Observation overtaking manoeuvres on bi-directional roads

Observations of overtaking manoeuvres on two-lane rural roads were carried out to enhance the understanding of driver behaviour prior to, during and after an overtaking manoeuvre. An instrumented vehicle was driven with different speeds while other vehicles’ overtaking manoeuvres were recorded and analysed afterwards. The differences in duration of overtaking manoeuvres between different overtaking strategies and different speeds of the vehicle that was overtaken, turned out to be small. Fairly short perception-reaction times were observed, indicating that the decision to perform an overtaking manoeuvre is made before an appropriate gap in the oncoming traffic stream is available.