i like to make decent progress
Overtaking on narrow national roads does still scare me at times so if im not comfortable overtaking i make sure to leave a gap large enough in front so that im not impeding anyone else, surely thats not so hard to do, most people wont tho, its always one numpty that holds everyone up!

however the people that pull out and then drive at 10mph are the worst, its normally old people or women that cant drive, they are so nervous about pulling out they just go for it and then proceed to dawdle once no on has been killed by their stupidity!

btw is it illegal to overtake more than 1 car in same maneouvere

seamus

Cyrus wrote:

btw is it illegal to overtake more than 1 car in same maneouvere

No.

murphaph

iregk wrote:

I would never speed up when being overtaken but I think the reason is the who ego thing. Your over taken your not quite fast and powerful as you thought.

But what I hate is the other side of the fence. The ass who thinks he has the gap and actually doesn't. Driving from wicklow ever day I see it and seen it wednesday morning while I was driving. Truck way down the road in front of me and about 5 cars inbetween me and the truck. The gap between me and the car in front was very short, it was early and I was in no rush so I had no intention of over taking and was quite happy to keep to 50mph. The car behind me though has other ideas and decides when he hit some straight he is obviously going to try and over take both of us with another truck oncoming. By the time he got his nose out he was slamming the breaks and diving back in behind me. What kind of asses are they that try it and dont have the gap.

Add to that when we got to the lights he was still behind me but rather than wait 10seconds for the light to change no, up onto the path to drive around traffic and take the turn off...

I'm pretty much like you, I keep roughly to the 100k speed limit and drive with caution, however if you are travelling behind something and you do not wish to overtake you are supposed to leave a sufficient gap for people who do want to overtake to slot in in front of you. It's in the rules of the road IIRC, it's certainly in the UK's Highway Code. It's common sense really-they may be wreckless idiots but think of the poor ba$tard that they might hit head on around the next bend because you didn't leave a gap.

iregk

Yeah I suppose. didn't actually know that was a rule but yeah maybe the gap certainly could have been bigger. In either case saying that the gap was eve twice what it was he never had a chance either way with an on coming truck!!! What gob****e tries that one?

seamus

murphaph wrote:

I'm pretty much like you, I keep roughly to the 100k speed limit and drive with caution, however if you are travelling behind something and you do not wish to overtake you are supposed to leave a sufficient gap for people who do want to overtake to slot in in front of you. It's in the rules of the road IIRC, it's certainly in the UK's Highway Code. It's common sense really-they may be wreckless idiots but think of the poor ba$tard that they might hit head on around the next bend because you didn't leave a gap.

Aye. And if someone does try overtake, but halfway between you and the guy in front, realises that he hasn't the roadspace, he's going to push in front of you, whether you let him or not. It just makes sense to leave the gap. What irritates me most in this kind of situation is people who drive right on your ass, waiting to overtake, while you wait to overtake. The amount of times I've had people f-in and blinding behind me because I pulled out to overtake a split second before they did.

stevenmu

ambro25 wrote:

You *may* have gotten me wrong, m8 - I'm educating motortits that speed up when I'm overtaking them, not faster cars that want to overtake me (doesn't happen often, I must shamefully add )

Edited my earlier post to make it clear(er)

I knew what you meant, I probably should have said 'A bit like ambro25' in that I'm trying to educate idiots who are doing something they shouldn't and endangering me in the process, altough our pet peeves and ways of dealing with it are different.

And just to be clear, if someone is faster and wants to go buy I've no problem with that, and I help them do it, it's just when they get right up behind me it p***es me off.

iregk

Why do people do that. A good while back, now were going 4 years here, myself and a mate are just driving along back from town just past saggart. This car pulls right up behind us, could have overtaken any time he wanted as we weren't going anywhere fast. Sits there overtakes eventually gets in front of us then slows right down. As soon as we went to indicate out he floored it.

I will never understand why people insist on playing games and driving right up your ass. Cars dont respect you, they will kill you in a second. So if you dont respect the lump of metal your driving and use it with caution your dead!

Seth Brundle

iregk wrote:

I will never understand why people insist on playing games and driving right up your ass. Cars dont respect you, they will kill you in a second. So if you dont respect the lump of metal your driving and use it with caution your dead!

