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Overtaking

12th July 1986, Page 6
12th July 1986
Page 6
Page 6, 12th July 1986 — Overtaking
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Which of the following most accurately describes the problem?

Keywords : Overtaking, Traffic

• A study by the Cranfield Institute of Technology into overtaking manoeuvres on Britain's roads, shows that 5% of overtaking by cars, and a staggering 40% of overtaking by lorries, risks an accident.

Video film of more than 5,000 overtaking manoeuvres on A-roads in Oxfordshire and Bedfordshire provide the basis of the study.

Don Harris, an applied psychologist who is author of the report, says: "Lorry drivers were definitely much less safe on overtaking."

Interestingly enough, the most dangerous overtaking manoeuvres took place when traffic was travelling at between 50 and 65km/h (30 and 40mph). "There is a build-up of frustration at that speed," says Harris.

The safest overtaking was done by high performance cars, says Harris. "There was an inverse relationship between the power of the car and the rate of accidents." Of the 5,000 overtaking manoeuvres covered by the study only 300 involved lorries. Harris and his team found 120 of those manoeuvres to be potentially dangerous. By contrast, around 240 overtaking manoeuvres by cars were dangerous.

Four stretches of road were used for the study, including one straight stretch with a feeder lane with hatched markings for vehicles wishing to turn right, which accounted for three-quarters of dangerous overtaking manoeuvres by lorries.

Richard Turner, director of planning at the Freight Transport Association points out that overtaking manoeuvres on feeder lanes with hatched markings are not illegal, or necessarily dangerous, though they were automatically classified as such in the study.

Turner also criticised the study for failing to differentiate between lorries and buses and coaches.


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