Basis for no overtaking in the left lane ?

Seth Brundle

Ireland has a 'keep left' rule.
If everyone stayed within the law then there would be no need to undertake. However, some gardai and/or judges may ignore an undertaker because they see it as someone being made decide to break a law because someone else was actually breaking one.

Del2005

We had a Guard in work a few years ago and I asked him about this. He said it's never OK to pass someone on the left when travelling on motorway/dual carriageway if they are hogging the overtaking lane. All you can do is sit behind them and flash/beep/indicate till they move.

Just to add to the fun if you sit on their bumper(which is dangerous) or are flashing a lot the Gardai will do you for dangerous driving and let the moron causing the problem away

Eoin

Del2005 wrote: »

We had a Guard in work a few years ago and I asked him about this. He said it's never OK to pass someone on the left when travelling on motorway/dual carriageway if they are hogging the overtaking lane. All you can do is sit behind them and flash/beep/indicate till they move.

This is what confuses me - suppose you are in the driving lane keeping a steady speed and there is someone in the overtaking lane driving slower than you are going. Are you then supposed to slow down to match their speed?

Zube

Yes.

This has been another edition of Simple Answers to Obvious Questions.

Jumpy

You know what would be great? Signs. The government in Ireland work by a "sure everyone knows that" mentality. The simple fact is that the public as a whole are lacking in common sense. I get the comment "sure no one told me I couldnt do that" a lot here, and as much as I would like to repeatedly kick that person in the arse while shouting "ITS COMMON SENSE YOU DUMB ASS FOOL" I agree that signs would help the uneducated masses more.
This is a common road sign in Australia.

http://www2.oxfam.org.au/trailwalker/images/content/Melbourne/0/KEEP%20LEFT%20UNLESS%20OVERTAKING.jpg

Eoin

Zube wrote: »

Yes.

I don't see how being side by side with a driver who is oblivious to other road users is any safer.

Zube

We're talking legal here, which is not the same thing as safe. Most of the people saying it's illegal to pass on the left, myself included, will admit that we've done it from time to time.

Seth Brundle

Jumpy wrote: »

You know what would be great? Signs. The government in Ireland work by a "sure everyone knows that" mentality. The simple fact is that the public as a whole are lacking in common sense. I get the comment "sure no one told me I couldnt do that" a lot here, and as much as I would like to repeatedly kick that person in the arse while shouting "ITS COMMON SENSE YOU DUMB ASS FOOL" I agree that signs would help the uneducated masses more.
This is a common road sign in Australia.

http://www2.oxfam.org.au/trailwalker/images/content/Melbourne/0/KEEP%20LEFT%20UNLESS%20OVERTAKING.jpg

I couldn't agree more.
There has been no worthwhile funding into maintaining driver education. People here don't know how to driver (by and large) and they are not being shown how to either. Given the investment in motorways in this country, surely a very small percentage of these funds should be used to tell people how to use them!

eoin_s wrote: »

I don't see how being side by side with a driver who is oblivious to other road users is any safer.

You shouldn't be beside them, you should be behind them (in the correct lane) and give them the opportunity for them to take their head out of their rear end and move into the correct lane.

Del2005

eoin_s wrote: »

This is what confuses me - suppose you are in the driving lane keeping a steady speed and there is someone in the overtaking lane driving slower than you are going. Are you then supposed to slow down to match their speed?

kbannon wrote: »

You shouldn't be beside them, you should be behind them (in the correct lane) and give them the opportunity for them to take their head out of their rear end and move into the correct lane.

The Guard actually said you are supposed to pull into the overtaking lane behind them and flash/indicate that you want to overtake, and wait for them to wake up! Or as kbannon said stay behind them in the driving lane.

T-Maxx

Can someone please refer me to any publication where the use of the word "undertake" is defined in the current sense.

Alun

T-Maxx wrote: »

Can someone please refer me to any publication where the use of the word "undertake" is defined in the current sense.

Probably not, but, seriously, what does it matter? Everyone here, including you obviously, know what it means.

Steve

T-Maxx wrote: »

Can someone please refer me to any publication where the use of the word "undertake" is defined in the current sense.

Here you go

(informal) to overtake on the wrong side.
I hate people that try and undertake on the motorway.

T-Maxx

Wiktionary

Hmmm, not exactly what I would call an authoritative source.

Steve

T-Maxx wrote: »

Wiktionary

Hmmm, not exactly what I would call an authoritative source.

Why do you have a problem with the word 'undertaking'?

Did you not understand it and couldn't find a definition for it?

NEWS FLASH: the interwebs full of words like that.

I shouldn't have wasted google's time looking it up on your behalf.
You're welcome.

T-Maxx

I googled it myself but really didn't waste too much time reading through all the known definitions. Probably an Irish thing I guess...;)