Advanced Driving Hub

If I had been looking for the overtake, I would have been rather closer to the target vehicle, I think. And from that position, yes, if this video represented all the information I needed, I would be minded to go.

David

waremark wrote:

Pyrolol wrote:...

(that's 24(6+2) = 380 - 6v: 24 being the target speed in m/s during the actual overtake portion: about 54mph)

The maths is beyond me. Are you saying you overtake at only 54 mph?

Apologies, I use target to refer to the vehicle being overtook (which is doing ~54mph during the part where one would pass them).

To gain 2 seconds on them in say 5 seconds (leaving 1 to move back in) would suggest a maximum speed more like 90mph.

Pyrolol wrote:

waremark wrote:

Pyrolol wrote:...

(that's 24(6+2) = 380 - 6v: 24 being the target speed in m/s during the actual overtake portion: about 54mph)

The maths is beyond me. Are you saying you overtake at only 54 mph?

Apologies, I use target to refer to the vehicle being overtook (which is doing ~54mph during the part where one would pass them).

To gain 2 seconds on them in say 5 seconds (leaving 1 to move back in) would suggest a maximum speed more like 90mph.

I would want to gain more than 2 seconds, and to reach a peak speed of less than 90. If your maths is right, my judgement that I would have taken the overtake may have been wrong. Are you sure it is? Empirical experience suggests that if I have 16 seconds to where the view disappears I would have enough space for an overtake with a differential of not more than about 20 mph.

I will repeat an exercise I have tried in the past of using an overtake of an LGV on a multilane road to simulate a single carriageway overtake and trying to note time and distance.

Incidentally, can others see a reason why the double line system did not end slightly earlier? The view is available before the end of the solid line on our side, so one would have been as ready as possible to go where the line ended. I think.

So, SD, you've had a few answers - what do we win?

waremark wrote:Empirical experience suggests that if I have 16 seconds to where the view disappears I would have enough space for an overtake with a differential of not more than about 20 mph.

So, in reality, given that you need to complete the overtake in half the time rather than half the distance, you have 8 seconds to get it done. About 3 of those are 'needed' to get out, possibly less to get in if you've dropped the left one, leaving very few to actually get the speed differential necessary and the relative distance required.

That's why I've called it a 'No'.

Horse wrote:So, SD, you've had a few answers - what do we win?

My undying affection and a framed certificate saying 'I joined in a thread posted by SD'. They're going to become very rare...

StressedDave wrote:About 3 of those are 'needed' to get out, possibly less to get in if you've dropped the left one, leaving very few to actually get the speed differential necessary and the relative distance required.

That's why I've called it a 'No'.

But much like Irish directions, if I was going there, I wouldn't have started from here.

The overtake is off in large part because the driver has made it off - a laid back follow that inherently precludes the opportunity.

StressedDave wrote:

Horse wrote:So, SD, you've had a few answers - what do we win?

My undying affection and a framed certificate saying 'I joined in a thread posted by SD'. They're going to become very rare...

Wot, no chocolate?

trashbat wrote:The overtake is off in large part because the driver has made it off - a laid back follow that inherently precludes the opportunity.

What do you think you would be doing differently, and how much time do you think it would gain you?

Gareth wrote:

trashbat wrote:The overtake is off in large part because the driver has made it off - a laid back follow that inherently precludes the opportunity.

What do you think you would be doing differently, and how much time do you think it would gain you?

If I wanted to overtake in those circumstances, I would have closed the gap and improved my view first, in order to move out immediately at 14 seconds, and it would have gained a couple of seconds more window at the optimal moment. I hazard a guess that I'd be done by 22 seconds, albeit further up the road than the camera car.

Whether I would have actually done that there, on that day, in the rain, it depends. It would also require knowing where the opportunities and risks would be, I suspect, so being familiar with the road.

As it is, it's pretty much off from at least 7 seconds in.