Last Christmas I was driving up to Belfast from Dublin. It was night and therefore dark. I was actually trying to stay within the speed limit also.
For about 10 miles miles beyond Swords some príck in a MH regd (something like 4422 or 2244) 406 drove right behind me (short of a few feet). If I increased or decreased (40mph) my speed he followed suit. Eventually he overtook me and sped off.
A number of miles later he came up behind me again (must have left and returned to the motorway) and continued this craic. Very unnerving. I was really tempted to slam hard on my brakes and accept whatever happened but for some reason I felt they were gardai (dunno why) and didn't. In a situation like this what could I do?

mike65

kbannon wrote:

A number of miles later he came up behind me again (must have left and returned to the motorway) and continued this craic. Very unnerving. I was really tempted to slam hard on my brakes and accept whatever happened but for some reason I felt they were gardai (dunno why) and didn't. In a situation like this what could I do?

Call the garda?

I might have been tempted to do a brake test with my left foot ie not actually slowing down just triggering the brake lights and seeing what happened. Trouble is the kind of ppl who sit on your ass for miles are exactly the kind of pll you don't want to piss off. I guess the best course of action is to indicate left and pull over and get them past you asap.

Mike.

murphaph

kbannon wrote:

In a situation like this what could I do?

It's times like that that makes you wish you drove 007's DB5! Deploy the oil slick!

30-6shooter

Trouble is the kind of ppl who sit on your ass for miles are exactly the kind of pll you don't want to piss off.

Why do you think that Mike? Are you reckoning that their aggressive tactics on the road mean they`re agressive as a person and might be prone to a bit of road rage? Sure most of the people that do that are 17yr old knobs in their dads car,,,, and are all talk. If you confronted them at the next set of lights i`d bet they`d sh*it themselves.

Seth Brundle

mike65 wrote:

Call the garda?

Thats a waste of a call IMO!

mike65 wrote:

I might have been tempted to do a brake test with my left foot ie not actually slowing down just triggering the brake lights and seeing what happened. Trouble is the kind of ppl who sit on your ass for miles are exactly the kind of pll you don't want to piss off. I guess the best course of action is to indicate left and pull over and get them past you asap.

I was in the left lane and no matter what I did they stuck right behind me. If I did overtake, I moved left afterwards - as did the 406!

prospect

Similar to the OPs point:

I hate when you are trying to join a road, and there is a gap in the traffic, an opportunity, but the fuppin cretin that caused the gap in the first place decides he/she doesn't like the look of your car from behind.
So just as you have eyeballed your chance, put the car in first, let the clutch out to biting point, off with the handbrake, and right foot hovering over the accelerator in anticipation, you realise your gap, your chance, your rightful place in the flow of traffic is rapidly decreasing in size, as the aforemetioned grasshole increases speed.

I really, really hate that.

deep breaths....

{ :mad: End rant :mad: }

Blitzkrieger

I used to hate **** like that in my old car. I hardly notice it in my new car. Even if they do accelerate I'm so much faster than them it makes no difference. They're still ***** though.

What pissed me off these days is the convoy that builds up behind me. I'd be doing <the national speed limit> and come up behind a guy doing <below the national speed limit>. I'd overtake the guy, more because I know if he comes up to slower moving traffic he's either going to take ages to overtake or slow down further and sit behind them forcing me to overtake a line of cars if I don't want to crawl home. I'd often go well above the limit to make the maneouvre faster and more safely then slow down to <the national speed limit> and continue on my way. The amount of times I look in the mirror and find them now sitting on my bumper hoping if there's a garda hiding in the bushes he'll catch me and not them.........

LostinBlanch

Personally speaking I find these bastards who slow down and not let anyone pass really irritating. Either they are 60+ yr old hat wearers trundling along at 50 kph and saying to themselves "I've never had an accident in 40 years of driving etc etc". Yeah but how many accidents have you caused because of your non consideration? Or they are the other kind of knuckledraggers who do the afore mentioned speeding up to stop someone else overtaking.

