Re: Shoulder check ---> Overtake?
Posted: 15 Sep 2010, 2:09pm
thirdcrank wrote:I'm not one for signalling that it's ok to overtake, but I've very occasionally signalled to try to stop somebody doing it, most memorably here:
http://maps.google.co.uk/maps?f=q&sourc ... 00.84,,0,5
It's even narrower than it looks in streetview.
I could hear drivers approaching both ways at some speed. I rather frantically signalled to the driver behind that he should pull in behind me but he used his superior judgment as to an appropriate speed (and his round-the-corner vision, I suppose) and shot straight by and out of sight, although not out of earshot. Surprisingly, nobody was injured and I decided 'not to get involved.'
(And before anybody asks, I'm no suicide pilot so I'd not ride primary just to save a driver from their own poor judgment.)
I'm surprised I've never witnessed something similar myself. The number of times people overtake me on a blind bend at excessive speed... The stupid thing being they whizz past and no doubt feel they could stop in the distance they can see ahead but they never assume that another 'pilot' might be coming the other way at similar speeds!
As I've said before, most incidents are avoided not by good driving but because as luck has it there's nobody coming the other way.