Re: Twats being overtaken


"JNugent" wrote in message
Ian wrote:

"JNugent" wrote in message
Ian wrote:
"Martin" wrote in message

car van car in front of me
Lead car doing 10mph under the limit
On a straight I passed car 3 and the van (CDV type).
I pulled into the gap behind car 1 and van was trying to close it up,
also he flashed lights and gesticulated.
I slowed down to 40 due to this then overtook car 1 at next safe place.
What is wrong with people - I drove correctly and safely -

Maybe the van driver didn't see it that way. If he was driving at the
minimum safe distance from car 1 (2 second gap) how could you fit into
that gap and still claim to have been driving safely? The van would no
longer have a safe minimum distance from the car in front of him, which
is now you.

If the van-driver had been doing as you suggest (not that there is any
evidence of it in the OP), he failed to allow space for an overtaking
vehicle, contrary to what is required by the Highway Code.

Where does it say that?

Others have already C&Pd the exact passage from the online version.

HC105 says to keep at least a 2 second gap from the
vehicle in front. That is in the section talking about stopping
distances.
HC144 deals with being overtaken and says to drop back to maintain a 2
second gap if someone pulls into the gap in front of you. Nowhere does it
say you should maintain a gap large enough for an overtaking vehicle to
fit
in front of you. That would require you to know the length of the vehicle
and its intensions.

The wording appears, then, to have been changed from "a gap large enough
for an overtaking vehicle to pull into" to "a 2 second gap". Is there in
fact a practical difference between them (especially given the intructions
to drivers who are being overtaken)?

Here is a link to HC105 which deals with the 2 second gap with reference to
stopping distances, nothing about providing a gap for an overtaking vehicle
http://www.highwaycode.gov.uk/09.htm#105 . Your reference to allowing a
large enough gap for an overtaking vehicle to pull into was in the 1978
version of the HC, but not in the 1993 edition or later. The 1978 version
did say that a 2 second gap would provide this space.

However, a 2 second gap does not allow sufficient space for an overtaking
vehicle to move safely in front of the van in this case, which can be shown
mathematically. We must make a few assumptions first; the SC road was a
NSL60 and the queue was travelling at 50 mph ( 10 mph less than the limit
according to the OP), the van was maintaining exactly a 2 second gap, the
OP's car is of average length of about 14 feet and he joined exactly in the
centre of the gap between the van and lead car.

The 2 second gap at 50 mph is 146 feet. The thinking distance according to
the HC is 50 feet (0.7 sec reaction time). By moving into the centre of the
gap between the van and lead car, the gap in front of the van had reduced
from 146 ft to 66ft. Which allows only 16 ft more than the thinking
distance, which the van driver may well have considered to be unsafe.

If the van was travelling slightly closer to the lead car than a 2 second
gap, or if his brakes were not able to slow the van as well as a car due to
the load he was carrying, this would add to the concern of the van driver.
However, he should have dropped back to maintain a 2 second gap from the OP,
which he didn't.

Ian




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