I’ve noticed just recently—I guess brought out by some days of driving on open, fairly flat roads—a significant portion of drivers that appear unable to plan and execute a general overtaking manoeuvre.
We normally choose to travel at about 90 km/hr where road conditions permit; this gives us a reasonable balance between fuel consumption and travel time. However, it does mean that on roads with a higher (e.g. 100 or 110 km/hr) posted limit, we can get a bit of a queue develop behind us. We try to be sensitive to this and get off the road for a bit to let people past whenever we can, especially if the road is not conducive to overtaking.
Lately I’ve noticed that often the first vehicle in the queue behind us is giving no indication of any desire to overtake, even when there are multiple safe opportunities. Instead, they seem content to sit back some 50 or 100 metres and await a designated overtaking lane (or us pulling over).
I must confess that I don’t really understand what they are thinking in this situation. Perhaps they *are* actually content to cruise a little slower, as we do. What they don’t seem to realise is that they are presenting any vehicles behind them with a double-jeopardy situation; i.e. two vehicles to overtake rather than just the one. It also clouds my ability to assess any need to pull over, as the true number of vehicles being held up is obscured.
I particularly feel for truck drivers in this situation, as they can have enough difficulty getting around one slower vehicle, let alone two.
I guess that the conclusion I am reaching is that such people actually lack the experience, confidence and skill to safely overtake on the open road. That’s a sad state of affairs in our big country.