I had a little "experience" on the road yesterday - a first for me.

There was a queue of 3 to 4 cars ahead of me, travelling southbound on the A49. Those of you that know the road (the Herefordshire/Shropshire part of the A49) probably know that there are plenty of safe overtaking spots (though some are littered with speed cameras). I overtook the first car no problem, and then filtered in between him and the car in front (There was plenty of room to do so)

I went to do the same thing to the next car when we came to the next overtaking place. It was a 2.0TDI Audi A3. There was plenty of room between him and the next car (I guess 4 to 6 seconds a the speed they were travelling) Whilst making the manoeuvre, the driver decided it would be a sensible idea to speed up and to close the gap between him and the car in front, meaning that I would have had to pass him and the Mercedes in front of him in one manoeuvre. I didn't want to do this, as there was very little space between the Merc and the car in front of that. So I stayed up the side, indicated left to signal that I wanted to get in between the Audi and the Merc. He very, very reluctantly and very slowly decided that it may be the safest option to let me back in between, but seemed significantly angered by the fact that he had been overtaken, and started doing all of the common hand signals at me.

At this point, I thought (and still admit) that there is a possibility that my overtaking manoeuvre could have been interpreted as flawed, somehow dangerous or inappropriate - despite me not thinking so at the time. On review, I don't think so either - but it was me driving, so I'm unlikely to see the problems with my driving. I could probably have made it past the next couple of cars as well, but this would have involved speeding up to in the region of 95 or 100mph (the overtaking was all done within the legal limit, due to the presence of speed cameras) - and risking lives. The point of this thread isn't to debate if or if not I was incorrect to overtake, though.

The point of the thread is to discuss what happened next. We were approaching a blind corner, and he decided that he wanted to be in front of me, so overtook me again and went between me and the Merc. (Please note, I left him plenty of space to get back in, otherwise I could have assisted someone's death.)

Every time we then went past a layby he started pointing in to the layby and indicating left, signalling that he wanted me to get in to the layby and talk to him/argue with him. Just a couple of questions...

a) If he was a traffic officer, he'd have had the "follow me" lights in the back, or at least some kind of police signal, right?

If not, he was just going to assault me verbally or physically - so was I correct to just ignore his taunts, maintain a safe distance behind him and continue on my way?

Having only been driving for 18 months or so, this is the first time that anything of this nature has happened to me, and to be entirely honest it was a little frightening - the possibility that someone was so angered by me passing them (when I was legally entitled to do so), that they were trying to provoke some kind of confrontation, is somewhat worrying.

It is just some people think they own the road.

Try not let it get to you keep you chin up.

Just think what comes around goes around

IMHO you did exactly the right thing

Most likely one of these self-appointed "expert" drivers (who obviously never will understand how his handling of the overtake situation proved the very opposite). He saw an "inexperienced youngster" in a vRS and no doubt felt the urge to tell you which one of you had the biggest ...

Justs forget him.

NEVER pull over to anyone except Police, and they should either have lights to indicate ( as you rightly pointed out) or you should be able to see some form of warrant card ( whist driving safetly.

The other option is to use a handsfree fone and call the police and report the incident giving the car reg .

Final option is if you are realy feeling threatened, find the nearest police station and I bet that the minute you turn into the satation they flee.

I can understand his anger. He was leaving a good space for braking and someone ducked into it.

But ...... his actions were not justified.

To be honest if I see someone doing stupid over takes (not saying you were) on a road where there is continous traffic in front, with no noticiable gain to be had apart from "being in front of someone" I'll close my gap in front so they can't get back in. But not if it mean I'll cause an accident doing so.

I can understand his anger. He was leaving a good space for braking and someone ducked into it.

But ...... his actions were not justified.

To be honest if I see someone doing stupid over takes (not saying you were) on a road where there is continous traffic in front, with no noticiable gain to be had apart from "being in front of someone" I'll close my gap in front so they can't get back in. But not if it mean I'll cause an accident doing so.

The reason I was passing one car at a time was because two cars up ahead there was open road. If there is a continuous stream of traffic behind a tractor/lorry, I am more than happy to sit at the back of the queue until either my turn to overtake comes, or the slow moving vehicle turns off.

I do appreciate your point about people overtaking just to be in front, though, and also the point about someone "stealing" his braking space. I'll know in future either not to do it again, or to assess the situation even more thoroughly before doing so . You learn from your mistakes/experiences!

