What is the speed limit for overtaking?

[up4it]

I know the speed limit on a normal road is 30mph but someone told me that when you overtake you are allowed to do up to 8mph extra over the limit effectively going 38mph until you complete your maneuver and then return to the normal 30mph Is this correct? Or must you always stick to 30mph even when overtaking? If this is correct is it always 8mph over the limit no matter whether it is a 30, 40, 50, 60 or 70 ?

[birdofprey]

I don't think it is such a stupid question.

Overtaking (ie. being on the wrong side of the road) is probably the most dangerous manouvre.

Therefore you need to do it as quickly as possible. If you are behind a vehicle doing 20mph in a 30, and the road is clear, you want to overtake and might exceed the limit briefly to get past asap.

It's not legal but does make sense - just don't do it if you see those white dashes down the edge of the pavement!!

[spaced]

ask a sensible question and you will receive a sensible answer. As soon as you exceed the limit, be it 30 or whatever, no matter what the hell you are doing it will be considered as speeding.

[Azia]

The answer might be in the speed monitor/radar accuracy. It normally with in +/- 5%. plus the accuracy of the car speedo. So it all goes to if your car real speed is what is shown on your speedometer and on the police radar. in some cases you might be driving at 60 mph ( per the car speedo) but the radar is showing 62 mph. The who is right? and is that your or thr car manufacturer's fault to be fined for overspeeding. Back to the original question: 38 mph at 30 mph limit is certainly outside of the radar accuracy and so will be detected and fined. 78mph at 70 mph limit is probably within the radar/speedo accuracy limits and so can be waved.
In addition to my answer you can see the link at Answers.com giving a short certain "yes" to the same question. They also provide the names of the sites/organizations supporting their answer. http://wiki.answers.c...take_another_vehicvle