Overtaking

When there is long line of traffic and i am overtaking but no traffic in the oncoming lane, I also go quite far over into the oncoming lane (when safe to do and if a long straight road where i can see when traffic is coming) just in case someone decides to open their door and empty an ashtray or so that i have some time when the cabbie starts to do his u-turn, however, one must realise that when you go far into the oncoming lane that the downside is that people can't see you in their mirrors. Thus they can see you in their mirrors more easily if you overtake closer to them or when filtering but you wont have the same time to react if one decides to do a quick u turn or open door. You make your choices..... It is possible that you were too far over in the oncoming lane for him to see you in the rearview and side mirror...

Patience improves observation.
Impatience equals bad decision making. We've all done it and mostly got away with it. But there's always that exception.

Steve, I'd say you did nothing wrong.
How long were you following in the queue? Maybe, if you had just reached the back and immediately overtook the lot, then I'd say you put yourself at risk, but other than that it's a SMIDSY really.

Or rather a WIDEBOT, 'Whoops!, I Didn't Even Bother To Look'

If the van driver had showed the appropriate caution he wouldn't have pulled out on you, he'd see you in the mirror. I'd say he just rushed the overtake before reaching the 30 zone.

Who's to say he wouldn't have still pulled out on you if you pick the cars off one by one?

Can I please remind everyone of Forum Rule 3:

'3) No personal abuse please. Treat others with respect even if you don't agree with their views.'

If you cannot be sure that no hazard will present itself which will prevent you from completing the overtake safely (including but not limited to causing normal traffic to take evasive action) then DON'T.

Originally Posted by mpaton2005

If you cannot be sure that no hazard will present itself which will prevent you from completing the overtake safely (including but not limited to causing normal traffic to take evasive action) then DON'T.

Every time you pull out to overtake you raise the potential risk for an accident. By those words I would never overtake anything unless it was stationary on 3 lane dual carriageway.

What I consider to be safe and what you may consider safe could be complete opposite ends of the spectrum (I consider myself to be brisk but not dangerous or foolish BTW).

My rule: If you have to think "can I" or "should I" then don't, it's already too late to take action.

.

MP wrote:

you cannot be sure that no hazard will present itself

That is the cruxt of the matter.One can never 100% be sure that no hazard will present itself. No-one will ever convince me of otherwise.

Riding a bike is not about calculus and logarithms but more about using your senses and experience along with a little forward planning.

This example nicely illustrates the point why one should not do block overtakes when there is a slow moving vehicle causing frustration to other drivers behind it.

Failure on the O and A aspects of COAST on behalf of the biker and the O for the van driver.

Regards,
Martin

Okay, I'll bite SMIDSY? COAST??

Thanks for all the responses - interesting and helpful...

I'm pretty sure the white van man didn't see me purely because he didn't look - the way he overtook was straight out in a got-to-get-to-red-gap before-sundown kind of way, or in this case, overtake the tractor before we entered the 30MPH zone and double white line...

Yup - it would have been safer not to overtake but still think it was okay to do so but honking might well have helped... As has been discussed on the A2 post motorcycling is inherently risky and personally I'm after improving my riding, keeping the odds favourable not eliminating all risk...

After all most people die in bed, so on that basis you should sleep on the floor

COAST stands for:

Concentration, Observation, Anticipation giving you Space and Time.

In your case, you failed to Observe and Anticipate the slower tractor would cause possible frustration and rash overtaking maneuvers which had the effect of removing the Space you had clear and reducing the Time in which you had to react.