Cool, I was trying to post with out it being a having a go type post. As you say the road was clear in front of the next two cars so from the sounds of it..... the Audi driver was just being a !nob

Cool, I was trying to post with out it being a having a go type post. As you say the road was clear in front of the next two cars so from the sounds of it..... the Audi driver was just being a !nob

Of course, but it still contained helpful advice!

I can understand his anger. He was leaving a good space for braking and someone ducked into it.

But ...... his actions were not justified.

To be honest if I see someone doing stupid over takes (not saying you were) on a road where there is continous traffic in front, with no noticiable gain to be had apart from "being in front of someone" I'll close my gap in front so they can't get back in. But not if it mean I'll cause an accident doing so.

I agree with this, i leave a 4 second gap between me and the car infront, which still doesnt seem like alot. My argument would be that a 4-6 second gap is not big enough to pull into safely. Reasons for this would be if the merc had to perform an emergency stop it could have caused a 3 car pile up.

Like you say tho, i wasnt there so can only go on what you have written.

In my experience, its not worth trying to duck in and out of traffic, even if safe to do so. You wont get to your destination any quicker and it puts more wear on your car and as you have found out p1sses some people off!

You were right not to stop tho, you dont no what that guy would have done and it certainley wouldnt have helped matters. Iv had a couple of incedents where people have stopped and got out of there car, even one blocked the whole road so i had no where to go!

Best thing to do is to ignore people and dont make any hand gestures to anyone, that way you can avoid the situations all together.

Some people just dont like getting overtaken by a skoda! Especially people that have spent alot more on their car and 'think' it faster!

Sounds like your overtake was sensible and you weren't drawn into making any snap decisions or racing to find a space. One thing that some organisations encourage is before you make the overtake to sit out in an "overtaking position" without changing speed. This gives you a better view down the line of cars so you can decide on a "landing spot" where you will get back in and will also give you some idea of how the chap you're overtaking is going to react (he'll think you're overtaking straight away) which means you can safely blend back into the line of traffic behind him without needing to brake, etc. Also consider how the overtake will be interpreted by others and whether a bad reaction is likely.

Once you have performed the overtake, try and blend speed in when you reach your landing spot and avoid showing brake lights as that's likely to annoy the person you just overtook. A courtesy thank you seems to be well received too.

The road rage itself is more common and I've overtaken an isolated car legally and safely only for them to turn into Mr Psycho and do the hand gestures and indicating near laybys thing. The best position they can be in is in front of you because then you are in control of the situation. Do not be drawn into any conflict with them and you can always drop back or find an alternative route to put some distance between you. If they're behind you, as in my case, your best bet is to either plan to overtake some more traffic (cars between you are a good barrier!) or use roundabouts (you can full-circle bigger ones) and junctions to put space inbetween you.

Btw, I believe you do not have to stop for a policeman in an unmarked car (unless he's in full uniform?) and if they want to pull you they will request a marked car to attend.

Hope some of that rambling is helpful

Chris

I agree with this, i leave a 4 second gap between me and the car infront, which still doesnt seem like alot.

A 4 second gap is huge in good conditions! At 70mph that's around 120m and the out-of-date HC figures state you can stop from 70mph in under 100m. I'd recommend going on an airfield day and doing some braking practice and you'll realise just how quickly modern cars can stop - I know I was very surprised when I did.

Chris

Ignore the guy, and carry on... people are c*nts

Sounds like your overtake was sensible ... rambling is helpful

Chris

:iagree:

One thing that some organisations encourage is before you make the overtake to sit out in an "overtaking position" without changing speed.

From past experience, and having been given a lift by drivers who do that, it generally results in the person braking sharply, so you inadvertently end up overtaking anyway....

Some people just dont like getting overtaken by a skoda!

Some people just don't like being overtaken at all: Often people that drive at 42mph everywhere.

TBH your actions sounded entirely reasonable to me. The very fact you are thinking about them puts you above many drivers.

Don't worry about it - It happens to us all.

I had this with a BMW driver that pulled out in-front off me at a junction. Then went 40mph when I went to go past he went up to 90mph!!!

When I decided to pull back behind him he smashed on the brakes no indication or anything.

All he had to say was - Did I want to get in his boot?? -

'I was only close to your boot sir when you pulled out in-front off me. Today you nearly caused 3 accidents within a few min I suggest you move along'

- I felt I did everything I could in-order to keep my cool but I know how you feel... Chin up...

I had a little "experience" on the road yesterday - a first for me.

