Driving Tutorials - Overtaking

By the time you learn about overtaking you will be well advanced in your training - seeing this sign and
recognising that you would have to stop if it was held by a school crossing warden is fairly obvious - but you
should be able to use your anticipation skills in conjunction with the information gained from signs. Let's look a
little more closely at this example:

You will often see this sign at the side of the road giving advance warning of the school crossing - you should
from your earlier training that you must not overtake the leading vehicle on the approach to a crossing - this rule
is still relevant to those school crossing patrols that may be located on crossings that are not marked with zig
zag lines.

You should always be aware of the conditions and the traffic conditions can vary depending on the time of day - at school starting and leaving times you are likely to encounter children in the area where you see this sort of sign and even if you were not aware of a school in the area this sign should have you anticipating children in the area crossing the road (and remembering that children will not always use the designated crossing area and are less likely to be aware of traffic than adults are).

School patrol crossings should be dealt with like any other pedestrian crossing - use the MSM routine on approach and be prepared to slow down - the last thing on your mind should be planning to overtake.

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As a general rule you cannot cross a solid white line to overtake - however there are some exceptions which allow you to make progress if it is safe to do so.

Double white lines where the line nearest you is solid. This means you MUST NOT cross or straddle it unless it is safe and you need to enter adjoining premises or a side road. No Overtaking - Double White Lines You may cross the line if necessary to pass a stationary vehicle, or overtake a pedal cycle, horse or road maintenance vehicle, if they are travelling at 10mph or less.

Look out for hatch markings - these are areas of white diagonal stripes or chevrons painted on the road. These are to separate traffic lanes or to protect traffic turning right.

If the area is bordered by a solid white line, you should not enter it except in an emergency.
If the area is bordered by a broken white line, you should not enter the area unless it is necessary and you can see that it is safe to do so.
If the area is on a motorway and consists of a triangle bounded by continuous white lines marked by chevrons, you MUST NOT enter it except in an emergency.

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No Overtaking - Broken White Line

Double white lines where the line nearest to you is broken. This means you may cross the lines to overtake if it is safe, provided you can complete the manoeuvre before reaching a solid white line on your side. White arrows on the road indicate when you need to get back onto your side of the road.

No Overtaking - Solid White Line

Double white lines where the line nearest you is solid. This means you MUST NOT cross or straddle it unless it is safe and you need to enter adjoining premises or a side road. You may cross the line if necessary to pass a stationary vehicle, or overtake a pedal cycle, horse or road maintenance vehicle, if they are travelling at 10mph or less.

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You should never overtake on a bend! Don't overtake on a bend

There would probably be a warning road sign prior to the bend but a good driver will have been aware of it anyway - double white lines in the centre of the road are a clear indication that an overtaking manoeuvre would be dangerous.

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Safe:

Before overtaking you must make sure it is safe to do so, remember the golden rule:

DON'T KNOW MEANS DON'T GO!

Let's look at some common situations in the following examples:

The driver of the red car has been signalling for some time - the road appears to be

clear to the front and there do not seem to be any junctions on the right - is it safe to overtake?

NO - we don't know why the driver of the red car is signalling - it's possible he may have
forgotten to cancel it after a previous manoeuvre but we don't know this for sure. He may be signalling to us as a warning or just signalling very early of his intention to manoeuvre

DON'T KNOW MEANS DON'T GO!

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Here's what the Highway Code says about overtaking on the left:

Only overtake on the left if the vehicle in front is signalling to turn right, and there is room to do so.
Stay in your lane if traffic is moving slowly in queues. If the queue on your right is moving more slowly than you are, you may pass on the left.

But is it safe?

It may be, but be aware your view of the junction is limited because of the vehicles waiting to turn right.

Any vehicle waiting to emerge from the junction will also only have limited views past the 2 vehicles waiting to turn right.

Many drivers fail to consider traffic from the left in this situation and there is a risk of them emerging when it is not safe.

You may overtake in this situation but proceed with caution and use your anticipation skills to keep yourself safe.

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Always be aware of the warnings and information that can be gained from road signs. What would you be thinking if you saw this sign on a fast moving road? Hidden Dip - roadsign

The exclamation mark always warns of a hazard ahead - the plate under the sign shows the nature of the hazard.

In this case the sign warns of a hidden dip in the road which means there is a part of the road that you cannot see. Even though it may appear to be clear well ahead there could be a vehicle in the "dead ground" and an overtaking driver here is flirting with a very dangerous situation.

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Look at this example - the road appears to be clear well to the front and the following Overtaking at a Junction driver cannot see any obvious hazards.

But there are hazard warning lines on the road - they are supported by the sign warning of the junction ahead - we need to hold back here - keep looking for an opportunity to overtake if it's really necessary.

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No warning signs here - you should still have noted the hazard warning lines on the road Overtaking at a Junction though!

The views ahead are good and the emerging vehicle is easily seen - a good driver would consider easing off the gas here - could he stop and avoid a collision if he needed to? - We cannot tell what speed the vehicles are travelling at but there doesn't seem to be a safe gap.

Once clear of the junction we can see the road is clear well ahead - once we have held back we can begin planning to overtake if it's still safe and necessary.

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Now you've had some practice of judging when it may be unsafe to overtake look at this picture before checking some of the points you should have been thinking about.

Solid white line in the centre of the road - we should not cross this unless necessary and the leading road user is travelling less than 10 mph - very unlikely.

Severely restricted views because of the large hedges on both sides - we need clear views to consider any manoeuvre, but especially if considering overtaking.

Views to the front are further restricted by the size of the leading vehicle - we should be considering dropping back to get a better view not considering getting any closer to the van.

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There is a sign ahead warning of the sharp bend to the left - if we were in a better position we could probably see it.

The bridge ahead will give us a good idea of how the road bends, we should also be remembering that bridges often mean that the road narrows - we could expect oncoming traffic to be in the middle of the road as we approach.

Not only should we be discarding any thoughts of overtaking here but we should be dropping back to get a better view and allowing more time to react if the vehicle ahead needs to brake sharply. As we approach the bridge keep looking carefully and consider using the horn to warn any oncoming vehicles of our presence.

That concludes the examples in this tutuorial - would you like to drive through it again?

or go on to see how we apply the MSM procedure for overtaking.