Look it's as simple as you want to make it. Me, if I meet someone doing 50kph on a 80+kph road I'll look to overtake. If I see someone wanting to overtake me on the same road let them by. If they're really speeding I don't want to be anywhere near them when they have their accident.

lazylad

I have to say nothing worse than someone speeding up when you are trying to overtake them but this is a good one:
I was going to work one day in a hurry on a national primary road when I got to a nissan micra going 60mph I went to overtake it, and the person driving(I dont actually know if it was a man or a woman young or old because the drivers hair from behind the car looked grey and like a womans hair but from passing out looked like a mans grey hair) sped up to about 70mph. I had to shoot up to over take the person but when I succeeded in over taking the car went to overtake me!! I got into the right hand lane and then he went to overtake me in the left hand lane and then i went into the left hand lane then he went into right hand lane again and i gave up, i stayed in the left hand lane and let him overtake me! Talk about a b*llux!

unkel

stevenmu wrote:

If someone behind me is obviously going faster or tries to overtake properly, I'll do whatever I safely can to help them get past me and on their way

Hail! Exactly what I would do and imho the best and safest reaction

Cyrus wrote:

btw is it illegal to overtake more than 1 car in same maneouvere

How could that possibly be illegal, apart from the overtaker exceeding the speed limit? I've overtaken about 20 vehicles in one go before in both my current and my previous car. Obviously my top speed during these manoeuvres was well in excess of the speed limit

mike65 wrote:

I might have been tempted to do a brake test with my left foot ie not actually slowing down just triggering the brake lights and seeing what happened

kbannon wrote:

In a situation like this what could I do?

Lads, I know exactly what you are talking about, I've experienced it many times and have been very frustrated too

@mike65: I can just hope you never did do the left foot brake job thing

@kbannon: hold off the accelerator, let them overtake, let it be. Those w@nkers ain't worth risking yourself or your family

AMurphy

IrishRover wrote:

AMurphy, I don't think we're talking about turnouts or climbing/slow moving vehicle lanes here but hard shoulders or lay-bys so the truckers are under no obligation to pull into these - in fact these lanes aren't for driving in, but most of our main roads here have these "unused lanes" and so that's what they get used for.

True, however, there are many ultra wide but yet 2 lane sections of road between Lim and Dub, so why not simply convert them into passing or 4 lane, just needs a few loads of tarmac and some paint.

And there are several repaired turns, where the tip of the elbow is abandoned and turned into a "travelers park", that could also be used to good effect, instead of the former.
So I'll not accept that the opportunities do not exist, they are just not taken advantage of in any sort of a meaningful manner.

murphaph

lazylad wrote:

I have to say nothing worse than someone speeding up when you are trying to overtake them but this is a good one:
I was going to work one day in a hurry on a national primary road when I got to a nissan micra going 60mph I went to overtake it, and the person driving(I dont actually know if it was a man or a woman young or old because the drivers hair from behind the car looked grey and like a womans hair but from passing out looked like a mans grey hair) sped up to about 70mph. I had to shoot up to over take the person but when I succeeded in over taking the car went to overtake me!! I got into the right hand lane and then he went to overtake me in the left hand lane and then i went into the left hand lane then he went into right hand lane again and i gave up, i stayed in the left hand lane and let him overtake me! Talk about a b*llux!

Drugs and driving don't mix!

AMurphy

murphaph wrote:

Drugs and driving don't mix!

It's OK when driving nails.

However, some of ye pointed to something I have also observed.
A train of cars behind some large object and lets add some widley spaced turns and oncoming traffic.
Then along comes some Courier or White Van Man in a hurry and will insist on taking any and all reckless manouvers to leap frog their way to the top of the line.
The painted islands used to make turning lanes for minor "T" junctions being the favourite passing zone.

As for leaving a space between you and the car in front. When you do that, every mupped and their granny wants to leap frog you and fill it. Eventually you work your way to the back of the line, so nobody wants to give up their place in the .
Same as waiting in a line in the bank/airport and if you leave a hair between you and the person in front, some moron is obliged to attempt to occupy it.

Squirrel

mike65 wrote:

Call the garda?

I might have been tempted to do a brake test with my left foot ie not actually slowing down just triggering the brake lights and seeing what happened. Trouble is the kind of ppl who sit on your ass for miles are exactly the kind of pll you don't want to piss off. I guess the best course of action is to indicate left and pull over and get them past you asap.

Mike.

Flick the headlights on, some red lights light up at the back, I doubt he'd realise they weren't brake lights.

