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Thread ID: 139259	2015-04-02 22:56:00	Driving	beetle (243)	PC World Chat

Post ID	Timestamp	Content	User
1397881	2015-04-03 08:04:00	If the traffic is doing the speed limit im ok with that and have no need to pass............. its the people who drive at 80kms on the open road i cant cope with. I generally tootle along at the speed limit just fine............ or if the conditions are poor, i slow down a bit and drive at safe speeds. and if i hold traffic up for any reason, i will pull over and let them pass............. I totally agree with you there beetle. I would also say that the safest way to pass another vehicle or vehicles that are travelling between 80-90ks an hour is to do it as fast as possible so as to pass them as quickly as possible and to do it when you have as much clear road as possible both during and after the passing manoeuvre is completed. To do the same while not exceeding the posted speed limit can actually be quite dangerous and take a long time to achieve which can mean running out of room for the passing manouvre can be completed. Now I would very much like the head of the police to actually attempt this in a real time situation with normal traffic flow in both directions and see if he can complete the manoeuvre and not kill himself and the on coming driver in the process. I do also agree that passing 7 cars in a row in holiday traffic is both stupid and excessive.	Webdevguy (17166)
1397882	2015-04-03 09:13:00	I agree it's a matter of margin. Sure you can crawl past a sheep truck doing 90 and keep within the speed limit. But it's safer to go as fast as you can (within reason)	BBCmicro (15761)
1397883	2015-04-03 18:04:00	I hear on the 7am news that police are concerned about slow drivers in camper vans holding up traffic. Ken	kenj (9738)
1397884	2015-04-03 19:48:00	I say lets remove all cars from the road and therefore remove the governments revenue stream and at the same time put an end to all these car related problems. Slow drivers are a pain but since its not life threatening to stay behind them why make it life threatening by speeding past them. I cycle as well yet on hills around here must cars, buses and trucks are way too slow, I could overtake them but it would be suicidal to do so.	gary67 (56)
1397885	2015-04-03 19:59:00	years ago there was an understanding that you could break the speed limit while overtaking so you where not on the wrong side of the road for to long, provided you slowed back down to legal speed after overtaking . however that 'policy' was removed many years ago now, simply because it become one big drag strip . if they are doing legal limit then you cannot legally overtake and why would you want to unless your going to be speeding all the time . a part of bad driving culture is to overtake because they don't want to be behind anyone . i see it regularly from the nut jobs . they harass and bully cars until they can overtake and then they drive the same speed (or sometimes slower) than the car they just overtook . its just the childish attitude of "i don't want to be behind . . . . . i have to pass, i have to pass, i have to pass . . . . . . " I don't think it's quite as black and white as you're saying, tweak'e . If a motorist is doing the speed limit at the time there is a safe stretch in which to overtake him, but this same motorist, whom you have followed for many kilometres, slows down - unnecessarily - to 80km/h on hills, why should you not pass the idiot when you can do so safely, even if it means you might be over the (arbitrarily-set) speed limit for a few seconds? Frustration with drivers of lesser ability (or a holier-than-thou attitude) is a major factor in accidents, not speed . Speed is a symptom in many accidents, not a cause . I was a motorcycle courier for many years, and my livelihood depended on me getting jobs completed quickly, so I regularly broke the speed limit . I only had 4 accidents (2 years in London and 5 years in Auckland), travelling approximately 300km/day on average and all of these accidents - spread over seven years - were at 30km/h or less .	johcar (6283)
1397886	2015-04-03 20:09:00	The extreme scary thing is its a woman driver	prefect (6291)
1397887	2015-04-03 20:19:00	LOL prefect And yes i agree about the slow drivers......... being irratic, im ok with doing the speed limit, but going slow and a build up of traffic which then causes problems and silly maneuvers by other drivers to pass. I have become more cautious in my driving in years gone by, and would rather arrive at my destination late than not at all........ :)	beetle (243)
1397888	2015-04-03 20:26:00	People make it sound like passing takes forever and it's not true. At a difference of 10km/h passing a truck that's doing for example 90 you gain on it at a rate of 2.7 metres per second. You could pass a 20M truck in a little over 10-15 seconds. If there isn't room to do that with a safety margin and you need to go faster you are not driving safely. Granted 15 seconds on the wrong side of the road is a lot longer than it seems on paper. People who are certain they can speed safely are missing the point. The add campaigns make it clear "the faster you go the bigger the mess" it's simple physics. If you have at accident at 100km/h chances are you will be seriously hurt or killed. As your speed increases though the chances of survival in an accident decrease exponentially, it really doesn't matter who or what causes the accident the results are worse if you are going faster. The point is not that speed causes accidents, the point is that speed makes them worse. Many of you keep pointing out that it's safer to get past quickly and not spend to much time on the wrong side of the road etc. You are deliberately ignoring the fact that you don't have to pass at all and it's safer still to relax, drop back a bit, and wait for a passing lane. Getting to your destination a few minutes later is a whole lot less likely to kill someone that doing 120+ (say) to pass that one slow vehicle on a short straight because they are doing 80-90. Slow drivers frustrate me too, and I have been known to ignore my own advice and use a burst of speed to get past but I can't defend it and I know I'm breaking the law when I do so most of the time I wait. I don't do it for safety reasons though and I seriously doubt you do either, I do it because I want to get past and I see a chance.	dugimodo (138)
1397889	2015-04-03 23:27:00	I don't think it's quite as black and white as you're saying, tweak'e. If a motorist is doing the speed limit at the time there is a safe stretch in which to overtake him, but this same motorist, whom you have followed for many kilometres, slows down - unnecessarily - to 80km/h on hills, why should you not pass the idiot when you can do so safely, even if it means you might be over the (arbitrarily-set) speed limit for a few seconds? however you don't have to do over the limit to overtake someone. if you have to speed to overtake then there is clearly not enough room or time for you to overtake safely, so why are you overtaking? as dugimodo points out the overtaking move doesn't take very long. if they are doing 80km/h then pass them, you can do 20km/h faster which is plenty for an overtake. typically what i see on the road is people don't know how to overtake, so they increase the speed to compensate. the common move is tailgate the car, have no run up room, take way to long to make up their mind to overtake, have their car in a poor position, accelerating in to high a gear. they often use up most of the available space before they even pull out to overtake. its then high speed to get past with minimal, if any, safety room left. and thats the danger point, high speed with very little room for error.	tweak'e (69)
1397890	2015-04-04 00:18:00	overall, this whole business of speeding while overtaking, its just another excuse so people can justify their actions. i've been a passenger........... with a lady who ran a ute towing a trailer off the road because "he was a slow fart", driver cutting a corner into oncoming traffic "his (oncoming car) fault 'cause he was driving to fast", truckie tailgating and harassing vans "i hate vans". the boss explained that in the event of an accident i would "be the driver" because the boss can't loose his license otherwise business would fold and i would be out of a job. i've been rammed while overtaking a ute towing a trailer because he didn't want me to overtake him (cops caught him). i get passengers telling me off for NOT cutting the corner or intersection. or to "push the car along" (ie tailgate harass the car in front). i know people who make up their own traffic rules. jaffas are bad drivers therefore i'm allowed to drive badly. one thing in common is they all have excuses they tell themselves to justify their actions so they can do whatever they like and to hell with everyone else. having been first on scene to a few accidents, with these drivers they claim its never their fault. maybe someone can tell me what the physiology behind this is.	tweak'e (69)
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