There was a queue of 3 to 4 cars ahead of me, travelling southbound on the A49. Those of you that know the road (the Herefordshire/Shropshire part of the A49) probably know that there are plenty of safe overtaking spots (though some are littered with speed cameras). I overtook the first car no problem, and then filtered in between him and the car in front (There was plenty of room to do so)

I went to do the same thing to the next car when we came to the next overtaking place. It was a 2.0TDI Audi A3. There was plenty of room between him and the next car (I guess 4 to 6 seconds a the speed they were travelling) Whilst making the manoeuvre, the driver decided it would be a sensible idea to speed up and to close the gap between him and the car in front, meaning that I would have had to pass him and the Mercedes in front of him in one manoeuvre. I didn't want to do this, as there was very little space between the Merc and the car in front of that. So I stayed up the side, indicated left to signal that I wanted to get in between the Audi and the Merc. He very, very reluctantly and very slowly decided that it may be the safest option to let me back in between, but seemed significantly angered by the fact that he had been overtaken, and started doing all of the common hand signals at me.

At this point, I thought (and still admit) that there is a possibility that my overtaking manoeuvre could have been interpreted as flawed, somehow dangerous or inappropriate - despite me not thinking so at the time. On review, I don't think so either - but it was me driving, so I'm unlikely to see the problems with my driving. I could probably have made it past the next couple of cars as well, but this would have involved speeding up to in the region of 95 or 100mph (the overtaking was all done within the legal limit, due to the presence of speed cameras) - and risking lives. The point of this thread isn't to debate if or if not I was incorrect to overtake, though.

The point of the thread is to discuss what happened next. We were approaching a blind corner, and he decided that he wanted to be in front of me, so overtook me again and went between me and the Merc. (Please note, I left him plenty of space to get back in, otherwise I could have assisted someone's death.)

Every time we then went past a layby he started pointing in to the layby and indicating left, signalling that he wanted me to get in to the layby and talk to him/argue with him. Just a couple of questions...

a) If he was a traffic officer, he'd have had the "follow me" lights in the back, or at least some kind of police signal, right?

If not, he was just going to assault me verbally or physically - so was I correct to just ignore his taunts, maintain a safe distance behind him and continue on my way?

Having only been driving for 18 months or so, this is the first time that anything of this nature has happened to me, and to be entirely honest it was a little frightening - the possibility that someone was so angered by me passing them (when I was legally entitled to do so), that they were trying to provoke some kind of confrontation, is somewhat worrying.

He's the type of driver that causes accidents. He has no business risking other people's lives just for whim/pride or because he felt arsey.

If you had evidence of him being arsey or an independent witness, then IMO you should report him to plod. The next person he tries to intimidate might end up in a bad situation.

J.

If you want to grass him up, you can always report the incident here..

BetterDrivingPlease - Help Make Our Roads a Safer Place, report reckless and dangerous drivers

Makes for some interesting reading.

Some real hitlers out there though

I have to admit, if it were me and there was as little oncoming traffic as stated, I would have tried to take the whole lot, regardless of how much over NSL I was going.

Ive found that when said w4nkers try to close up a gap a little twitch of the steering wheel showing that you mean bussiness, often makes them pull back. if not , the sticker on my van saying "this is a works van and i dontcare if i run in to you" makes them move!!

I have to admit, if it were me and there was as little oncoming traffic as stated, I would have tried to take the whole lot, regardless of how much over NSL I was going.

Likewise. Of course, I'm of an age where you were taught to minimise the time you spend in overtaking, provided you don't cut in on the vehicle(s) being overtaken.

Likewise. Of course, I'm of an age where you were taught to minimise the time you spend in overtaking, provided you don't cut in on the vehicle(s) being overtaken.

Yup - Something drummed into me during my roadcraft training day. I would definitely rather use WOT and accomplish a "safe" fast overtake at possibly very illegal speeds, than traffic hop. I see it a bit like doing something bad, but for the greater good....

Ive found that when said w4nkers try to close up a gap a little twitch of the steering wheel showing that you mean bussiness, often makes them pull back. if not , the sticker on my van saying "this is a works van and i dontcare if i run in to you" makes them move!!

Are you the type that drives up someones a£se overstakes stupidly close/fast and cuts back into a space that doesn't exist causing the person being overtaken to slam all on ?

I don't know what my position would have been if I was clocked doing say 80MPH (to avoid the situation I was in), and challenged it in court explaining the situation (with witnesses which were behind to back me up) - would I still have points put on my license?

Unfortunately yes. An overtake still needs to be under the speed limit.