Anyway, the worst I've ever seen is a guy in a left-hooker E Class hit my dad on the way back from a race in Sligo, he was crawling in front of us, no cars coming the other way, my dad indicates, drops gears and begins to overtake, the ****er then accelerates and turns into us, clipped our front-wing and turned us into him. So we were left with a ****ed Sonata in the back-arse of Sligo trying to get details from a Latvian guy. It was just me, my dad, my mam and my 12 year old sister she was really frightened. He got hit with a huge bill though for repairing the front axle, and slightly bent engine mounts, along with all the cosmetic work, new wing, alloys, bumper, bonnet etc.

NeMiSiS

Ever drove on the N81? Oh that's a wonderful road.. Overtaking is an absoloute nightmare. you tend to get 'clusters' of cars with people on a perfectly clear straight road doing about 40 -45 mph, so you have about six cars all crawling, I am convinced no one overtakes anymore, I think people think it's illegal .. god forbid you would overtake a truck! You could be locked up for 40 years ina cell with a randy Gorilla for that kind of carry on. To this end, I have experienced the following:

Driving out of Blessington, a line of cars.. doing at most maybe 15 mph.. straight road..pulled out and proceded to overtake all eight or nine cars, they were going so slow when I'd say it took me no more than 7 or 8 seconds to overtake them all and pull safely back on the correct side of the road.. When I reached the top.. it was just some idiot crawling along.. what makes it even better was . when I reached the top there was still a clear road.. for easily a mile and a half.. and yet _no-one_ was overtaking.

Friday same deal.. cluster of cars.. straight road 40 mph... so proceded to 'leap frog' now the way I look at this is if the road is clear and if it safe to do so (broken line permitting), I will leap frog all I like because from what I can see, none of the drivers in this 'cluster' have the remotest intent on overtaking. Anyway, I get to the top and the thing holding up the traffic is a van with a trailer.. farting around give or take 40 - 45mph, as I go to overtake this van he speeds up.. with a trailer don't forget and two passengers.. and actully starts to pull into me.. so as I am driving parralel he is drifting towards me.. and f'ing and blindin obviously telling his mates something along the lines of how much of a bollix I am.

Don't tell me trucks pull in to let drivers by, older drivers might do yeh.. but the newer ones you can forget about it, my dad drove trucks for years he would have no problem pulling in but what I mostly see is a truck pulling out..then one of these 'clusters' pulling right up the arse of the truck and sitting their in a cloud of **** and muck and rain for ten miles. The trucks on the N81 seem to travel in fours regardless, they couldn't care less about cars. I once counted twelve trucks oncoming in a row, before I saw a van (not even a car, a van!).

Naas dual carraige way lately ended up behind a guy in the overtaking lane doing 20 25mph.. so I proceded to undertake him.. no there was aperfectly clear road ahead of him, this person just insisted on hogging it all for himself.. when I completed the manouvere he insisted on flashing his lights and blowing his horn at me? He was pretty much a spot in my rear view mirror within a minute or two.. but no one else wold do the same... as in I could see behind me.. clear for a mile.. and this same guy hogging the lane farting along in the distance. I have seen and experienced some wicked **** ion the Naas dual carraigeway..

Jesus I could go on and on and on to be honest.. I drive for a living, I once had a bus driver tell me his indicators were only and indication of what he 'might' do not what he intended doing.. I believe this to be true as on a day to day basis I see people driving along with their indicators on.. oblivious to the fact.. imagine if they do not notice their indicator on.. how blissfully unaware they are of everything else going on around them.

Also rain means, reduce speed to 20 mph, and defintly do not overtake as their will be TWO gorillas put in the cell with you.
Sorry I went off on a bit of tangent there...
TK

Our man in Havana

I feel your pain.

As I said earlier slow drivers should loose their licence, you will even fail your driving test for failing to make adequate progress!

Idleater

If you want to see "interesting" overtaking manouvers, take a trip over to Sicily. I am just back from holliers there and had a rental car. The main roads throughout the island are at best something like the national roads here - single carrigeway both directions with a hard shoulder, however they just twist and turn all the time. The country roads have about as much room as two cars side by side, provided the road actually exists on both sides!

Anyhoo, if you get stuck behind a truck or bus going up a hill for example, you only have to wait for a minute or so before a fiat panda arrives alongside you with indicator flashing, passing out about 10 cars in one go, with oncoming traffic, on a bend etc etc. I had to laugh at times.

