Overtaking, Just how hard it is to do it Safely and Legally!

[tweeked]

Originally Posted by seedywagon

Referring to my training in transport/traffic engineering, overtaking is one of the most risky maneuvers undertaken on the road. Road engineers go to considerable length, trawling through a tonne of traffic data, which includes casualty rates caused by various overtaking situations, in order to assign a solution that best fits the situation at hand. There are *so* many factors at play here, everything from traffic volumes, stopping-sight distance, superelevation rate-of-rotation and road operating speeds. Speed limits are assigned based on an innumerate set of variables, they aren't set 'on a whim' just to **** people off or to defy 'logic'
I have a problem with members of the public who say things like 'this speed limit is too slow' based on what feels right to them. The figures just don't lie when it comes to speed, if you don't believe me, get out your calculator and physics textbooks and crunch the numbers yourself. Your roads are designed to be traveled at the posted speed limits, and they're not going to show you any sympathy if you're speeding, even whilst overtaking.

I have no formal transport engineering qualifications, but unless I made some mistakes, there seems to be an issue with overtaking. So with the figures "that do not lie" in the opening post, what would your recommendation be to the legislators?

1. Make overtaking illegal unless the car in front is doing a speed that allows a speed differential of at least 20kph so that all of the other safety criteria can be satisfied while the overtake is performed.

2. Allow a vehicle to accelerate to up to 120kph and overtake a maximum of 2 vehicles at a time. The overlimit speed is only allowed immediately before and after the actual overtake and the vehicle must return to the speed limit before performing another overtake. Only allowed on single lane hiughways posted at 100kph or higher. All other current specifics in regards to vehile spacing would still apply. (this must be an item in the license training and test).

3. Its is not broken at the moment so just leave it.

4. Something else?