Same here, foot off the gas (or cruise control button ‘off’) as soon as somebody initiates a passing move past me on a two lane road, certainly if oncoming traffic is already visible or a blind curve is at all near. That will generally speed up the process and make hair raising end games less likely, while also leaving the person margin to swing back in behind by braking hard if they decide they aren’t going to make it.
I also can’t see why ‘speed up’ would make any sense in general. Braking hard might also cause a problem if the passer decides to retreat but your brakes are superior, boxing them out of coming back into your lane. ‘Maintain speed’ doesn’t seem a wrong answer per se, but coasting while being passed on two lanes is a good general practice IMO. If a drama unfolds nonetheless, then brake while moving to the shoulder.
Also it’s fairly rare there really isn’t room for three vehicles abreast if the oncoming and passed person move at least partly to the shoulder, or else we’re usually talking cases where it’s illegal or reckless to be trying to pass in the first place.
Subject to exceptional circumstances like any other driving question.
slow down - no room for egos on the road. let’s all go home alive
my wife and I were in an overfull minibus driving to the airport on a small but busy island - the driver went onto the wrong side of the road to pass a car in the distance and stayed there even as we approached a blind right corner. utter madness
Not sure where this bit comes from. 1 to 2 car lengths is appropriate for toodling around in stop start traffic, not for the open road. Try 2 seconds when dry and 3 seconds when wet.
I like to leave a little more room, but on this road, people kept the cars pretty close. Sometimes my heart was in my throat. It was the reason I didn’t like slowing down for a passer, because the chance was that someone was very close on my tail as well.
My first reaction was slow down, but then I thought the other guy might do the same and then what? So maybe the best is to maintain speed and let him cut in behind you. I really don’t know. It is a dynamic situation. If the other guy speeds up, then he is an idiot, but slow by all means. If he seems to be trying to in behind, speed up and make it easier.
What Jophial said. I’m going to let up on the gas as the passing car is gaining on me during his pass. It is simply safer to let her by. In fact, I’ve probably already lifted my foot when the other car appears on the horizon.
Now, that said and me being the car person I am, what the hell is somebody doing trying to make such a pass when the horizon is that close? One should always make sure they can see the road for a mile or more before moving out to pass, and then passing quickly. It was a bad call on their part.
I don’t let other people dictate my survival. I will speed up and force them to brake and get behind me, now with more room behind me to do so. Then I might let them around. I was in front and will maintain that order until it’s safe for them to pass.
If I’m passing (more likely) I don’t expect the guy in front of me to make it happen for me. My decision, my responsibility to get back behind them if I can’t pass.
If someone is passing me even when cars are coming the other way, I’m on the brakes and moving as far to the right as I can, into the break-down lane if there is one.
I yield to morons, and I suspect that behavior has saved me from death or serious injury more than a few times.
You ALWAYS slow down. Regardless of what the passing car does it will benefit you to be slow than faster in the event the passing car matches your speed.
Something not mentioned but equally useful is to pull as far right as possible. most roads will accommodate 3 cars if the outer cars enter the shoulder. In the event the driver matches your speed then driving slower increases all 3 drivers time to react and pulling as far right as possible allows the oncoming traffic to do the same.
I read the V as a W. I know the distance is wrong but figured BMW probably does recommend driving like an asshole since so many of them seem to do it. :dubious:
Wrong! Try again. Most two-lane roads that I am aware of that have a dashed center line, meaning safe passing is legal don’t have a shoulder.
Any decision I make can be the wrong one for the other driver, depending on what he chooses to do, and I can’t know what that is. And I’m a meatbag who thinks slowly enough that I can’t change my plan once I see what he’s actually doing. So I can’t make decisions based on what’s safest for the other driver. Therefore, I have to make the decision that’s safest for myself. And that’s braking and getting as far right as I safely can. Getting right is obvious, of course, if possible (there isn’t always a shoulder), and slowing down both increases the time until the collision would occur, and makes it less severe if it happens anyway.
Plus, the one thing that I do know (in advance, from a vantage point where I can pre-plan based on calculated rational thought) about the other driver is that he’s trying to pass where it’s not safe. That means that he’s likely a speed-obsessed sort, and correspondingly means that his likely response will be to speed up even further. In which case slowing down is the better outcome for him, too. Now, there might be other information available about the other driver at the time of the incident, but I’m not going to have the time to process that information properly.
A Toyota Camry is 6ft wide and the standard width of roads is 12’ without a shoulder. If both cars drive to the edge even without using the shoulder there is ample room for a 3rd car. Looking at narrow country roads I found them to be 19 feet wide including the shoulder and that’s still enough room for 3 cars without going into the unpaved part of the road grade.
I’ve been in this situation before and the outer cars moved away from the center giving the passing car enough space to pass between them. In fact, it’s a natural reaction to move to the right if a car is coming at you.
Slowing down increases the amount of time all 3 cars have to react and it gives more space to the passing car to get around you.
There is nothing predictable about maintaining speed. However, slowing down is the only predicable option to increase time and space for the car to pass.
Does that 6’ width include the side mirrors that stick out a bit from the body?
Even if it does, you’re talking a mere 6 inches of clearance on either side of the middle car, when closing speed to the oncoming car is 80-100 mph. Even professional stuntmen who plan & rehearse wouldn’t like those odds & would want multiple camera angles/green screens/CGI & we’re talking about amateurs who have no clue as to what the two other drivers are going to do.
It doesn’t. However the further reason that slowing down is the right choice when things get really critical* is you could usually also go off the road at low speed if you have to without dire consequences. Of course not always. Likewise sometimes there’s absolutely no room for 3 cars abreast on the road surface and it’s impossible to get off the road safely, and/or one or more vehicles is much wider than a Camry…but by and large it’s scary but a head on isn’t really likely if a passer runs out of room and the other two slow down and make room.
*I say let off the gas or cruise control ‘off’ as a general rule when you’re being passed on a two lane road, go to max brakes if the passer pushes on but seems they won’t make it, not if they’re trying to get back behind you. In other than total overlap head-on the car that tried to pass you is probably going to spin/richocet into your way in a collision so you have to stop even if you can’t prevent it.
In my experience they do. There is usually a couple feet of paved shoulder and then several more feet of dirt. I’ve also driven plenty of places where that wasn’t the case (Florida comes to mind), but you wouldn’t catch me making exclamations about another poster’s experience in a country with millions of miles of road to choose from.