It's all about trust, trust that they know what they're doing. Those nutters do know what they are doing don't they?

L.

jayok

Ahh... I love these rants on Boards.

First of all I would never speed up when been overtaken, even though it amuses me why someone would want to over take me when I am doing the speed limit and there's another 10 cars in front of me bumper to bumper at the same speed. However, I am a driver that will slow down if someone decided to tailgate me and I have good reason for doing so.

If I am driving along on a route such as the N7 or N9 (non dual carriage way bits) I will generally match my speed of the car in front of me if he/she is doing anything above 85-90kph. Anything below and I'll be looking to overtake. This typically means that I regularily get people stuck to the rear bumper of the car. When this happens I start to slow down by taking my foot off the acclerator and depending on how close the rear car is maybe slightly braking (for the brake lights to come on). This reduction in speed is for two reasons:

1. To create more space between myself and the car in front. Why? Because with this muppet, if the car in front has to stop quickly I want to stop less quickly so as not to be rear-ended. I know if I am rear ended it's his fault but its dangerous to me and I won't really want to talk the muppet then.

2. By easing off I am creating more space to allow Muppet's overtaking manevour to take place and there by minimising the risk to the driver in front of me and of course myself.

So, if anyone here decides that they are going to overtake me and I ease off to create space - deal with it. I am protecting my own self (I am a father) and maybe others and really couldn't give a f&ck if it upsets you.

BTW I attach a photo of what happened to my car when I crashed while on holidays in France. This crash happended at 61kph and was the result of dangerous overtaking. None one was hurt and the car was a write-off. The culprit was never found... :mad:

BTW I am not in the photo's (I have the camera) these are the kind people that came to help me.

Squirrel

jayok wrote:

Ahh... I love these rants on Boards....

**** man, that's much worse than what happened to me, ours wasn't a write off and at least people spoke english. What the insurance co. do?

jayok

Squirrel wrote:

**** man, that's much worse than what happened to me, ours wasn't a write off and at least people spoke english. What the insurance co. do?

The insurance company did nothing. At the time my insurance was about €1,500 per annum with 5 years NCB. The car was worth about €8,000 at the time of the crash but the insurance company valued the car at about €5,000. With the loss of the NCB and penalties for claiming I would have given them the €5,000 and more in two years worth of premium. As such it wasn't actually worth my while claiming (I actually calculated it over a 5 year period to regain my full NCB again). So I simply took the loss of the car and bought again. On the plus side (if ever there is one) I owed nothing on the car as I'd just finished paying for it two months previously :rolleyes:

To add salt to the wound I'd to pay environmental disposal of the car as well and this cost another €300. Ah well.

Cars and money can be replaced, I was simply happy no one was hurt.

Put driving in perspective and it gives you a full awareness of stupid (aka Muppet drivers) I can assure you.

Squirrel

jayok wrote:

The insurance company did nothing. At the time my insurance was about €1,500 per annum with 5 years NCB. The car was worth about €8,000 at the time of the crash but the insurance company valued the car at about €5,000. With the loss of the NCB and penalties for claiming I would have given them the €5,000 and more in two years worth of premium. As such it wasn't actually worth my while claiming (I actually calculated it over a 5 year period to regain my full NCB again). So I simply took the loss of the car and bought again. On the plus side (if ever there is one) I owed nothing on the car as I'd just finished paying for it two months previously :rolleyes:

To add salt to the wound I'd to pay environmental disposal of the car as well and this cost another €300. Ah well.

Very cleverly calculated actually

Cars and money can be replaced, I was simply happy no one was hurt.

Put driving in perspective and it gives you a full awareness of stupid (aka Muppet drivers) I can assure you.

Very true, extremely lucky, looking at some of the damage that could've turned nasty.

iregk

NeMiSiS wrote:

Ever drove on the N81? Oh that's a wonderful road..

All I needed to read was that first line. I live in blessington and work in town so I drive that road every day!!! Its painful all right especially on a nice wet day with a truck in front of you!

Seth Brundle

unkel wrote:

@kbannon: hold off the accelerator, let them overtake, let it be. Those w@nkers ain't worth risking yourself or your family

hmmm

kbannon wrote:

If I increased or decreased (40mph) my speed he followed suit.

Hagar

Bullbars, dirty big fuppin Bullbars. That's the answer.